Luke 22:63 - 71

 Luke 22 63 - 71

Jesus held by the temple guards is mocked, beaten and cursed. Do not miss the irony in this moment. Jesus who is God Almighty in the Flash, who was the agent of all creation is bullied, manhandled and abused and appears to be utterly helpless. The guards are beating a man not realizing that they are beating the One before Whom they will stand when He is their judge.

Next Jesus is brought to trial before the Sanhedrin. This was a mere formality that was needed before they could turn Jesus over to Pilate. This trial had nothing to do with Justice, it was merely a box to be checked in the process of accomplishing murder by the government. It didn't matter what charges were delivered to Pilate, the real objective was to get rid of Jesus. Three titles are discussed and all of them apply to Jesus. Jesus is asked if He is the Christ. This was the charge that the Sanhedrin most wanted to take to Pilate. This title carried in popular thought of a  Davidic type Kingdom and would imply in popular thought a political revolution. This would have been a death sentence type charge to turn over to the Pilate. Jesus replies that they won't believe Him or learn from Him if He answers them. But He goes on to assert two things that are associated with the Messiah. Jesus makes the claim that He is the Son of Man from Daniel 7: 13, and that He will be seated at the right hand of God as mentioned in Psalm 110:1. In response the high priest asked Jesus if He is the Son of God, and Jesus ascended to that claim. There was no Roman law that would condemn a man for claiming to be the Son of God or the Son of Man. The claim to be the Christ would be different. So in this trial Jesus is ultimately convicted on non punishable charges. But to the high priest it didn't matter so long as they had a trumped-up reason to have Jesus killed.

We should note that all three titles are true of Jesus. And there is some overlap in them but they are different from each other. Jesus is the Christ Jesus, He is the Son of Man, and Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus makes all those claims. But the Sanhedrin only wanted Him to make the first claim, that is to be Christ.  That would facilitate their collaboration with the Romans to get rid of the upstart. What the Sanhedrin missed was the implication if these claims were true.  Blinded by their agenda and ambitions they were literally standing in the presence of the Hope of all ages and they missed the point.  What a colossal failure, they heard from the lips of Jesus that He was the Messiah and all they could think about was how this moment could advance their agenda.  

“God, save us from our own self blinding agendas. AMEN”