Matthew 16:22

“The Son of Man is going to come.”

Let us think a bit about Jesus’ use of the title, “Son of Man.” Jesus uses this phrase to describe what will soon be seen as unfolding – the horror of the Cross of his death.  He will die as a man!  On a cross of wood.

He is “Son of Man,” of human flesh and blood, like ours. I think of all the weaknesses and frailty of mankind.  He was tempted just like we are.

He did not face death as though he were a human being but because he was a human being! He was a human being like all other human beings, with all the pains, joys, hopes and dreads. He was, in that regard like me and you.

Had he used the expression “Son of God” in this instance, I mighty dismiss the pathos of the Cross – that Jesus bore unto death – as something God would do, as God. That would make Jesus’ suffering vicarious, not real!  No.  Listen to the Son of Man crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is not the voice of God, so to speak, but the voice of man, a vulnerable human being. Jesus did not just put on flesh, he was Son of Man, like me, truly God in human flesh and blood.

Nor did he divest himself of weak humanity after the Resurrection but, as promised in this passage, we see Jesus establishing his kingdom as Son of Man.

Who can grasp the meaning of all this?  I am just happy to know that I believe it though I do not understand it fully.  It is too marvelous for me, marvelous but not opaque.