Jesus Thoughts (10) : the Son of Man goes...

Only stray thoughts here today : I don't have much time or energy.

This line from the Gospel of Luke crossed my mind this morning (King James Version) : "And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined: but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed!"  Actually in my mind I had mixed up two different passages from Luke.  Here's the other one : "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!"

So similar in tone and meaning; maybe they hearken back to a single teaching.  The first one is applied to Judas (who betrays Christ to the authorities); the second to people in general.  It's been (traditionally) interpreted that Jesus is saying, though everything that happens is ultimately determined by God's providence, this does not excuse those who do wrong : they can expect to face "woe" for their actions.

This morning, when I thought about this phrase ("the Son of Man goes as it has been determined"), once again I was struck by the double meaning Jesus is playing with here : the "Son of Man" conflates Jesus himself, the Messiah, with another, generic sense - the "Son of Man" is Everyman.  What happens to Jesus in person is unique and personal; yet it is also representative of human fate at large.

I hear someone uttering this sentence : "the Son of Man goes..." with their eyes open, directly facing their own ineluctable mortality.  It is like the voice of someone already speaking from beyond the grave.  "The Son of Man goes as it has been determined..."  It is a haunting phrase.  It is also simply a warning, a word to the wise.  What we do on earth has its term, its end : yet, if we indeed have a soul, we will carry the trace of all our actions into the "next world" : what we do impinges on our soul : how we stand toward others will be represented & reflected in how we stand with others for eternity.  So it's an admonition : think about how you live with others, while you have time : your love & your hate, your kindness & your cruelty, your affections & your enmities, your generosity & selfishness, are carried over into that realm of invisible quantum-timespace-"spooky action at a distance" fellowship to come.