I am guilty. Guilty of reading the bible superficially at times. Reading the daily passages then moving on to the rest of my day. I think a bit about what I am reading but most of the time do not look into it any deeper. The two times when I do dig a bit deeper are when I prepare for these reflections and also when I lector at church. In those instances I will go back and read the entire chapter the reading comes from and also look into other commentaries and reflections on the portion. When I take the time to do this, the readings become more alive for me. Not sure if this is Lectio Divina (a method of meditating on the readings) but it does open up a better understanding of what is being written.
And so it was with today’s Gospel reading. When I prepare for these reflections, after doing the preparation as I discussed above, it seems like something always jumps out at me to focus on. And for today it was the phrase, Son of Man. This line appears very often in the Gospels and is spoken only by Jesus in referring to Himself. In fact, he refers to Himself as the Son of Man more often than he refers to Himself as the Son of God. Why? Well, it seems there are a few explanations floating around.
As I have mentioned here before, I am doing the Bible in a Year with Father Mike Schmitz. a couple weeks ago we were deep into the book of the prophet Ezekiel. In this book God commonly addresses Ezekiel as “Son of Man”. The emphasis being son of Adam. Born of human flesh. It is a reference to him as being human. Notice he is not called THE Son of Man. More on that later.
In the book of the prophet Daniel, in Chapter 7, Daniel describes a dream he had which included multiple beasts representing the destructive kings of the world. But he also describes one like a Son of Man coming down from the heavens:
“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13-14)
In Daniel’s used of the phrase, the Son of Man was given a place of authority and power in God’s presence. His humanity was transcended into an everlasting dominion. It was generally agreed that Daniel’s description was a description of the coming Messiah.
And in the Gospels Jesus commonly referred to Himself as THE Son of Man. Using the definite article such that he is the one and only. Not just one man among many. But The Son of Man…the one described in Daniel. Jesus clarifies that he is not only the Son of God, but He is also human. Flesh and blood. He is both the man as Ezekiel is called but also the man as Daniel describes. Man returning to be one with God. The Messiah.
And in the Gospel he claims authority over the Sabbath. He is Lord of the Sabbath. Therefore, He makes it clear to the Pharisees who He is. Man but also God. So anyone who says that Jesus never claimed to be God, is missing the point made here in Luke’s Gospel, as well as in several others incidents where Jesus clearly states His divinity.
And Paul in today’s reading from Colossians emphasizes that we are saved by the flesh of Christ. His death of His body on the cross is what saved us and reconciled us to God. It is His divinity AND His humanity that returns us to the Father. It also means that OUR humanity is important. OUR flesh is the model for Christ’s flesh. And as such we are to care for our physical bodies along with preparing our spiritual selves for a life with Christ. We are, in fact, temples of the Holy Spirit. We house the spirit of Christ within us. Each of us is the new sanctuary replacing the temple in Jerusalem.
Son of Man…Son of God. A model for our humanity and our hope for salvation. Now THAT was worth looking into.
