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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. \u201cIf you are the Messiah,\u201d they said, \u201ctell us.\u201d Jesus answered, \u201cIf I tell you, you will not believe me,\xa0and if I asked you, you would not answer. \xa0But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.\u201d They all asked, \u201cAre you then the Son of God?\u201d He replied, \u201cYou say that I am.\u201d Then they said, \u201cWhy do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.\u201d (Luke 22:66-71)

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Odd things happen here in the Council chambers.\xa0 The Council does indeed decide to make a declaration to the Roman governor that Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah King.\xa0 They will attribute this to him, even though he does not \u201cown\u201d the declaration himself.\xa0 \u201cYou say that I am,\u201d is all that Jesus will give them.\xa0

Jesus will not incriminate himself, except by allusion to scripture\u2014in this case to the book of Daniel, which talks about the Son of Man, or Psalm 110 where the Lord says to my Lord: \u201csit at my right hand.\u201d\xa0 Jesus calls Scripture to testify on his behalf rather than speak for himself.\xa0 This scriptural testimony, of course, is testimony that each of the religious leaders will have to ponder and decide about for themselves... if they\u2019re so inclined.

But they\u2019re not.\xa0 They\u2019ve already made up their minds.\xa0 Even still, Jesus confronts them with the truth and calls witnesses to testify on his behalf through his allusions to scripture.\xa0 He loved them and offered them the means to hear and respond to his Messianic presence all the way to the end.

Those words of truth Jesus speaks are arresting though.\xa0 When they ask him if he is the Messiah, he replies: \u201cIf I tell you, you will not believe me, and if I asked you, you would not answer.\u201d\xa0 In one of the most consequential questions of the Jewish faith at that time\u2014the identity of the Messiah\u2014no one in the religious leadership was genuinely seeking an answer.\xa0

They were committed only to leaving their options open.\xa0 If Jesus had asked them if he was the Messiah\u2014they would not have answered him one way or the other, not even to say \u201cno.\u201d\xa0 And if Jesus were to tell them plainly who he was, that wouldn\u2019t inspire any faith either, because they didn\u2019t really care.\xa0 They were committed only to keeping their options open.\xa0

Which is to say they were committed to other things.\xa0 To keeping their power.\xa0 Keeping control of their place in the Temple.\xa0 Keeping the Romans or the crowds appeased.

If any of us are to be converted more deeply to faith in Jesus, to become more deeply transformed, we will have to hear Jesus\u2019 challenge to the religious leaders too.\xa0 Do we really want to believe Jesus is the Lord of our lives?\xa0 Do we really want to take on the implications of needing to change and be transformed because he is?\xa0

If he asked us, would we answer?\xa0 If he told us, would we believe him?\xa0 Or are we actually committed to other things?

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