THE HUMAN PURPOSE
Matthew 16:13-16
“Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” They said, “Some say John the Baptizer, some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Most of the time theologians and readers are focusing on Peter’s answer, as it is a profession of faith, confessing is Jesus the Christ, aka the Messiah, which is a title not a name. However, it must be also important, that Jesus himself was using a title, which is the Son of Man. In the older parts of the Old Testament the son of man term “ben Adam” eventually and simply means human being, technically the sons of the soil or the ground. This expression is used more than 100 times in the first five books in the Hebrew Scriptures, and it is stated that the first human beings were created directly by God, after God’s own image. The power of life or the wind of life into the human nostrils was blown by the Spirit (Wind) of God.
Regarding the origins of the Human Nation, whatever theories Charles Darwin happened to create about evolution, their consisting elements were never scientifically proven and some major bombastic statements in his theories, like we are the direct descendants or at least cousins of primate apes, are not only questionable but mere speculations.
The Darwinian permanent but casual chain-mutation, as a driving tool of the evolution from the simple organism toward the always more complex entities not only does not exist, but mathematically and statistically it is impossible to successfully assemble together by mere chance anything so complex as a human body in order that it will function as properly as it does, where 30 trillion cells must work together just to stay alive. The scientific and statistical chance for it to happen by mere chance is in the realm of the 1 proportioned to 10 on the power of 83. After the one there are 83 zeros. This chance is almost an infinite NO.
Darwin’s theories were not able to survive real scientific scrutiny, especially when the Cambrian era brought an explosion level boom in biodiversity on Earth around 500M years ago, when almost all the major players of the animal kingdom suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Since their very building, the Apes and any other species did not change, they eventually stayed as they were through long millions of years.
According to the data we have today the Homo Sapiens appeared on Earth around 300K years ago. Since then we did not change genetically as a biological race.
In the New Testament the very term of Son of Man is used 81 times and explicitly by Jesus only, referring himself as a Son of Man. As Jesus’ personal referral it contains an allusion to the Prophecy Book of Daniel, widely read by the that time contemporary as it is written in chapter seven:
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. Dominion was given him, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom one that which will not be destroyed."
It is a messianic referral, as it is held by many groups, thus, it is like that Jesus stated, that I am the Son of Man whom Daniel talks about, to whom given dominion, kingdom and glory by the Father, called the Ancient of Days.
In order to get something usable out of this, we should pay attention to the Lord’s Prayer, which is actually a very Jewish Prayer by nature and in its spirit.
It says in the first line that AVINU SHE-BA-SHAMAYIM, aka, Our Father in Heaven. It is not My Father, Jesus’ Father only, it is Our Father. We can ride on terms of being begotten or being adopted, ultimately it hardly matters, because God is Our Father (Parent), the Grandfather of all. All human beings have a Heavenly Parent.
On an ultimate level, walking on Earth, humans are each a complex entity, having a spiritual, a psychological and physical aspects, which may mean that God, or the Great Grandfather Spirit is our spiritual Father, meanwhile Mother Earth or Mother Nature is our Mother by the body.
Regarding this, in the Gospel of John, Jesus told Nicodemus that all people who were born on Earth must have a second, a spiritual birth in order to enter Heaven. He said to him that “That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don't marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born anew. ”
In every human heart there is a fertile field to receive the seed of God, which is the Word of God. If the word of God finds a fertile heart, a new spiritual entity starts to grow in that heart, which must be born sooner or later, but latest when the soul leaves the body behind.
On this allegorical way, in the mystical union Jesus is a Son of Man and a Son of God in the same time.
The ultimate mystery or even miracle is that this miracle does not apply to Jesus only but to all humans as it is written in the Gospel of John, chapter one:
“He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The Gospel of Mark has the description of the very nature of the newborn spiritual entity who was born in the union of the human heart and the word of God as a new Creation, being the sons of Man and God, as it is written in chapter 16:
“He said to them, "Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages; they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
The growth of the spiritual child in our hearts sometimes takes a lifetime, but still, once the child was conceived, it must grow in the heart, always showing the sings of a changed life by charity and neighborly love, good deeds all over, by compassion to people and multiplied understanding of the divine grace we are receiving.
May the Lord be praised always by our thoughts, words and deeds, AMEN.
