The Son of Man

Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6 2017
Dan 7:9-10,13-14; 2 Pet 1:16-19; Matt 17:1-9
Brookdale

“Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”  The title “Son of Man” obviously refers to Jesus, but why does he call himself that?  He could have said “until I rise from the dead” or even “until Jesus rises from the dead.”  Why does he refer to himself by that strange title, “the Son of Man”?

“Son of Man” is a phrase with two meanings.  The oldest is simply “a man,” a “son of Adam,” a human being.  This occurs often in the Hebrew scriptures.  Consider the words of Psalm 8: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?  And the son of man, that thou visitest him?”  In the visions of the prophet Ezekiel, the angel always addresses Ezekiel as “son of man.”  So sometimes “son of man” just means “human being.”

But Jesus typically uses this phrase with another meaning, which comes from the passage we just heard from the book of Daniel.  God—the ancient of days—is seated on his throne in his heavenly court, served and worshipped by a huge army of followers.   Then another figure arrives, “one like a Son of Man”—that is, a human being.  He arrives “on the clouds of heaven” and is presented to God, who gives him dominion, glory, and kingship over all the peoples of the earth.  This Son of Man is obviously a very special human being, who came to be seen as a divine figure.

The book of Daniel was written in the second century B.C.E. at a time of Greek domination of Israel.  The book was extremely popular in Jesus’ time, and the Son of Man figure was seen as a promise of a new Messiah, or anointed one, a king to free Israel from foreign overlords.  Many people expected this heavenly figure to come to earth to save them and establish God’s rule, through his Messiah.

In the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, Jesus typically refers to himself as the Son of Man.  When the high priest asks him if he is the Messiah, he answers, “You have said so.  But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man     seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” [Matt 25:64].  The high priest recognizes this clear reference to the prophecy of Daniel and condemns Jesus for blasphemy, because he claims to be the Son of Man.

The Transfiguration occurs just after Jesus asks his disciples who they believe he is, and Peter says that he is the Messiah.  That declaration in faith enables the disciples to see the Transfiguration.  Otherwise they would be like the high priest and a lot of other people, who did not have eyes to see who Jesus really was.

The Gospels explicitly equate Jesus with the Son of Man from the book of Daniel. But the other meaning of “son of man” is also important in understanding Jesus.  In another place Jesus says, “What you have done for the least of these my brothers and sisters, you have done for me.”  And when he appeared to Saint Paul on the road to Damascus, Jesus asked him, “Why do you persecute me?”  Jesus equates all human beings— children of Adam—with himself.  Most of us don’t have eyes to see this, most of the time.  But a few people do.

I recently heard the story of a priest who went to visit Mother Teresa in Calcutta.  At one point, he became aware of a terrible stench coming from his open window.  The smell came from sores and wounds on the body of an emaciated man who was lying under the priest’s window.  The priest then saw a young sister approach the man, but Mother Teresa told her to go to prayer or lunch or whatever.  Mother Teresa then put her arms under the man’s body and rolled him up in a close embrace.  As Mother Teresa began to carry the dying man into the house, she murmured to him, “Oh my dear Jesus.”

We Christians believe that Jesus is the cosmic Christ, the Son of Man, the Messiah who descended from heaven to save us.  And we believe that he is our brother, present in all our brothers and sisters, but especially in the poor and the suffering.  The feast of the Transfiguration celebrates Jesus as both the lowly man, so easy to dismiss and despise, and the divine Christ, if only we have eyes to see.