Sermon on the Fifth Sunday in Lent: Who is the Son of Man?
Look at all references to Jesus in today’s readings. The reading from Jeremiah about a new covenant is read by Christians to refer to Jesus, whom we also call Lord. In the reading from Hebrews, we have Christ, high priest, Son, high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (more on that last mouthful some other time). And then in the gospel of John, Jesus calls up the name “Son of Man.”
In the gospels Jesus refers to himself as “Son of Man” dozens of times. That title appears earlier in the Hebrew Scriptures in Ezekiel and in the book of Daniel, maybe as a messiah-like figure, and continued to be used in the literature inspired by that book. Yet nobody can pin down for certain what “Son of Man” actually means, especially since it meant many different things to various audiences.
I like how the term humanizes Jesus. The gospels do refer to people knowing Jesus as the son of a human being, namely Joseph, who was called a carpenter. (And we just celebrated Joseph’s saint day, which is a state holiday in parts of Austria). While the gospels of Luke and Matthew describe how he had no human father, but a divine one (and the gospel of John goes beyond that), a key part of Jesus’s being is his humanity. I often ask students to describe who Jesus is. And if they say “Son of God,” I respond that is true, but incomplete.
For such is the delicate balance of the nature of Jesus: fully human and fully divine at the same time. That is hard for people to understand now—how much more challenging was it while he was incarnate? We don’t know why the Greeks wanted to see Jesus. As a curiosity or tourist attraction? An inspiring philosopher? As a divine glorification? — as this passage from the gospel indicates he was.
For us today, it is essential not just to understand who Jesus was as God incarnate, but what we are to do with that information. In the gospel today Jesus says “Whoever serves me must follow me….” That means not just to follow him into death, but to be a minister to the living.
Elsewhere, Jesus said the Good News needs to be proclaimed. Jesus said we need to repent of our sins for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Jesus said we are to love God and love our neighbor by feeding the hungry, sheltering the poor, healing the sick, welcoming the foreigner, comforting the prisoner — because we are children of men and women.
Written for the parish of St. James & St. George 2021 March 21
URL: <http://therev.brianpavlac.org/srms/20210321.html