The Burden of Divine DNA

"…The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

We read this story every Christmas. In our faith, we know that Jesus came down from heaven and became human for our sake. So who were Jesus' parents?

Our Christian faith tells us that Jesus had a human mother, a virgin named Mary. Luke tells us this in his story of when the angel, Gabriel visited Mary. In Hebrew tradition, when the Old Testament uses this terminology, the author refers to a man and woman coming together to produce a child.

Here we see that Luke says that Jesus' father is indeed our "Most High". In essence, this means that the two parents of Jesus were Mary, his human mother, and God, His Heavenly Father.

The implications of this for DNA are very interesting. As humans, in our human nature, we know there are imperfections with regard to our DNA. But with the "DNA of God", there would be no imperfections, if indeed there were such a thing. In studying biochemistry, we learn that a child’s DNA comes from both the mother and the father. Did Jesus have Mary’s DNA only, or was half his set divine DNA?

Once we ask this question, many more come to mind. If Jesus did indeed have a divine DNA piece, is this DNA in fact what allowed him to see things from his Father’s point of view? Is this why he was able to readily perform miracles and read people’s souls? Do we consider the distress Jesus’ soul felt constantly saying no to sin in his humanness?

Can you imagine the torment you would have knowing that you are contained in a human body and feel all the pain, the mental and physical suffering, yet you do not take yourself down from the cross? You allow the human side of you to face the anguish of knowing that your body will die and it doesn’t have to. That is truly what it means to do the will of the Father…to deny yourself and instead life yourself up as a sacrifice for the salvation of human souls. It was a decision Jesus made.

Jesus Christ took on the form of a human being. He constrained himself to the human form and all its limitations. He knew before he said “yes” to the Father, what his humanness would entail and yet Jesus still took on the weight of our sins.

I discovered the following link while I was researching something else. It is an interested treatise on Mary’s role in Jesus’ life. I hope you’ll find it compelling as well.

http://www.pjpiisoe.org/pamphlets/176US.pdf

Next week, I’ll touch on the subject of the star above Bethlehem and the meaning of the angels singing at the birth of the Savior.