The Son of Man

                                                            The Son of Man

No title did Our Lord use more often to describe Himself than “the Son of Man”. No one else ever called Him by that title, but He used it of Himself at least 80 times. His existence both eternal and temporal is in it. In His conversation with Nicodemus He indicated that He was God in the form of Man.

The Son of Man referred to His human nature which was in Personal union with His Divine nature, is evidenced from the fact that the first time Our Lord ever referred to Himself as “The Son of man” was when He was recognized by his disciples as the “Son of God”. Christ entered into human existence. He appeared just like a normal human being. His suffering and death were logical consequences of this humiliation. As God, he could not suffer but as a man he could.

Sometimes the title ‘The Son of Man’, is used with reference to His coming on the last day to judge all people; at other times, it referred to His mission to establish the reign of God on earth and to bring forgiveness of sins; but more often it refers to His passion, death and Resurrection. Hidden in it was His mission as Saviour and His humiliation as God in the weakness of human flesh.

The Son of God took another name ‘The Son of Man’ not to deny His divinity but better to affirm the new condition He had taken. He so humbled Himself that he even died a shameful death i.e. on the Cross. The Son of man implied not only humiliation but identification with sinful humankind. Though ‘The Son of man’ expressed His oneness with humanity, He was very careful to note that He was like man in all things except sin.

The human family has its trials, so He sanctified them by living in a family. Labour and work done by the sweat of the brow was humanity’s lot; therefore He, ‘The Son of Man’, became a carpenter though there is no evidence in the Gospel that Our Lord was ever ill, there are many instances where He sickness as if it were His own. Hence, in the performance of a cure, He sometimes ‘sighed’ or ‘groaned’ after looking up to heaven, the source of His power. Human infirmity touched Him so deeply, because deafness, dumbness and leprosy were the effects of sin. As humanity wept He too wept. He made the sorrow of humanity His own, e.g. when Mary was weeping over the death of her brother, Lazarus, Jesus sighed and felt the sorrow as His own.

Finally, the title ‘The Son of Man’ meant that He was representative not of the Jews alone, nor the Samaritans alone but of all humankind. The title proclaimed this fraternity with people. But persons cannot be just brothers unless they have a common Father, and God is not a Father unless He has a Son. To believe in the fraternity without the Fatherhood of God would make people a race of bastards.

Sympathetic love brought Him down from heaven to earth. Christ’s unity with the sinful was due to love He suffered because He loved He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. God has always been shrouded in mystery. From ages past, human beings have often asked what would God look like? But the question was often dismissed with the reminder that God is “quadosh” – totally other – and hence we can’t even imagine what God must be like. At the time of Moses there was a widespread belief that if ever one saw the face of God he would die. This belief safeguarded the mysteriousness of God.

The Incarnation has changed all that. In the person of Jesus, God has taken on a human nature, a human form, a human face. The gulf between God and person is now bridged. God is no longer quadosh (totally other). He is one like us; one with us. The word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). No longer can human beings complain: “What does God know of my pain and sufferings?” In the person of Jesus, God has had a first hand experience of being a refugee of human, thirst, opposition, rejection, betrayal, suffering and finally even death.

Seen through the eyes of faith, Jesus becomes for us the human face of God!