And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter. [This phrase "hereafter" - ap' (G575) arti (G737) - is excluded from the text by Lachmann, Tregelles, and Tischendorf, in his earlier editions, whom Alford follows. But the evidence in its favour is, in our judgment, decisive, and Tischendorf has restored it to the text in his last edition. De Wette, Meyer, and Olshausen concur in regarding it as part of the original text.]
Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. The key to this great saying is Jacob's vision on his way to Padan-aram, (Genesis 28:12, etc.) To show the patriarch that though alone and friendless on earth his interests were busying all heaven, he was made to see "heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon a" mystic "ladder reaching from heaven to earth." 'By and by,' says Jesus here, 'ye shall see this communication between heaven and earth thrown wide open, and the Son of Man to be the real Ladder of this conversation.' On the meaning of the word "hereafter" - or, as it should rather be, 'henceforth'-see the note at Mark 14:62. Here, for the first time, and at the very opening of His public ministry, our Lord gives Himself that special title - "THE SON OF MAN" - by which He designates Himself almost invariably throughout, even until just before He was adjudged to die, when to the Jewish Sanhedrim He said, "Nevertheless I say unto you, Henceforth х ap' (G575) arti (G737)] shall ye see The Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matthew 26:64).
But while our Lord hardly ever called Himself by any other name, it is a striking fact that by that name He was never once addressed, and never once spoken of, while He was on earth, and that, with two exceptions, He is never so called in the succeeding parts of the New Testament. And even these two passages are no proper exceptions. For in the one (see the note at Acts 7:56) the martyr Stephen is only recalling our Lord's own words to the Jewish council, as already fulfilled before His own vision in the presence of that same council: in the other passage (see the note at Revelation 1:13) the beloved disciple-having a vision of Jesus in the symbols of majesty and glory, power and grace, in the midst of the churches, as their living Lord-only recalls the language of Daniel's night vision of "The Son of Man," and tells us how he was able to identify this glorious One with Him on whose bosom himself had leaned at every meal when He was on earth, saying that He was "like unto the Son of Man." These special passages, then, instead of contradicting, only confirm the remark, that by this name He was never spoken to, never spoken of, and in the churches never called, and that it stands alone as His own chosen designation of Himself.
Of the seventy-nine times in which it occurs in the Gospels, it is found seldomest in John-only eleven times-being there overshadowed by a still more august name, "The Son of God." Mark uses it only once more; Luke uses it 26 times; but in Matthew it occurs 30 times. This suggests a Hebraic origin of the phrase; and indeed there can be no doubt that it is fetched directly from Daniel 7:13-14 (on the occasion and scope of which, see the note at Mark 13:26): "I saw in the night visions, and behold [one] like THE SON OF MAN х kªbar (H1247) 'ªnaash (H606); hoos (G5613) huios (G5207) anthroopou (G444)] came with the clouds of heaven," etc. But what is the import of this special title? It has a two-fold significance, we apprehend. Putting the emphasis on the last word, "The Son of Man," or of Humanity, it expresses the great fact that He took flesh of our flesh, that He "was made in the likeness of men," that "as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same." Accordingly, in several passages it will be found that our Lord designed by this phrase to express emphatically the humiliation to which He had submitted in "being formed in fashion as a man." But when we put the emphasis upon the definite article, "The Son of Man," it will be seen that He thereby severs Himself from all other men, or takes Himself out of the category of ordinary humanity.
And we believe that He thus holds Himself forth as "The Second Man," in contrast with "the first man, Adam," or, as He is otherwise called, "The Second Adam;" that is, the second Representative Man, in whose Person Humanity stood and was recovered, in opposition to the first Representative man, in whom Humanity fell and was ruined. So much for this special phrase. But what is meant by "the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man?" Almost all expositors of any depth, from Origen to Calvin, and from Calvin to Lucke, and Olshausen, and Tholuck, and Stier, and Alford, set aside all reference to miraculous events, and see in it the opening up of a gracious conversation between heaven and earth through the mediation of the Lord Jesus. If it be asked why, both in Jacob's vision and in our Lord's reference to it here, the angels are not said to "descend and ascend" - as we should expect, from and to their proper abode-but to "ascend and descend," we may give Lucke's beautiful suggestion, that they are left in their descending office, as if they went up only to come down to us again on yet other errands, and exercise an abiding ministry.
Remarks:
(1) How sublimely noiseless were the first footsteps of that Ministry whose effects were to be world-wide and for all time-reaching even into eternity! How quietly were those five disciples first called-under one of whom the Christian Church rose first into visible existence, and achieved its earliest triumphs; while another-the youngest of them all, and Peter's companion and coadjutor in all his early sufferings and labours-after surviving them all, contributed to the Canon of Scripture writings which transcend, may we not say, all the rest in the impress which they bear of Christ Himself! See the notes at Matthew 12:16-21, with Remark 6 at the close of that section.
(2) Every disciple of the Lord Jesus is called in his own way. John and Andrew are drawn to Jesus, after the training they had received from the Baptist, by the sublime strain in which their master directed their attention to Him, and the Saviour's winning encouragement of their own advances. Simon is brought to Jesus by his brother Andrew. Jesus "findeth" Philip, and at once gives them that call to follow Him which needed not to be repeated. But Philip "findeth" Nathanael and fetches him to Jesus. Difficulties exist in that guileless man; but they vanish in a transport of wonder and exultation, on the Saviour revealing him all to himself. Even so it is still. But as He to Whom all come is One, so the grace that worketh in all to bring them is one; and a goodly fellowship it is, whose diversity only enhances the charm of their unity. Even as in the Kingdom of Nature:
`Wisely Thou givest-all around Thine equal rays are resting found, Yet varying so on various ground
They pierce and strike That not two roseate cups are crown'd With dew alike,'
So in the kingdom of grace. (3) What a glorious note was that to strike at the very outset of the Gospel-before yet the Lord Jesus had opened His own 'mouth most sweet' - "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" and as it was so soon again repeated to the same audience, is it not clear that this was designed to be the great primary proclamation of Christ's servants in every land and in all ages? They are not to think it enough to show to sinners of mankind that there has been given a Lamb of God for the taking away of the sin of the world, and that this is the one all-availing sacrifice for sin; but when they have done this, they are to hold Him forth and bid burdened sinners behold Him, and know their burden removed in Him. Never, we may safely say, was any ministry divinely owned and honoured of which this has not been the alpha and the omega; nor has any such ministry been without the seals of Heaven's approval.
(4) Difficulties in religion are best dealt with by taking a firm grasp of fundamental and undeniable truths. Nathanael's difficulties, though they were those of a sincere inquirer, were certainly not removed before he consented to come to Jesus; nor did Christ Himself remove them as a preliminary to Nathanael's believing on Him. But being furnished with transparent evidence of His claims, that honest heart waited not for more, but uttered forth its convictions at once. Difficulties may be removed, but even if they never be on this side of time, let us not spend our days in doubt and darkness; let us plant our foot upon the rock of manifest truth, and for the rest wait until the day dawn and the shadows flee away.
(5) As guile in every form vitiates the religious character and shuts out divine teaching, so to be "without guile" is the beginning of all that is acceptable to God (Psalms 32:2), and carries with it the assurance of divine guidance in the path of truth and duty. It is one of the great characteristics of the predicted Christ that no deceit should be found in His mouth (Isaiah 53:9); and of a class of Christians distinguished for their fidelity to Him in times of general defection, that in their mouth was found no guile (Revelation 14:5); and of the restored remnant of Israel that they shall not speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth (Zephaniah 3:13). All this would seem to imply that entire simplicity and freedom from guile is a character remarkable rather for its rarity even among God's own people.
(6) As the joy of discovered truth is in proportion to the difficulties experienced in finding it, so when firmness of conviction bursts forth from the heart that has found Christ in a tide of emotion, it is to Him peculiarly grateful, as was that noble exclamation of Nathanael's.
(7) If Christ be Immanuel, "God with us," we can understand His being the Ladder of mediatorial communication between heaven and earth-uniting in his glorious Person the nature of both, but on no other view of Christ is this explainable; and, in fact, none who dispute the one really believe the other. But
(8) What thoughts does this idea of the "Ladder" suggest! Never a groaning that cannot be uttered enters into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth, but it first passes up this Ladder-for no man cometh unto the Father but by Him: Never a ray of light, never a breath of love divine, irradiates and cheers the dark and drooping spirit, but it first passes down this Ladder; because the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand, and, if we are "blessed with all spiritual blessings," it is "in Christ." Thus is He not only our "way" to the Father, but the Father's "way" to us. Needest thou, then, poor burdened heart, anything from thy Father, to keep thee from sinking, to bear thee through the trials of life, and to bring thee home at length to thy Father's house in peace? Lie like Jacob at the foot of this glorious Ladder, planted close by thee on this ground but whose top reacheth to heaven, and send up thy petition on this Ladder-make known thy request through Him: then look and listen, and thou shalt see, as Jacob did, "the Lord standing above it, and hear Him speaking down this Ladder into thine own ear the rich assurances of His love and power, His grace and truth, pledged "not to leave thee until He hath done that which He hath spoken to thee of." And with Jacob thou shalt say, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Well may the angels of God be the winged messengers of such a contact; and what a crowded Ladder, and what busy activities, are suggested to us by their thus "ascending and descending" on errands of love to us, the "descending" flight of them being the thought with which the curtain of this beautiful scene drops upon us!