Matthew 26:64

‘Jesus said to him, “You have said. Nevertheless I say to you, From now on you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” '

Jesus then seemingly played right into their hands. He could not remain silent when He was being questioned about His very purpose for being here. So He first of all replied (as He was required to), with the words ‘You have said.' This was an indirect acknowledgement of the truth of the claim based on the accuser's own statement. He was basically saying, ‘you have said so, so surely it must be true, although not necessarily in the way that you mean'.

Jesus, however, then went further. For it was in order to testify to this that He had come. And He certainly did not want to deny the very truth on which He stood. So He then informed them that, ‘From now on you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.' As far as Jesus was concerned this was a declaration that in the very near future they would be made aware in no uncertain fashion that the Kingly Rule of Heaven had come and was active on earth, and that that would be as a result of the fact that the Son of Man would have taken His throne as described in Daniel 7:13, modified by Psalms 110:1 (compare Matthew 22:41).

‘Sitting at the right hand of power (i.e. God)' was a specific claim that He would be enthroned and would share God's Rule, ‘coming on the clouds of Heaven' was a specific claim that like God He would act invisibly on earth (Psalms 104:3, compare Psalms 97:2).

‘Coming on the clouds of Heaven'. This was descriptive in the verses mentioned first of how He would approach God, there indicating the heavenly nature of His approach (Daniel 7:13). He was seen as no longer tied to earth. It confirmed Him as associated with the God of the clouds, and with the clouds of God, and therefore as a heavenly being, for it was God Who surrounded Himself with the clouds (Exodus 13:21 and often; Exodus 19:9; Exodus 19:16; Exodus 24:15; Exodus 34:5; Exodus 40:35; and often; 2Sa 22:12; 1 Kings 8:10; Psalms 68:34; Psalms 97:2; Psalms 104:3). But here it is also intended to be illustrative of the fact that He would then, acting invisibly (He would do it in the clouds in the same way as God had previously acted in a veiled way among Israel), cause activity on earth out of Heaven. He would ‘come on the clouds'. This would conform with the Scriptural idea found in the Psalms, for there, when God determines to act on earth, ‘He makes the clouds His chariot, He walks on the wings of the wind' (Psalms 104:3). Consider also ‘His strength is in the skies' (Psalms 68:34); ‘clouds and darkness are round about Him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne (Psalms 97:2); see also Jeremiah 4:13 All these references apart from the last were intended to indicate, not that God was remote and unconcerned, but that He worked mysteriously from the Heavens, acting from and on the clouds, bringing about His purposes. Consider also how the cloud hid yet revealed God's presence and activities at Sinai (Exodus 19:9 and often) and was to be expected when matters came to fruition at the consummation (Isaiah 4:5). Jesus knew that these men had not heard His teaching about His second coming, so it is unlikely that when He spoke of the clouds He was referring to that. They would not have known what He meant. Rather to them ‘coming on clouds' was intended to demonstrate the divine and heavenly nature of His activities, in the same way as YHWH had come on the clouds. We should note how ‘sitting on the right hand of God and coming on the clouds of Heaven' clearly indicates in the above terms both His remaining in Heaven and sharing God's authority, while at the same time acting on earth invisibly in a Heavenly way. This is very different from His second coming when He is depicted as bringing His throne with Him and appearing openly (Matthew 25:31).

‘The right hand of Power' signified ‘the right hand of God', the place of supreme authority, and Matthew later makes clear that the future activities of the disciples on earth will in fact be a manifestation of His active presence (‘I am with you always') precisely because He has been given all authority in Heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). The words ‘right hand of Power' have in mind Psalms 110:1 which Jesus had earlier quoted about Himself (Matthew 22:41).

It should be noted again that this was not a reference to the second coming, although some see it in that way. This was a claim that the Son of Man would shortly be enthroned in Heaven (see Matthew 28:18; Acts 2:36; Acts 7:56 and compare Matthew 16:28), and that those on earth would then be made to observe the consequences of His enthronement. It can be seen as having been fulfilled in Acts where Heaven broke through on earth as God acted through the Apostles. Jesus' words were not, of course, in themselves blasphemous for this was exactly as Daniel had described the activity of the Son of Man. The blasphemy in their eyes arose from the fact that they were fully aware that when He spoke of ‘the Son of Man' Jesus was referring to Himself. (No doubt the witnesses had fairly regularly mentioned His reference to Himself as ‘the son of man'). They were thus seemingly quite ready to identify the Son of Man in Daniel with the Messiah, and recognised that Jesus was identifying Himself with both. The Son of Man certainly had Messianic connections, for both were to be crowned by God with a view to the everlasting Kingdom (Isaiah 9:6; Daniel 7:13). And those assembled would certainly have considered that for an ordinary man to talk like this was blasphemy of a kind.