While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”
They said to Him, “The Son of David.”
He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool”’? If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?’
And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore. (Matthew 22:41-46)
The Pharisees and Sadducees had asked Jesus a number of questions. Now He had a question for them concerning the Messiah: “Whose Son is He?”
They had a ready answer: “The Son of David.” It was the standard answer, safe and acceptable, and quite correct as far as it went. But now Jesus asked the tough question with which they had not wrestled: “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord’?”
Jesus quoted Psalm 110, a messianic psalm written by David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. There David stated, “The LORD said to my Lord …” (v. 1). That is, David referred to Messiah as “my Lord,” recognizing Him as his master. But how could Messiah be both David’s son and David’s master? That was one aspect of the puzzle.
Another aspect was that David recognized this as an accomplished fact, not a future event. Notice the tense. He did not say, “My LORD will say to my Lord,” but “My LORD said to my Lord.” That is, David not only recognized that Messiah was his superior, but also that He somehow already existed. How could that be, unless Messiah was divine, a being from eternity? A few verses later, David said, “The LORD has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek’” (Psalm 110:4).
The Jews were aware of this conundrum but had not been able to work it out. But now here was Jesus standing before them as both the Son of David and the Son of God. That blew their circuits. They had no answer, and they did not ask any more questions, perhaps because they were not willing to go where the answers would lead them.
The kingdom of Heaven on Earth is the kingdom of Messiah, Son of David and Son of God.
The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
Keys to the Kingdom of God
in the Gospel of Matthew
by Jeff Doles
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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.
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