The Unexpected Jesus

The Truth Behind His Biblical Names

R. C. Sproul

• Publisher: Christian Focus Publication
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781781912430

PART ONE

Jesus
Who is he?

1
The Son of Man

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’

Matthew 16:13

Did you notice anything strange about the way Jesus put the question to his disciples? He didn’t simply ask his disciples, What are they saying about me?

When Lyndon Johnson was the President of the United States, it was reported that on any occasion when being interviewed by the press, he would refer to the latest Gallup poll. He always knew, up to the minute, what the drift of public opinion was. Sometimes we are cynical about politicians because, instead of leading the people, they move in the direction in which the people are already moving!

That is not the kind of leader Jesus was. Jesus would not acquiesce with public opinion and do what others wanted. He determined his own agenda. So when he questioned the disciples about public opinion, he did not ask, ‘Who do they say I am?’ Instead, at the very moment Jesus is asking what other people think about him, he uses a title to identify himself to his disciples: he refers to himself as ‘the Son of Man’. The way this title is used by Jesus in the New Testament has unusual connections.

Popular titles of Jesus

If you were to go through the four Gospels, or the whole New Testament for that matter, and list the numerical frequency of the titles used for Jesus, which do you suppose would be used most often?

The answer is the title, Christ. In fact, this title is used of Jesus so often in the New Testament that many people think that ‘Christ’ is part of his name. But his name would have been ‘Jesus bar-Joseph’. ‘Jesus’ is his name; ‘Christ’ is a title. We shall study this title later in chapter 2, but for the present note that the word ‘Christ’ is the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word for ‘the Messiah’. Therefore, when the New Testament says ‘Jesus Christ’, it is saying ‘Jesus the Messiah’.

The second most frequently used title for Jesus in the New Testament is the title ‘Lord’. We shall consider the significance of this title in chapter 4. In third place, in terms of numerical frequency, is the title ‘Son of Man’. It is used about 80 times. What is striking about the use of the title is this: it is the title that Jesus most frequently used to describe himself. Of all the times that this title is used of Jesus in the New Testament, only two or three times is it used by someone other than Jesus.

I find in teaching adult classes and even in theological seminary, that if I ask my students, ‘Why does Jesus call himself the Son of Man?’, there is a common answer. Generally the response is that the title ‘Son of Man’ was a humble, self-designation that Jesus used to call attention to his humanity, his identification with us as people. There is an element of truth in this answer, but it is inadequate.

The New Testament has another title for Jesus, ‘Son of God’. In the history of Christianity, the church has confessed its faith that Jesus, though he is one person, has two natures, one divine and one human. Therefore, if we think that the title ‘Son of God’ is used in the New Testament for Jesus’ divinity, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that when it uses the title, ‘Son of Man’, it is with reference to his humanity. But if we jump, we are going to jump into all kinds of trouble, because it simply isn’t a valid conclusion. If anything, the situation is reversed.

In the Bible, the title, ‘Son of God’, is ascribed to angels and also to human beings, with specific reference to people who are particularly obedient to God. This is not to say that the title ‘Son of God’ has no reference to the deity of Christ; it does, particularly the special way in which it is used of Jesus. But the phrase, in and of itself, often refers to creatures and doesn’t necessarily indicate deity. Similarly, although the title ‘Son of Man’ has reference to Jesus’ solidarity with humanity, there is something about the biblical use of this title which focuses on the transcendent majesty of Christ.

Daniel’s vision

This phrase, ‘the Son of Man’, was not invented by Jesus in the first century, but has its roots in Old Testament literature, particularly in the book of Daniel. Daniel is a difficult book to interpret because it is apocalyptic literature, with vivid images.

In the seventh chapter of Daniel, the prophet is describing a vision which God gave him of the inner sanctum in heaven. He is transported, as it were, by the Spirit, much as John was on the Isle of Patmos when he wrote the book of Revelation. Daniel was given the privilege of looking into the interior of heaven itself. In writing of what he saw, he uses sharp crystal images to describe his experience. If you are familiar with the book of Revelation, you will realise that it is almost verbatim recapitulation of this scene in Daniel.

First of all, Daniel describes what he saw in the vision:

‘As I looked,

thrones were set in place,

and the Ancient of Days took his seat.

His clothing was as white as snow;

the hair of his head was white like wool.

His throne was flaming with fire,

and its wheels were all ablaze.

A river of fire was flowing,

coming out from before him.

Thousands upon thousands attended him;

ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.

The court was seated,

and the books were opened’.

Daniel 7:9,10

Do you get the picture? Daniel, looking into the inner court of heaven, sees someone seated on this throne of splendour who has the title, ‘the Ancient of Days’. He is referring to God the Father, seated in regal splendour upon the throne, surrounded and attended by tens of thousands of angelic beings.

The scene portrayed is that of a courtroom where, with the Judge seated, the court comes to order, and the books are opened. We can imagine how breathtaking this was for the prophet: to see the future when the Ancient of Days will be seated on the throne of authority and judgment. But Daniel kept looking. And this is what he saw:

‘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. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped 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

Daniel is saying, ‘I looked into heaven itself, and as the court was come to order with the books opened, suddenly I saw the Shekinah cloud: the visible, tangible, perceivable manifestation of the blinding glory of God himself. And in this cloud, being brought in to the throne room, was One who was identified as the Son of Man. This Son of Man was brought to the immediate presence of the Ancient of Days, and presented to him. The Ancient of Days then commanded that the Son of Man be given dominion and glory and an everlasting kingdom.’ What Daniel saw was the exaltation of Christ.

We are not going to examine every occurrence of this title, ‘the Son of Man’, in the Old and New Testaments, but essentially the title is used, not to describe a human being whose sphere of operations is the earth, but a heavenly being. It concerns One who left the presence of the Ancient of Days in heaven, became human, and at the completion of his sojourn returned to his place of origin, heaven itself, where he was given dominion, glory and a kingdom.

It is no accident that when, after his resurrection, Jesus left this world from the Mount of Olives, the biblical description is that he ascended in a cloud of glory which disappeared beyond the vision of the disciples (Acts 1:9). Luke, the author of Acts, tells us of the departure of Jesus, but he does not describe the arrival at the other end. It is that arrival which Daniel saw.

Jesus once made this statement: ‘No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man’ (John 3:13). In fact he frequently made reference to the fact that his place of origin was not Bethlehem. Yes, he was born in Bethlehem, but he predated his own birth. He repeatedly stressed the fact that he came from above, that he came from the Father. He descended from heaven before he ever ascended to heaven.

Two incidents in the life of Jesus

Two episodes in Jesus’ ministry call attention to the significance of this title, ‘Son of Man’.

On one occasion Jesus healed a crippled person. In the act of healing him he said, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven’ (Matthew 9:2). When the religious authorities heard this, they were furious. They thought that Jesus was just a human being making himself out to be God.

As twentieth-century people, we are accustomed to hearing ministers and priests pronounce the promise of God’s forgiveness on people who repent of their sins. Jesus commissioned the church to make those utterances in his name. Therefore it doesn’t offend us.

In the Jewish community of the first century, however, it was clearly understood that the only person who had the authority to forgive sins was God. Yet when Jesus ministered to the crippled man, he didn’t say, ‘Let me pray for you that my Father will forgive your sins.’ Unilaterally he made a declaration: ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ That is why there was an angry response with the charge of blasphemy being brought against him.

How did Jesus respond? ‘Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins ... .” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home” ’ (Matthew 9:4-6).

Jesus did this to teach them something. What was the lesson? He performed the miracle so the onlookers would know that he, the Son of Man, had authority to forgive sins. That is not a statement of self-effacing humility, and his contemporaries understood this. When they heard Jesus saying that the Son of Man had the authority to forgive sins on earth, they knew he was claiming to be divine.

The other occasion was when the disciples ate some corn as they walked through a cornfield on a Sabbath day (Mark 2:23-28). The Pharisees found fault with their behaviour. Jesus, in his explanation of why he had permitted his disciples to eat the corn, said, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’

Listen to that with the ears of a first-century Jew, who understood that only the Creator of the universe had lordship over the Sabbath day. The Sabbath had not been established by Moses but by God, so when Jesus said, ‘the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath’, he was saying, ‘the Son of Man is God.’

Taking these two incidents together, we can see that the title ‘the Son of Man’ bespeaks divine authority to forgive sins and to authorise what was acceptable Sabbath behaviour. Both areas belonged exclusively to God and so when Jesus used the title to describe himself, he was saying that he was God.

2
Prophet and Christ

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’

They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’

‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’

Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’.

Matthew 16:13-16

In Chapter 1, we considered the question Jesus put to his disciples: ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ We discovered that Jesus revealed his deity by using his favourite title of self-designation, ‘Son of Man’. In this chapter we will consider the answer the disciples gave to the question.

As I mentioned in the Introduction, public opinion about Jesus was vacillating. Early on in his ministry people believed that he was the Messiah, but their concept of Messiah was almost entirely political. They were looking for somebody who would deliver them from the bondage of Rome. When Jesus refused to mould himself into that concept of a Messiah, the people began to wonder who he actually was.

The answer of the disciples was: ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ That is a fascinating selection of answers.

Jesus and John the Baptist

Why would anybody think that Jesus was John the Baptist? How could they confuse Jesus with John? Actually, at another time, people were upset because Jesus was so different from John the Baptist:

‘To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.” For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, “He has a demon.” The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and ‘sinners’.” But wisdom is proved right by all her children’.

Luke 7:31-35

When John the Baptist came on the scene, he looked like a wild man, wearing a loincloth and eating only locusts and wild honey. He did not touch wine and did not seem to associate with any kind of fun or games. But when Jesus came on the scene, he was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton, because he attended events such as the wedding feast at Cana. So why would anyone confuse the two?

Actually they had a lot in common. Not only were they related (see Luke 1:36), but when John began his public ministry his message to the people of Israel was: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’ (Matthew 3:2). Similarly, Jesus began his earthly ministry with the message: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’ (Matthew 4:17).

It is true that by the time of this incident at Caesarea Philippi John had been executed by Herod. But for a short period of time in Israel, John the Baptist was more famous than Jesus. John was the first prophet to appear in four hundred years; he instituted radical procedures, such as the baptism of Jews; he challenged the king over his lifestyle. All of that made for controversy and resulted in his fame spreading across the countryside.

So when suddenly he disappeared from public view and the rumour spread that he had been executed, not everybody believed it. Some people were still looking for John the Baptist to re-appear...