“What do you think of Christ? Whose son is he? They say to Him, David’s. He said to them, How then does David by the Spirit call him Lord, saying, ‘the LORD said to my Lord, Sit on My right until I make Your enemies Your footstool for Your feet?’ If David then calls Him Lord, how is He his son?” Matthew 22:42-45
Who is the Messiah or Christ? Whose son is He? After the Sadducees and the Pharisees had traded off in their attempts to catch Jesus in His words with difficult questions, Jesus turned the tables and asked them a question.
“What do you think of Christ? Whose son is he?”
The Pharisees knew part of the answer. The promised Christ was to be of David’s lineage. The promise had been given to Abraham and His descendants: “And in your Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:18). And God had promised to David: “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam. 7:16; cf. Jer. 23:5-6; 33:15-16; Isa. 55:3ff.; compare this to Matt. 16:13ff.).
What they missed and what many still miss today is what Jesus was pointing out to them by quoting from Psalm 110:1, which literally says: “A Psalm of David. A statement of Jehovah to my Lord: Sit at My right hand, until I place Your enemies as Your footstool” (LITV). If David calls the Messiah lord, how is he David’s son?
No one in Jesus’ audience was able to answer His question. Why? Because they neglected to take into account all that the Old Testament Scriptures revealed concerning the Messiah. They failed to consider that the Messiah was to be the Seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15; to be virgin born according to Isaiah 7:14; to be Jehovah God Himself according to Isa. 9:6-7, Ps. 2, Ps. 110, Jer. 23:5-6, Micah 5:2. Nor did they understand Messiah’s work, Ps. 130:7-8; Isa. 53; etc.
Why is this so important, both then and now? That Jesus’ sufferings and death might be in the stead of mankind and that Christ’s death on the cross might be sufficient to pay for the sins of all the world (Ps. 110:4; Gal. 4:4-5; Heb. 2:14-17; John 1:29; 1 John 2:1-2).
We praise You, O God, for making known to us through the Scriptures that Christ is David’s son and David’s Lord, true God and true man, that He might be our Savior. Amen.