And when it was day, He departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought Him and came to Him, and would have kept Him from leaving them, but He said to them, “I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” Luke 4:42-43 ESV1
Read Mark 1:35-39 & Luke 4:42-44
Jesus is the Son of God. The Angel Gabriel said it (see Luke 1:30-33). The Apostle Peter confessed it (see Matthew 16:16). Jesus Himself claimed it when He said He was equal with God (see John 8:56-58), that when one saw Him, he/she saw God (see John 14:6-9), that He had the authority to judge and give eternal life (see John 5:21-23), and that He and the Father were One (see John 10:30-33). But did you ever notice that Jesus called Himself the Son of Man?
“Jesus is referred to as the ‘Son of Man’ 88 times in the New Testament. A first meaning of the phrase ‘Son of Man’ is as a reference to the prophecy of Daniel 7:13-14, ‘In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of Heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all peoples, nations, and men of every language worshiped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His Kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.’ The description ‘Son of Man’ was a Messianic title. Jesus is the One who was given dominion and glory and a Kingdom. When Jesus used this phrase, He was assigning the Son of Man prophecy to Himself. The Jews of that era would have been intimately familiar with the phrase and to whom it referred. Jesus was proclaiming Himself as the Messiah.
A second meaning of the phrase ‘Son of Man’ is that Jesus was truly a human being. God called the prophet Ezekiel ‘son of man’ 93 times. God was simply calling Ezekiel a human being. A son of a man is a man. Jesus was fully God (John 1:1), but He was also a human being (John 1:14). First John 4:2 tells us, ‘This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.’ Yes, Jesus was the Son of God—He was in His essence, God. Yes, Jesus was also the Son of Man—He was in His essence a human being. In summary, the phrase ‘Son of Man’ indicates that Jesus is the Messiah and that He is truly a human being.”2
Why did Jesus make the repeated effort to refer to Himself as the Son of Man? He called Himself the Son of Man to open our eyes to why He came; He came to pave the way for us to become sons and daughters of God, too. “To all who … receive[d] Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Once we believe in His name, we get to address God as “Our Father” as well (see Matthew 6:9).
And Jesus called Himself the Son of Man to show us what is possible for human beings when we, being filled with the Holy Spirit, become all God intends for us. “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). “His divine power…grant[s] to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). As the Son of Man, Jesus was the perfect man and an example to us; He modeled for us what a child of God should be. As children of God, we are in ministry no matter what our occupations happen to be.
These Gospel passages noted above were written of Jesus when He was in the early stages of His Earthly ministry. He had been tempted by Satan. He had taught people in and out of synagogues. He had shared specific wisdom with His close followers. He had performed healings and miracles. He had been both celebrated and rejected. As His fame spread, more and more people came to Him wanting something from Him. So, “very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed” (Mark 1:35).
We often also find ourselves with lives full of responsibility and ministries full of obligation. This is when it is absolutely necessary to slow down and pull away to be with God. But it is at these times, when there is so much that seems urgent, that we are tempted to let our time with God slide. Yet for the filling necessary to continue to meet life and ministry demands, we must spend time with God. As the Son of Man, Jesus modeled this. Before Jesus, who was not only fully God, but fully man, could continue to give and be prepared for what was to come next, He needed some time to refocus and draw close to His Heavenly Father for strength. Getting up, going to a solitary place, and praying is the first thing, not the last thing, we should do when we have many irons in the fire. If Jesus had not taken this time to spend time with His Father, He may have not had the power He needed to do much of the ministry He was required to do. For what might we be unprepared if we skip our time with your Father?
Spending a specified time with God not only gives the strength to live victoriously and to minister effectively, but it also gives the opportunity to discover the direction necessary for life and ministry. Jesus was in Capernaum when He “departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought Him and came to Him, and would have kept Him from leaving them, but He said to them, ‘I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose’” (Luke 4:42-43).
Our purposes are often outside of our comfort zones. If we stay where it is pleasant and protected, we will likely miss all that God has planned for us. Jesus could have stayed in Capernaum. That would have been tempting; He was quite popular there. But He did not come to minister to just one town. He came to bring freedom to the whole world. In His time with His Father, He got refocused on His purpose, and He got filled with the Holy Spirit, so He could choose what was best over what was merely good. “‘I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose’” (Luke 4:43). Jesus would always have a special place in His heart for Capernaum, but He left for the benefit of more people. Aren’t we glad He did? The same goes for us, we will always have a soft spot for comfortable places and accepting people, but we may have to step out in faith, leave safety, and reject the easy way in order to find our true purposes. If Jesus hadn’t left His comfortable place, He wouldn’t have even come to Earth, and none of us would have the purposes we have now.
Jesus was empowered to be and do all that was intended for Him through His consistent practice of pulling away from the busyness of His ministry and spending time alone with His Father. Praying was something He did often. “After He had dismissed [the crowds], He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone” (Matthew 14:23). “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God” (Luke 6:12). It is in our following the Son of Man’s example and putting into practice spending time with our Father that will give us the direction and ability we need to do what God is calling us to do. Nothing can substitute for, and nothing should get in the way of, this all-important practice. If Jesus needed it, we certainly do.
1 Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.