On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem deliberately announcing his kingship. He tells his disciples to go find a certain donkey with her colt and untie them. Garments and palm branches line his way while children cry out to him in prayer and praise for salvation all with Jesus’ approval. Jesus’ statement was bold, to say the least. Through his conscientious actions, he announced his kingship. He knew the crowds gathering for Passover would make these connections as well. Worshipers certainly did. They were calling him the Son of David, God’s Messiah, the one whom Psalm 2 declares will rule the nations with a rod of iron and Psalm 110 says sits at Yahweh’s right hand. The Jewish leaders made the connections as well, especially when he took up his kingly calling to cleanse the Temple.
Jesus is King, and he has come to take back what Adam so willingly handed over to the serpent. The serpent will not give up what was given to him without a fight. That’s alright. Jesus came to fight and win. His war strategy still befuddles the minds of many, but it was and remains effective.
At the beginning of Matthew’s Passion Narrative, Jesus speaks of his kingship and how he is going to defeat and spoil the enemy when he says, “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” (26:2). With the title “Son of Man” and speaking of his crucifixion, Jesus fills out for us his mission and victorious destiny.
“Son of Man” is a purposeful, Scripturally rich title that Jesus assumes for himself. The meaning of the title begins with Adam, is developed in the life of the prophet-priest Ezekiel, and is explained with clarity in the prophecy of Daniel.
The Son of Man is, first, the Son of Adam. Adam was created in the image of God, and his sons after him would also be the image of God. Sons of Adam shared the vocation of their father. Adam’s mission from the beginning was to rule over God’s creation as his king; he was a vice-regent, but a king nevertheless with all the rights and privileges that come with that position. Adam and his sons were commissioned to have dominion over the birds of the air, the cattle, and everything that creeps upon the earth. He was to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, building an earthly kingdom.
His authority was to be used to serve the world for this purpose: make the earth after the pattern of heaven and make a fit place for God and man to dwell. When Adam handed over his authority to the serpent, he inverted the order of creation. He gave dominion to the beasts when he submitted to the serpent. As a result, God clothed man in the skins of beasts. This was an act of God’s saving grace, but it also spoke to man’s nature as being a beast. You become what you worship. Adam worshiped the beast instead of taking dominion over him, so man became beastly.
From that time forward, the world needed a man to set everything right in the world so that man would be exalted over the beasts and fulfill our original creation purpose. When Jesus takes the title “Son of Man,” he is saying that he is the new Adam, the second and last Adam. He is truly man, but he is the man who has come to set the world right and be the man who rules the creation.
As history progresses, God fills out this Son of Man calling in the prophet Ezekiel. The title Son of Man is used of Ezekiel over ninety times in the book that bears his name. Ezekiel is a prophet and priest who lived at a time when the Temple was corrupted and would be abandoned by God. God’s glory cloud left the Temple and moved east toward Babylon. Ezekiel prophesied in word and deed that the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed, and a new Temple would be built.
The title “Son of Man” is filled out quite a bit in Ezekiel, but it takes on its fullest meaning in the prophecy of Daniel. In a vision, Daniel sees one like the Son of Man, Ezekiel. Daniel’s vision included four beasts who have been stirred up from the Great Sea—the Gentiles–by the four winds of heaven. These four beasts represent the totality of the “beasts of the earth” that come from the four corners of the earth. They represent specific kingdoms at that time, but they point to all the kingdoms of the world.
The nations are represented as beasts. They are animals. That is not without purpose.
God lays out for Daniel the story of the Son of Man in relationship to the beasts of the earth. The Ancient of Days calls court into session and is about to make a ruling. He sits upon his throne chariot and opens the books. The Son of Man is given over to the last beast to be persecuted. After this, the Ancient of Days rules in favor of the Son of Man and gives him dominion, taking away the dominion of the beast(s). The kingdom given to the Son of Man will be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions will serve him.
As Jesus faces the cross, the time when he will be handed over to be crucified, he understands where he is in the divine drama. Because he is the Son of Man, he knows that his destiny is to be handed over to the beast(s).
Who are the beasts that Jesus faces? When Daniel sees the beasts, those beasts refer to nations. Nations are made up of people, and people are beastly. This is not unusual, even in the worship of God’s people before Christ came. Animals represented men in worship. But there are beasts who are always out to destroy the seed of the woman. They are the serpent and his seed. The serpent and his seed are the beastly kingdom of darkness.
In Psalm 22, a Psalm quoted by Matthew a couple of times in his account, beasts surround and devour the Messiah, the King of Israel. Jesus faces various beasts as he makes his way to the cross.
Judas is a beast. He is one of the twelve, hand-picked by Jesus. He betrays his King. In Matthew 26:24 Jesus says, “The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” Judas is a beast from within the new world who helps devour Christ. The war knows no uncrossable battle lines.
Second, there are the chief priests, scribes, high priest, and elders of the people (26:3). These are the representatives of old Israel. These are the present shepherds in Israel, the ones who had been given the charge for the protection of the Garden, the bride. These are the ones that should have rejoiced to see the coming of the Son of Man. Instead, they were threatened by his agenda because their power structures began to line up more with the kingdoms of the world. The shepherds in Israel, representing Israel as a whole, become beasts who devour the Son of Man.
Third, there are the crowds/the multitudes. These folks play a prominent role throughout Matthew. The crowds are the ones who hailed the king at his entrance into Jerusalem. Matthew makes the verbal parallel between the two when he says that the chief priests and elders persuaded the crowd/the multitude to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus (27:20). The crowd, caught up in this kingdom of darkness, being led by their bestial leaders, are seeking the destruction of the Son of Man as well.
Fourth, there is Rome, one of the specific beasts prophesied in Daniel 7. Pilate and the guards who actually perform the crucifixion represent this beast. These are the world powers, the authority structures, within the kingdom of darkness. These are the beasts who are threatened by the new king. Pilate even recognizes this when he says that he knew that Jesus was handed over because of envy. That is, they had ill will toward Jesus and sought to destroy him because they perceived in him something that they wanted and didn’t want him to have: authority.
But why is the Son of Man crucified? Jesus is King. Why doesn’t he come in and simply crush his enemies? Well, he does, but he does so in a way that is foolishness to the Greeks and a stumblingblock to the Jews.
The penalty for Adam’s treason was death. Outside of the shedding of blood, there is no redemption for the world. The one who must die is the one responsible. The Son of Man is responsible, so he must die. When you take on Adam’s responsibility, you take on all his responsibility, including death.
The good news is that when this death takes place, the penalty for sin has been paid. The bad news is that once death takes place, that is the end … unless it isn’t … unless the Ancient of Days rules in your favor, overturns the verdict, and brings you back to life to assume authority over the creation.
The true king–the true Adam, the Son of Man–must take responsibility for his world and suffer its fate: the wrath and curse of God. The King dies as an embodiment of all that the world has become: the corrupt kingdom of man, forsaken of God, and subject to punishment. In doing so, he will take this world to the grave and resurrect it as a new world, a world over which he will take true dominion in the discipling of the nations. But first he must embody Sin that enslaves and characterizes the present world system. He must suffer their fate. In order to do this, he must become subject to the beasts of the earth who steal, kill, and destroy. Only in this way can he truly embody what the kingdom of this world is all about at this present time.
Good Friday is usually a time when we focus intensely upon our personal sins, confessing and repenting of them. This is appropriate. But our view of what Christ accomplished at the cross may be narrowed too much if that is all we think about. Jesus dying in fulfillment of his mission as the Son of Man means that he dies with the expectation of being vindicated through resurrection so that he may gain all authority over heaven and earth. Jesus’ death is not merely about taking care of a few individuals here and there and snatching them out of the world one day. Jesus dies so that he might regain dominion over the beasts of the earth, taking up the original mandate given to Adam. Jesus died so that he might turn beasts into men. Jesus died so that God’s purpose for the world through man might be fulfilled. Jesus died so that the world could have the King that it needed. As Paul says to the Colossians:
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.” (Col 1:13-20)
God becomes King through the cross.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
