Human and Divine – Matthew 22:34-46

A text – Matthew 22:34-46

22:34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,
22:35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
22:36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
22:37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
22:38 This is the greatest and first commandment.
22:39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
22:41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question:
22:42 “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”
22:43 He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
22:44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”‘?
22:45 If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?”
22:46 No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

A reflection:

The Jews have always had a wonderful tradition of sitting together and talking, even arguing, about scripture and theology. I remember Tevia’s dream, if he were a rich man, of sitting in the synagogue and having those conversations with the rabbi and other elders. He sings of it longingly, so dear did he hold his faith and the scriptures and the tradition of hashing them out in community.

Here we see Jesus participating in that long tradition. He is asked a question, meant probably to catch him on one point or another, but Jesus answers in a very acceptable way. Then he himself puts a question to them. It was part of a long tradition. It was a question about the parentage of the Messiah that everyone has awaited for centuries. When the Pharisees reply that the Christ will be the son of David, from David’s lineage, Jesus raises a technical question from the psalms, where David calls the Messiah “my Lord.” We know and the Pharisees know that Jesus has not studied scripture at a university or at the feet of a learned rabbi. But he knows this psalm and many others by heart. They seek to entrap this hick teacher from the north, and he bests them at their own game.

What does this mean for us today? That’s what I am wondering as I look at this text. Jesus has posed to the elders and scholars of his church the question of his own identity. He is a descendant of David (son of David, a fully human great great great …grandchild of David) and he is also the Son of God (a fully divine embodiment of the Lord God Yahweh, Creator of the universe and God of Israel).

How do we live as followers of a human being who is also divine? Do we think about that very much? I don’t very often. But this story is making me contemplate what a fully divine member of the Holy Trinity was doing being born and raised a human being and walking around a desert land with 12 friends/ disciples for three years, giving of himself until he was worn out, modeling a life of prayer and strength for those who followed him until, at last, those very religious leaders who tried so often to entrap him finally caught him and killed him. God the Creator raised him from death to life on Easter, paving our road from death to life forever after. Maybe that’s what the “Son of David“ argument is about. Yes, Messiah is a human descendant of King David, but more, he is also the Son of God. I’m pretty sure his followers thought about this every day in his presence. What would that have been like, I wonder?

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for Jesus, your completely human and completely divine son who came to teach us, heal us, save us from death. Help us to live with the complex idea of his lineage, and help us to remember with gratitude what such a person did just for us. Amen.