Luke is the only Gospel writer who gave us an account of what happened at this official meeting of the Sanhedrin. It followed informal interviews late at night by Annas and Caiaphas. This meeting took place very early on Friday morning, April 3, 33 A.D.494
22:66 The Sanhedrin, also known as the council of the elders, was Israel's supreme court. It could only conduct cases involving potential capital punishment during daylight hours.495This seems to be the reason for the time of this meeting. Evidently the Sanhedrin members wanted to send Jesus on to Pilate for trial as early as they could. The Sanhedrin normally met in a building not far to the west of the western wall of the temple, but archaeologists are not sure exactly where.496
22:67-68 The Sanhedrin asked Jesus if He was claiming to be the Messiah. Jesus replied that they would not believe Him if He told them nor would they answer Him if He questioned them. Jesus and the religious leaders had formerly come to an impasse in their discussions (cf. 20:1-8, 26, 40). Jesus' point was that claiming or not claiming to be the Messiah would be pointless since His accusers would believe what they wanted to believe regardless of what He said. Furthermore they had a different idea than He did of what the Messiah would do. They were really talking about two different types of individuals when they discussed the Messiah.
22:69-70 Jesus did not claim to be the Messiah here, but He did claim to be the Son of Man. He referred to the discussion He had had with some of His accusers on Wednesday (20:41-44). Then Jesus had questioned them about the identity of David's Son in Psalm 110:1. He had showed that David's Son, the Messiah, was divine. Now Jesus referred to the same verse again and said that the Son of Man would sit at God's right hand from then on. This was a claim that Messiah would not reign immediately. However the title "Son of Man"connected the divine Messiah with a future coming to the earth to reign (Dan. 7:13-14). Jesus was implying that Messiah would return to heaven and then return later to reign on the earth (cf. Acts 2:33; 5:31). He seemed to the Sanhedrin to be claiming that He was the Son of God. Jesus admitted that He was claiming that (cf. 9:20-22).
22:71 The Sanhedrin recognized Jesus' statement to be an unequivocal claim to be the Son of God. This was a claim to be God. Consequently it appeared to them to be blasphemous. They now had sufficient grounds to demand the death sentence from Pilate.
Luke's record stresses the identity of Jesus as Messiah, Son of Man, and Son of God, but also His fearless testimony to His own identity regardless of the certain consequences. Thus the writer clarified who Jesus was and presented His testifying before hostile authorities as a model for disciples to follow.
