The witnesses had failed, so the high priest went straight to the central question. Matthew says he put Jesus under oath: "I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God" (Matthew 26:63). Barnes explains the trap: "If he confessed that he was the Son of God, they stood ready to condemn him for 'blasphemy;' if he denied it, they were prepared to condemn him for being an impostor." Gill says the question arose because Jesus "was given out to be the Messiah, and his disciples believed him to be the Son of God, and he had affirmed himself to be so." The high priest asked the right question, but he asked it to convict, not to believe.

Jesus broke His silence: "I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62). The high priest tore his clothes and called it blasphemy, and "they all condemned him to be guilty of death" (Mark 14:63-64). Matthew records Jesus' answer as "Thou hast said" (Matthew 26:64). Luke tells of the council asking again "as soon as it was day," and Jesus answering, "Ye say that I am" (Luke 22:66, 70). Barnes says "Thou hast said" is "a form of assenting or affirming."

"The Blessed" is a way of naming God without saying His name. The Greek word, eulogetos, means "blessed, praised," and in the New Testament it is used of God. Gill says this was one of the common names of God among the Jews, who often spoke of Him as "the holy blessed he," the One "who is blessed in himself, and the fountain of all blessedness to his creatures." Matthew records the question with "God" instead (Matthew 26:63).

"The Christ" means the Anointed One; Gill calls Him "the anointed of God." Barnes explains "the right hand of power" in Jesus' answer as the right hand of God, "called here the Power," the place of highest honor.

This is the moment Jesus chose to speak. Silent before lies, He answered plainly when asked who He is: "I am" (Mark 14:62). Then He turned the trial around. The prisoner told His judges that they would see Him at God's right hand and coming in the clouds. Gill says "respect is had to the prophecy" of Psalm 110:1, and that reference "seems to be had" to Daniel 7:13, where one like the Son of man comes with the clouds of heaven. Matthew Henry writes, "For the proof of his being the Son of God, he refers to his second coming."

Jesus had foretold that the chief priests and scribes would "condemn him to death" (Mark 10:33), and this answer brought that verdict (Mark 14:64). He gave it anyway. Henry concludes, "In these outrages we have proofs of man's enmity to God, and of God's free and unspeakable love to man."