Jesus’ claim
to be the Son of Man is little understood, even by Christians. That claim
ensured his crucifixion, as the high priest considered it blasphemy (Matthew
26:64 and Mark 14:62).
Why?
To answer that,
we turn to Daniel 7:13–14. I quote the verses in full:
"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 worshiped
him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his
kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
Here, this
Son of Man receives all God’s authority, and all the earth worshiped Him—the latter
a mark of His divinity. Jesus’ claim to be the Son of Man, did not refer to His
humanity, but the celebrated Son of Man from the Daniel passage. Jesus confirmed
it, as He forecast his final
“coming on the clouds of heaven” to the High Priest.
The High
Priest understood this reference as the divine Messiah coming on the clouds of
heaven from Daniel. For a man to make that claim amounted to blasphemy if
the claim was not true. The High Priest assumed Jesus’ claim was untrue, making
it blasphemy demanding death.
Because
Jesus’ faced death, the resurrection was implicit in His prediction of His
eventual return on the clouds; a claim He had already made earlier (Matthew
24:30), and repeated later by John (Revelation 1:7). His resurrection provided assurance
of His return; the two are interwoven.
As he
ascended into heaven—in a cloud—the angels confirmed His message. “‘Men of
Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same
Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way
you have seen him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:11).
Jesus’
response to the high priest not only confirmed His real identity, but also
declared His authority over death and the nations of the earth.
Find further
insight on these issues in my books, Guess
Who’s Coming to Reign: Jesus Talks about HIs Return, and Jesus: Is He Really God? Does It Really
Matter? available from Amazon at www.amazon.ca,
The Pebble Press at www.pebblepress.ca,
or Christian bookstores.
