Son Of David And Son Of God

Matthew 22:34-46

Throughout Matthew 22, the various political and religious groups in Jerusalem have been been trying to entrap Jesus in His words.  They were hoping that He might say something that would incriminate Himself, either with the Roman government, or the High Priests and religious authorities.  At the very least they were hoping that Jesus would say something that would anger or disappoint the people, lose credibility, and they would turn away from Him.  In our verses today a lawyer who was also a Pharisee, came to Jesus with another question.  He wanted to know, out of all the myriad of laws in their religion, which one was the most important, or greatest one (vs. 34 - 36).  Let’s look at how Jesus answered this man.

In verse 37 we read that Jesus told him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  This answer Jesus gave him comes from Deuteronomy 6:5.  We are to love God completely, with every part of our being.  This is first and foremost (vs. 38).  Jesus doesn’t stop there, though.  Jesus goes on to say that the second most important commandment is right behind it, and that is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (vs. 39).   This was a quote from Leviticus 19:18, a different rephrasing of the Golden Rule.  We are to show our love for others by what we would wish done to ourselves.

These two commandments sum up man’s whole moral duty - to give love for God and love for our neighbor.  The first, love for God, encompass the first four of the 10 Commandments.  The second, love for neighbor, encompass the last six commandments.  By keeping these two commandments we keep all of the rest.  If we truly love God and also our neighbor, we keep all of the commandments.  Paul could rightly say that love is the fulfillment of the Law in Romans 13:10.

Now Jesus turns the tables on these groups who had been trying to entrap Him.  The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians had all been testing Him.  Jesus now had a test for them.  Whose son would the Messiah be?  (vs. 41 - 42)   Their response of “son of David” was a common term for the Messiah in their day.  But it also showed that they felt the Messiah would be only a man, a human.  Jesus’s answer to them was an assertion of His deity (vs. 43 - 45).

The Pharisees believed the Messiah would be a descendant of David, but they didn’t understand that He would also be God.  In verse 44 Jesus quoted to them from Psalm 110:1.   King David would not have called a mere human descendant “Lord”.  The title “Son of David”, though a term for the Messiah, could not completely capture all that is true of the Messiah, who is also the Son of God.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews, throughout his Epistle, tried to show that Jesus, the Messiah, was greater than both angels and Moses.  He also quoted, in Hebrews 1:13, from Psalm 110 to show the Messiah’s deity.  Though Jesus never went around shouting out that He was God in the flesh, there were a number of times throughout the Gospels where He did indicate that He was, indeed, God, and this was one of them.  We see it also in John 14:8-11; John 9:35-37; and John 8:58, just to name a few.  Many people today try to claim that Jesus was just a good man, but not God.  As the Scriptures clearly show, though, that Jesus was both truly man and truly God.