The Son of God: Luke 22:66-71

Focus Passage: Luke 22:66-71 (GW)

66 In the morning the council of the people’s leaders, the chief priests and the experts in Moses’ Teachings, gathered together. They brought Jesus in front of their highest court and asked him, 67 “Tell us, are you the Messiah?”

Jesus said to them, “If I tell you, you won’t believe me. 68 And if I ask you, you won’t answer. 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne.”

70 Then all of them said, “So you’re the Son of God?”

Jesus answered them, “You’re right to say that I am.”

71 Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We’ve heard him say it ourselves.”

Read Luke 22:66-71 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Often times for these journal entries, I draw out an idea from the way a verse or phrase stands out in my mind. However, in our event for this journal entry, to really see the big idea, we must draw from two areas in the gospel of Luke to really catch the implications in Jesus’ words when responding to the religious leaders on the night of His arrest.

When Jesus is pulled in for questioning, they ultimately ask Him the question, “So you’re the Son of God?” (v. 70a)

This question was meant to be a trap question for Jesus because they would immediately use His response to build the claim blasphemy – in this case, it would be making oneself equal to God.

However, before sharing Jesus’ response, let’s bring our attention to Luke’s record of Jesus’ geneaology, which is found in Luke 3:23-38. Luke begins it with Jesus, and then traces it all the way back to God: “Jesus, so people thought, was the son of Joseph, son of Eli, son of Matthat, . . . son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.” (Luke 3:23b-24a, 38)

In this genealogy, everyone who is a member of the human race can trace their ancestry back to God, which then makes Jesus’ response to the religious leaders even more amazing: “You’re right to say that I am.” (22:70b)

But here is where things get interesting. The religious leaders respond to Jesus’ answer by saying, “Why do we need any more testimony? We’ve heard him say it ourselves.” (v. 71) This tells us that they were closed-minded towards the truth.

While Jesus was born of a virgin and God the Father was His Father in a more direct way, even if Joseph was His actual dad, Jesus could still lay claim to being a descendant of God. Luke’s genealogy points us to the truth that God started it all, and He formed the human race. In this way, God the Father is “the Father” of humanity. By rejecting Jesus’ claim of being God’s Son, the religious leaders also turned their back on God the Father as their Creator, which tells us they have unknowingly sided with God’s enemy.

This truth reminds us that we all can claim royalty as God’s children, but if we choose to share that God is our Father, we would also be wise to act in a way that honors Him.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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