Introduction

Much has been written on the phrase “Son of Man,” since it is Jesus’s primary self-designation in the Synoptic Gospels — 30 times in Matthew, 14 in Mark, 25 in Luke. But it is even prominent in John — where Jesus uses other self-designations, most notably the “I am” sayings — appearing 13 times in the fourth Gospel, too.

Scholars largely agree today that the significance of “Son of Man” in the Gospels comes from Daniel 7:13, the appearance in a vision of a “human one,” in contrast to the four beasts that have preceded it. Here “Son of Man” has a representative connotation.

The beasts represent oppressive human orders — empires. Scholarly opinion sees the lion as Babylon, the bear as Media, the leopard as Persia, and the dragon as Greece (with its ten horns representing the ten successors of Alexander the Great). The Son of Man, the human one, represents how human beings are truly meant to live, a kingdom according to the original design of the Creator, the Ancient One.

So, Daniel 7 is the quintessential biblical vision of oppressive empires giving way to a truly human way to reign.

In First Century Palestine the Book of Daniel held a place among Jews that can be compared to the place of the Book of Revelation today for many Christians — (even, perhaps, the troubling aspects of often misinterpreted it as a triumphalistic hope in a divine violence to conquer one’s enemies.) It epitomized their hope of a reign of peace.

It is easy to see that this fits well with Jesus’s basic message of the coming of the kingdom of God. In designating himself as the “Son of Man,” Jesus was expressing confidence that he represented the coming of God’s way to reign in the world, a way that is truly human, a way that God the Creator designed for us from the beginning.

A common assumption among many Bible readers is that the coming of the Son of Man in Daniel 7 is expressing a hope for the “Parousia,” the Second Coming of Jesus, when the reign of God will be fully established. While hope for a Second Coming is certainly part of Christian expectation, scholars are increasingly saying that that’s not what Jesus is referring to with the designation of Son of Man.

Yes, many of the Son of Man sayings are in the future tense, looking ahead to when the Son of Man comes. But this is Jesus looking ahead to the moment in his life that inaugurates the coming of God’s reign of peace. It is Jesus looking ahead to his Passion and Resurrection. In short, it has everything to do with the significance of his First Coming, not a Second Coming.

I know this is a stretch for many, but there is a climactic moment in the Synoptic Gospels when “Son of Man” becomes emphatically in the present, not just the future. It is the moment that Jesus is judged by the Sanhedrin. Matthew’s version, the final and truly climactic instance of “Son of Man” in his Gospel, reads:

In short, Jesus says, the future is beginning now. And what will they see? Precisely the vision of Daniel 7 coming true: a truly human reign of peace coming from God, pictured in the present tense as seated next to God, coming on clouds.

Read Matthew 25:31-46

So, if the Parable of the Sheep and Goats is not about a final judgment at the End Times, what is it about? Four things:

As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being (son of man) coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed. (Dan. 7:13-14)

In the Greek, the pronoun in verse 32 is autous, or simply, “them ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium