Can I just
start this entry by making something very clear? I am not, I repeat, not a
theologian. Never have been and never will be. So if in this entry, I somehow
insult you with my thoughts, please forgive and have grace. Okay, sigh; just feel
better getting that off my chest.
How many of
you have seen the movie, Avatar? Just the other night, I bought it off of
Amazon and downloaded it to our Amazon account. Now, I realize that some of you
may not be fans of the fantasy genre, so if you haven’t seen it allow me to
give you a brief summary.
Oh.My. How
does one succinctly go into the story line that is Avatar?
The main
character, Sully travels to a distant moon called Pandora as part of a military
force whose sole goal is to mine for Unobtanium which is a highly
valuable mineral found on this moon. The problem is that the native tribe, the
Na’vi, live directly over the richest
mining field. Sully’s job is to become one of the Na’vi in order to gain their trust
and convince them to move away from their sacred ground.
Through his
time spent with the Na’vi, Sully not only grows to love the people, but their
land and sacred ways as well. In fact, the movie closes with Sully forever
forsaking his human life to become a member of the Na’vi tribe. In the very
last clip, Sully’s eyes open with a kind of excitement and joy reflected in
them . End scene.
You might be
thinking to yourself, why all this talk about Avatar? I don’t know about you, but I love a good
story. For me, sometimes a story takes a complex idea, one that is above my pay-grade, and makes it understandable—in an everyday sort of way. After all, Jesus
often told stories, parables, to teach us about the Kingdom of Heaven.
So why not
use Avatar. A movie that seemingly has nothing to do with religious things. Or
does it? You see as I watched Avatar and how the character Sully began to love
being Na’vi over being human, and chose to become one of them to the very core of
his being, something occurred to me. Maybe Sully’s joy over becoming Na’vi was
the same for Jesus when he became fully human.
I may be on
shaky ground here but stay with me.
According to
Wikipedia, Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man 81 times. While in the
epistles, Jesus is only called the Son of Man four times, in the Gospels Jesus
is recorded as using it all the time. In fact, Son of Man, seemed to be his
favorite self-designation.
The question
is why? Why would Jesus choose that designation to identify himself? After all
he had every right to call himself the Son of God because that’s exactly who he
is.
Maybe you
feel the same way, but I never really understood why Jesus would call himself
the Son of Man. I mean, I know the right Sunday school answer; Jesus
called himself Son of Man because he is
both true God and true man. I don’t have a problem with that. I get that. But if
I was both true God and true man, I would choose to call myself Son of God nine
times out of ten. It just sounds better. More important. More lofty.
But maybe Jesus
referred to himself as the Son of Man so often because he was proud to be
human. He loved humanity. After all, as humans we are God’s prized creation.
Before I
close, I wanted to share a scripture with you that might illuminate what I’ve been
making clear as mud.
Matthew 26:63-66 The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
64 “You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”[a]
When asked, Jesus acknowledged truthfully that he was the Son of God. But when he spoke about the day of judgment, Jesus once again choose his favorite self-designation; Son of Man. Just in case you missed it, here it is again.
“But I say to all of you: From now on you will see
the Son
of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the
clouds of heaven.”[a]
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