The Coming of the Son of Man

 Matthew 10:23 When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

What was that? Excuse me? Could you please repeat that? The Son of Man will come? But, wait, isn't he You?

The title is a hated passive sentence. However, it states the text key thought. Jesus is coming back.

Jesus sent his men to preach the kingdom. They were the ones who would be coming back, right? If this is the same account that is related in Luke 10, then they came back  victorious, over the demons at least. Jesus hadn't left. One author states, "This is one of the hardest-to-understand statements of Jesus in Matthew."

Talk about bad grammar! However, like he says, we've scratched our theological heads since the first time we heard this text. Or maybe you've never given it a close look.

Our understanding is that here, Jesus is talking about this second coming. Or that is what I've always thought. However, that seems problematic because he says that before his men preach in all of Israel, he'll be coming back. And in the Luke passage they came back with victory to which Jesus commented that he had seen Satan fall like a lightning to the ground. What?

He uses a very Messianic title for himself and one Matthew likes to cite, 28 to be exact. Jesus uses this phrase thinking of the Messianic overtones from Daniel chapter 7. Where the Son of Man ascends to the throne of God to, "share his victory over all things with the saints of the Most High".

This t muddies the understanding even further doesn't it. Jesus is sending his men to proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven (or God as you will) to Israel. If they are rejected they are to flee to other places and proclaim the kingdom in the new local. I mean these guys are EQUIPPED to do business. They go with all of the miracles that Jesus had and would continue to perform. Their message was messianic. The Messiah had come. He would shortly be setting up his reign. Any city or village that rejected that message would be treated worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. Bad stuff.

These men were headed for verbal, societal and physical abuse. However, in Luke 10 when the men return, look at the interchange, 17 The seventy-two (more about this number 70 in another study) returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. 18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

I'm seeing the end of the mission and nothing is said by the men about abuse. So, square one once more. Do you see the dilemma?

The following is an edited note from my study Bible. Read if you are interested in this post.

10.23 you will not end ... until the Son of Man comes. There are various views about what the coming "of the Son of Man” means in this verse. The most important are: (1) This “coming" refers to Christ's second coming in judgment at the end of time. This view has the advantage to easily combine with some other references of this "coming" (24.30; 25.31; 26.64), although the reference in 16.28 speaks against it. There are three variations of this view: (a) The dispensational view interposes a suspension and a further continuation of the mission The main problem here is that this view takes both v.23 and all v. 16-23 out of context and makes this material incomprehensible to both those who listened to Jesus and to the early church.

(b) The symbolic form of this view understands the use of "Israel" here as meaning the world or the church. However, the context gives no indication of a symbolic meaning for Israel, and Matthew does not use Israel in this way in any other passage.

(c) A third view is that Jesus simply means that the task of evangelization of the Jews will not be completed until the second coming. This may be the most linguistically natural understanding, but there seems to be an urgent connotation in v. 23 that is difficult to explain.

(2) This "coming" is an exaltation of Jesus in heaven at his resurrection. The difficulty here is that there is no evidence that the disciples were persecuted with the intensity presumed in v. 17-22 before the resurrection of Jesus.

(3) This "coming" is the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. This explanation suffers from the lack of evidence of persecution before Pentecost. In addition, the disciples were commanded to wait until after Pentecost before beginning the mission (Acts 1.4). ge 0S

(4) The phrase "until the Son of Man comes" is a way of saying "until I reach you." But, again, the persecution described in v. 17-22 then seems irrelevant. The theological meaning of the "coming" of the Son of Man also makes this meaning unlikely. 

(5) This "coming" refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. This "coming" is then the coming of judgment against Israel as a nation, the ultimate symbolic elimination of the old order, and the fulfillment of the prophecy. This view remains with an urgent connotation, understands “Israel” as being Israel and relates to the persecution known before AD 70. Furthermore, it would be addressed to the disciples more than a hypothetical generation more than two thousand years later. it can also be linked to all the other references regarding the coming of the Son of Man, because they all have to do with the great and terrible judgment of God. There is still a difficulty, however: not all occurrences of the "coming" of the Son of Man can readily be applied only to the destruction of Jerusalem, yet, just as we can see the connection between the resurrections that occurred at Jesus 'death (27: 52-53), Jesus' own resurrection and the final resurrection, we can also see a connection between the judgment of the cross, the judgment of Jerusalem and the final judgment of the world. The destruction of Jerusalem was an intervention in the gift of God's final judgment against all unbelievers*.

*The Geneva Study Bible at Matthew 10:23