The Revelation of the Christ
John 18: Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him 13 and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. 14 Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it would be good if one man died for the people.
. . . the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. 20 “I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. 21 Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.” 22 When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby struck him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded. 23 “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” 24 Then Annas sent him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.
Matthew 26: Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” 63 But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” 64 “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered. 67 Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him 68 and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?”
“We’re missing one piece of the puzzle, one key piece of evidence” the investigator said, as they were looking for the murderer of the young girl. In the case of Jon Benet, investigators had found a ransom note, but they never could conclude who actually did it. Modern TV shows have done a fantastic job of being able to get the public involved and intrigued in these modern day “who dunnits?” Sometimes the police and the media work together toward a common purpose - to find out who did it. Although the hype has somewhat died down now, just as in the Chandra Levy case, imagine if they ever came out with clear cut evidence who did it! Wouldn’t it be satisfying to the media and police, and even to us - to find out the truth.
These cases of Jon Benet and Chandra Levy have only gone on for several years. JFK has gone on for decades. Imagine a bigger and more important puzzle trying to be solved - not for just a few years or decades, but for centuries! If you think about it, that’s kind of what the coming of the Christ was like. The promise of a Christ was made right after the fall in Genesis 3:15. For hundreds of years, the Holy Spirit had dropped hints and more hints about what the Christ would be like. Back in Moses time, they simply knew that a Savior would come who would be like Moses, a man with a closer relationship to God than other men - who would speak to God one on one. (Deut. 18:15) The longer time went on, the more specific these promises became. For instance, Isaiah had some very in depth predictions -
Isaiah 9:7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
From these predictions, the people looked forward to a king being born - a ruler who would govern in some way and bring peace - descended from David’s line, born of a virgin - true God and true man. However, David and Isaiah also predicted some seemingly strange things about this king -
In Psalm 22 David said - they have pierced my hands and my feet.
And Isaiah added in chapter 53,
He was oppressed and afflicted, . . . he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, God was even so specific as to predict exactly where the Christ would be born in Micah 5:2.
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel,
These predictions are probably well known to most of you. Some say they are more than 300 prophecies in the Old Testament referring to Jesus alone. I don’t know the exact number, which is probably debatable. But there is one prediction that I was made aware of in the last few years that really intrigued me. It is taken from Genesis 49:10 -
The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until Shiloh (the Prince of Peace) come. (KJV)In this prediction there would be a spiritual rule over Israel - who would come from the tribe of Judah - until the time that the true spiritual ruler - Jesus would come. Therefore, when Herod, who was actually an Edomite was anointed to be the “king of the Jews” by Marc Anthony and the Roman Senate - the Jews should have known that the time was ripe for their Christ to come.
I don’t know how much talk there was of this coming Christ prior to the coming of Jesus . But once the Christ was born, people really began talking. Matthew 2 actually says, After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. The people were talking and the hype was building. Soon afterward, Jeremiah 31 was also being fulfilled, the prediction of the slaughter of the innocents. The Israelites had thirty “silent” years to speculate about the meaning of these signs - to talk about whether the Christ really was born or not. To add to this hope and expectation was the fact that after Herod died in 4 B.C., Herod’s son Archelaus was given the throne. He was the worst of all of Herod’s sons - who was tyrannical and cruel to the Jews - so bad in fact that the emperor had banished him to Gaul. After that there was no real “king” of the Jews - just four descendants of Herod who for the most part just collected taxes and acted like puppets of the Emperor.
The reason I am giving this history lesson is to try to have you understand the flavor of the times - what the Jews were living under during Jesus’ time. Their “kings” were thrust upon them by the Roman Empire. These kings didn’t care for the Jews, and the Jews certainly didn’t like them. It was a forced marriage. And I would imagine that the worse these “kings” and “tetrarchs” were, the more talk there was about John the Baptist and Jesus. This is evident throughout the Gospels - you can see how the people were really wondering who the Christ might be -
Luke 3 records: The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with c water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Luke 4 adds, people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 41 Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.
John’s answer and the demons confessions only fueled the fire all the more. Once Jesus started his public ministry, the talk of the “Christ” must have been going on all over the place.
And so you can see several instances in Jesus’ ministry where people ask him the same question - In John 8 Jesus went to the Feast of Tabernacles: At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ ? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.” You can sense the confusion over where the Christ would come from and what he would do. John 10 also says that at the Feast of Dedication the Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
So why didn’t Jesus just tell them? Let’s go back to the Jon Benet illustration. If you think about it, different people are trying to get the same answer, yet they have completely different motives. The police and detectives are investigating to carry out law and justice. The family would also want justice, but some of them also probably want revenge. And what about the media? Most of them are in it mainly for the ratings. It’s just like when you’re at work, two people can be doing the same job with completely different motives. In the same way, the people who were looking for the Christ had completely different motives. The Pharisees and Teachers of the Law wanted to know if Jesus was the Christ for one reason - because they wanted to stone him. (John 10:31) Others wanted to know if he was the Christ because they were looking for a political savior to lead them out from under the rule of their tetrarchs and the Roman government.
The same goes true today. Some worship Christ because they want him to establish an earthly kingdom - a thousand year rule. They think that if they are on the right side at the Millenium they will then get to rule their kingdom. They like it when preachers tell them about how rich Christ can make them and how successful Christianity can be for them. Maybe you also find yourself worshiping Christ on a Sunday or throwing your money in the plate with the hope that he will be able to grant you riches or a relationship or happiness. You look at Jesus as your “sugar daddy.” You may not like it when I tell you that God doesn’t call us to be powerful and influential in the world’s eyes - that God calls us to live under the cross. That’s why Jesus time and again refrained from telling them he was the Christ. They didn’t have the right motives.
But the disciples were following Jesus for the right reasons. Although they still had ideas of political rule, they also believed in him as their spiritual Savior. So when Peter said in Matthew 16: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus acknowledged this as true. But then Jesus warned them right afterwards not to tell anyone about him. This was privileged information for those who were looking for the right kind of Christ. Until today’s text, that is. Jesus found himself before the “Sanhedrin.” Now, I say that in parentheses, because it is well known that this so called meeting of the Sanhedrin ran contrary to every principle of Jewish criminal law and procedure. Not all of the members were there, first of all. Also, such cases of capital crime could only be tried in the regular meeting place of the Sanhedrin, not in the High-Priest’s Palace, and certainly not begun in the night or even in the afternoon. It was the duty of the High Priest to formulate a capital charge in Roman Law, not Jewish. The closest they could come was to the idea of Jesus’ leading an insurrection, but even then they didn’t agree. The last thing the Caiaphas wanted to do was to bring Jesus before Pilate on His claims of Messiahship. And yet nothing else was left. Annas had questioned him and found nothing wrong. His false witnesses couldn’t even get their act straight.
And so Caiaphas, being the so called “High Priest,” asked the question that they were seeking the “answer” to for quite some time. “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” He didn’t want to know the answer because he was seeking to worship Christ. He wanted to know the answer so that He could crucify this Christ. In his eyes, it would be better just for him and the Jews to crucify this man who people were calling the Christ. For then the Romans wouldn’t come down on the Jews and squash this “insurrection.”
So how did Jesus answer? “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Jesus didn’t hem. He didn’t haw. In plain language he revealed his identity to all of them. “Yes, I AM the Christ. And I will come again in power!” And what happened? The inevitable - Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered. 67 Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him 68 and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?”
Why did Jesus finally reveal that he was the Christ after not saying it before? Why didn’t he just continue to as we would say, “plead the fifth”? We used to have a teacher who had certain limits, and if you crossed that line - he would explode. Sinful children know these limits well. And 7th and 8th grade sinful children are almost perfect at it. Our class would know exactly what to say or do to put our teacher over the limit so he would “spaz out.” In a pure and holy way, Jesus knew that his answer would put them over the limit - would make the High Priest tear his robes and pronounce death. So why did Jesus reveal the truth to those who didn’t want to hear it? Because he knew this would send Him to the cross - where Jesus could in turn pay for their sins and our sins - for the sins of the world.
It’s interesting to note that as Jesus was using His voice to reveal who he was and go to the cross, during this whole time Peter was using his voice to deny who he was and stay away from the cross. And isn’t that the real shame in all of our lives? When we can get praised for it, we’ll tell everyone we’re Christians. But when it can bring us cross and suffering, we try to reveal our identity. At midweek school we can recite the right answers, but at school, are our children talking like the rest of their classmates, denying their identity? At church we may confess the creed, but at work are saying the same thing? With laughter, silence, and even words we are more often than not saying to the world, “I’m just like you.” We might reason that “it isn’t the right time to tell the truth.” But more often than not the truth never comes out.
This happens within preachers as well. Instead of speaking the truth, we reason that the truth would only turn people away. So the truth is not being spoken, and so being denied. Sin is not being called sin - it’s being called alternative. God’s wrath is not being spoken of - in the hopes of an eventual conversion. And in so the world is denying a part of what God’s Word is all about - all to “keep the peace”.
But what did Jesus say, “yes, it is as you say. No matter what you think of me, and no matter what you are going to do to me - I am the Christ - and I am coming again to judge the world and you!” Instead of denying who He was - he openly revealed his identity. When Jesus admitted who he was, it in turn made us what we were not. For when Jesus went to the cross because of his words, he also went to the cross because of our words. And when Jesus died on the cross, he took our words on his tongue, our actions on his shoulders, and became what he was not - exchanged his righteousness for ours. The only way to righteousness was to meet the wrath of the Jews and of God head by confessing that he was the Christ. What a sigh of relief we can have when we hear Jesus tell the truth. His revelation that He was the Christ also reveals to us that we have a Savior that went to the cross because he loves us so much that he wanted to die for us.
There’s a saying that goes “actions speak louder than words.” The story is told of the boy who told his mother he loved her rhubarb pie to not hurt her feelings. But the truth of the matter was it made his lips pucker and his face squirm. When she then made it and offered it to him, he said, “I’m not hungry right now.” When she offered it the next day he said, “I’m not feeling very well.” After this went on several times she finally asked him, “do you really love my rhubarb pie?” He had to admit the truth. Actions spoke louder than words. I can say “I love you” all I want, but it won’t mean anything if I don’t do anything to show it.
When Jesus revealed that he was the Christ, however - his words were louder than actions. If he had broken the chains and escaped, it would have shown that he loved Himself more than us. If he would have not spoken, there would have been no action against him to put him to death. But Jesus revealed to them, “yes, it is as you say. I am the Christ.” His words of revelation turned into action - the action of putting him on the cross. That was Jesus way of showing his love for us. By revealing that he was the Christ - and dying for it. The revelation of the Christ reveals to us what a loving Savior we have. Amen.
