The first one is Luke 12:8f: "I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; but he/she who denies me before men will be denied before angels of God." The second text is Luke 17:24ff: "For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." The reason why these texts are looked upon with approval is that they seem to distinguish between the Son of Man and Jesus; especially the first saying, it is argued, makes it quite clear that the Son of Man is not identical with the Jesus who is speaking.
Now, the first thing to note in this regard is that the most ancient tradition, at any rate, did not understand it in that way. The parallel text in Mark 8:38 ("For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels") does not state the identification explicitly, but the structure of the sentence makes it crystal clear. In Matthew's version of the same text, the term Son of Man is missing. This makes even the identity of the earthly Jesus with the judge who is to come: "So everyone who acknowledge me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." - Matthew 10:32f. - But even in Lukan text, the identity is perfectly clear from the overall content. It is true that Jesus speaks in the riddle form that is characteristic of him, leaving the listener to take the final step toward understanding. But there is a functional identification in the parallelism of confession and denial - now and at the judgement, before Jesus and before the Son of Man - and this only make sense on the basis of ontological identity.
The judges of the Sanhedrin actually understood Jesus properly: he did not correct them by saying something like: "But you misunderstand me; the coming Son of Man is someone else." The inner unity between Jesus' lived kenosis - cf. Philippians 2:5-11 - and his coming in glory is the constant motif of his words and actions; this is what is authentically new about Jesus, it is no invention - on the contrary, it is epitome of his figure and his words. The individual texts have to be seen in context - they are not better understood in isolation. Even if Luke 12:8f. might appear to lend itself to a different interpretation, the second text is much clearer: Luke 17:24ff. unambiguously identifies the two figures. The Son of Man will not come here or there, but will appear like a flash of lightning from one end of heaven to the other, so that everyone will behold him, the Pierced One (cf. Revelation 1:7); before that, however, he - this same Son of Man - will have to suffer much and be rejected. The prophecy of the Passion and the announcement of future glory are inextricably interwoven. It is clearly one and the same person who is the subject of both: the very person, in fact, who, as he speaks those words, is already on the way to his suffering.
Similarly, the sayings in which Jesus speaks of his present activity illustrate both aspects. We have already briefly examined his claim that, as Son of Man, he is Lord of the Sabbath (cf. Mark 2:28). This passage exactly illustrates something that Mark describes elsewhere. "They were dismayed at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes" (Mark 1:22). Jesus placed himself on the side of the Lawgiver, God; he is not an interpreter, but the Lord.
This become clearly still in the account of the paralytic, whose friends lower him from the roof to the Lord's feet on a stretcher. Instead of speaking a word of healing, as the paralytic and his friends were expecting, Jesus says first of all to the suffering man: "My son, your sins are forgiven" (Mark 2:5). For giving sins is the prerogative of God alone, as the scribes rightly objected. If Jesus ascribes this authority to the Son of Man, then he is claiming to possess the dignity of God himself and to act on that basis. Only after the promise of forgiveness does he say what the sick man was hoping to hear: "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins' - he said to the paralytic - 'I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home'" (Mark 2:10-11). This divine claim is what leads to the Passion. In that sense, what Jesus says about his authority points toward his suffering.
Let us move on now to the third group of Jesus' sayings about the Son of Man: the predictions of his Passion. We have already seen that the three predictions in Mark's Gospel, which recur at intervals in the course of Jesus' journey, announce with increasing clarity his approaching destiny and its inner necessity. They reach their inner center and their culmination in the statement that follows the third prediction of the Passion and the closely connected discourse on ruling and serving: "For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).
This saying incorporates a citation from the Suffering Servant Songs (cf. Isaiah 53) and thus weaves another strand of Old Testament tradition into the picture of the Son of Man. Jesus, while on one hand identifying himself with the coming judge of the world, also identifies himself here with the suffering and dying Servant of God whom the Prophet foretells in his Songs. The unity of suffering and "exaltation," of abasement and majesty, becomes visible. Service is the true form of rule and it gives us an insight into God's way of being Lord, of "God's lordship." In suffering and in death, the life of the Son of Man becomes sheer "pro-existence." He becomes the Redeemer and bringer of salvation for the "many": not only for the scattered children of Israel, but for all the scattered children of God - cf. John 11:52 - for humanity. In his death "for many" he transcends the boundaries of place and time, and the universality of his mission comes to fulfillment.
Earlier exegesis considered the blending together of Daniel's vision of the coming Son of Man with the images of the Suffering Servant of God transmitted by Isaiah to be the characteristically new and specific feature of Jesus' idea of the Son of Man - indeed, as the center of his self-understand overall. It was quite right to do so. We must add, though, that the synthesis of Old Testament traditions that make up Jesus' image of the Son of Man is more inclusive still, and it brings together even more strands and currents of Old Testament tradition.
First of all, Jesus' answer to the question as to whether he is the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed, combines Daniel 7 with Psalm 110: Jesus presents himself as the one who sits "at the right hand of Power," corresponding to what the Psalm prophesies of the future priest-king. Furthermore, the third prediction of the Passion, which speaks of the rejection of the Son of Man by the scribes, elders, and high priests (cf. Mark 8:31), blends in the passage from Psalm 118:22 concerning the stone rejected by the builders that has become the chief cornerstone. This also establishes a connection with the parable of the unjust vintners, in which the lord cites these words in order to prophesy his rejection, his Resurrection, and the new communion that will follow. This connection with the parable also brings to light the identity between the "Son of Man" and the "beloved Son" (Mark 12:1-12). Finally, the Wisdom Literature provides another of the currents present here. The second chapter of the Book of Wisdom depicts the enmity of the "ungodly" against the righteous man: "He boasts that God is his father... If the righteous man is God's son, he will help him... Let us condemn him to a shameful death" (Wisdom 2:16-20). V. Hampel holds that Jesus' words about the "ransom for many" are derived not from Isaiah 53:10-12, but from Proverbs 21:18 and Isaiah 43:3 (cited in Schnackenburg, Jesus in the Gospels, p. 59). This strikes me as very unlikely. The actual reference point is and remains Isaiah 53; others texts demonstrate only that this basic vision may be linked to a wide range of references.
Jesus lived by the whole of the Law and the Prophets, as he constantly told his disciples. He regarded his own being and activity as the unification and interpretation of this "whole." John later expressed this in his prologue, where he wrote that Jesus himself is "the Word." "Jesus Christ is the 'yes' to all that God promised," is how Paul puts it (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:20). The enigmatic term "Son of Man" presents us in concentrated form with all that is most original and distinctive about the figure of Jesus, his mission, and his being. He comes from God and he is God. But that is precisely what makes him - having assumed human nature - the bringer of true humanity.
According to the Letter to the Hebrews, he says to his Father, "A body hast thou prepared for me" (Hebrews 10:5). In saying this, he transforms a citation from the Psalms that read: "My ears hast thou opened" (Psalms 40:6). In the context of the Psalm, this means that what brings life is obedience, saying Yes to God's Word, not to holocausts and sin offerings. Now the one who is himself the Word takes on a body, he comes from God as a man, and draws the whole of man's being himself, bearing it into the Word of God, making it "ears" for God and thus "obedience" reconciliation between God and man (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). Because he is wholly given over to obedience and love, loving to the end (cf. John 13:10), he himself becomes the true "offering." He comes from God and hence establishes the true form of man's being. As Paul says, whereas the first man was and is earth, he is the second, definitive (ultimate) man, the "heavenly" man. "life-giving spirit" (1 Corinthians 15:45-49). He comes, and he is at the same time the new "Kingdom". He is not one individual, but rather he makes all of us "one single person" (Galatians 3:28) with himself, a new humanity.
What Daniel glimpsed from afar as a collective ("like a Son of Man") now becomes a person, but this person, existing as he does "for the many," transcends the bounds of the individual and embraces "many," becomes with the many "one body and one spirit" (cf. 1 Cor. 6:17). This the "discipleship" to which he calls us: that we should let ourselves be drawn into his new humanity and from there into communion with God. Let us listen once more to what Paul has to say about this: "Just as the one [the first man, Adam] from the earth was earthly, so too is his posterity. And just as the one who comes from heaven is heavenly, so too is his posterity" (cf. 1 Cor. 15:48).
The title "Son of Man" continued to be applied exclusively to Jesus, but the new vision of the oneness of God and man that is expresses is found throughout the entire New Testament and shapes it. The new humanity that comes from God is what being a disciple of Jesus Christ is all about.
- THE SON - At the beginning of this chapter, we saw briefly..............
- P A G E T W O -
Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!
If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function, so the body grows until it has built itself up, in love. - Ephesians 4:15-16 -
