Saturday
Saturday
The Son of Man
The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected … and be killed and after three days rise again.
Mark 8:31
We come today to the seventh and last image of the Messiah, the image that was the favorite of Jesus himself, namely “the Son of Man.” It sounds, at first hearing, the most innocuous of titles. Jesus frequently used it in the third person so that when he said (for example), “the Son of Man will be ashamed,” he meant, “I will be ashamed.” Besides, “son of man” is a Hebrew idiom for “human being,” and it is in this sense that God regularly addressed Ezekiel.
But it is also evident that Jesus used this title in direct reference to the prophecy of Daniel 7. Here in a vision Daniel saw “one like a son of man [i.e., looking like a human being] coming with the clouds of heaven” (Dan 7:13). He stood before the Ancient of Days (Eternal God) and was given authority, glory, and power so that all peoples of all languages worshiped him. And Daniel added, “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Dan. 7:14).
Then several times Jesus applied this amazing vision to himself. For example, he said to the high priest, “You will see the Son of Man … coming on the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62). It was a claim to supreme authority and an everlasting kingdom. But what is truly extraordinary is that Jesus also used the same title in a totally different context. For example, echoing Isaiah 53, he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected … be killed and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31). Thus Jesus did what nobody had done before him: he fused the glory of Daniel 7 with the suffering of Isaiah 53 in order to teach that it was only through suffering that he would enter into his glory. His words “the Son of Man must suffer” bring the two images together.
We have spent this week studying seven images of the Messiah. He is the seed of Eve, of Abraham, and of David. He is Prophet, Priest, and King. He is both suffering Savior and majestic Ruler. Our place is on our faces before him.
For further reading: Mark 8:27–9:1