This post will end our Names of God Series for the summer… The Lord willing it will continue in the fall. There is still so much to learn about our Triune God from His names. The name that we will look at today is Jesus’ favorite name for Himself… Huios Anthropos
Jesus said to him,
“The foxes have holes
and the birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Matthew 8:20
Huios Anthropos is Son of Man in the Greek. We have already studied Huios in our Names of God study, so lets look at Anthropos. Anthropos is a human being, whether male or female, generically, to include all human individuals.
This name or title of Jesus appears in the New Testament 89 times. Here’s the kicker, 85 of those 89 are found in the Gospels and they are Jesus referring to Himself. This is why I say it is Jesus’ favorite name for Himself. The question I want us to ask and attempt to answer today is why. Why this name?
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi,
He was asking His disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
Matthew 16:13
Well let’s go to the Word of God and dig in. Let’s look at some of these 89 references to see what we learn about the Huios Anthropos.
But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.”
Matthew 9:6
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For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
Matthew 11:18-19
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And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,
Matthew 13:37
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just as the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give a ransom for many Matthew 20:28
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For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Luke 19:10
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For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.
John 5:26-27
From these reference we learn that Jesus, the Son of Man, has authority to forgive sins. We learn that He came eating and drinking and without any false pretense of superiority over any other man. He came sowing a good seed. He came to serve, not to be served. He came to seek and save what was lost. He has life within Himself and He also has authority to execute judgment.
Let me pause for a moment and give you a “red flag” measurement. If any man claims to be a leader, especially claims to be a leader in religious things, if any man professes to be of Christ, yet expects others to serve him and not he them… this man is not of or from God. You can know that for sure. Christ came to serve. To give His life for others. Any who claim to come in His name, but expect to be served is not of Him.
Back to our references… we see that the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost… even those who were absolutely clueless that they were lost until they met Him.
Going back to our video, let’s think about Tarzan. Tarzan lived with the apes… and he was perfectly content there. He was not seeking to get out. He was perfectly happy swinging in the trees. He saw nothing wrong with the way things were going in his life.
Then one day something happened. One day someone enters his world from outside his world and for the first time he sees who he was created to be…
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;
Genesis 1:26-29
Jesus, the Huios Anthropos, came and entered our world. He came to show us who God created us to be. He came to save us from death. He came to open our eyes and to teach us who we are and who we are supposed to be.
Jesus entered our world. He did not come as a tyrant. He did not come as a condescending dictator. He came as one of us… meeting us where we were… eating and drinking with us. Slowly teaching us by first building a relationship with us.
He came to show us that we not to be worshiping the things of this world… we were supposed to be ruling over them. We were created to have dominion on this earth, not worship it… or those who lived on it.
He also showed us the foolishness in our man-made religious systems… and how we so easily had taken even the law and gifts of God and twisted them and made them objects of idolatry.
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Matthew 12:1-8
We had even forgotten that God had said “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;(Genesis 1:29)
Jesus came as the Son of Man to open our eyes… that we might see. Really see.
When we begin to watch and learn about this Son of Man we cannot deny that He is different… we cannot deny that we do not measure up… we cannot deny His beauty, His mercy, His love, His power, His majesty, His might and His glory.
When we look at our selves in the presence of this Huios Anthropos we have to stop and examine and evaluate where we are in our present situation… and is it really where and who we are supposed to be.
In His presence the blind see… or the seeing become blind… so that they don’t have to see.
The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out. Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him.
John 9:30-38
Huios Anthropos, the Son of Man.
Precious one, who do you say that He is?
Do you believe in the Son of Man?