Prophet. Messiah. Son of Man. Each has been used to describe Jesus Christ. Of the three, “Prophet” is the one description that has changed the least between the 1st century and today. To call Jesus the Messiah or the Son of Man, however, means different things today than it did in the 2000 years ago.
Prophet is defined by the Random House Dictionary as “a person who speaks for God or a deity, or by divine inspiration.” (Random House, Inc. [RHI], 1980, p.1061) He was called prophet by those who heard him, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” (Oxford University Press, Inc. [OUPI], 1977, p. 1221) He was called a false prophet by those who questioned his methods and motives, calling into question what he taught and the miracles that he performed. By the very definition of the word, Jesus is a prophet as he did speak for God and he was divinely inspired. Today “well over a billion Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet of God” (Bockmuehl, 2002, p. 1). Many have come and gone through out the course of history claiming to be a prophet. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus warns us to “beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.” (OUPI, p. 1179) Jesus came to speak the Word of God the way that God had intended it to be, not the way man had interpreted it. In doing this there were times that he was at odds with the priests and others, so much so that they would call for Jesus to die. “We need not doubt that Jesus saw his words and deeds as fulfillment of the opening verses of Isaiah 61. ‘He has sent me to announce good news to the poor, i.e. to gospel the poor ... to comfort all who mourn.’ Indeed, I believe that this passage was the most important part of Scripture for Jesus’ own self-understanding: not Isaiah 53 with its references to the so-called suffering servant, but Isaiah 61.” (Stanton, 2004, p. 13)
Messiah is defined as “the promised and expected deliverer of the Jewish people.” (RHI, 1980, p. 839) Christians today consider Jesus the Messiah, but that has not always been the case. In the 1st century Jews were looking for something very different from the Messiah. The Prophets of the Old Testament had told of his coming. The Messiah was to be from the line of David. While Jesus was from the line of David, but it was difficult to believe that he was the awaited Messiah since he was born in a stable. Not where you would expect royalty to be born. The Jews were looking for someone like Moses, someone to raise up an army and lead Israel out from under the rule of the Romans. “The Messiah was to be a king, not a proclaimer of God’s will, judgment, and redemption.” (Achtemeier, Green, & Thompson, 2001, p. 231) 1st century Jews were waiting for someone to physically deliver them. They rejected Jesus as the Messiah because he failed to deliver them so they continue to wait. When James and John asked to be seated next to Jesus in his kingdom they were thinking an earthly one. At that point they still did not understand that Jesus had come to deliver them, but not in the way that was expected. Jesus came to deliver us spiritually. To save us from our sinful nature and bring us back into communion with God. “The nature of Jesus' messiahship as described in the New Testament has remained a puzzle for almost two thousand years. According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus never declared himself to be the Messiah. Moreover, when others called him the Messiah, he asked that it not be publicly revealed.” (Knohl, 2000, p. 1)
“The Gospels show that Jesus speaks most often of himself as “Son of man,” a designation derived from Daniel 7.” (Achtemeier et al., 2001, p. 233) “Since Jesus always speaks of the Son of Man in the third person, one could infer that he is referring to someone other than himself. In most of the sayings, however, it is clear that Jesus uses the phrase to refer to himself.” (Burkett, 2000, p. 1) Why Son of man instead of Son of God? In Matthew 26:63-64 Jesus ties these two terms together. “And the high priest said to him, “I adjure [urge] you by the living God tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”” Jesus was God who became human. He was both the Son of God and the Son of Man.
While on earth Jesus was a prophet who foretold of the coming kingdom of God. He was the Messiah sent by God to deliver his people from sin, to bring them back to God. To do this, God came into the world as a man. He was both the Son of God and the Son of man. Since his resurrection Jesus has reigned in heaven as the Messiah, the deliverer of all the nations. This is summed up in the Gospel of John where the writer says “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal lie. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (OUPI, 1977, p. 1289)
References
Achtemeier, P. J., Green, J. B., & Thompson, M. M. (2001). Introducing the New Testament: Its Literature and Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Bockmuehl, M. (2002). Companion to Jesus. Retrieved October 21, 2007, from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/grandcanyon/Doc?id=10019082&ppg=19
Burkett, D. (2000). Son of Man Debate : A History & Evaluation. Retrieved October 21, 2007, from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/grandcanyon/Doc?id=10001911&ppg=15
Knohl, I. (2000). Messiah Before Jesus. Retrieved October 21, 2007, from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/grandcanyon/Doc?id=10053519&ppg=15
Oxford University Press, Inc. (1977). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc..
Random House, Inc. (1980). The Random House College Dictionary (Revised ed.). New York, NY: Random House, Inc..
Stanton, G. N. (2004). Jesus and Gospel. Retrieved October 21, 2007, from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/grandcanyon/Doc?id=10131754&ppg=27
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