41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
“The son of David,” they replied.
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,
44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet.”’[e]
45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Jesus Shuts Everyone Up
Jesus has systematically shut down the religious system of the Jewish people and shown it to be obsolete. This may seem offensive, but Jesus showed he had the authority. He came triumphantly to Jerusalem. He drove out money-changers in the temple and cursed a fig tree as symbolic gestures of judgement and closure. The Jewish leaders came back at him with their best questions that they thought would show him to be a fake. He answers in chapter 22, first the Herodians, then the Sadducees, and finally the Pharisees. He shows himself as a superior opponent to each. He also shows grace because he lets them know where they are in error. Each group could have turned and followed him as Messiah, but in refusing to do so they damn themselves. He ceases their questioning by asking them a question of his own. The question about the nature of the Messiah in the passage above shows that he is both the Son of David, but also as Messiah he is something much greater. Without the doctrine of Trinity, the Jewish people had no way to answer him and so they leave him alone.
There are many today who think that they have clever attacks on Jesus which show Christian belief in Creation, Trinity, or any kind of God to be fairy tales in line with believing in a Spaghetti Monster or fairies. The heart behind the questions is corrupt and the desire to oppose God is depraved. In the end Jesus will declare, “I did not know you.” Judgement will be final and those in opposition to Jesus will take their cleverness, self-dependence, and cynicism to a place where there is darkness, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.
Questions
- What did Jesus ask the Pharisees?
- Why do you think Jesus decided to turn the tables on the questioning?
- Why couldn’t the Pharisees answer?
- How will Jesus turn the tables on those who judge him today?
- What is the difference between the Q/A sessions with disciples and with enemies of the gospel?
Plymothian 