Second Sunday of Lent - 2024

The Beloved Son

The musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda begins with a Tim Minchin song: “My mummy says I’m a miracle.  My daddy says, I'm his special little guy.  I am a princess, I am a prince.  Mum says I'm an angel sent down from the sky.” The song lyrics form an ironic contrast with the story of Matilda, an unwanted child whose remarkable intelligence is not just ignored, but sneered upon by her parents.

Applied to the two sons who sit at the centre of today’s readings, these lyrics become less the overstated endearments of doting parents and perhaps almost accurate.  Isaac, the son in the first reading, was miraculously born to his mother when she was over ninety and his parents had given up all hope of a natural heir.  Jesus, the Beloved Son of the second reading and the gospel, is literally the Son of God, miraculously born of a virgin.

Unlike Matilda, whose parents eventually abandon her, both Jesus and Isaac were obviously deeply cherished by their parents.  And yet Isaac was almost, and Jesus was actually given up as a sacrifice by their respective fathers.  What on earth is going on?

If we can step aside from the horrifying details of what almost happened, the story of Abraham and Isaac is actually a pretty amazing story of how much Abraham loved and trusted God, that he would be willing to sacrifice his long-awaited son at God’s request.  God’s eleventh-hour reprieve in fact confirmed that God was who Abraham knew him to be – compassionate, trustworthy, and provident. 

In Jesus’ case there was no last-minute reprieve.  He actually died.  And unlike Isaac, who appeared not to know what was going on, Jesus went willingly to the Cross.  However, the motivating force in both stories was the same: love.  Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son because he loved God.  God gave up his Beloved Son (and Jesus gave up his life) because he loves us.

Which points us to a third beloved child – you and me!  If we had started the second reading just a couple of verses before, we’d have heard that God’s whole purpose in giving up his Beloved Son was so that he might be the eldest of many brother and sisters – us!

Whether we were cherished like Isaac or discarded like Matilda, I suspect that most of us struggle, sometimes because of stories like the one about Abraham and Isaac today, to know God as our loving Father and ourselves as beloved sons and daughters.

The disciples’ experience of the Transfiguration was a crucial moment that helped them to understand that the man Jesus wasn’t just another prophet, but God himself come among us.  

As both God and man, he reveals to us both what God is really like, and who we really are.  If we “listen to him”, as today’s Gospel asks us to do, we will notice that every word that he speaks, every miracle, every action shows us one or both of these things.  In him we experience both the compassion of the Father and what it looks like to live out of our true identity as beloved sons and daughters.

Perhaps, if you’re up for adding another Lenten goal, it might be worth taking up the Gospels and reading them just for yourself, looking at the miracles and actions of Jesus, listening to his words, and asking the Holy Spirit to help us to see and hear in them both the compassion of the Father and what it looks like to live out of our true identity as beloved sons and daughters.

Reflection questions:

1. What words would you use to describe God the Father?

2. What does Jesus’ relationship with the Father show us about God the Father?

3. What difference would it make if you really knew yourself to be God’s beloved son or daughter?

Katherine Stone

This blog was originally written for the Diocese of Wollongong