JESUS' GREATEST SAYING

Fr Gresham said, "Jesus' greatest saying was his answer to Caiphas's question, 'Are you the Christ?' Jesus answered, 'I am;' and 'you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power', and 'coming with the clouds of heaven'." (Mk 14:62) "In the first part of this answer he is quoting the psalm of David 110:1, 'The Lord says to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' Jesus is here claiming to be the Lord of David's psalm." "In the second part of his answer he is quoting Daniel 7:13, 'As I watched the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven, and he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him.' And so he is claiming to be that human figure." "Note the figure comes with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient One. It does not say he comes down to earth. And nowhere in the New Testament does it say that Christ will bodily return to this earth. Rather the movement is towards the Ancient of Days, coming on the clouds. You cannot pin down the language and take it literally because it is Jewish apocalyptic writing. It is like abstract art. In a Picasso painting you cannot say what each bit means. You can see what Picasso is getting at, but you cannot say what each bit is. Just so with Jewish apocalyptic writing." "The Christ, the anointed one, is first raised as an idea in Isaiah.  Isaiah looks forward to a future king of David's line who will reign in justice. 'A shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch will grow out of his roots.' (Isa 11.1) Jeremiah develops this idea." "Only about 200 years before Christ does the idea appear of the Son of Man ." "Christ realised the Davidic King, the anointed one, would have to suffer. He tried to teach the disciples this at various places in the Gospels, but they couldn't accept it. The Jews were horrified at the idea of the Christ suffering. It was Jesus who saw that he must fulfil the suffering servant figure of Isaiah. He combined the three, the Davidic King, the Son of Man (as in Daniel 7:13), and the suffering servant of Isaiah. He was the first to see this." "When Jesus answers Caiaphas, in the Matthew and Luke accounts, he says 'from now on' or 'hereafter'. What do we mean by 'hereafter'. Well, it can be considered in the way 'hereafter' is used in a legal document.  For instance, you could put 'the premises at 7 Bishops Road, N1 8PH, which hereafter will be called 'the house' '. After that in the document it is just called 'the house'. So Jesus means 'from this moment on you will see the Son of Man at the right hand of God'."