God and you

Day 53

'When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." '

Matthew 16:13-19

Who is the son of man? Well, now we all know that the son of man is Jesus. Jesus is the guy who was predicted to come hundreds of years before he did. Isn't that amazing? God told people that Jesus was coming before his great-grandparents had even been born! You can look back through the old testament and see how everything was pointing to Jesus. It's like reading/watched through all the Harry Potters (skip to the bold print if you don't want spoilers) once you've read/watched the Deathly Hallows and seeing how everything points towards Harry having to 'die' to kill Voldemort. Jesus is the Son of Man. It had been predicted for centuries.

But what does the 'Son of Man' actually mean? People call Jesus the 'son of man' and the 'son of God', two kind of different things. But Jesus honestly is the son of both! He was born of Mary, a human, but this was not because she had sex with Joseph. It was because God planted Jesus in Mary's womb, so God is Jesus' father. Don't get confused - God didn't sleep with Mary, he just made Jesus in her womb. So Jesus is the son of Man and of God. This shows that Jesus is both Holy and human. He is both God and man - pretty cool, huh?

But why does Jesus prefer to refer to himself as the Son of Man, rather than God? In the NASB bible, Jesus calls himself the Son of Man precisely 83 times, but never calls himself the Son of God! There are many contradictory reasons for this, but this is what I think God thinks (that looks really weird put on paper...). Jesus is definitely more than just a man - he is the living image of God! But when he says that he is the Son of Man, it kinda shows that he is not as far away from us as you think. God used to be someone that only high up priests and prophets could communicate with. But when Jesus came, that all changed. Now, we can communicate with God freely and whenever we want, because Jesus came down to 'mend the telephone lines', in other words, Jesus made it possible for anyone to chat with God. The idea that Jesus is the Son of Man shows us that we can be close to God, even though we are human and he is a holy being.

Prayer

Dear Lord,

Thank you Jesus that you are the Son of Man. Thank you that we can be close to you and communicate with you freely. Thank you that you came to Earth to live amongst us, and that you love us more than anything else. Please help me to feel close to you always, and always have time to talk with you, even if it is just to chat about the history exam next week. I love you Jesus.

Amen