In this passage we find Jesus arrested, dragged before the Sanhedrin, and subjected to myriads of unfounded accusations. In verse 63 the final accusation is levied; “are you the Messiah, the Son of God?”  As He stood before these religious leaders, they saw Him as powerless, defeated, and at the brink of death. By all earthly standards His Kingdom had failed before it ever began.

But Jesus’ response to their question pierced the ears of its hearers as strongly as it pierced the farthest reaches of the cosmos …

“You have said it,” Jesus told him. “But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Jesus had reached back into Daniel chapter 7 and identified Himself as the Son of Man … and they knew it. He wasn’t claiming a title, He was making a declaration.
 
Where the counsel saw a prisoner and blasphemer, Jesus saw the fulfillment of Daniel’s vision. The One they would soon crucify was also the One destined to soon receive everlasting dominion from the Ancient of Days.
 
The Kingdom of God doesn’t advance the way earthly kingdoms do. Human rulers and governments gain power and authority through force, intimidation, or seizing political power. Jesus receives and advances His Kingdom through faithful obedience, sacrificial love, death, resurrection, and exaltation.
 
Following Jesus is far more than making a decision. It means learning His way of living. We were never called to grasp for power like the world does. So many Christians today fall prey to placing their hope and trust in whether or not their political party wins the next election or to the fear that our walk with Jesus depends on the preservation of freedom or the absence of hardship and suffering. It doesn’t. We aren’t called to trust in any of those things, we’ve been called to trust the King who already possesses all power and authority there is to have.

The cross wasn’t the road to defeat, it was the pathway to victory. The risen Christ reigns, right now, as the true King Daniel foresaw centuries earlier. When we follow Jesus, we join ourselves to a Kingdom that cannot fail because it has a King who has already overcome and who is already victorious.

How do you see Jesus' understanding of kingship differently than the worldly ideas of power? What would it look like for you to fully trust Christ's authority more fully this week?
And now the harder question: How have you trusted the powers of this world more than you’ve trusted the King of Glory?

Father, thank you for coming to earth as the Son of Man, the eternal King. Teach me to follow your ways and trust you more than I trust anything else, especially when circumstances are dark and uncertain. Amen.