Who Was Jesus? - Part 4

Read Matthew 26: 62-66

Context: Jesus has been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. He's been taken to the high priest, Caiaphas, who had gathered the teachers of the law and the elders. The chief priests and the whole Sandhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so they could put him to death.

Text:

62Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?" 63But Jesus remained silent.
The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ,[a] the Son of God."
64"Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

65Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66What do you think?"
"He is worthy of death," they answered. (NIV)

Footnotes:

a. Matthew 26:63 Or Messiah; also in verse 68
taken from www.biblegateway.com

Have you ever been in a no-win situation? If Jesus refused to answer or denied that he was the Christ, the Sanhedrin would convict him of perjury based on the witness of one who reported that Jesus had claimed to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. And if he told the truth, he would be guilty of blasphemy, a crime worthy of death.

This is one of the few places in the gospels where Jesus clearly tells the world who he really is. Yet this claim was so inconsistent with the beliefs of the priests and teachers, they were unable to reconcile it with the picture they had in their heads of the Messiah. Their whole lives had been devoted to their religion, and now this man claims that their religion is a farce. They were so caught up in centuries of tradition that they were blinded to reality, believing that if they could just make this man go away that all would be well.

It's sad to look back and see how the need to be right ruined any chance that these men had for eternal salvation. In reality, that's probably all that stands between any one of us and God's grace.