The Reality of His Humanity

'We can relate to God as human beings because God is truly Human.' (Walter Wink, The Human Being, 42)

I came across an interesting fact about Jesus a number of years ago that has stuck with me. I'm not certain about the meaning of its significance yet but it has become something of a fixed point in my thinking about Jesus. Jesus referred to himself using the phrase 'son of man' more than any other title. Interestingly, the original disciples rarely used that term for Jesus and the church has used it even less, both groups preferring the title 'son of God.' However, the fact stands that Jesus's favorite designation of himself was 'son of man' (the phrase is used 84 times in the gospels).

What does this mean? Was Jesus more comfortable with his true humanity than those that followed him? Do we tend to ignore Jesus's human nature because we are so preoccupied with his divinity? Does our concept of Jesus's divinity tend to obscure the reality that he was a finite human being subject to the same limitations as all other human beings? These are all good questions that deserve careful consideration. In fact, that is what the quest for the historical Jesus has been doing for over the past two hundred years. Since the Enlightenment scholars have been attempting to understand something of the human Jesus. Such a quest may lead into some scholarly dead ends but the quest itself is certainly important, especially if Jesus truly was the 'son of man.' His humanity cannot be simply absorbed and overshadowed by his divinity, because that would be to make of Jesus another false christ!

Consider these two important texts about the phrase 'son of man.' First, Psalm 8.3-6, 'When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, the son of man that you care for him? Pay attention to the parallelism of Hebrew poetry, 'human beings . . . son of man,' 'mindful of them . . . care for him.' The plural 'human beings' is equated with the singular 'son of man.' From this we begin to see that the 'son of man' is not strictly an individual but a symbol of a larger group. Second, carefully study the vision of Dan. 7.14 where the 'son of man' appears as an individual with the interpretation in vss. 21-22, 27 where the kingdom is given to the 'holy ones,' the 'people of the Most High.' 'His kingdom' in vs. 14 is 'their kingdom' in vs. 27. Again we see a collective dimension of the 'son of man' symbol. The 'son of man' is more than just a single individual.

What does all this mean for us? The 'son of man' is a liberating and empowering symbol. It is also the antidote for the imperial 'son of God' christology that has dominated the church since the time of Constantine. The church has often used its image of Jesus as 'son of God' to force believers into submission to the will of a dictatorial leadership. It has taught that human beings are ignorant and cannot be trusted to think for themselves. That human beings are faithless and must be coerced with rules and regulations to act responsibly. In short, the imperial 'son of God' of the Constantinian church has been used to beat people into submission to church traditions rather than to liberate them into the spiritual freedom of the children of God!

Jesus is the head of a true and new humanity. As 'son of man' he does not wish to subjugate us as other imperial leaders, both secular and religious, seek to do. Jesus wants to liberate us from all forms of imperial power and to empower us to resist such power by assisting in the work of his kingdom. Through the 'son of man' we are given 'glory,' 'honor,' and 'dominion' in an 'everlasting kingdom' that 'shall never be destroyed.'