The Son of Man
John 1:43-51[1]
All of us have our
favorite “images” for Jesus. Unfortunately, the source of those images is not
necessarily the Bible, but our own culture. Western Civilization is filled with
art works that portray Jesus, typically looking and dressing like someone from
the artist’s own time and place. The advent of films has only expanded these
images of Jesus. They range from the serene figure in “The Passion of the
Christ” to the strung out and possibly deranged character in “Jesus Christ
Superstar.” For most of us, the image of Jesus we know best is the picture that
has hung in many of our homes and churches. It was painted by the American
artist Warner Sallman in 1940, entitled simply “The Head of Christ”, and it
depicts a very “American” Jesus.
This “imaging” of
Jesus goes back to the Bible itself. The apostles and teachers who wrote the
New Testament used words to describe who Jesus was and is. They called him
“Teacher,” “Master,” and “Messiah.” In the episode that precedes our Gospel
lesson, John the Baptist called him the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of
the world.” They saw Jesus as the one who had been crucified but who had risen
and had ascended to God’s right hand, exalted to reign as the “King of
Kings.” We still use these and other NT
images to try to understand who Jesus was and who he is for us today.
One feature
in the story of Jesus is that the people of his day, including his own
disciples, continually came to him with their own ideas, and he continually corrected
them. We see this dynamic in our Gospel lesson for today. They called him
“Messiah,” “Son of God,” and “King of Israel,” but he insisted on calling
himself “Son of Man.” Part of the reason was their own pre-conceived notions
about him based on what they may have seen or heard. In the Jewish culture
there were lots of expectations about what a “Messiah” would be like and what
he would do for their people. But when faced with those expectations, Jesus
insisted that he was much more than they assumed him to be.
Following
Jesus’ baptism, John the Baptist directed two of his own disciples toward
Jesus. One of them, Andrew, found his brother Simon (also known as Peter), and
told him, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41). Something similar happens in
our lesson when Philip sought out Nathanael. Philip told him, “We have found
him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote” (John 1:45).
Initially, Nathanael was skeptical about Jesus. But later when he met Jesus, he
exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John
1:49).
All of this may sound very natural to us. But
I’m pretty sure Andrew and Nathanael didn’t understand what they were saying
when they called Jesus “Messiah,” “Son of God,” and “King of Israel.” They
expected Jesus to miraculously deliver them from their enemies, and to re-establish
the Kingdom of David. Jesus had to tell his own closest friends over and over
that wasn’t his mission. They were looking for a human deliverer; mighty in
battle and wise as a ruler but nevertheless human. And the kingdom they
imagined pales in comparison to the kingdom that Jesus intended to bring: the
kingdom of God.
Jesus’
insistence on calling himself “Son of Man” may seem confusing to us, because we
tend to assume that “Son of God” refers to him as fully divine and “Son of Man”
refers to him as fully human. So why didn’t he call himself “Son of God”? I
think the answer lies in that when Jesus’ disciples called him “Son of God” they
meant he was the extraordinary human being chosen by God to lead the people of
Israel to their former glory, but nevertheless a human being. As we see
throughout the Gospels, Jesus responded by calling himself the “Son of Man.” In
our lesson for today, Jesus told Nathanael and the others that they would see
“heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
Man” (John 1:51).
In order
to follow Jesus’ intent, I think we have to understand the background of the
“Son of Man.” It comes from Daniel 7, where at the end of his vision of all the
man-made kingdoms of the earth brought to an end by God’s kingdom, Daniel sees one
like a “Son of Man” who comes “with the clouds of heaven” and appears before
God, as if he were equal to God (Dan. 7:13)! And what is said of him should
sound familiar to us: “To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that
all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an
everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that
shall never be destroyed” (Dan. 7:14). With that in mind, I would say Jesus
refers to himself as the “Son of Man” in order to indicate that he was much,
much more than people imagined when they called him “Messiah” and “Son of God.”
He had not come simply to restore Israel; he had come to rule over a kingdom
that would encompass all the peoples of the world!
It’s not
easy to understand how Jesus could be both “fully human” and “fully divine” at
the same time. It’s tricky to balance those two in our minds. And it’s always
been easy for us to fall off on one side or the other. The witness of the Bible
clearly affirms both. Jesus “was born of woman as is every child, yet born of
God’s power as was no other child.”[2] It
takes more than a sermon to fully elaborate who Jesus was and is. For now, I
will say that as the “Son of God,” Jesus came to save us all. As the “Son of
Man,” Jesus came to establish God’s reign of peace, justice, and freedom for the
whole human family!
[1] ©2021 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 1/17/2021
for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] A
Declaration of Faith, 1977, 4.1 (Presbyterian Church in the United States,
1977; reissued by Presbyterian Church [U.S.A.], 1991).
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