12 - The Son of Man

After recognizing that Jesus knew things about him that only God could know, Nathanael immediately told Him that He was the promised Messiah. He said, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel” (v49), to which Jesus replied with a statement that must have stunned Nathanael. Basically He told him, “Because you believe in Me, someday you’ll rise from the dead and return to earth with Me to set up the kingdom of God.” By combining Jacob’s vision of a ladder lifted up to heaven (Ge 28:12) with Daniel’s vision of a heavenly Son of Man (Da 7:13-14), Jesus showed him a picture of the end of the age. Why would He do that, particularly with someone He just met? He looked more than 2,000 years into the future and took him straight to a vision of the last days. Why?