35 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? 36 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.”’[h]
37 David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”
The large crowd listened to him with delight.
Question 1
What kind of person would you call ‘Lord’?
Question 2
So who would King David have called the Lord?
We’ve heard the title Son of David many times now. In this section Jesus is trying to show the people something amazing about himself.
The people accepted that the Messiah was going to be in the line of David. God promised that he would raise someone from that family to be King. And indeed, Jesus was part of the family through his father Joseph, and his natural mother Mary.
But Jesus wants them to see that there is something more to say about the Messiah. He does this by quoting from a psalm (a type of song) that David wrote. The psalm says that God (the Lord) has said something to another person who is called ‘my Lord’. This second person receives a great status as God commands him to sit in the most important place, at his right hand.
Jesus says that God speaks in the psalm to the Messiah. If David therefore calls the Messiah the Lord, then two things are true. Firstly, although the Messiah is called the Son of David, he must be more important than David, who has more authority – he is even Lord of King David! Secondly, it is clear that this Messiah the people expected existed with God when the psalm was written. If so, what Jesus has to say is incredible. He is the Messiah who has more strength and authority than David. What’s more, before he came into the world he existed with God in heaven.
Question 3
How does seeing all the ways people had talked about Jesus hundreds of years before he came give us reassurance?
Question 4
How should we respond when we hear that Jesus is God and has existed in heaven since before the creation of the world?
Pray
thank God for his King who is going to punish all evil things and all his enemies.
