Readings
- Leviticus 26:27–42
- Ephesians 1:1–10
- Matthew 22:41–46
- Psalm: 119:97–120
Matthew 22:41–46
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?"
They said to him, "The son of David."
He said to them, "How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet"'?
If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?"
No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
Notes
Tomorrow is Ascension Day, and the lectionary gives us a christology passage to lean into it. Matthew 22:41–46 is the climax of a long stretch of rhetorical sparring in the temple courts. Several groups have spent the chapter trying to trap Jesus with questions. Now Jesus turns and asks one of them, and no one can answer.
Verses 41–42. Jesus asks the Pharisees: What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he? They answer immediately: The son of David. This was the standard first-century messianic expectation, the Messiah as a descendant of David, the great king restored, the rightful heir of the Davidic line. They give the textbook answer.
Verses 43–45. Jesus then quotes Psalm 110:1: The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet." And he asks: If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?
This is one of the more elegant rhetorical traps in the gospels, and it requires a moment with the Hebrew. The psalm reads YHWH said to my Adonai — the LORD (the divine name) said to my Lord. David is the speaker. The first "Lord" is unambiguously God; the second "Lord" is the figure being seated at God's right hand. Jesus' question is sharp: if David, the great king, calls this figure "my Lord," that figure cannot merely be David's descendant. He must be greater than David.
The Pharisees have no answer. From that day no one dared to ask him any more questions.
What is Jesus doing? He is pressing them into territory the standard messianic expectation could not cover. The Messiah of Psalm 110 is enthroned at the right hand of God, addressed by David as Lord, given dominion over enemies. That is not the picture of a merely human king restored. That is the picture of a figure who shares God's own throne.
A word on christology while we're here. It is currently fashionable in some scholarly circles to argue that the divinity of Jesus was a late development, that the early Christians did not initially believe Jesus was divine, that John alone gives us a high christology, that Paul didn't really mean it.
I don't buy that. Richard Hays put it well (paraphrased): "If you don't see the gospels having a high christology, you're just saying you don't know the Hebrew Bible very well." The synoptics' Jesus is presented in language, imagery, and allusion drawn deeply from the Hebrew Bible's vocabulary for YHWH: calming the sea, walking on the water, forgiving sin, accepting worship. The high christology is already there in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John makes it explicit; the synoptics carry it in the structure of their references.
Today's passage is a fine example. Jesus quotes Psalm 110 and uses it to point at his own identity: I am the Lord David called Lord. I sit at the right hand of God.
The Ascension connection. Tomorrow's feast is the enthronement of Jesus as King. The early church understood the Ascension not as Jesus leaving but as Jesus being seated. The Apostles' Creed: He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. That last phrase is a direct quotation of Psalm 110:1, Sit at my right hand.
N. T. Wright has called this the question the gospels are finally answering: How did God become King? The Ascension is the answer made visible.
Questions for reflection
The Pharisees gave the textbook answer (the son of David) and stopped there. Where in your faith have you given the textbook answer and stopped, when the text was inviting you to push further?
If the Ascension is enthronement—God becoming King through Jesus — what does that mean for your loyalties, your politics, your daily allegiances? Who actually sits on the throne in your interior life?
