Luke 22:66-71--Jesus Before the Council

Luke 22:66-71
English Standard Version
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Jesus Before the Council
66 When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said, 67 “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “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 shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” 70 So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.” 71 Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”

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Jesus has been on trial all night long (most agree this would have been all night on Thursday night) it seems at first light the Sanhedrin (that is "the assembly of the elders of the people") gathered with the High Priest presiding (notice that Luke doesn't call Caiaphas "high priest" but instead just mentions him as one of the "chief priests" because he was politically appointed by Rome and his father-in-law Annas also acted as high priest sometimes, especially during this trial, but neither of them were truly the High Priest as that role was being filled by Jesus now who is our Great High Priest), and also the scribes who would be the experts in the Law were there as witnesses and probably to give their expert opinion on how Jesus may have broken the Law.

Another term for the Sanhedrin will be the Council and that is what Luke chooses to use here, so I'll use that as well.  They led Him away to the Council's chambers and they tried to compel Him to testify against Himself (totally illegal in their system of justice).  Jesus' only response was that if He told them who He was, they would not believe Him, and if He asked them any questions, He knew they would refuse to answer, so the time for question and answer was over.  Notice that in this statement Jesus is completely in control.  Instead Jesus cites a couple of Old Testament passages about the Son of Man and they understand Him to be saying that these passages were about Himself.  Jesus seems to be pointing to the witness of Scripture to His identity, since these religious leaders should have appealed to the authority of Scripture.  They will know exactly who He is when they see Him "seated at the right hand of power of God."

Jesus' citation of Scripture wasn't quite clear enough for them though to convict Him of blasphemy.  He only said that something was going to change in the power structure of heaven and that the one called the Son of Man was going to be given the position of the crown prince (the right hand of the one one the throne) and the crown prince is vested with all the authority of the one seated on the throne and one day the throne itself will belong to Him.  Yet Jesus did not go so far as to say to them that He was the Son of Man who would take the throne, so they ask Him clearly, "Are you the Son of God, then?"

Jesus' answer here doesn't translate very well into English.  It is very ambivalent.  They take it to be an affirmative statement but really Jesus is almost saying that they are trying to put their words in His mouth.  They are the ones who have called Him that (according to Jesus).  How interesting that Jesus knows the very words they have spoken in their hearts and minds and probably in secret in these very Council chambers.  The fact that He did not make a firm denial though is enough for them to accuse Him of blasphemy, which is exactly what Jesus wanted them to do.  This sham of a trial needed to end so that Jesus could be handed over to the Romans, yet the Council is going to be dishonest about the charges when they bring Him to Pilate, for they cannot tell Pilate that they want to execute Jesus for blasphemy.  Why would Rome agree to a public execution for something that wasn't a violation of their law, but was only a violation of God's Law (and they would see this as a violation of the Jewish Law because they did not really believe in YHWH or His Law other then they may have studied what they would have called the Law of Moses in an academic sense).  Jesus will go from one sham trial to the next until it is time for Him to bear HIs cross so that He is crucified at just the right time to correspond to the sacrifice of the Passover lambs.