And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council, saying, Art thou the Christ? tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe: And if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go. Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am [Luke 22:66~70]. This is a second, more official trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin. The preliminary hearing is recorded in Mk 14:53~65 (Mt 26:57~68). Jesus statement did not imply that the council would see His second coming but rather would see Him sitting at the right hand of the Father when the Spirit would be poured out and the church would begin its inexorable expansion from Jerusalem. How he was accused and condemned by the great Sanhedrim, consisting of the elders of the people, the chief priests, and the scribes, who were all up betimes, and got together as soon as it was day, about five of the clock in the morning, to prosecute this matter. They were working this evil upon their beds, and, as soon as ever the morning was light, practised it, Mic. 2:1. They would not have been up so early for any good work. It is but a short account that we have here of his trial in the ecclesiastical court. They ask him, Art thou the Christ? He was generally believed by his followers to be the Christ, but they could not prove it upon him that he had ever said so totidem verbis—in so many words, and therefore urge him to own it to them. If they had asked him this question with a willingness to admit that he was the Christ, and to receive him accordingly if he could give sufficient proof of his being so, it had been well, and might have been for ever well with them; but they asked it with a resolution not to believe him, but a design to ensnare him. He justly complained of their unfair and unjust usage of him. They all, as Jews, professed to expect the Messiah, and to expect him at this time. No other appeared, or had appeared, that pretended to be the Messiah. He had no competitor, nor was he likely to have any. He had given amazing proofs of a divine power going along with him, which made his claims very well worthy of a free and impartial enquiry. It had been but just for these leaders of the people to have taken him into their council, and examined him there as a candidate for the messiahship, not at the bar as a criminal. If I tell you that I am the Christ, and give you ever such convincing proofs of it, you are resolved that you will not believe. Why should the cause be brought on before you who have already prejudged it, and are resolved, right or wrong, to run it down, and to condemn it?’’ If I ask you what you have to object against the proofs I produce, you will not answer me.’’ Here he refers to their silence when he put a question to them, which would have led them to own his authority, ch. 20:5-7. They were neither fair judges, nor fair disputants; but, when they were pinched with an argument, would rather be silent than own their conviction: You will neither answer me nor let me go; if I be not the Christ, you ought to answer the arguments with which I prove that I am; if I be, you ought to let me go; but you will do neither.’’ He referred them to his second coming, for the full proof of his being the Christ, to their confusion, since they would not now admit the proof of it, to their conviction: Hereafter shall the Son of man sit, and be seen to sit, on the right hand of the power of God, and then you will not need to ask whether he be the Christ or no.’’ Hence they inferred that he set up himself as the Son of God, and asked him whether he was so or no: Art thou then the Son of God? He called himself the Son of man, referring to Daniel’s vision of the Son of man that came near before the Ancient of days, Dan. 7:13, 14. But they understood so much as to know that if he was that Son of man, he was also the Son of God. And art thou so? By this it appears to have been the faith of the Jewish church that the Messiah should be both Son of man and Son of God. He owns himself to be the Son of God: Ye say that I am; that is, I am, as ye say.’’ Compare Mk. 14:62. Jesus said, I am. This confirms Christ’s testimony concerning himself, that he was the Son of God, that he stood to it, when he knew he should suffer for standing to it.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:12:49 +0000
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