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63 The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. 64 They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” 65 And they said many other insulting things to him. 66 At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. 67 “If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us.” Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68 and if I asked you, you would not answer. 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.” 70 They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?” He replied, “You say that I am.” 71 Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.” ~ Luke 22:63-71
We come back to the last Friday for the Lord Jesus on this earth as the Son of Man. As we pointed out in our last blog, the Lord Jesus endured six trials: three by the Jewish religious leaders and three by the Romans. The first three Jewish trials happened between the hours of 1:00 and 5:00 in the morning.
There was no justice at these Jewish trials. The entire thing was completely illegal. The Jewish writings known as the Mishnah outlined eighteen rules to be employed at a trial of a capital case. The very first rule of the Mishnah stated, "No trial for a capital offense can ever happen at night. It has to wait till the next morning, even if the offense is known at night, till the next day, after the morning sacrifice."
The second rule of the Mishnah states, "No trial for a capital offense can happen on a Sabbath even or during a festival. His three trials before the religious leaders happened on the early morning of the Passover.
The third rule in the Mishnah states,"It can never be done in private, it has to be done in the open, in a public place."
And the twelfth rule of the Mishnah states, "No high priest shall interrogate the prisoner." All of these rules were broken by the Jewish religious establishment. These three Jewish trials of the Lord Jesus were a sham and were illegal. The Sanhedrin managed in all of their religious blindness to, in the name of God, to go through an illegal trial and break the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not murder."
In v.63-65 we read, "63 The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. 64 They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” 65 And they said many other insulting things to him."
At this point the soldiers mocked and beat the Lord Jesus. Without warning a temple guard delivered a severe blow to His face because it appeared the Jesus disrespected the former High Priest.
As God, the Lord Jesus came to redeem mankind from our guilty verdict. In Luke 19:10 we read, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." This is the theme for the entire Gospel of Luke and it explains how and why He allowed the lowly to treat Him the way they did.
The Sanhedrin could not vote on capital offenses at night, so the religious leaders waited til it was day. This explains their early morning meeting. This was the climax of the religious phase of His trial. They went forth with a verdict of blasphemy, and the penalty for blasphemy was death according to Leviticus 24:10–16.
The Lord Jesus referred to Himself as "the Son of man," a messianic title found in Daniel 7. He also claimed to have the right to sit "on the right hand of the power of God," a clear reference to Psalm 110:1. Seated at the right hand of the Father is the place of honor, authority, and power. By claiming this honor, the Lord Jesus was claiming to be God.
In v.66-69 we read, "66 At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. 67 “If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us.” Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68 and if I asked you, you would not answer. 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God."
Caiaphas, the High Priest, had earlier unknowingly prophesied, "You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." Then, after a string of false witnesses, Caiaphas in frustration said to the Lord Jesus, "If you are the Messiah, tell us."
The Lord Jesus responded. It was then, at that point, Caiaphas tore his robes and accused the Lord Jesus of blasphemy.
In v.70-71 we read, "70 They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?” He replied, “You say that I am.” 71 Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips."
It was at this point that Isaiah 53:7-8 was fulfilled: "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away."
When the Sanhedrin heard what they needed to hear in order to charge the Lord Jesus with the Jewish crime of blaspheming God, they took Him off to Pilate.
In 1 Peter 2:23 we read, "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."
It was the Lord Jesus love for His Father that enabled Him to come to earth and die for the sin of languishing mankind. Like the Lord Jesus, as we grow in our love for God, we are set free from the insults of others. As this happens with increase, we find ourselves increasingly being defined by God. And, the more we grow in our understanding of God's love for us, we grow in our love for God. The more we love God, the less we set our hearts on the interests of this world and the more we become like Him.
