Thoughts for the Day

While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he said, ‘How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, by the Holy Spirit, declared,

“The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet.’”

David himself calls him Lord; so how can he be his son?’ And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

We're back at one of Jesus' answers that cause preachers problems. Jesus, we are told is still teaching the people in the Temple, and he uses terms and arguments they would understand. Firstly he takes a Psalm (110) with it's reference to King David - remember they believed that all the psalms were written by David at this time, whereas we would argue that some of them were written by other people. He asks the question 'How can the Messiah be the son of David?' Before we try to establish an answer we should look at the basic meanings of some of the words with which the people would have been familiar, not all of which are in the above passage:

• Messiah: The Hebrew word for 'the Anointed One', that is the one who is King and who will be sent by God.
• The Christ/Christos: The Greek word(s) for 'the Anointed One', that is the one who is King, who will be sent by God. (NB It's not a surname!)
• Son of David: Common title for the Messiah, but associated with being a warrior King.
• Lord: The translation of God's given name 'Yahweh' in the Greek versions of the Hebrew scriptures.
• The scribes: The learned men who studied, transcribed, and wrote commentaries on the Hebrew scriptures.

If we now read the passage above again we can see that Jesus is really stirring up a hornet's nest. He is arguing that his title should not be the 'Son of David', for he has not come to establish a Kingdom through force. Instead he is 'Lord' and he has come as a servant to bring men and women to God. On one level this was shocking, since he equates himself with God, but on another level they have barely understood that he comes as a suffering servant.

Lord,
You came to draw us back to God,
and to call us to a right path.
You came to teach us the way of peace
rather than violence.
You came to suffer for our sake
that we might be forgiven our sins
and be reunited with our Heavenly Father.
May we never forget Your sacrifice
but turn with gratitude to You this day.
Amen.