Matthew 22:41-46

Matthew 22:41-46 NIV

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
“The son of David,” they replied. 
He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, and“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” ' If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day ondared to ask him any more questions.

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What we have here is a failure to interpretate. Of course I'm spoofing on the famous line from the 1967 film "Cool Hand Luke". The actual quote was given by a prison guard to the inmates. "What we have here is a failure to communicate." I use a non-word "interpretate" to spoof on communicate.

As I read this battle of wits between Jesus and the Pharisees, I realize I'm witnessing the arguments going on inside the synagogues in Matthew's day. Remember that the gospel according to Matthew was written primarily for a Jewish Christian community. The tension between Jesus and the Pharisees in the gospel account are likely representations of similar conflicts within the synagogues in 1st century Palestine.

After having been challenged a number of times by the Pharisees with tricky questions, Jesus asks them one of His own. He asks whose son is the Messiah.

Everybody knows the Messiah will come from the kingly line of David. The messiah will be a direct decedent of Israel's most beloved king. God established an everlasting covenant with David that He would always have a son of David, that is a descendant, sit upon the throne to shepherd Israel. All prophetic hopes for the restoration of Israel are tied to the political rise of a son of David. Here's a passage from Isaiah.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord — and he will delight in the fear of the Lord . He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobraʼs den, and the young child will put its hand into the viperʼs nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11:1-9 NIV

Jesse was David's father. So from the same family that produced David will come another righteous ruler, through David. It's a poetic way of pointing to hope in God's covenant with David to always have a son of David to shepherd Israel. And the stump of Jesse points to the fact that the line of Davidic kings had been interrupted or cut down, like a felled tree. God's covenant did, however, have a provision.

When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’ ”
2 Samuel 7:12-16 NIV

So long as the Son of David does what is right, shall he remain on the throne. History shows that a great many of David's descendants did not do right. So God punished them, as He promised, with the force of enemy nations. David himself committed murder to hide his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. As a result, his household was riddled with conflict thereafter.

God's covenant with David never brought about the peaceful and prosperous kingdom that was hoped for. That is because of human sinfulness. Even a man like David, who is said to be a man after God's own heart, sins. Jesus, while being from the household of David, via Joseph, was not a blood relative to David. He was from Mary's womb, but Joseph was not His father. God was. That, I believe, is the point of this question about whose son is the Messiah.

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 1:18 NIV

Joseph was going to divorce Mary quietly, but an angel spoke to him in a dream and explained the divine seed within Mary. Joseph obediently raised Jesus as his own. Jesus is not a figurative son of God, as earthly kings may claim such status, but the actual only begotten Son of God.

When the Pharisees answered Jesus' question that the Messiah is the son of David, Jesus then challenged them with a psalm.

Psalm 110 is a royal psalm celebrating the king of Judah.

The Lord (The God of Israel) says to my lord (the king, who is the master over the royal court scribe who wrote this psalm): “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
Psalm 110:1 NIV

The appropriate interpretation, in its original context and intent, is inferred by my parenthetical comments above. You can see the problem with Matthew's Jesus and His interpretation. It's a huge leap from the original meaning. Jesus referred to the tradition that believed King David wrote this psalm. Most scholars date the psalm centuries later after David was long since dead. The scribes who collected the psalms, as we have them today, attributed Psalm 110 to David. Here's what that tradition held.

(1) David is the author of the psalm.

(2) What David wrote was divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit.

(3) David was not writing about just any king, but about Messiah, who was to be his son and his Lord.

This interpretation grew within the messianic hopes of Judaism, not Christianity. Jesus is using their own teachings with the Pharisees to get them to see that the Messiah is not simply a human descendant of David, but divine.

Thus Jesus asks the Pharisees, "If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” They couldn't answer because they knew that their own beliefs about messiah would mean that they might be wrong about Jesus, for the reports about Him show Him to be a mighty prophet with miraculous powers to heal and raise the dead, and produce abundant food from next to nothing. God was with Jesus. God is Jesus. Jesus is God. God is love and Jesus is the embodiment of love.

This rather long-winded reflection leads me to conclude that while the interpretation of Psalm 110:1 moves far beyond its original meaning, which is usually a bad idea, what God did in Jesus Christ broke all the barriers. The world moved into a new paradigm when God came to live among us in Christ. Only God can truly be the righteous king who will fulfill Israel's hopes. All glory and honor to King Jesus who reigns forever!