“When it was day, the Council of elders of the people assembled, both chief priests and scribes, and they led Him away to their council chamber, saying, 67 “If You are the Christ, tell us.” But He said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe; 68 and if I ask a question, you will not answer. 69 “But from now on THE SON OF MAN WILL BE SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND of the power OF GOD.” 70 And they all said, “Are You the Son of God, then?” And He said to them, “Yes, I am.” 71 Then they said, “What further need do we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.”
This is the account of the third of six mock trials imposed upon Jesus the day of His arrest and crucifixion.
His first mock trial was in the courtyard of the High Priest Emeritus, Annas, who was the father in law of the current High Priest, Caiaphas. Even though He hasn’t had a real trial at all, although He has not been found guilty of anything, indeed, not even officially accused of anything, He has been beaten and mocked and spit upon while Peter sits at a nearby fire with other enemies of Jesus, denying him out of abject fear.
When that was over Jesus was taken to the Sanhedrin and the High Priest where He was once more tried illegally, since according to their laws no one was supposed to be tried at night and both of these took place before sunlight.
Jesus had spoken truly when He told them this was their hour and the power of darkness (22:53).
They had also brought in false witnesses to lie about Him which was an absurdity, since the hired liars were both brought in by and lying to the ones who wanted Him dead anyway.
Can you picture it? It’s maybe 3 or 4 in the morning – I’m guessing, but it’s not daylight yet – and some representatives of the Chief Priests, possibly Temple Guards, flag these two guys down. What were they doing out at this hour? Were they drunks or thieves? We don’t know. In any case, they are accosted in the middle of the night and told, ‘Hey, come to the counsel chambers of the Sanhedrin with us; we need someone to tell us a story about what some guy might have said or done.” “Well, what should we say?” “I don’t know, stupid! It’s 4 AM! Make something up!”
Of course it didn’t go just like that, we have no way of knowing. But isn’t the very thought ridiculous?
So now it’s finally daylight and they can have a real trial if they want, but they don’t. They want to hear a confession from this badly beaten man before them so they can get rid of him and they want nothing more or less.
So let’s follow into the place of assembly and marvel once more as the Lion of Judah stands surrounded by the Jackals of Jerusalem and holds His ground.
ASKING ALL THE WRONG QUESTIONS
This is not the first time we find this challenge being put to Jesus.
In fact, behind the question is a very ancient point of error that marks fallen mankind to this day.
Think back to the Garden of Eden. The woman stands facing the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as the words hiss in her ear, “You surely shall not die!”
The error? Doubting God’s Word and therefore God Himself. Faith does not say ‘if’. Faith says ‘yay’ and ‘amen’!
Skip ahead to the wilderness journeys of young Jesus. “If you are the Son of God...” said the tempter, not once but twice, and then followed with an ‘if’ of presumption, “…if you fall down and worship me”.
What incredible arrogance! The Genesis account says the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, and we understand the serpent to be Satan of course. Well, he might be crafty but what an idiot! To think for a second that the Lord of Glory would pay homage to anyone?
Well folks I want you to see today that ever since the day Eve believed the lie the fruit of that original womb, the offspring of Adam’s loins, has without exception questioned God’s Word and God’s authority and damned himself with the faithless question, ‘IF”.
When God has spoken there is no ‘if’. The only proper response to His Word and to His presence is ‘believe’ and ‘do’.
“If you are the Christ, tell us.”
Haven’t we already determined in a recent sermon that they knew exactly who He was? Only a few days have passed since He raised Lazarus from the dead and as soon as they heard about it they started a community whine, because He was doing many miracles and the people were going to believe and they weren’t going to have all the accolades any more.
I can imagine some of the peripheral conversation going on during this time.
“Did He say it over at the house of Annas?” “No. He just stood there and let them beat on Him but said nothing.” “What about before Caiaphas? I was told He said it there; the priest even tore his robe!” “Yes! But now we have to get Him to say it in the daylight so we can officially record it.”
“Come on…” (through clenched teeth and under the breath), “Come on, just say it once more for us so we can get this over with …”
“If you are the Christ tell us!”
FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE
Remember the famous line from “Cool Hand Luke”, delivered by Strother Martin as the prison captain? “What we’ve got here, is failure to communicate!”
Jesus’ reply to them indicated the ultimate in communication breakdown.
“If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I ask a question, you will not answer.” There was much more going on here than Jesus simply refusing to answer them. He did, after all, go ahead and answer a moment later, so we need to stop and think about this.
He was not saying this with the pouting attitude of a child arguing with his friends who have called him a liar and saying, “What good would it do to tell you? You won’t believe me anyway!”
He is simply stating the facts. They were determined to kill Him and they didn’t want to hear the truth, nor did they want to waste their time explaining anything to the defendant before them.
If He said, “No, I am not the Christ”, He would be denying Himself and He cannot deny Himself. But I wonder what they would have done? He’s been manhandled and dragged around town, beaten all night, brought before this group without due process. If He said, “No, I am not the Christ”, would they have said, “Oh! Well jolly good then! We must have snagged the wrong guy. Guess you can leave. You should go get cleaned up; you’re a mess.”
But here’s the irony. They want Him to admit He is the Christ so they can kill him. One commentator, and I would imagine there is more than one, asserts that they saw Him as an impostor and were giving Him a chance to recant.
I cannot see it that way. He had been all about the country doing the works of the Messiah for over three years, the common people were hailing Him as the Son of David, and for the past week they had seen and heard Him in the temple, teaching and healing, after having raised a man from death.
They knew who He was, which is what makes it ironic that they wanted Him to openly confess who He was so they could kill Him.
Do you get it? They wanted to kill the Messiah.
But there is another sense in which Jesus meant His words which we must not overlook.
If He told them they would not believe, because the Father had determined that they would not believe. If he asked a question they would not answer, because the Father had determined they would rush headlong into their murderous plan and carry it out without stopping to reason.
This also was a day the Lord had made (Ps 118:24), and it was going to end according to His plan. They were still responsible for their sin, for their evil, for their unbelief…but they were not really the ones in charge here.
And this gathering was just a microcosm of mankind lost in sin and death. Men and women of this world think they’re in charge. They think they control their destiny. They mock God and those who are God’s and they believe they do what they do of their own free will and choice. But that is not so. They are slaves to sin and to Satan and they live in fear of death all their lives (Heb 2:15); the master that will finally take them into darkness.
Is anyone thinking that isn’t fair? That if it was the Father’s will that they be disbelieving and of a murderous intent it is unfair to hold them to account?
I would answer with Paul,
“On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.” Rom 9:20-24
Therefore Jesus may very well have answered them, “It has been preordained that you refuse to believe and refuse to reason because I have come to accomplish My Father’s will and you are the vessels He prepared to carry it out”
In other words, you guys are not the ultimate authority here. On the other hand, “…from now on The Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God”. Guess who really has the power and authority!
THE SEAT OF POWER
Jesus has quoted Psalm 110 to them, a Psalm they understood to be a Messianic psalm; in other words, a psalm or song that spoke of the future Messiah.
This is quoted again several times in the letter to the Hebrews, as the Father inviting the Son, “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”.
There are numerous passages in the New Testament, from 1 Peter, Acts, Romans, Ephesians, Colossians and Hebrews, that speak of Christ’s position of authority at the right hand of God.
By claiming this passage as a reference to Himself and calling Himself the Son of Man, Jesus was claiming to be God. Further, keep in mind that they are thinking no farther ahead than seeing Him on a Roman gibbet and out of their hair – but by His words here he is as much as saying, “Following this death there will be a resurrection and an ascension, and I will enter into My glory with the Father”.
We know they understood this to be a claim to be the Anointed One of God, because it extracted from them a repeat of their question. “Are You, the Son of God, then?”
What a question!
My friends and family, listen to it and hear it! “Are you the Son of God?”
No one asks that question unless they are a health worker in a counsel room or a police officer arriving on the scene of a disturbance where it has been reported that there is a deranged man making a fuss.
“Hey, man, you’re disturbing the peace. What’s this all about?” “Well, I’m the Son of God”. “Oh. I see. Why don’t you just come along quietly and we’ll get you a nice cup of coffee and a place to sleep.”
You, know, we read these things as Christians and we are students of the Bible and we kind of let it slip on by because, after all, we do believe Jesus is the Son of God so it doesn’t strike us in any way that seems unusual or out of place.
But here is a man claiming to be the Son of God! Get it? And He doesn’t seem at all demented. He is calm and very much in command, and by the way, He has just received a brutal beating that would convince any sane man to choose His words carefully over the coming hours in order to avoid more of the same, … and He is saying very clearly that He is the Son of God who will in short order be gloriously risen from the dead, back in Heaven and sitting in a place of honor and authority, and He’s not laughing, He’s not winking, He’s not even using a pleading tone of voice as though He hopes they’ll finally believe Him!
Who can say this in seriousness and sanity? Only One in all the universe and beyond! The Son of God!
YES I AM
So they demand a final answer. “Are You the Son of God, then?”
And He finally says, “Yes I am.”
Now I know other translations say “You have said it”, or something similar. We don’t need to rehash all that. He answered to the affirmative and we shouldn’t make any more of it than that.
“Yes I am”.
They asked the Baptist. “Who are you?” He knew what they were really getting at. “I am not the Christ”.
“Are you the Son of God, then?” “Yes I am.”
Until very lately He had healed people and said, “Now go your way and tell no one of this”. They wanted to make Him king and He avoided them.
The time for secrecy was over. He avoided being known for who He was when revelation of His true identity would have gained Him an earthly scepter, throne and the cushy bedchambers of royalty, but only openly revealed who He was when the revelation would most certainly result in a whip and a cross and a grave.
Now I realize that in recent years this is getting to be a debate repeated ad nauseum, but when people toss the old ‘I think He was a good teacher and a good man’ bone out there to shut you up, here is one more place you can go to show them they are in error.
No He wasn’t. He is the Son of God. He said very clearly, “Yes I am”.
Do you realize what this means?
It means that every single thing He ever said that is recorded for us in the Bible is from the mouth of God. That makes everything He said the most important word ever spoken.
How about Luke 12:4 & 5?
“I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. 5 “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!”
How about John 5:24?
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
How about John 14:1-3?
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
Just a few samples but ones I chose to emphasize the gravity of His answering with “Yes I am”.
That answer seals forever the doom of the godless and the eternal bliss of the elect.
“Yes I am” means that in three days, as He has just told them, He will be seated in glorious resurrection at the right hand of the Majesty on High, and that the next time they see Him it is He who will be on the throne of judgment and they who will be standing at the defendant’s table with no defense to offer.
“Yes I am”, Christian, means that as the chosen of God you also are seated with Him in the heavenly places. Jesus won His battle in the Garden of Gethsemane and made the final purchase of you and me on the cross of Calvary, and made sure for eternity your place and my place of absolute acceptance with the Father when He sprinkled His precious blood on the mercy seat and marked us, “Paid in full”.
And if you or I would see Him face to face, not that we would have to ask because we will not, as we will instantly be changed into His perfect likeness on that day… but if we would see Him and ask, ‘Are you the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me?
Are you the One who took the burden of all my sin to His own breast and gathered all the fire of the Father’s wrath there and held it there so I would never feel its flame?
Are you the One who promised to come back and take me to an eternal home of bliss where I will dwell in the presence of the Lord forever?
Are you the One who loved me before the foundation of the world and gladly did all of this so I could be saved?
And are you the One who has promised to love me forever and never let me go?
I have all the confidence to say to you with all sincerity and certainty that He would smile at you today, and say, “Yes, I am”.
