Mark 2:1–12
1 And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. 5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” 12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
Throughout the NT there are lots of titles given to Jesus. The most common one is "Christ", the Greek translation of the word "Messiah". It simply means "anointed, or chosen one". However, Jesus' favored designation of himself is "Son of Man". What on earth does this mean? And why would Jesus use this term instead of the more easily identifiable "Messiah"?
The son of man in it's most literal sense can simply mean "human". In this sense he would simply be saying that he is of human nature or essence. Similarly when the gospel writers refer to Jesus as the son of God they mean that he is of the essence, or nature of God—he is divine. It would be no different than saying, "I am human." This likely not what Jesus means with this term. This would be a useless designation since literally every person there could say the same thing, since they are all human as well, and they already expect Jesus to be human.
In first century Judaism this term carried with it a lot of military connotations as we've already seen. By using this term Jesus was able to avoid a lot of the wrong understandings of the Messiah. Instead, what he's likely referring to is one of Daniel's visions:
Daniel 7:13–14 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. (see chapter 7 for the full context).
The scribes certainly would've picked up on this, hence their offense at him. Far from him making a statement of the obvious or a statement of his humble human nature, he is claiming to have been given authority from God over all peoples and nations and a kingdom that will never end. This is a bold claim to say the least! Yet it is Jesus favored designation of himself. As C.S. Lewis noted, with statements like this we are left with only 3 possible conclusions as to the identity of Jesus: liar, lunatic or Lord. There is no 4th option. "Let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." (C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity)