“From now on you will see . . .”

Matthew 26:62-66

And the high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?”

But Jesus remained silent.

And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?”

They answered, “He deserves death.”

Daniel 7:13-14

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Psalm 110:1

The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

Aaron Orendorff

The question circling Jesus and his revolutionary, “temple-destroying,” kingdom-of-God movement was a relatively simple one: “How will the kingdom come? How will God’s Messiah—the king and rightful Son—usher in his reign?”

Jesus answer to Caiaphas’ charges and the narrative that follows reveals the answer: “From now on you will see . . .”

What will they see?

For Caiaphas, the Council, the crowds and Roman soldiers, what they will see is a man crushed—utterly decimated—by the world’s most terrifying symbol of imperial and religious power—the cross. And yet, what Jesus says they will see is God’s king enthroned, ascending on the clouds of heaven, ruling and reigning over a kingdom that will never end, never perish and never be destroyed.