Are You God’s Son?
TRANSLATION
(63) Now the men guarding Jesus were mocking him as they beat him. (64) They put a blindfold on him and kept on asking, “Prophesy! Who is the one who hit you?” (65) And they verbally abused him.
(66) When day came, the elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together. They led Jesus before this council. (67) “If you are the Messiah, tell us,” they demanded. Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe, (68) and if I ask you, you will not answer. (69) But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” (70) So they all asked, “Then are you the Son of God?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.” (71) And they responded, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”
OBSERVATIONS
There are no important repetitions in this segment apart from the double use of “tell” (twice in vs. 67). The leaders of the Jewish assembly sought to force Jesus to admit his messianic identity with his own lips so that they could condemn him for blasphemy. His initial response pointed to the illegality of their attempting to get him to incriminate himself, but his follow-up response in which he called himself “the Son of Man,” a messianic title, made his claims quite obvious (vss. 67 & 68). Their clarifying question regarding his being the “Son of God,” an assertion which he did not deny, left no doubt in their minds (vs. 71).
OUTLINE
I. Jesus was mocked and scourged by those who held him in custody. (63-65)
II. Jesus was then directly interrogated by the assembly of elders regarding his claims to deity. (66-71)
IDEA STATEMENT
By claiming to be the “Son of Man” and accepting the title, “Son of God,” at his trial before the assembly of elders, Jesus essentially signed his own death warrant.
APPLICATION
Three messianic titles are found in close proximity in the second paragraph of this segment. The Hebrew term, “Messiah,” or “Christ” in Greek meant “anointed one.” The other two titles have often caused confusion and questioning. Are the designations, “Son of Man” and “Son of God,” equivalent? If not, what are the differences? Did Jesus lay claim to both?
The title, “Son of Man,” came directly from the prophecy of Daniel. There we read, “In my (Daniel’s) vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power. All peoples, nations, and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Dan. 7:13 & 14). By naming himself the “Son of Man,” Jesus was claiming to be Israel’s deliverer. This title emphasized Messiah’s humanity. He would be a man in every sense of the word so that he could fully identify with those he had come to save as our great High Priest, in every point tempted as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:14-16).
The title, “Son of God,” emphasized Jesus’ relationship with the Father as the second person of the Trinity. By asking him, “Are you the Son of God,” the Jewish leaders were essentially asking him, “Are you more than just a man, claiming to be God?” The official articulation of the doctrine regarding the person of Christ would not take place until the Council of Ephesus in AD 431. This gathering of church leaders came to agree on the term, “hypostatic union,” to describe the incarnate Jesus as one person with two natures, one fully human and the other fully divine. While it took the early church many years to articulate the specifics of the Savior’s unique person, the titles, “Son of Man” and “Son of God,” pointed to its reality even before the New Testament was written.