Approaching Easter - He must die!

    
     He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer
     many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and
     teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three
     days arise again. He spoke plainly about this....
                                                       -- Mark 8:31-32

    

When Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man, is he saying that he is human?

Certainly he is human -- fully human as well as fully God -- in that mysterious Body that only an omnipotent God could bring into existence.

But there is much more.

In the prophecies of Daniel (Daniel 7:13-14), we see a divine messianic figure, "one like a son of man,"

     coming with the clouds of heaven...He was given authority,
       glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of
     every language worshipped him.

       His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass
       away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.


The disciples would have made this connection.

The "son of man" is the One who is to come and make everything right!

But Jesus says the "son of man" must suffer.

They were incredulous. Never before in Israel's
history had the coming Messiah, the long-anticipated King of Israel, been connected with suffering.

Yes, they knew of the many prophecies of the mysterious Servant of the Lord who suffers (Isaiah 43, 44, 53, etc.), but certainly the Christ, the Messiah, was not the one to suffer!

Just a short time before, Jesus had asked his disciples, "Who do you say I am?" and Peter had declared, "You are the Messiah!"

Probably some of them were not yet even comfortable with that eternal truth, and now they are told that the promised Messiah must suffer!

It made no sense at all. The Messiah was supposed to defeat evil and injustice and make everything right in the world.

He would ascend his throne and rule in righteousness and mercy.

But here, Jesus is saying, "Yes, I am the Messiah, the King, but I came not to live but to die. I'm not here to take power but to lose it; I'm here not to rule but to serve.

"And that's how I am going to defeat evil and put everything back to way it was meant to be."

Not just, "I've come to die" but "I have to die.

"It's absolutely necessary that I die.

"The world can't be renewed, and neither can you, unless I die."