Jesus Asks a Question: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

Jesus Asks a Question: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

The Grand Inquisitor. Messiah Jesus was a Master of asking questions: some were open-ended, others were very pointed; some were out of curiosity, others were challenging; some seemed rhetorical, others seemed painfully obvious; some were to reveal Himself, others were to guide the other into self-understanding; some were intentionally provocative, others were to kick-start a conversation; some questions were asked to explore a topic to deepen understanding and stretch toward the truth; some were leading questions that He designed to suggest a particular answer, and others were questions in response to questions asked of Him; some were hypotheticals to stimulate the imagination, other questions were used  by Him as stepping stones to think logically from one point to the next. Jesus used questions to dignify the listener, letting that person know that He is taking that person seriously and listening carefully. Many of His questions were acts of friendship and used to pursue a more profound intimacy with someone. Jesus asked very few yes-no questions, and since time was usually irrelevant for Him when He was with people, He rarely asked a “when” question. Several biblical scholars have studied the gospels with Christ’s questions in mind, and they have literally counted a total of 307 questions in His various conversations and teachings. It seems that a worthy spiritual exercise when considering the many questions of Jesus is that we ask ourselves… should I take His questions personally, as if He was asking us that question right now?

The Question.  “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (John 9:35).

The context for this question is Jesus’ sabbath healings, one of which was the healing of the man born blind.

“As an observant Jew, Jesus loved the Sabbath. Nowhere did He teach that Sabbath was to be broken. He encouraged the people to have biblical balance, to bypass only those rules that were the traditions of the religious folk and not of God. Jesus affirmed the keeping of the Sabbath. He desired that His people get past the traditions that had obscured the true meaning of Sabbath. Jesus wanted them to experience the blessing of rest, the remembrance of the Creation, the reflection of the covenant God had made with Israel, and the realization that Sabbath was a picture of eternity.” (Messianic Translator, Dr. David Stern).

Mercy on the Sabbath. Jesus did not hesitate to show mercy through healing on the Sabbath. In fact, He engaged in 7 Sabbath healings. Seven, God’s favorite number in the Scripture; seven to show that He desires the sick to return to Edenic wholeness; seven to show He healed in the spirit of Creation; seven to show He wanted to honor Creator Father on the Day set apart to honor Him; seven to continue Creation through human renewal and  flourishing; seven to show that doing good on the Sabbath is acceptable to the Lord of the Sabbath; seven to remind all people that mankind was made in the image of God and deserves the dignity of good health. The seven Sabbath healings are: (1.) Matthew 12:9-13 = The Man with the Withered Hand; (2.) Mark 1:23-26 – Demon possession; (3.) Mark 1:29-31 – Peter’s Mother-in-Law; (4.) Luke 13:10-13 – The Crippled Woman; (5.) Luke 14:1-6 – The Man with Dropsy; (6.) John 5:1-13 – The Lame Man at Bethesda; (7.) John 9:1-16 – The Man Born Blind.  In Mark 2:27, Jesus summed it up for the Pharisees: “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

“As Jesus walked along, He noticed a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?’ Jesus answered them, ‘It was not that this man or his parents sinned; but he was born blind in order that the workings of God should be displayed in him.’” (John 9:1-3).

Eyes Wide Open. Jesus was simply walking down the road in Jerusalem, and He spotted the blind beggar. Unlike the blind man, Jesus saw everything. Nothing escaped His notice. His eyes were open 24/7 to see those in need, and He didn’t miss a thing. The rest of humanity has fallen eyes, half-closed to others who are unfortunate or who don’t scream for attention. Jesus had fully redeemed eyes with an eternal attention span, perfect eyesight, able to observe those whom others overlook. This story begins with the simple fact of the careful observation of the Lord. But that only makes sense, doesn’t it? “He who formed the eye, shall He not see?” (Ps. 94:9). The disciples saw the man born blind, begging by the side of the road, and assumed that his blindness was a punishment from God for a sin committed by him or by his parents. It was common in that era for people to trace any disability or illness to a particular sin that was committed. Jesus did say this man’s blindness will be redeemed, that it will be used to glorify God and reveal His glory. This entire story reveals Jesus as the incarnation of God’s words at creation, “Let there be light!” (Gen. 1:3). He brings the light of eyesight to a blind man who has never seen light. And He brings the light of spiritual understanding to those who witnessed this miracle with eyes wide open, and to those who read about this miracle centuries later.

“As long as I am in the world, I am the world’s light!’ When Jesus had said this to the disciples, He spat on the ground and made mud with His saliva, and He spread it as ointment on the man’s eyes. Jesus said to the man, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,’ which means ‘Sent Forth.’ So the man went and did so, he washed and he came back able to see.” (John 9:5-7).

Let There Be Light! Immediately after declaring Himself to the world’s light, Jesus proceeded to bring light to this man’s world. He used creation materials, water and dust, to bring a new creation to this man, the light of faith as well as light to the eyes. Jesus spit on the ground, mixed it together with the dust, and made an ointment of mud. He then rubbed the mud on the eyes of the man.  This wasn’t as distasteful as it might appear now, since saliva was commonly accepted in biblical times to have some medicinal value. After the mud was applied to the blind man’s eyes, Jesus told the man to go and wash off the mud in the pool of Siloam. Once again the waters of creation, in this case the waters of recreation, comes to mind.

Pool of Siloam.  At the time of Jesus, the Siloam Pool was a beautiful place covered in attractive paving stones and was used as a ritual bath for thousands of pilgrims who stopped there before continuing on Pilgrim’s Road through the City of David to the Temple. It ws also used in the very important Water-Libation ceremony at the Feast of Tabernacles. The pool is mentioned in various Old Testament books, including Nehemiah 3:15, and was likely in use already in Canaanite times The pool was fed by a tunnel built by King Hezekiah that channeled water from the Gihon Spring. In 2004, the stepped remains of the ancient pool were rediscovered during infrastructure work near old Jerusalem. The Pool of Siloam remains a sacred site for Christians and a significant location for the study of biblical archaeology.

“When the neighbors and those who used to know him by sight as a beggar saw him, they said, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some said, ‘It is he!’ Others said, ‘No, but he looks very much like him.’ But the healed man said to them, ‘Yes, I am the man!’ So they said to him, ‘How were your eyes opened?” (John 9:8-10).

Bewildered. The people witnessing this healing were shocked and then very skeptical. They couldn’t believe what they just saw. Isn’t this the blind beggar we see every day? There was some controversy whether this man was actually the same beggar they had seen all these years. Finally, the healed man put an end to that controversy by saying, “Yes, it’s me!” Jesus slipped away when the blind man went to the pool of Siloam. No one seemed to know where Jesus went. The bewildered witnesses decided to bring the healed man to the Pharisees for a formal investigation in order to certify the healing. Some of the Pharisees couldn’t accept that this healer could be from God, since He broke Temple law by healing on the Sabbath, He didn’t rightly keep the Sabbath. This so-called healer is obviously a sinner, they thought, so they didn’t believe the healing actually occurred.  After more intense questioning of the healed man by the Pharisees, the exasperated man told them that there may be some doubt about who the healer is, he does know one indisputable fact… “Though I was blind, now I see!” And he followed that up with… ‘Obviously, if this was a mere sinner who healed me, He wouldn’t have been able to do this!’ The Pharisees responded by casting this man out of the synagogue.

“The Pharisees told the man, ‘You were wholly born to sin – from head to foot – and do you presume to teach us?’ So they cast him out, they threw him clear outside the synagogue. Jesus heard that they had put him out, and meeting up with him asked the healed man, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (John 9:34-35).

Son of Man. Jesus gave Himself the title Son of Man throughout His ministry as recorded in the gospels, more than seventy times. Son of Man was His favorite way of describing Himself, even though He never once heard that term applied to Him by His disciples. Practically all biblical scholars believe that Jesus, at least in part, took that title from a well-known vision of Daniel’s and turned it into a title for Himself. “I kept watching the night visions, when I saw, coming with the clouds of heaven, One like a Son of Man. He approached the Ancient One, the Ancient of Days, and was led into His presence. To Him was given rulership, glory and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. His authority is an eternal authority that will not pass away; and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13-14). There is much controversy, though, about what exactly this title Son of Man means.

Human. There were times in the gospels in which Jesus called Himself Son of Man in reference to His humanity. Jesus used the title in order to remind everyone of His humble condition as a flesh and blood, generic human being, in complete solidarity with all of humanity. Jesus so closely identifies Himself with mankind, with humanity’s deepest needs and vulnerabilities, that He chose Son of Man as a part of His identity. Jesus earnestly wants to confirm the dignity of being human, made in God’s image. Matthew 8:20 probably falls in line with that thought, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 

Divine. But then again, when Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, He was most likely declaring Himself to be the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Son of Man vision in Daniel 7. Many scholars claim that during Jesus’ time the Son of Man was the “highest term used in Jewish thought for the Messiah, the most exalted view of the coming Redeemer.” (Brad Young, Jesus, the Jewish Theologian). So when Jesus used that title, it was commonly understood by those who heard it that He certainly intended to suggest Messiah.

A Divine Human. Isn’t it fascinating that Daniel’s vision reveals the “One like the Son of Man” to be in human form, but was also divine, given the sovereignty over all the earth. This majestic person in the vision is “like” the Son of Man, but then again it is obvious here that He is much more than that. When Jesus claims to be the Son of Man, He is referring to both His humanity and His divinity. Jesus claimed to be both aspects of the prophesied Son of Man in Daniel, completely human and completely divine. He claimed to be the glorious fulfillment of Daniel 7, coming in the clouds of heaven to approach God in His eternal presence. Yes, He was born of a human being, mother Mary. And yes, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, God Himself. He was a Person, yet He received from God the kingdom of the earth. The Messiah, both human and divine. Jesus the Messiah. He wasn’t merely “like the Son of man,” He was as He repeatedly said during His ministry, “the” Son of Man.

“The healed man answered Jesus, ‘Who is he, sir? Tell me, that I may believe in Him and trust him with my life!” Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen Him; in fact He is talking to you right now.’ The man called out, ‘Lord, I believe (I trust in you, I rely on you, I cleave to you)! And the man worshipped Jesus.” (John 9:36-38).  

The blind man’s faith progressed before our very eyes as we read this story. He started out not knowing the first thing about Jesus. He didn’t even know who this man was who was applying mud to his eyes and instructing him to go wash it off. He was happy to oblige the man who anointed his eyes, probably figuring that it wouldn’t hurt to give this a try. Why not? Finally, after meeting up with Jesus again outside the synagogue, the healed man is convinced. “Lord, I believe!” And the man immediately bowed down and worshipped Jesus as the Son of God.