Hey everybody! Thank you for joining me in daily Bible reading as we seek to glorify Jesus, know Him more, and interpret the truth of His Word.
If this is your first time going through the Bible, I am incredibly excited to have you here. If this is your 5000th time, I am humbled that you are here and hope you grow in your relationship with Jesus along with me. May we all seek to know Him more and apply what we learn to further our mission of spreading the gospel. If you missed a day and want to catch up, visit the archives page HERE! But there is no shame if you start today! Day 252, Matthew 22:41-46 — Christ’s Lordship Matthew 22:41-46 (NASB1995) “Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: 42 “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying, 44 ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET”’? 45 If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?” 46 No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.” Context Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem roused the religious leaders into questioning His authority since He was not associated with the Sanhedrin and held no position of human authority. However, Jesus knows they intend to discredit or accuse Him further instead of having a productive debate. Therefore, Jesus responds with His own question and teaches multiple parables to show the Sadducees their error. They then plot to have Jesus arrested, which leads to further discussions about taxes, marriage, and other topics. Review Yesterday, we read about the second greatest commandment about loving your neighbor as yourself. This reference comes from Leviticus 19:18, which speaks about not taking vengeance against a person. Notably, this love does not mean personal affection, but moral love. It is a love that desires another person’s good and highly esteems, values, delights in, supports, and has concern for their well-being. This selfless, self-sacrificial love breaks strongholds of hate, resentment, retribution, and wrongdoing. This is the love Jesus desires us to have for one another. But this love is impossible without first loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind. We also learned the importance of recognizing that these two commandments about loving God and loving your neighbor are not exclusive, but symbiotic. One cannot obey the first commandment without obeying the second, and vice versa. God's highest priority for His people is to be fully and completely loved by them—and upon that love, every other act of belief, faith, or obedience is dependent, including loving others. This revelation reveals that God’s heart is love—to love Him and then love oneself and others. No other law or prophecy is more established or esteemed by God than this. Everything we do, think, say, and desire should stem from our love for God, which pours out from our innermost being into our lives. Ultimately, this endearing love rooted in God becomes a contagion, motivating others to come to know Him and His love. This hopeful interaction with Jesus led the Pharisee closer to putting his faith in Jesus as the Messiah—and notably, it was all because of Jesus’ loving approach to an initially vengeful question. Discussion Today, we read about the eternal Lordship of Christ. Following the interaction between Jesus and the lawyer, the Pharisees once again gathered together to plot their next question. They have been debating all day about various topics, but have repeatedly failed in their attempts to trap Jesus in His words. It seems this might be their last opportunity to ask Him a challenging question. However, Jesus asks them a question instead about the Messiah’s identity. He asks, “42 What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” This is the question of all questions, as one’s eternal salvation is reliant upon how one answers it. Most Jews, including Jesus’ disciples, believed the Messiah would come as a warrior king to overthrow the Roman Empire—or at least free Jerusalem from Roman occupation and establish His rule to bring Israel into glory. However, Jesus has not come for any of those reasons yet. His first coming was as a suffering servant to provide a way of salvation for all people who faithfully love God. The Pharisees reply, saying, “The son of David.” This was the most common title among the Jewish people given to the Messiah, and it was right. The Old Testament prophesies the Messiah will come from the line of David (Is. 9:7; 11:1; Ps. 2; 89; 132; Jer. 23:5; 33:15).[1] Thus, by its very definition, the Messiah was a royal descendant of David. Furthermore, Matthew establishes this from the very beginning of his gospel as he details the genealogy of Jesus to prove Jesus is the Messiah. However, the Pharisees’ limited human understanding leaves them perplexed, as Jesus replies, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying, 44 ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET”’? 45 If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?” The statement in v. 44 references Psalm 110:1 verbatim. In that passage, David says he will call the Messiah ‘Lord’, meaning the One who would reign was not merely his descendant in the flesh, but much greater than he.[2] Ancient Jews understood the Holy Spirit spoke through David, which made all His writings inspired by God. However, they did not apply Psalm 110:1 to the Messiah as David meant it.[3] In the religious leaders’ minds, they assumed the Messiah was inferior to David according to the flesh—as his son.[4] This is correct, but they did not understand the equally divine nature of the Messiah, which makes Him sovereignly superior to David. Jesus confirms David’s writings are Spirit-inspired in His response, further revealing the Messiah’s Lordship over David (v. 43). It takes spiritual understanding to recognize the correlation between the human and divine natures of the Messiah—an understanding that most Pharisees could not understand. This revelation completely turns the Pharisees’ understanding of the Messiah and the Scriptures upside down. They correctly agree that the Messiah is the Son of David as prophesied, but they cannot comprehend the idea that David remains eternally inferior to the Messiah because of His divine nature. In reality, David calling the future Messiah ‘Lord’ invokes submission to His eternal Lordship, which also subtly reveals Jesus as part of the Trinitarian Godhead. Thus, Jesus’ question and revelation leave the Pharisees stumped, as “46 no one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.” In conclusion, Jesus asking about why David would call his own descendant ‘Lord’ implies that the Messiah will eternally reign over David and all of Israel. The Messiah will be the sovereign Lord over David and sovereign Lord over all—while Jesus is the ‘son of David’ in the flesh, He is also the ‘Lord’ of David in the Spirit. The Messiah’s divinity sadly remains the stumbling block for many practicing Jews to this day, leaving them in unforgiven darkness. Application This was a very cool passage to study, but it left me feeling somewhat sad. The revelation of the Messiah in the Old Testament is undeniable, yet so many Jewish people reject the Prophets and New Testament divine revelations. Some also rely solely on the Torah, which still reveals Christ, but they cannot see it. They remain in darkness because of their limited understanding of the Messiah’s divine nature. This conversation with the Pharisees was remarkable, as Jesus answered their every question in authoritative detail. The revelation that He is the Christ in Matthew’s gospel is simply mesmerizing, as we see it from the very beginning in his genealogy. If you believe the Bible as God’s inspired word, then there is no denying that the Jewish Messiah is Lord over all—and that Messiah is Jesus. He came for the first time as a suffering servant to save humanity from its sins and defeat death. He will come again one day as a warrior king as prophesied to destroy His enemies and establish His eternal reign in Jerusalem. Throughout our study of Matthew, that is one of the coolest things that has stuck with me. The fact that Jews were waiting for the Messiah to free them from the oppression of the wicked, destroy their enemies, and establish His rule. This is the same reality that we modern Christians await. One day, the Messiah will return to free us entirely from wickedness, destroy sin, and establish His eternal kingdom with all who put their faith and trust in him. I cannot wait for that day. May we praise, worship, honor, and glorify Jesus every day in all that we do while continually pursuing righteousness, holiness, and forgiveness as He forgave us. Looking Ahead Thank you for joining today’s daily Bible reading! Next, we read Matthew 23:1-7. I hope you join me! I have made commenting available, so please feel free to discuss the reading and ask questions. If you do not want to discuss publicly, you can reach out to me privately. We are on this journey together. References [1] Craig Keener, “IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Second Edition.” [2] Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, “Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary.” [3] Keener, “IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Second Edition.” [4] Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, “Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary.”
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