Jesus, Son of Man, Suffering Servant

Many times in the gospels, Jesus refers to himself as the “Son of Man”. What did that title mean, and by using it, what did Jesus tell his followers about himself? Son of Man can have two meanings; a human being like ourselves, or a humanlike divine being who was written about in the biblical book of Daniel (7:9-14) and First Enoch (46:1-4, 48:2-10; Enoch was a popular book that wasn’t included in the Bible).

Here is the passage from Daniel (7:13-14) about the Son of Man. “As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. 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.” The Son of Man appears human, but is really a divine king; Jewish religious leaders identified the Son of Man as the awaited Messiah. When Jesus called himself the Son of Man, his followers understood it meant he was the Messiah.

Daniel, Enoch, and one of the Psalms of Solomon (17:21-45; also not included in the Bible) give us a clear picture of what the Jewish people expected from the Son of Man, the Messiah. He would:
---sit on a throne next to God, and come in power on the clouds of heaven when God decided it was time.
---be from the line of David, a king to rule over the whole world and be worshipped and served by everyone.
---be righteous, free of sin, eternal, and mighty.
---save the righteous, gather them together, and renew them as a holy nation.
---destroy those who have denied God, casting them into the fire.
---purge Israel of unrighteous rulers, wicked sinners, and destructive enemies.

That’s quite a list! And when we look at what Jesus said in the following passages, we find that he saw the role of the Son of Man as being similar to the above:

“Jesus said, "…and ‘you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power,’ and ‘coming with the clouds of heaven.’” (Mark 14: 62) “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Matthew 13:41-43) “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.” (Matthew 16:27) “Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matthew 19:28)

“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other…Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” (Matthew 24:30-31, 44) “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another…Then the king will say… ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you…Then he will say ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-32, 34, 41, 46)

Those of Jesus’ followers who knew scripture must have been reassured by these sayings, for they fit with the traditional expectations of the Messiah. But wait! Other things Jesus said to them were different and unexpected. “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31) “And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! ...you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Matthew 16:22-23)

“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) “Then he took the twelve aside and said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be handed over to the Gentiles; and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon. After they have flogged him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.” But they understood nothing about all these things… and they did not grasp what was said.” (Luke 18:31-34)

The disciples didn’t understand the need for the suffering and death of the Messiah, which is foreseen in the “servant poems” of Isaiah. (42:1-4, 49:1-6, 50:4-9, 52:13-15, 53:1-12) Isaiah described a teacher with the Holy Spirit upon him, who is rejected and killed as a sacrifice for mankind’s sin. Isaiah said of the Messiah that “it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain” and that God would “make his life an offering for sin.” “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” “The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great…because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

In spite of these scriptures and Jesus’ teachings, the disciples could not understand or accept these things about their Messiah. If Jesus died, how could the national dream of a restored and victorious Israel come true? But after Jesus’ resurrection, they finally understood that God had more in mind for the Messiah than elevating one nation. “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6) Jesus was Son of Man in both senses of the phrase. In life, Jesus was a human being, and in the future, God the Father would make him a judge in Heaven. The death of the suffering servant was the doorway between the earthly and the heavenly Son of Man, as well as the essential sacrifice that brought salvation to mankind.