And Jesus saith unto him
Knowing his heart, and the carnal and worldly views with which he
acted;
the foxes have holes
in the earth, where they hide themselves from danger, take their
rest, and secure their whelps;
and the birds of the air have nests,
where they sit, lay, and hatch their eggs, and bring up their
young;
but the son of man has not where to lay his
head,
when he is weary, and wants rest and sleep, as he did at this
time. So that though he was Lord of all, as being the mighty God;
yet as "the son of man", a phrase, expressive both of the truth
and meanness of his human nature, the most despicable of
creatures in the earth and air, were richer than he. This he
said, to convince the Scribe of his mistake; who expected much
worldly grandeur and wealth, by becoming his disciple. When
Christ styles himself "the son of man", it is no contradiction to
his being God; nor any objection to trust and confidence in him,
as the Jew F26 suggests; for he is truly and
properly God, as well as really man, having two natures, human
and divine, united in his person; so that he is, as was
prophesied of him, Emmanuel, God with us, in our nature, God
manifested in the flesh: and since he is so, it cannot be
unlawful to trust in him; which it would be indeed, was he a mere
man. The Jews ought not to object to this name and title of the
"Messiah, the son of man": since he is so called, as their own
writers and commentators acknowledge, in F1 (
Psalms
80:17 ) and F2 ( Daniel 7:13 Daniel 7:14 ) . And
whereas it is further urged against these words of Christ, that
if he was God, why does he complain of want of place? Is not the
whole world his, according to ( Psalms 24:1 ) ? It may
be replied, that it is very true, that the whole world is his,
nor could he be in want of anything, as God; but yet, as man, for
our sakes he became "poor", that we "might be rich": nor should
this be any difficulty with a Jew, when they themselves say, as
some have thought, if he (the Messiah) should come, (hyb anbytyd atkwd yl) , "there's no
place in which he can sit down" F3. Unless it be understood of
Nebuchadnezzar, as the gloss explains it; let the learned inspect
the place, and judge: the coming of the Messiah is immediately
spoken of.