What was it like the first time they heard Him use the term in reference to Himself? I know these 12 guys weren’t exactly scholars . . . but every Jewish boy was grounded in the basics . . . and they would know about the hope of Israel. So when Jesus first identified Himself with those three words, it must have been a bit of an adrenalin rush. I’m thinking that the first time they heard Jesus claim the title as His own the disciples may have had a Daniel flashback . . .

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came One like a Son of Man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.    (Daniel 7:13-14 ESV)

Yes! When Jesus first declared Himself to be Son of Man (Mark 2:10) . . . with authority to forgive sins . . . as evidenced by the lame man walking . . . the hearts of the disciples must have almost burst out of their chests. Quick breathing . . . palms sweaty . . . eyes fixed on this Jesus of Nazareth . . . the One who took the title, Son of Man.

And I wonder if the anticipation built as they hung out with Him more. With every additional miracle as evidence . . . with every additional teaching as a reminder that He taught as the One who wrote the book . . . what was going through their heads? The next time Mark records Jesus identifying Himself as the Son of Man was when He stood up to the Pharisees concerning their pious judgment on the disciples plucking grain to eat on the Sabbath . . . “And He said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.'” (Mark 2:28).

Bam! Right on! Preach it! The Son of Man has supremacy over every day of the week . . . He is Master over all! You gotta think that when Jesus used the title, “Son of Man”, that His followers’ jazz factor went off the charts.

But then you get to Mark 8 . . . the third time Mark records Jesus taking the title . . . and I wonder what it was like for His followers to hear this for the first time . . .

And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.    (Mark 8:31 ESV)

What!?!? Say again! The Son of Man . . . the One given dominion and glory . . . He, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him . . . the King of an everlasting kingdom that won’t pass away . . . He would suffer? . . . He would be rejected? . . . He would be killed? I don’t think they even heard the part about rising again that first time Jesus used “Son of Man” and “killed” in the same sentence. Eternal Sovereigns, those of majestic dominion and glory, don’t get killed . . . do they?

I’m sitting back and thinking of how incredible it is that the Son of Man would die. And my heart is stirred afresh by the overflowing love of God as evidenced in the depths of humiliation undertaken by His Son . . .

. . . who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.    
(Philippians 2:6-8 ESV)

O that the atoning work of Christ might not become so common place that I lose the wonder of the Son of Man dying for a lost world. That my heart would always be moved at every remembrance of the Sovereign becoming the sacrifice . . . of the Shepherd giving Himself for the sheep . . . of the King purchasing His subjects out of the marketplace of sin through His own shed blood.

The Son of Man must die . . . what was it like for the disciples to hear Jesus speak those words that first time? I wonder . . . and I am in wonder.

O’ what a Savior!