Jesus on Trial

Summary

Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” | 64

As Jesus stands before Caiaphas, He is asked the question: ‘are you the Christ, the Son of God?’ Rather than staying silent, as He had before, Jesus implicates Himself, saying: You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven. With this answer, Jesus does not say anything He has not said before, but He replies in a way that puts us in the jury box. He claims to have the authority of God, which makes Him either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord (to borrow a breakdown from CS Lewis). If He is GOD, He should not be on trial. If He is JUDGE, He should not be answering to human justice. If He is MESSIAH, then our freedom comes from His sacrifice. His trial puts Him in the defendant seat, but it puts all people in a place to answer the question: who is Jesus?

As Jesus stands before Pilate, the governor makes it clear that he does not want to see Jesus convicted. He sees an innocent person before him. But the crowd is willing to release a violent criminal in order to have Jesus purged from this world. As the crowd chants: ‘crucify Him!’ they are doing much more than moving the plan of God forward; they are also taking responsibility for His death. They are making it clear that the death of Jesus was at the hands of those He came to save. There is a great cost to grace: Jesus paid it all.