Jesus and His Bible, Part 20

Jesus Asserts His Messiahship

To remind ourselves, after referring to himself as the shepherd, Jesus and his followers (except Judas) went to the Mount of Olives, where Jesus prayed and his disciples slept. Judas arrived with an armed crowd and identified Jesus by a kiss. One of the followers drew a sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s slave, but Jesus healed it. Jesus pointed out that they had many times before when they could have arrested him. His followers fled, and some followed at a distance.

Jesus was put on trial before the Sanhedrin, with several testifying against him, but their stories were inconsistent.  Eventually, the high priest asked him directly, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus responded, “I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62). With this statement Jesus invoked not only scriptures from his Bible, but also reminded the leaders of what he has said publicly in the past that they have not appreciated or believed.

It is possible, as we saw in Part 12, that by using “I am,” Jesus reminded his hearers of the words of God to Moses, “I AM has sent you.” This time Jesus applied the “I am” to himself, and those who recalled his earlier discourse would have been infuriated.

The second part of Jesus’s reply again alludes to David’s Psalm 110, with the invitation from God to the anointed one to sit at God’s right hand, the place of favor and authority (Psalm 110:1). Jesus repeated the offense he originally gave to the religious leaders by reminding them of the question they could not answer. This added fuel to the fire for those questioning him.  (See also the discussion of this Psalm in Part 14, for further reading.)

Jesus then quoted Daniel 7:13 once again to assert his being given authority and dominion by God, making public the words he shared with his followers about the destruction of the temple.  (See also Part 16 for extended discussion).

Jesus’s quotations from his scriptures function to remind his enemies of what he had said earlier. The leaders conducting this trial had already determined that Jesus was not the Messiah, so his claim to be Messiah could be labeled blasphemy. Of course, since he is who he says he is, it is not blasphemy at all but merely truth-telling.