"Yes I Am"

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.