When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he
asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" (Matthew 16:13).
Jesus of Nazareth was the most titled Person in all of
history.
In His era where a person’s titles were significant in conveying something of their history, character, or attributes and authority, much can be learned about the multi-faceted personhood of this most unique One from the labels appended to Him.
Jesus’ most frequent titles in the pages of the New Testament (NT) are Lord and Christ, each appearing over 500
times.
Lord speaks to His being the Master. To the
Christ-follower, He is the ultimate Lord directing the lives of His people with
the future promise that they will be granted citizenship in His eternal
Kingdom.
Christ – derivative of the Greek term christos – speaks of One anointed with oil by God’s representative for service to Him. In the Old Testament (OT), kings were anointed as a symbol of their divine selection and commission. Priests too were anointed, and at least one prophet. The Hebrew equivalent is mashiyach from which comes our English term messiah.
The Lord Jesus is seen by the NT writers as the eternally
and cosmically ultimate Master, the Messiah above all others, the ultimate
Christ.
The 3rd most frequent title for Jesus after
Lord and Christ, is the term Son of Man.
Multiple features make this term distinct, one of which is that this is Jesus’ favourite self-designation. He uses the term Son of
Man when speaking of Himself over 80 times in the Gospel accounts, more
than any other of His titles or names.
To Gentile ears, this is a term of humility. In a culture
where the father was naturally considered to possess greater dignity than the
son, to be a son of man was to recognize subsequent generational inferiority;
to put one below his father. Consequently, it was naturally concluded that
Jesus was of less esteem than His father, Joseph.
Or, some have concluded that rather than being a Son of
Abraham or Son of David, the Son of Man title suggests His racial
identity with all of humanity.
Another theory is that the Son of Man title designates Jesus as the Representative Man to replace Adam. Whereas Adam was tempted and fell headlong into sin, Jesus as the Last Adam – or, Son of Adam – was like His first parent tempted to sin, but consistently exhibited moral perfection.
However, none of those suggestions provide adequate explanatory scope, because none accounts for the explosively malicious and venomous response of the Jewish elite – the adversaries of Jesus – when He insisted on using this title for Himself.
To understand their response, we need to rewind some
centuries to review the OT usage of the term son of man.
Son of man (ben adam in Hebrew) occurs over 100 times in the OT, consistently drawing the contrast of mankind as significantly inferior to Almighty God. Particularly in poetic passages, God is portrayed as Supreme, eternal and omnipotent whereas man – or the son of man – is mortal, dependent, derived and contingent.
But the Jewish audience of the Lord Jesus would know of the one outlier – the single OT usage of son of man that is fundamentally – and provocatively – different from the others.
It occurred in Daniel 7 when in a vision over 5 centuries
before Christ, Daniel sees the 4 great world empires of human history: the
Babylonians (present to Daniel), and the future super-powers of Medo-Persia,
Greece, and Rome each flickering for a brief period on the stage of history.
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me
was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven (Daniel 7:13).
This usage of son of man varies from all of the
rest of the OT references because it is the only one in the Aramaic tongue; the
others are written in Hebrew.
But here’s the key difference: this Daniel 7 reference, far from being a term of humility, is a reference to greatness, exaltation, honour, and acclaim.
In this text, Daniel glimpses into the throne-room of heaven where over 100 million are gathered to witness the Supreme Court of the Universe. The Ancient of Days is seated as Judge. This term – the Ancient of
Days – appearing only in Daniel 7 (3 times) – is a name for the God of Israel declaring His necessary Being and eternality.
He is clothed in radiant white with hair white like wool.
In a culture where age was highly respected, portraying experience and majesty
and inspiring veneration, this elderly Figure is authoritatively installed on a
throne projecting flames of fire.
The climactic observation in Daniel’s vision is the introduction of the One who will usher in the 5th kingdom: final, eternal, supreme, superior and universal – the Kingdom of God.
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me
was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He
approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given
authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every
language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not
pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed (Daniel
7:13,14).
Daniel was hereby illustrating that this One who was
given authority, glory, power, worship and everlasting dominion was a heavenly
Being, but was also human, or a son of man.
Not to be missed in this examination is the power of the Son
of Man title: it graphically demonstrated Jesus as truly human.
But because of His relationship with the Ancient of Days
and the eternal glory, power, authority and worship that are assigned to Him,
the Son of Man title also evocatively conveyed Jesus’ deity.
It was clear to His audience – particularly the Jewish elite who were familiar with Daniel’s prophecy – that it was in this way that Jesus adopted the Son of Man designation.
In other words, it was how Jesus used the title
that enraged His opponents.
Christ was claiming this ancient prophecy as pointing to
and identifying Him!
He was demonstrating that this Heavenly Being in Daniel 7 – this Son of Man standing confidently before the Ancient of Days to receive glory, power, authority and worship forever – is Himself equal to God, because Jesus is God!
Notice the words of Christ asserting His Deity as Son
of Man who is also the Son of God in these key passages in Mark’s Gospel:
8:38 For
whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation,
of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
13:26 Then they
will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
14:62 Jesus said, “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
However, in Matthew 16 Jesus used the title with His
disciples to emphasize His uniqueness and provide Simon Peter with the
opportunity to express what the disciples were beginning to perceive about
their Master.
Who do people say the Son of Man is?...But
what about you? he asked. Who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:13,15,16).
Takeaway: the Jewish opponents of Jesus understood
all too well that rather than using a title of humility, Jesus was utilizing a
term of grandeur and exaltation and infusing it with even more colourful,
impressive and multi-dimensional meaning.
And His disciples were incrementally putting together the
fragments of His teaching. Jesus, the maximal Son of Man was the enfleshment of God – the God-Man – possessing Cosmic Judgeship and Ultimate Authority.
This Son of Man is the ultimate King of the Kingdom of God. It’s currency will be righteousness – that which is just, true, beautiful and it’s citizens will be those who love, follow, obey the Messiah, the King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the Son of God. He is the Son of Man.
That’s at the heart of the Gospel.
~ a version of this post last appeared in May
2021
