OUR FATHER WHO CONFOUNDS THE WISE Part 2

The Lord Jesus, in rapid succession, had crossed swords with the religious and political powers in the temple over topics such as the payment of taxes to Rome, the reality of the ressurection from the dead and the hierarchy of the commands in the law of Moses and He demonstrated to all the people that the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who were posturing as the carriers of Israelˋs religious knowledge, did not have a complete understanding of the scriptures or of spiritual reality.

This doctrinal tour de force finalized in Matthew chapter 22 verses 41 - 44 where Jesus posed a question to the Pharisees on the subject of the Messiah whose arrival was being awaited for by all Israel.

41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”

They said to Him, “The Son of David.”

The Lord Jesus, being the Messiah Himself, asked the Pharisees (who were the custodians of the doctrines and traditions of the people of Israel), whose Son the Messiah would be according to the scriptures.

The Pharisees easily answered this question because it was well understood that the Messiah would be from the lineage of king David and so they said, ˋThe Son of Davidˋ.

Jesus had set His own trap for them to demonstrate to them and to the people that the religious leaders had only a partial understanding of the doctrines established in the scriptures.

When they commited themselves to the answer that the Messiah was the Son of David, Jesus then pointed out a paradox in the scripture that they had no answer for.

If the Messiah was the Son of David, why then did David, in Psalm 110 verse 1, call the Messiah his LORD when a son is never greater than his father?

43 He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:

44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool” ’?

45 If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” 46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

This question was unanswerable by the Pharisees because they did not have insight into the nature of the Messiah as the Son of God and how the Messiah would emerge from the lineage of David through Joseph and Mary as Davidˋs son by the Holy Spirit and so the Messiah would be both Davidˋs Lord and Davidˋs son.

This spiritual and corporeal truth, though apparent to us now that the Messiah emerged and brought salvation to the whole world, was completely opaque to the Pharisees and thus the question completely confounded them and they refrained from asking Him further questions on doctrinal matters.

Amen.

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