Then they all said, "Are You then the Son of God?" So He said to them, "You rightly say that I am"

 Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him.  And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, "Prophesy!  Who is the one who struck You?"  And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him.

As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led Him into their council, saying, "If You are the Christ, tell us."  But He said to them, "If I tell you, you will by no means believe.  And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer Me or let Me go.  Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God."  Then they all said, "Are You then the Son of God?"  So He said to them, "You rightly say that I am."  And they said, "What further testimony do we need?  For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth."

- Luke 22:63-71

Yesterday we read that when they came to arrest Him, Jesus said to the chief priests, captains of the temple, and the elders who had come to Him, "Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs?  When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me.  But this is your hour, and the power of darkness."  Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest's house.  But Peter followed at a distance.  Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.  And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, "This man was also with Him."  But he denied Him, saying, "Woman, I do not know Him."  And after a little while another saw him and said, "You also are of them."  But Peter said, "Man, I am not!"  Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, "Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean."  But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are saying!"  Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.  And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.  Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times."  So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

 Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him.  And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, "Prophesy!  Who is the one who struck You?"  And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him.   Christ is beaten, mocked, humiliated.   He is subject to the cruelties visited upon the powerless, and the blasphemy and ridicule of His jailers reflects the intent of those who have ordered His arrest. 

As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led Him into their council, saying, "If You are the Christ, tell us."  But He said to them, "If I tell you, you will by no means believe.  And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer Me or let Me go.  Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God."  Then they all said, "Are You then the Son of God?"  So He said to them, "You rightly say that I am."  And they said, "What further testimony do we need?  For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth."  My study bible comments that Jesus asked many questions of the Jewish leaders which they refused to answer, because doing so would have meant confessing Him as the Christ (20:4-7; Matthew 22:41-46; Mark 3:4).  With the statement, "Hereafter the Son of Man will sit at the right hand of the power of God," Jesus is effectively declaring Himself equal with God.

It is interesting to observe Jesus' response to the elders, chief priests and scribes at the council.  His method of reply seems strange.  But if one considers the power of His words and teachings, and especially His revelation of Himself and His identity, one may observe that Jesus is actually trying to protect them.  That is, the refusal to heed His words, and the absolute rebuke they would make in response to the truth He tells -- especially given the positions of these men as religious leaders -- would necessitate a kind of condemnation that He will not easily nor lightly give.  He says directly, "If I tell you, you will by no means believe.  And if I also ask you, you will be no means answer Me or let Me go."  Since He is already aware of the certainty as to how they will respond, that there is no hope for their belief, He will not directly implicate them in certain condemnation.  Christ's constant directive is salvation.   John's Gospel tells us clearly, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17).  Up until the last moment of contact, Christ continues to try to save Judas.  He asks him, upon His arrest, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" (see Saturday's reading).   Even His seemingly mysterious reply to these men of the Sanhedrin can be understood from this perspective.  When they ask Him directly if He is the Son of God,  Jesus replies, "You rightly say that I am."  This answer, by its phrasing, also refuses condemnation of those who would deny this truth to His face.  He will respond similarly even with Pilate (23:3).  What we need to remember in reading these passages is that Christ's overarching directive of all that He does, His ministry, His whole Incarnation, is salvation.  As John's Gospel says, He did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save the world.  That means everything and everyone in it.  By either refusing to speak to those who absolutely will not believe, or responding in this strange way, that "you rightly say that I am" (or, "It is as you say," to Pilate), Christ refuses condemnation, and allows more time for those who have a chance to come to repentance and faith.  Elsewhere, Jesus tells the apostles, "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces" (Matthew 7:6).  Looking at the behavior of those who cruelly mock and beat Jesus, we may see a kind of literal illustration of this teaching.  Looking more deeply into Christ's conduct among the Sanhedrin, we can understand His prohibition against giving what is holy, and what are pearls of truth, to those who are incapable of receiving is not only futile and dangerous, but it is not at all within the mission of those who would follow Him.  His mission is a saving mission, and into it His disciples enter.  We are reminded that Christ passed through a Samaritan village on His way to Jerusalem, and they refused to receive Him, John and James Zebedee asked if they should call down fire from heaven to consume them, as did Elijah.  But Jesus told them, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.  For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them"  (Luke 9:51-56).  We live in a modern world in which they are many who do not share the faith in Christ that those of us who seek to be His followers would declare.  There are those who may even be violently opposed, for one reason or another.  We should remember His conduct and His words within the contexts in which we find ourselves today.   His mission is salvation.  His words are powerful and true.  His teachings have spiritual substance, a full truth with an impact behind them.  And rejection of His teachings will have its consequences, just as those who reject a sincere faith may not know what they are doing.  As His disciples, we, too, must keep His words, conduct, and teachings in mind.  We do not cast pearls before swine, not in order to judge or condemn, not even simply to protect ourselves, but in order to conduct ourselves properly for the One whose overwhelming concern above all else was to save.  We do not seek endlessly to convert those who do not want to hear upon repeated refusal.  We may, like Christ, withdraw into a silence with confirmed rejection of our faith.  Our very best tool, as disciples, is simply a life lived in conjunction with His teachings, through the walk of faith, through prayer, and all the means at our disposal for living life in the way He has taught us.  By our patience we endure.  St. Paul writes of himself and his fellow apostles, "Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we encourage. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now" (1 Corinthians 4:12-13).  This is what it is to live the mission of the One who came to save and not to condemn.  May be all be blessed with the discernment to know where to go, and where not to go.  Let us remember that where the disciples were rejected, they were merely to shake the dust off their feet, and move on.  Sometimes people simply don't have "ears to hear."   In Acts, we're told that the Holy Spirit instructed Paul not to go to particular places at a particular time in his ministry (Acts 16:6-10).   We don't know why, but Christianity and St. Paul himself would go later to these regions.  In the reading for today, and in the other examples, we must keep in mind our dependence upon time for salvation.  The process of repentance and change takes time.  What is rejected one day may be accepted by the same person at a later date.  But there is a time when it is proper to withdraw direct contact and shake off the dust from our feet.  Judas still had an opportunity to return to the group in repentance.  The leaders who reject Christ could conceivably come to a repentance (indeed there are those members of the Council who did become Christ's notable followers).   Until further notice, we seek to live Christ's saving mission -- and until such time as we know differently, we follow as we are taught.