ARE YOU THE SON OF
GOD?
LUKE
22:63-71
(see
also Matthew 26:59-68,
Mark
14:55-65, John 18:19-24)
Luke
22:63-65 And the men that held Jesus mocked him and smote him. And when they
had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, and asked him, saying,
Prophesy, who is it that smote thee? And many other things blasphemously spake
they against him.
Susie: We hear often
about the Roman soldiers beating Jesus with a cat-o-nine-tails, but these men
were NOT Romans. These men who had taken Jesus captive were His own people, the
Jews.
Susan: These were
possibly some of the same men who fell over as if dead in the garden when Jesus
identified Himself with the words, “I am.” If I were one of those men, I would
think I would not feel comfortable striking Jesus or even touching Him for fear
of His awesome power.
John
18:6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
Susie: It does seem
unreal that they had already forgotten that shock. However, they hit Him,
berated Him, and challenged the belief that He was a prophet (never mind the
fact that He was the Son of God!) They demanded that the blindfolded Jesus tell
them who struck Him by using prophetic power. The point was to humiliate Him as
much as possible.
Susan: They were
taunting Him with their insolent speech, but He refused to display His power
for their amusement.
Luke
22:66-67a 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.
Susie: Matthew and
Mark include the testimonies of witnesses brought in and probably paid by the
chief priests to bring false accusations about Jesus.
Mark
14:55-61 And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against
Jesus to put him to death; and found none. For many bare false witness against
him, but their witness agreed not together. And there arose certain, and bare
false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple
that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made
without hands. But neither so did their witness agree together. And the high
priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing?
what is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace, and
answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou
the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
Susan: Their false testimony
was bought off by the religious leaders!
Susie: But as Mark
reports, they couldn’t get their stories straight. Even the ones who took
Jesus’s words about rebuilding the temple incorrectly, didn’t exactly match up
on their descriptions of the scene.
John
2:18-21 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto
us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them,
Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews,
Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in
three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.
Susan: The High Priest
no longer used veiled terms but asked Jesus specifically if He was the Christ (Messiah
in Hebrew), “the Son of the Blessed.” The Jews did not utter the name of God because
it was considered too holy for men to speak. They did not think themselves
worthy to speak the name of a Holy God, so the High Priest referred to God as
“the Blessed.”
Luke
22:67b-69 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.
Susan: Basically,
Jesus is saying that He can’t win here. If He says He is the Christ, they are
not going to believe it—it will not change their hardened hearts. If He tries
to ask them questions, they aren’t going to answer Him. And no matter how He
answers their question, they will not free Him.
Susie: When we studied
the gospel of John, we saw over and over the words, “His time had not yet come”
(John 2:4, 7:6, 7:30, 8:20) Now, before the High Priest and the Sanhedrin,
Jesus is fully aware that His time finally has come—the time for Him to sacrifice His life to pay
for our sins.
Susan: Jesus referred
to Himself as the “Son of Man” over 80 times in the Scriptures. It appears to
be His favorite description of Himself. This would be recognized by the Jewish
religious leaders as a Messianic reference from the prophet Daniel, and a clear
claim to divinity.
Daniel
7:13-14 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came
with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought
him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a
kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed.
Susie: The
Passion Translation clarifies what
Jesus meant by sitting at the right hand of God’s power:
Luke
22:69 (TPT) But from today on, the Son of Man will be enthroned in the place of
honor, power, and authority with Almighty God.
Susan: Being seated at
the right hand of an authority as his “right-hand man” was a place of sharing
the leader’s power and ruling beside him. Jesus, being equal with the Father,
being One with God, has all the authority of the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit) which Jesus would make clear to His disciples post-resurrection:
Matthew
28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me.
Susie: Jesus was again
referencing scripture that would be familiar to these Jewish leaders. This is a
clear claim to be the Son of God. King David wrote prophetically:
Psalm
110:1 The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine
enemies thy footstool.
Luke
22:70 Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them,
Ye say that I am.
Susie: Finally, they
point blank asked Him whether He was the Son of God. They would consider an
affirmative answer to be blasphemy, a sin worthy of death, since they did not
believe Him to be the Messiah, the Son of God.
Susan: Jesus did not
mince words in His reply. This is emphatically underscored in Mark’s account
when Jesus answered “I am.”
Mark
14:61-62 But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest
asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And
Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of
power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Susan: These are the
same words God used to identify Himself to Moses when speaking from the burning
bush.
Exodus
3:14 And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.
Susie: When we studied
the Gospel of John, we saw that Jesus made seven “I AM” statements:
1.
John 6:48 I am
that bread of life.
2.
John 8:12 Then spake
Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
3.
John 10:9 I am
the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and
out, and find pasture.
4.
John 10:11 I am
the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
5.
John 11:25 Jesus
said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
6.
John 14:6 Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh
unto the Father, but by me.
7.
John 15:1 I am
the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Luke
22:71 And they said, What need we any further witness? for we ourselves have
heard of his own mouth.
Susie: Jesus had made
Himself perfectly clear to the High Priest and the Sanhedrin that He was,
indeed, the Son of God and equal to the Great I Am.
Susan: At Jesus’s
proclamation of His Deity, the High Priest tore his clothes in utter disgust,
pronounced the crushing charge of blasphemy, and the Sanhedrin condemned Jesus
to death. No one spoke up in belief of Jesus’s claim to be the Messiah, the Son
of God.
Susie: It is assumed
that neither Nicodemus nor Joseph of Arimathea had been invited to this mockery
of a trial because they were both believers.
Mark
14:63-64 Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any
further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all
condemned him to be guilty of death.
Ponder
this and Apply it: There may not be a
direct application in this passage, but we should ponder the betrayal of Jesus
once again. First, He was betrayed in the garden by His own disciple, Judas
Iscariot. Then, His own people, the very Jewish religious leaders who should
have seen His description in the Old Testament prophets, refuse to believe that
He was their promised Messiah. As Isaiah stated:
Isaiah
53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we
esteemed him not.
Have
you come to a point in your life where the Holy Spirit has revealed to you that
Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth as a man in order to pay the price
for our (your) sin? If not, please pray and ask the Lord to reveal Himself to
you. Then surrender your life to His control completely. If you have questions,
please contact us through our website: www.PreciousJewelsMinistries.org
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