FULLY MAN AND FULLY LORD

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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,

“‘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 on no one dared to ask Him any more questions.

Matthew 22:41-46

While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, He asked, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, speaking 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.’ How then can he be His son?”

The large crowd listened to him with delight.

Mark 12:35-37

Then Jesus said to them, “Why is it said that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself declares in the Book of Psalms:

“‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’

David calls Him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be His son?”

Luke 20:41-44

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jesus wasn’t really all that new on the ministry scene as He carried on exchanges with all the major groups of Jews during His final week before crucifixion in Jerusalem. He had talked with the Pharisees, followers of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, teachers of the law, elders, chief priests, and Herodians. In addition to this who’s who of Jewish religious culture, Jesus also spoke to a group of Greeks who were interested in this new theology He was preaching, a theology that offered salvation for all people, Jew or Gentile.

Yes, Jesus had been answering the call of God for many years before these encounters and yet, the people still didn’t quite understand who He really was, even after He had invested considerable time trying to reveal His identity.

All the groups mentioned had been peppering Jesus with questions, some asked with legitimate interest in learning something from Him while others delivered with evil intent. As an example, you’ll remember that the Pharisee disciples and Herodians sought Jesus’ opinion on whether the tax should be paid to Caesar in what was an attempt to get Him to say something they could use to bring the Romans against Jesus.

As we see in our passage for today, it’s Jesus who goes on the offensive and directs a question toward the Pharisees who were gathered together. He asked them:

“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is He?”

To which the Pharisees responded:

“The son of David.”

A couple points of interest here.

First, note that the Pharisees were not rebutting the fact that a Messiah would come, just as the prophets had foretold. They were obviously onboard with the possibility that a Messiah was a possibility, even if they had not yet embraced the fact that He was standing right in their midst in the person of Jesus.

Second, the Pharisees knew the lineage of the coming Messiah, that He would come from the line of David and thus bear the title, “David’s son”. For they were well aware of the words of the prophet Jeremiah who said this:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.” Jeremiah 23:5-6

We have the luxury of having the New Testament scriptures today and through them we learn these two things:

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Elihud, Elihud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. Matthew 1:6-16

and

In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. Luke 2:1-5

The word of God definitely validates that Jesus was indeed in the line of David, the renowned king of Israel, and so the Pharisees did answer Jesus correctly in connecting Jesus to saying He was David’s son, a phrase that simply indicated that Jesus was a descendant of David. But you see, the response given by the Pharisees was flawed in that it was incomplete.

For Jesus was not only David’s son but God’s as well. He was both fully man and fully a divine Lord, a truth Jesus was ready to convey as he asked two more questions with a scripture excerpt from the 110th Psalm in between, a verse that carried the very words of David within it. He first asked:

“How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls Him ‘Lord’?

Then followed it up with the opening verse of the aforementioned psalm:

“‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ v1

And then asked the second question:

“If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”

Jesus wanted the Pharisees to understand that although He was connected to David, He was also connected to God in a way no one else was. This is what set the Messiah apart from any other person, their intimate, spiritual oneness with the Father who sent Him from heaven to earth. A man who was fully Lord fully became human and walked among the people of God.

This was the real essence of who Jesus was, the roots of His genealogy.

How did the Pharisees respond to this revelation?

They responded like all the others who had come before them, all those mentioned earlier in this message who questioned Jesus. They chose to ask no further questions and spoke not a single word in reply.

Indeed, Jesus was like no other man they had ever encountered, full of holiness, unprecedented knowledge, wisdom, divine power, and discernment.

In other words, about what you might expect from someone who was fully man but also fully Lord.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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