The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
“You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
- Matthew 26:63-64 -
We may think our modern criminal justice system has got serious flaws, but back in the day things were much worse! For the Jews, the Sanhedrin were the equivalent of the Supreme Court for the people. This "trial" was basically a kangaroo court. It was conducted at night and in the High Priest's house (v. 58) - two of many reasons why the "trial" was illegal. They tried to make it look legitimate by getting people to bring up false testimony, but none of those testimonies agreed. They finally did get a couple witnesses to agree. (v. 60-61) Jesus didn't respond - probably for a couple reasons: 1. It wasn't worth a response; it wasn't in His habit to repeat Himself. 2. In fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7.
But apparently Caiaphas became exasperated with it all and basically cut to the chase, asking Jesus "Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?" Notice that he used the term "Son of God". Jesus effectively said "yep". He could have stopped there, but He doubled down by stating that He is a fulfillment of prophesy in the book of Daniel. It is interesting that He used the term "Son of Man," as in the actual prophesy. It's also probable that Jesus was equating the two terms. Nevertheless, Jesus knew that this train needed a bit of a King-sized nudge - a nudge that ushered Him to execution.
It's critical to remember, especially as times are snowballing toward the end of things, that there are always two agendas at hand: the Agenda of Souls and the Agenda of God. Jesus is unrelentingly committed to the Agenda of God.
Which agenda will you be committed to?
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