HARD SAYING OF THE DAY
Monday, December 31, 2001
from Hard Sayings of the Bible by Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Peter H. Davids, F. F. Bruce and Manfred T. Brauch
Mark 14:61-62: You Will See the Son of Man?
After his arrest in Gethsemane, Jesus was brought before a court of inquiry, presided over by the high priest. At first, according to Mark's narrative, an attempt was made to convict him of having spoken against the Jerusalem temple. Not only was violation of the sanctity of the temple, whether in deed or in word, a capital offense; it was the one type of offense for which the Roman government allowed the supreme Jewish court to pass and execute sentence at its own discretion. Two or three years later, when Stephen was successfully prosecuted before the supreme court on a similar charge, there was no need to refer the case to Pilate before execution could be carried out. On the present occasion, however, Jesus could not be convicted on this charge because the two witnesses for the prosecution gave conflicting evidence.
Then the high priest, apparently on his own initiative, asked Jesus to tell the court if he was the Messiah, the Son of God (using "the Blessed" as a substitute for the divine name). The Messiah was entitled to be described as the Son of God, if he was the person addressed by God in Psalm 2:7 with the words "You are my son," or the person who in Psalm 89:26 cries to God, "Thou art my Father" (RSV). Jesus was not in the way of spontaneously referring to himself as the Messiah. But to the high priest's question he answered, "I am." How Matthew and Luke understood this reply may be seen from their renderings of it: "You have said so" (Mt 26:64 RSV) or "You say that I am" (Lk 22:70 RSV). That is to say, if Jesus must give an answer to the high priest's question, the answer cannot be other than yes, but the choice of words is the high priest's, not his own. The words that followed, however, were his own choice. It is as though he said, "If `Christ' (that is, `Messiah' or `Anointed One') is the term you insist on using, then I have no option but to say yes, but if I were to choose my own terms, I should say that you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Almighty and coming with the clouds of heaven." (Here "power" on Jesus' lips, meaning much the same as we mean when we say "the Almighty" is, like "the Blessed" on the high priest's lips, a substitute for the divine name.)
What, then, does this saying mean, and why was it declared blasphemous by the high priest? It means, in brief, that while the Son of Man, Jesus himself, stood now before his judges friendless and humiliated, they would one day see him vindicated by God. He says this in symbolic language, but the source of this symbolic language is biblical. Mention has been made already of the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven (see comment on Mk 13:30); this language is drawn from Daniel 7:13-14, where "one like a son of man" is seen in a vision coming "with the clouds of heaven" to be presented before God ("the Ancient of Days") and to receive eternal world dominion from him. The "one like a son of man" is a human figure, displacing the succession of beastlike figures who had been exercising world dominion previously. The one whose claims received such scant courtesy from his judges would yet be acknowledged as sovereign Lord in the hearts of men and women throughout the world. His claims would, moreover, be acknowledged by God: the Son of Man would be seen seated "at the right hand of the Almighty." This wording is taken from Psalm 110:1, which records a divine oracle addressed certainly to the ruler of David's line: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." The present prisoner at the bar would be seen to be, by divine appointment, Lord of the universe--and that not in the distant future, but forthwith. "From now on," in Luke's version, "the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God" (Lk 22:69). (Luke omits the language about the clouds of heaven.) "In the future," in Matthew's version, "you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Mt 26:64). The right hand of God was the place of supreme exaltation; the clouds were the vehicle of the divine glory.
The Servant of the Lord in the Old Testament, once despised and rejected by men, was hailed by God as "raised and lifted up and highly exalted" (Is 52:13); this role is filled in the New Testament by Jesus, obedient to the point of death, even death by crucifixion, being "highly exalted" by God and endowed with "the name which is above every name," in order to be confessed by every tongue as Lord (Phil 2:6-11 RSV). It is the same reversal of roles that is announced in Jesus' reply to the high priest.
Why was his reply judged to be blasphemous? Not because he agreed that he was the Messiah; that might be politically dangerous and could be interpreted as seditious by the Roman administration (as indeed it was), but it did not encroach on the prerogatives of God; neither did the claim to be Son of God in that sense. But the language which he went on to use by his own choice did appear to be an invasion of the glory that belongs to God alone. It was there that blasphemy was believed to lie. The historical sequel may be allowed to rule on the question whether it was blasphemy or an expression of faith in God which was justified in the event.