Dr. E. Harold Henderson was for 25 years, from 1972-1997, the principal English language speaker on LifeWord Broadcast, an international radio outreach of the Baptist Missionary Association of America. Dr. Henderson was the writer of the Adult Sunday School Quarterly (Baptist Publishing House, Little Rock, AR) for 39 & ½ years. He authored four books and numerous religious periodicals.

© LifeWord Broadcast Ministries
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Reprinted by Permission

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BACKGROUND AND BIRTH

The third portrait of Jesus Christ to be found in Holy Scripture is in The Gospel According to Luke. There the emphasis is on the manhood of Jesus. He is presented as the Son of Man.

The key verse of The Gospel According to Luke is 19:10, "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." It pictures His humanity as "the Son of man." It infers His incarnation: "The Son of man is come." It describes His mission: "To seek and to save." It identifies the object of His love and grace: "The lost."

We are not surprised to find Luke placing emphasis on Jesus as the Son of man. Luke was a physician. He was concerned about the human aspect of Jesus: His birth, growth, physical qualities, power over disease, etc. More than any other Gospel writer, Luke looks at the human aspect of Jesus’ nature while recognizing His deity at the same time.

Luke placed emphasis on Jesus as the Son of man for another reason: Luke was a Greek. The Greek culture emphasized the beauty of the human body. That is why most of the ancient Greek statues were nude. Clothing hid the symmetry of the body, which was a thing of beauty to them. So Luke presents the human Jesus from a spiritual perspective, not in worship of the physical body but of the ministry He performed while here in a physical body.

Luke is the only Gospel writer who gives information concerning the conception and birth of Jesus. Matthew reports that the angel announced the fact of the miraculous conception to Joseph, but Luke tells how it was explained to Mary. As a physician, he was interested and investigated (probably by a personal interview with Mary). Even though he was a physician, he believed the testimony he heard.

The term "Son of man" appropriately describes Luke’s view of Jesus. That expression occurs 88 times in the New Testament, 24 times in the Gospel According to Luke. It was Jesus’ favorite term to identify Himself. (He used that title more than all other titles combined.) It is a term which needs to be explained.   "Son of man" occurs first in Psalm 8:4, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" It occurs last in Hebrews 2:5-9 where Psalm 8:4 is quoted. Between those two references it describes Jesus.

"Son of man" means more than that Jesus was human, born to a human mother. It is a prophetic term. Daniel wrote, "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days. . . And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed" (Daniel 7:13, 14). That identified the Son of man as the Messiah of God. When Jesus came calling Himself the Son of man, many understood the Messianic implication of that title and resented His using that term to describe Himself. Luke’s use of the term is more than a testimony to Jesus’ humanity. It identified Him as the Christ of God.

Supernatural conception, natural birth

Luke records that the birth of Jesus was normal, the same as the birth of any other child. He writes of it simply, "The days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son," (Luke 2:6, 7). There was nothing different or unusual about the birth of Jesus. The miracle was in the conception in Mary’s womb. Luke goes into great detail to explain that (Luke 1:26.38).

When the angel announced to Mary that she would bear the Christ child, she asked, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" The angel explained, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Mary conceived by a creative miracle of God. There was no coitus of any kind, natural or supernatural. When God was ready to come into the world in a human body, He did it by a creative miracle which resulted in Mary’s pregnancy. It is recorded in such detail that the full humanity of Jesus might be established.

Only Luke records the significant statement concerning the Child, "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man," (Luke 2:52). His growth from infancy to adulthood took the same time and followed the same pattern of any other person. He was truly human.

Human mother, Heavenly Father

Luke is careful to set out the genealogy of Jesus. But the genealogy in Luke 3 is different from the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1. The explanation is simple. Matthew traced Jesus’ legal genealogy through Joseph (the foster father of Jesus) back to David to show Jesus’ right to reign on the throne of David. Luke traced the genealogy of Jesus through Mary back to Adam to show Jesus was the ideal man, descended from the first and only sinless man in previous history.

Though Luke’s record of the genealogy of Jesus shows His humanity, it is careful to point out that Joseph was not Jesus’ natural father. He wrote, "Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, which was the son of Matthat". back through 77 generations to Adam (Luke 3:23, 24). He did not say Jesus was the son of Joseph. Jesus "was supposed" (thought by people) to be the son of Joseph, but He was not in fact. He was the son of a woman (Mary) but not the son of a man (Joseph). He was the son of a woman and by creative miracle the Son of God.

The infant Jesus was treated as any other Jewish boy by His parents. He was circumcised at the age of eight days, according to the Jewish law (Leviticus 12:3). The mother was considered "unclean" for forty days following the birth of her son and she was not to enter the sanctuary of the Lord during that time. At the end of that period she was to come and offer a sacrifice for cleansing before the Lord (Leviticus 12:1-8). That is exactly the schedule followed by Joseph and Mary after the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:21-24). Mary and Joseph knew Jesus was an exceptional child because of the miracle of His birth. But they knew He was a child born to Mary, and they dealt with Him as with other children later born to them by natural union.

Let us stand in awe before Jesus. He is both Son of man and Son of God. He joins in His nature both full humanity and full deity. Well may we obey the injunction of the hymn, "0 come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord."

ENABLING AND MINISTRY

The miracle of Mary’s conception and bearing a child without the agency of a human father is clearly attested in the Gospel According to Luke. The miracle, you remember, was in the conception. The birth of Jesus was as the normal birth of any infant.

The first thirty years of Jesus’ life is shrouded in silence, so far as the records extant today are concerned. We see Him only one time in those thirty years. At the age of twelve Jesus was brought from Nazareth to Jerusalem (probably for the bar-mitzvah ceremony, recognizing Him as a man in Israel). His parents started back to Nazareth, unwittingly leaving Jesus behind. Three days later they found Him in the temple, listening to the teachers of the law and asking them questions. All who were present were impressed with the knowledge and insight He manifested at that early age (Luke 2:41.42).

Do not get the wrong impression of that event. Artists have pictured the boy Jesus standing and lecturing the doctors of the law, instructing them in things of God. The Bible does not say that. It reports that He listened to their teaching and asked them questions a common method of teaching by the rabbis in those days. Luke records the account to show the young Jesus’ sensitivity and understanding of spiritual things. But Luke carefully guards the fact that Jesus was still a lad who was learning. The account of that event dosed with the words, "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52).  Jesus drops from the records of history once more. Eighteen years later He comes as a grown man at the age of thirty to receive baptism at the hands of John the Baptist.

Anointed by the Spirit

John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance, expressing a readiness to receive God’s long-promised Messiah. Many people responded, some with nationalistic fervor and others with a deep spiritual experience of repentance.

John hesitated to baptize Jesus. "I have need for you to baptize me," he said, "rather than for me to baptize you." Jesus said, "Go ahead and baptize me, John. It is right for us to do all that God requires" (Matthew 3:13-15). John saw in Jesus a man more holy than himself; that was the reason for his hesitation. But when he had baptized Jesus, John received a revelation that convinced him of the nature of this man who was his cousin: "Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee l am well pleased" (Luke 3:21, 22).

What happened in that moment? Luke explained it when he wrote Acts 10:38, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." The divine anointing with the Holy Spirit was at the baptism of Jesus in water when "the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him."

The Holy Spirit was active in the ministry of Jesus when He came upon the virgin Mary and created a fertilized egg in her womb (Luke 1:35). That is the only mention in the Bible of the activity of the Holy Spirit in relation to Jesus until the Holy Spirit descended and dwelt upon Him at His baptism in water by the hands of John the Baptist (Matthew 3:16; Luke 3:22). From that time forth, everything Jesus said and did was under the direction and empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Active in the Spirit

Luke 4:1 reports that after His baptism by John the Baptist and anointing by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was "full of the Holy Ghost." It is reported that after His temptation in the wilderness for forty days, "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee"(Luke 4:14). One of His first Sabbath days back home after His baptism and anointing was at worship in His home synagogue in Nazareth. He was selected to read the scripture passage designated for the synagogue worship that day. In the scroll of the writings of the prophet Isaiah He turned deliberately to chapter 61 and read, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19). He concluded the scripture reading and sat down, as their custom was, to discuss the passage. He opened His commentary by saying, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21). All who were in the synagogue were amazed at the words of grace which He spoke in their hearing. "And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power" (Luke 4:32).

What was the explanation? They said one to another, "Is not this Joseph’s son?" (Luke 4:22). They knew His foster father (Joseph) and His mother (Mary). They knew His brothers (James, Joses, Simon and Judas) and His sisters (who are not named in Matthew 13:55, 56). They could not understand whence came His wisdom, His insight into the Word of God and His power in speaking of the things of God.

We know the explanation: "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power" (Acts 10:38). We must reach outside the gospel of Luke to see the full implication of that truth. Philippians 2:7 reports that when the Second Person or Holy Trinity came in human flesh as Jesus of Nazareth, He voluntarily laid aside all His prerogatives of deity (though retaining His divine nature). He became as limited and helpless as any human infant. He grew in wisdom, stature, spiritual insight and social graces as another child would grow (Luke 2:52). Nothing was supernatural in His life until He was anointed by the Holy Spirit. He testified, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do - - - I can of mine own self do nothing" (John 5:19, 30). Jesus’ ministry on earth was empowered by God the Father through the anointing of God the Holy Spirit. Apart from that anointing and empowering, Jesus said He was as powerless as you and I are apart from God. Amazing, isn’t it?

Do you begin to appreciate how Luke presents Jesus as the Son of man? We did not see such a picture of Him, in Matthew (who presented Him as a King), or in Mark (who presented Him as the Servant of the Lord). But Luke’s picture clarifies more distinctly the manifold virtues of Him whom we call Jesus, trust as our Savior and serve as our Lord.

PRAYING AND TEACHING

The Gospel According to Luke records more about the prayer life of Jesus than either of the other Gospel writers. That accords perfectly with Luke’s portrait of Jesus as the Son of man.

Men need the help of God the Father. The way to get God’s help is through prayer. In ancient times Israel had a signal they would blow on the trumpet if they were in battle and were being beaten before their enemies. The signal would bring the help of God to them (Numbers 10:9). Just so, prayer is the way we "blow an alarm with the trumpets" and are "remembered before the Lord." As incarnate in human flesh, the Son of man needed the help of God the Father.

Jesus’ prayer life

Jesus practiced praying. He taught His disciples to pray. He left principles to guide us in prayer life. The other Gospel writers give insights on prayer, but Luke is most complete. What the Son of man experienced in prayer, we sons or men should experience. If the Son of man needed to pray, we sons of men need so much more to pray. It is evident that Jesus believed in prayer, taught others how to pray, and prayed much Himself.
Mark records in his Gospel that Jesus prayed early in the morning (Mark 1:35) and late in the evening (Mark 6:46). Luke adds that Jesus sometimes spent an entire night in prayer (Luke 6:12). That Jesus was a man of prayer no one can deny.

Luke tells us that Jesus was praying at His baptism when the Holy Spirit descended and lighted upon Him. Luke 3:21, 22 reads, "Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee J am well pleased." Do you suppose the praying of Jesus had any thing to do with the anointing by the Spirit or the approval of God?

When did Jesus learn to pray? He must have learned to pray by the instruction and example of Joseph and Mary. Every Jewish boy was taught to pray while still a child. Jesus must have been taught to do so. In the days of His popularity Jesus was pressed upon by multitudes. For a period of more than a year (perhaps toward two years), crowds gathered every place He went. Luke 5:15,16 reads, "Great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And he withdrew Himself into the wilderness, and prayed." It seemed He needed the time of prayer to refresh and strengthen Himself for the ministry demanded of Him. As He said to the apostles, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, arid rest a whiles for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat" (Mark 6:31).
On at least one occasion, Jesus spent all night in prayer to God. The next morning He called His disciples to Himself. Of them He chose twelve whom He designated as "apostles" (Luke 6:12-16). We are interested in the men whom He chose, but observe the all-night prayer before He made the choices known.

The disciples of Jesus were very impressed with His prayer life. When He had concluded one of His private periods of prayer, His disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). How they wanted a ministry of prayer-communion with the Father like Jesus had. He responded to their request with an extended teaching on prayer.

Did you remember that Jesus was praying when He was transfigured? That miracle occurred when Jesus was on a mountain with James, Peter, and John. Luke reported that they "went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering" (Luke 9:28, 29). He did not go up into the mountain to be transfigured; He went to pray. As He prayed, the transfiguration occurred, and the glory of God shined out through Him. What does that say to you about the nature of Jesus’ prayers?

Jesus’ prayers included asking on behalf of others. To the Apostle Peter, Jesus said, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:31, 32). But Jesus’ intercession included many more than His immediate disciples. He prayed for those who crucified Him, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). And He even prayed for you and me (John 17:20).

Jesus’ prayer lessons

The teaching of Jesus on prayer is remarkable in itself. He gave two parables on prayer recorded by Luke. The parable of the unexpected guest, in which the host goes to a friend at midnight and asks for three loaves of bread, teaches the place of persistence in praying (Luke 11:5). The parable of the unjust judge, who was influenced by the insistence of a widow to settle her estate for her, teaches the reward of persistence in praying (Luke 18:3-5). Then Jesus gave us the Model Prayer (the Lord’s prayer), which is surprisingly complete, brief, simple, yet sacred (Luke 11:24). You will hardly find a more profitable subject to study than the prayer life of Jesus.

What conclusions can we draw from Luke’s record of Jesus’ praying? (1) Jesus often prayed at times of crisis. (2) Jesus commonly prayed when decisions were to be made. (3) Jesus always found prayer a time of refreshing and strengthening from the Father. (4) Jesus gave no set rules for effective praying. (5) Jesus looked upon prayer as a very personal experience, an exchange with God. (6) Jesus urged us to pray and to be insistent and continuous in our praying.

Why did Jesus pray so much? Did He pray because he had to or because He wanted to? The Bible does not say. On the one hand, He did not have to pray because He was very God of very God in whom all the fullness of deity dwelt (Colossians 2:9). On the other hand, He had emptied Himself when He came in human flesh (Philippians 2:6-8) and could do nothing without the Father’s empowering by the Spirit (John 5:19, 30).
Do you pray because you want to or because you have to? If you pray only because you must, not just because you may, prayer will be a burden, and you will not pray as you ought. Look on prayer as Jesus did: a time to meet God and commune with Him. That way, prayer becomes a privilege, and devotion becomes a delight.

Let us follow the example of the prayer life of Jesus. If we do, God may say to us as He said to Zechariah by the angel, "Fear not - - - for thy prayer is heard" (Luke 1:13). Let our prayer to God include this petition: "Lord, teach us to pray."

HEALING AND HELPING

Jesus’ experience while living as a Man among men can be a great encouragement to us. The Bible says, "In that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18). "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). That means that since Jesus has experienced the trials we have in this world, He is available to minister in love to help us when we are under any trial. That is why Luke presents Jesus as one who sympathized with the sick and suffering, the oppressed and the downtrodden. Luke was a physician by profession. He was concerned about the sufferings of mankind. Therefore he pictures Jesus as busy healing and helping, showing Himself to be truly the Son of Man.

Explanation of Jesus’ companion

Here is how Luke describes Jesus’ explanation of the ministry He would perform on earth. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18,19).
Look at the healing and helping Jesus included in His ministry. The poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the blind and the bruised are to receive His help. He would help them by announcing good news to them, by healing their bruised emotions, by announcing deliverance, by giving them sight and setting them free. What a blessed ministry of helping and healing!  I think that is just the ministry the Son of Man would undertake. Luke carefully sets out that ministry of Jesus because he is presenting Jesus as the Son of man. Isn’t that wonderfully like our Lord?

Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus said a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by thieves who robbed him, beat him and left him to die. A priest passed by and rendered no help to the injured man. A Levite passed by and did not help him. Then a Samaritan, a man rejected and condemned by the polite society of the day, came to the man. He bound up his wounds, took him to an inn and paid the expenses incurred until the stricken man was well again. Jesus is like that good Samaritan. He was rejected by many of His day but went out of His way and at great cost took us up and effected healing in us. He said we are to do the same to others we find in need.

That sounds like the Son of man, to help one who is suffering and rejected by other men. His heart goes out in sympathy, and His hand is extended to help each one who is in need.

Therefore, you hear of His sympathy to a poor grieving mother whose only son was being taken out for burial. He stopped the funeral procession, restored the young man to life, delivered him to his mother and relieved her distress (Luke 7:11-17). He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows in very truth.

Examples of Jesus’ compassion

Watch Him as there comes to Him a woman whose body has been bowed together for 18 years so that it was impossible for her to stand upright. Jesus healed her. It was the Sabbath day and some objected to His healing the woman on the Sabbath. Our Lord pointed out that an animal which had fallen in a ditch would be rescued on the Sabbath day, then added, "Ought not this woman - - - whom Satan hath bound lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" (Luke 13:16). Then the complainers were ashamed, for they saw the compassion of our Lord.

I looked at the healing miracles of our Lord. There are more than 20 recorded in the Four Gospels. Six times the blind were given sight. Two times the lepers were healed. Three times demons were cast out of a poor possessed person. Two times a person who was mute and deaf was given speech and hearing. One time a paralyzed man was released. Many other times the specific nature of the illness was not described. But Jesus healed them all.

One of the most remarkable occasions of healing came in the Garden of Gethsemane. Among those who came to the garden to arrest Jesus was a man named Malchus. He was a servant of the high priest and was acting under orders. Simon Peter used his sword to try to kill the man. Instead, he cut off Malchus’ ear. Jesus immediately reached out His hand and healed the ear of the injured man. Then He submitted to arrest and went away to be crucified. Only one who bore the sorrows and sufferings of mankind upon His heart would have thought to relieve the misery of another in such an hour. Behold the sympathy of the Son of man. I remember Luke’s record of the occasion when Jesus was coming into Jerusalem from Bethany.

Traveling west, Jesus would ascend the east side of the Mount of Olives. Coming to the summit, suddenly the panoramic view of the city of Jerusalem would lie before and below Him. At that point Jesus paused and wept. He said, "Thou knewest not the time of thy visitation" (Luke 10:4144). He wept in sorrow over the fate awaiting the very people who had rejected Him and who would soon secure His death by crucifixion. What compassion!

Jesus went to pray in Gethsemane on the night of His betrayal before His crucifixion the next day . He bore such a great burden that He sorrowed almost to death there. He asked the disciples to watch and pray with Him, then withdrew a little way from them where He prayed alone. He returned to them to find them sleeping. Three times it was the same. So great was His burden and so limited His strength of body that an angel came from heaven to strengthen Him. But not a word of rebuke came from the lips of our Lord. He loved too much to condemn men for their human weakness. He was the Son of man who knew by experience what it is like to be human. "He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:44).

Praise God that Jesus is the Son of man. He heals our hurts. He helps our helplessness and hopelessness. He feels our infirmities. He gives power to those who are faint, and to the weak He increases strength. Thank God for showing us our Savior as the sympathetic Son of man as well as the sovereign Son of God.

SUFFERING AND SURVIVING

As a physician trained and committed to healing the sick and relieving the suffering, Luke wrote in particular detail about the sufferings of Jesus. That is a little surprising on second thought. God the Father spoke from heaven on two different occasions, claiming Jesus as "my beloved Son, in thee l am well pleased" (Luke 3:22; 9:35). Think about it: God’s only begotten Son, second person of Holy Trinity and eternal deity, came in a human body and suffered in the flesh as we do. Luke records that in great detail because his medical training directed his interests there, and because the Holy Spirit led him to present Jesus as the Son of man. Let us look at the Son of man suffering and surviving. Jesus suffered in the flesh as men and women have suffered through the generations of history.

Jesus suffering

Jesus experienced physical suffering. His body of flesh was the same as yours and mine. He became hungry and thirsty. He grew tired. His body had to have time for sleep and rest in order to be refreshed. And when He was beaten by the soldiers, just before He was crucified, it hurt the same as it would hurt you or me. The Bible speaks of His being "stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted" (Isaiah 53:4). The Bible says, "He himself hath suffered" (Hebrews 2:18). His pain was as our pain. His death was as our death. He experienced the same hurts as we experience.

Consider the beating the soldiers gave to Jesus. It was not unusual for the victim to die under the lash, so severe was the punishment meted out to the body. He must have lost much blood. Some of the muscles in His back must have been severed, or at least bruised so that they lost their strength. It is no wonder another was compelled to bear His cross on the way to Calvary. His body could take only so much, and it was so abused that the prophet Isaiah said He hardly looked like a man (Isaiah 52:14). His physical sufferings were endured because He was and is the Son of man.

Jesus experienced psychological suffering. He suffered the broken spirit of rejection. He endured the disappointment of rejection. He experienced such sorrow that He wept. He experienced such inner burden that He groaned in His spirit. He had such pent up frustration on one occasion that He cried out. And there was a time in the garden of Gethsemane that His mental/physical load was so great that His very sweat became as it were drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:44). It was not mere worry and frustration but a deep psychological suffering He endured as the Son of man.

Jesus endured spiritual suffering . He was a perfectly innocent man. Those who opposed Him had no word to say when He challenged them: "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" (John 8:46). They had nothing to say because He was without sin, even though He was tempted in all points as we are (Hebrews 4:15). Yet, He who never sinned bore in His own body the sins of the whole human race when He went to the cross (I Peter 2:24). The unjust One suffered for the guilty ones as if He were personally guilty of the sins He bore (I Peter 3:18). No wonder He prayed, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). What a spiritual weight He bore as He carried our sins.

The sufferings of Jesus were physical, psychological, and spiritual. How could the Son of God, the King of Israel, experience those things? He could experience them because He was also the Son of man. As man among men, Jesus took our human station and bore our human malady even to death on the cross. The death of Jesus was real. He could suffer and die as any other person. And die He did as He hung on a cross just outside of the city of Jerusalem.

Luke records the crucifixion of Jesus and His subsequent death in chapter 23 of the Gospel According to Luke. He reports how Calvary was the place of crucifixion, two thieves were the associates in crucifixion, and mockery were the words around the crucified. A superscription written in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew was placed over Jesus’ head. It read, "This is the King of the Jews." Luke tells how one of the criminals crucified at the same time turned to Jesus in repentance and faith, receiving the forgiveness of our Lord and assurance of meeting Him in paradise. Luke shows the compassion of Jesus by recording His prayer, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). At last the Son of man ended His sufferings and cried out in a loud voice, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 22:46). And He died.

Jesus surviving

His death was certified by a spear being thrust into His side. Then His body was taken down and placed in a borrowed tomb, for He did not have a place for burial. The Sabbath passed. The first day of the week dawned.  The burial of Jesus’ body had been so hasty, due to the approach of the Sabbath day, that the spices had not been placed about His body as was the custom. So on the first day of the week there came certain women who had been His disciples. They intended to anoint His body further and complete the burial details.

But the tomb of Jesus was open! His body was not there! Angels announced that He was living and should not be sought in the place of the dead! An earthquake from the Lord had opened the tomb to let the disciples in that they might see Jesus was no longer there. Praise the Lord!  For forty days afterward, Jesus appeared to His disciples in different places and in differing ways . He met with them many times to convince them beyond the shadow of a doubt that He was truly risen from death. How their hearts were filled with wonder and praise as they became convinced and confessed him as "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28).

The account did not end with Jesus’ death. It did not end with His resurrection It did not end with His ascension back to the Father in heaven. Luke records that Jesus left us an order "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations - - - And ye are witnesses of these things" (Luke 24:47, 48). That is what we are doing in these words.

All through this study of the portrait of Christ in the Gospel According to Luke, I have referred to Jesus as "the Son of man." I used a capital "S" for "Son" and a lower case "m" for "man." But now that the portrait is complete and we see the "Son of man" in its prophetic significance as Daniel spoke of Him, we must change our spelling. Let us put it in solid capitals: "JESUS OF NAZARETH IS THE SON OF MAN." Come, let us adore Him!

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