The Son of Man
****Jesus first begins to call Himself the 'Son of Man' at this point, in so far as the Gospel of Mark is concerned. I have always wondered exactly what that name means. The Son of God that is made out of the flesh of man, perhaps. He is that.
The Psalms were written long before Jesus, many by King David in about 1000 B.C.. Psalms sometimes say Son of man. And when they talk about that somewhat mysterious person, they often say things that seem to point to Jesus. For instance:
Psalm 8: "To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that you take thought of him, the son of man that you care for him? Yet you made him a little lower than God and you crown him with majesty. You make him to rule over the works of your hands, you have put all things under his feet. All..."
While God gave mankind dominion over much, it was not over 'all'. Also, we are significantly lower than God, being lower than arch angels, angels, seraphim, the heavenly elders, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, to name a few. And Jesus was crowned with glory, but has man been? It seems Psalm 8 may speak of Jesus.
Psalm 80 speaks of the Son of Man as "the son of man whom You (God the Father) made strong for Yourself." It is true that God made Jesus strong for the serving of His purposes, so maybe this incidence of the name 'son of man' refers to Jesus - maybe.
The great prophet Ezekiel is called 'Son of Man' over and over and over. And there are a lot of Jesus foreshadowing in what God tells Ezekiel about, or tells Ezekiel to do. Take for instance:
Ezekiel 17:2 : "Son of man, set forth an allegory and tell the house of Israel a parable."
Mark Ch 4: v. 10 - 12. After telling the parable of the sewn seeds on the different type soils it says this: "As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN. Do you not..."
Jesus spoke almost exclusively in parables to the Israelites, revealing the meanings mostly only to His disciples. In this way He fulfilled Ezekiel 17:2 in many respects, so again Ezekiel, called 'Son of man' when God speaks to him, foreshadows Jesus the Son of Man.
Ezekiel 16:2 : "Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices."
Matthew Chap 23 has Jesus doing just that, and pulling no punches, stringing off a list of "Woe to you" rebukes to the powerful scribes and Pharisees who had so corrupted His Father's teachings. He accuses them of robbery, hypocrisy, self-indulgence, being neglecters and perverters of justice, and even of being murderers - as in the murder of Zechariah who was sawed in two between the temple and the alter.
Ezekiel 20:4: "Will you judge them? Will you judge them, Son of man? Then confront them with the contemptible practices of their fathers."
Matthew Ch 23 : v. 29-33: Jesus speaking - "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say "If we had lived in the days of our fathers we would not have been partners with them in the shedding of the blood of the prophets." So you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?"
This certainly is facing them with the contemptible practices of their fathers, I would say!
Ezekiel 21:2 then 21:6. First, 21:2: "Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and speak against the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel; ..."
Then Ezekiel 21:6: "As for you, Son of man, groan with breaking heart and bitter grief, groan in their sight."
Jesus entering Jerusalem, as described in Matthew Ch 23: v. 37 - 39: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who stones the prophets and kills those that are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks beneath her wings, but you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say "Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord." "
Here again we have a very strong parallel between the one Son of man (Ezekiel) and the other Son of Man (Jesus our Lord).
So, in the end, it may be that Jesus was called the Son of Man so that we would hearken back to the uses and incidences of that somewhat unusual seeming name, and see in them a picture prepared by God of the Son of Man that He would one day send who would embody so much of the former mentions of 'Son of man' in His own words and predictions. More proof from God that He, Jesus, was the coming one - the promised one. That's just an opinion. But as I said, I've often wondered about why Jesus was called the Son of Man. ****
End of Good Sized Digression!