Jesus is the Son of Man! In the passage we are considering today (Mat 8:18-22), Jesus used His favorite title for Himself to indicate His humiliation as a man. The Son of God Who left the glories of heaven for earth had no place to lay His head during His time of ministry here. It is not wrong to think of the title, the Son of Man, as indicating Christ’s humanity, and the Son of God as indicating His deity. But it may be simplistic since the title Son of Man is used in contexts where Christ is doing things only God can do. Consider Matthew 9:6, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” — then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
At issue in this passage is following the Son of Man or becoming His disciple. Two would-be disciples approach Jesus indicating a commitment to follow Him. We do not know if either of them did, but one seems not to have counted the cost of discipleship and the other seems to have wanted to follow Christ on his, not the Lord’s, terms. May we always count the cost and consider it minimal when compared to the Lord’s glory and our privilege to serve Him. And may our commitment to follow Him never have conditions attached. Let us always be prepared to respond wholeheartedly to Jesus’ words, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (see Matthew 16:24).