Matthew 22: 34 – 45
Ask a question, get a question
Today’s topic is ‘Ask a question, get a question. The Scribes ask our Great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the question ‘Which is the Greatest Commandment of all?’ With His answer the religious leaders were speechless. Then our Lord takes a turn and asks them a question, ‘How can David call His descendant Lord?’ To this question the religious leaders are guess what? -speechless. The only different thing that occurs when our Lord asked the question is that they refrain from ever asking Him any more questions again. Way to go Lord!
As we begin let us look at what the Gospels record on these two incidents.
Matthew 22 “34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Mark 12, “28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” 29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. 33 And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” But after that no one dared question Him.”
Matthew 22, 41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying: 44 ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool”’? 45 If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” 46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.
Mark 12, “35 Then Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David? 36 For David himself said by the Holy Spirit: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’ 37 Therefore David himself calls Him ‘Lord’; how is He then his Son?” And the common people heard Him gladly.
Luke 20, “41 And He said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David? 42 Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, 43 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’ 44 Therefore David calls Him ‘Lord’; how is He then his Son?”
In preparing for this teaching I dug out my old notes from my time in the ‘Debate Club’. Our school would compete against other schools. For a shy highly emotion Irish boy I felt that taking this challenge on would develop me with strong discipline.
Skilled debating is an art. To win arguments and convince others of your views you must understand the basic components of logic, psychology, and effective communication.
The team would be given an issue and then assigned a ‘for’ or ‘against’ position. Research had to be done on the ‘issue’ so you could grasp knowledge then not only did you have to formulate questions on your position but think about what the opponents would ask.
Once the debate begins your opponent will respond to your thesis by objecting to one or more of your premises, which are the reasons you have given to support your position. If you are well informed about your position, most of the objections should already be familiar to you. Use logic and evidence to show your opponent why his or her objections do not work.
A key point which I needed a lot of prayer was that you need to remain calm, rational, and reasonable always. You may feel that your opponent is totally failing to understand your position, but if you become too agitated, your opponent will take this as a sigh of weakness and conclude that he has you on the ropes. Rather than helping to convince your opponent, shouting or insulting remarks will only serve to make him more confident in his position. Emotional behavior is no substitute for rational arguments.
So, today we are going to see that the religious leaders bring out the big guns against our Holy Master and King. They bring in an expert debater to challenge Him.
Our Lord Jesus’ success over the Sadducees was sufficiently impressive to cause rumors concerning it to spread around which came to the ears of the Pharisees. They also had failed to trap Him, but it gave them the idea that perhaps they could at least get Him involved in controversy. Then at least, in a nation which was full of people with fervent and fixed but differing views, some people would be disillusioned with Him. And they recognized that they had to hand such a question, a question which was hotly debated, and that was as to which law out of the over six hundred laws that they had identified from the Law of Moses was the most important to fulfil. This could be a minefield. For whichever law He chose they would be able to suggest His lack of sympathy with other very important laws. And if He refrained from agreeing that one was more important than the other then they could accuse Him of folly.
So they came to Him, and through one of their Scribes, put the question to Him. And in reply He referred them to Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18 which He saw as covering them all, for it revealed that Jesus saw love for God and love for man as lying at the root of all the commandments. This would certainly not be the only time when He was faced with a question like this, for it was such a popular one that it was no doubt put to Him time and again.
“34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
The Pharisees had no doubt heard with approval that Jesus had confuted the Sadducees on their favorite topic, but it only stirred them up the more to try to show Him up. So they came together again for that purpose (compare for ‘testing’ Jesus 16.1; 19.3).
35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,
This time there would be no pretense that the question came from innocent seekers. Rather they wanted to bring out their big guns against Him, and they approached Him through ‘a teacher of the Law’, with a question which was a much debated, and one on which there were many views.
The word for ‘teacher of the Law’ is nomikos (thus ‘law expert’), only found here in Matthew, but more often in Luke where it generally has in mind the Scribes. A ‘nomikos’ was a higher grade of Scribe, a leading expert, a top lawyer of high experience was selected so that once Jesus gave His answer, possibly citing one of the ten commandments, he could engage in controversy with Him on the matter, exposing His viewpoint as wrong, and hopefully entangling Him and showing Him up. They wanted to demonstrate their clear superiority.
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
His question was simply as to which the greatest and most important commandment in the whole of the Law was. Some of the Scribes and Pharisees did in fact class certain laws as being of greater and higher importance than other laws, and there was much debate about the importance of each and especially about which was the most important of all. Thus, they attempted to differentiate the importance of different commandments, separating them into ‘great’ or ‘heavy’ and ‘little’ or ‘light’, and would often seek to trace them back to a general principle.
Others frowned at seeking to select out one Law in this way and considered that all were equally important. They felt that there was none that could be omitted. And so important was this principle considered to be that the Laws from the book of Moses were listed so that they produced 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands. All believed that every law had to be treasured and obeyed, it was just that some felt that they could be graded in order of importance, while others gave them equal importance. Thus, some thought that the greatest commandment must be the one (whichever it was) which would count the most when God weighed men up, for their continual concern was how to be approved before God. For they found it difficult to appreciate the Scriptural emphasis on the fact that approval before God came though faith in Him (Genesis 15.6), and response to Him (Habakkuk 2.4), and they therefore sought rather to build up merit before Him.
That these attitudes could lead on to a cold, stern obedience lacking in love is obvious, and the danger was that it had tended to take their eyes off God and focus them on themselves (compare Luke 18.11-12). Keeping the Law had in fact become the be all and end all of many of their lives. This was, however, the very opposite of what Jesus felt that their attitudes should be.
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
Jesus went right to the heart of the matter, citing Deuteronomy 6.5. This could hardly fail to meet with their approval for it was in fact a verse which was central to Jewish worship and repeated by every good Jew each day. They would thus not have doubted its great importance. And this verse points out that the most important of God’s requirements is that we love Him ‘with heart and soul and mind’, in other words with the whole of our inward beings. (Mark also has ‘and mind’ and adds ‘and strength’ which is found in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy, however, omits ‘mind’, although having said that, mind is included within the Old Testament idea of the ‘heart’. Thus, all the descriptions intertwine, for where a man’s heart and soul and mind are involved, so also is his strength). So, Jesus was saying that this love for God lies at the heart of all true worship, and of all true morality.
What we are to understand by ‘loving God’. It indicates the kind of response that longs for God and continually owns His worth, and thus longs to please Him and do His will because of His total worthiness. But it also includes along with that the idea of trusting Him fully and serving Him truly And once this command is in place and observed all the rest truly is commentary, for it embraces all that God requires of us. Once a man or woman loves God like this their whole lives will be lived to please Him, and they will seek to be ‘perfect’ even as He is ‘perfect (5.48).
38 This is the first and great commandment.
Then Jesus emphasized the centrality of this commandment. This, He said, is the great commandment, and comes before all others. All else pales beside it. For if we truly love God then our behavior will be God-like and all else will fall into place. It is also the first because it must come before all others in importance.
39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
But Jesus then adds a second to ensure that love for each other is given its rightful place and not overlooked (for man can be guilty of such insensitivity that in his supposed love for God he neglects his neighbor), and that was ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself’. This second, which is ‘like to the first’, also emphasizes love, and is taken from Leviticus 19.18. It especially has in mind the need for complete honesty, fair judgment, non-talebearing, and avoiding all hatred, vengeance, and the bearing of grudges (compare 5.21-48), while at the same time allowing for the rebuking of a neighbor in love (7.1-5), although always without permanent rancor (Leviticus 19.13-18) Thus love for God, resulting also in love for one another, are to be seen as the two central features of the Law, paralleling and lying behind the two sections of the ten commandments, the Godward and the man ward.
40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
That is why Jesus could say that the whole Law hangs on these two commandments, together with the prophets. For without this love neither the Law nor the prophets can be fulfilled.
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
It indicated their hostility and their intention to bring Jesus crashing down. So, Jesus, having dealt with their hostile questions, put to them His own question.
42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.”
First He asked them what their view was about the Messiah. Whose son did they see him to be? In the light of the beliefs of the time that was not a difficult one and they promptly replied, ‘the son of David’. David was the glorious king of the past who had overshadowed all other kings. In their eyes he was the prototype of all that was good in kingship. And to see the Messiah as his son was to see Him as glorious indeed from an earthly point of view. But Jesus’ point here is that that is not enough.
Note that this is not strictly a use of the title ‘the Son of David’ but is more a statement of fact in line with 1.1, 17 and is thus emphasizing lineage, that is, that He is the son of David. He is the One in the line of David Who was promised as coming (Isaiah 9.2-7; 11.1-4; Jeremiah 23.5; Ezekiel 34.23-24). It has a slightly different nuance to the title ‘the Son of David’ as used to refer to the One with royal healing powers (like Solomon), although the result is the same for both connect Him with the house of David and with the Messiah.
43 He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:
But Jesus then turns their minds to the Scriptures, and He refers them to Psalm 110. Psalm 110 was a psalm ‘of David’ and David was believed by all present, including Jesus, to be its author, something which He specifically implies. If we accept that Jesus infallibly knew the mind of God that would seem to settle the question of authorship. And the only grounds for thinking otherwise would be the actual interpretation of the Psalm.
Jesus’ view of the full inspiration of the Psalms is also brought out by His words, for He speaks of ‘David in the Spirit calling Him Lord’. Thus, He sees David as having been divinely inspired by the Spirit in the writing of the Psalm, and on that basis, He says, ‘If the Messiah is only David’s son, why does David call Him Lord?’ The obvious answer can only be ‘because He is to be seen as a greater than David’. We must, of course, remember that David had been given the promise that his heirs would rule over the everlasting kingdom (2 Samuel 7.13, 16), and that God’s coming ‘anointed one’ would rule the world (Psalm 2.2, 8-9). He would therefore look ahead to a greater than himself.
44 ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool”’?
He then amplifies that further by citing the Psalm. On Jesus’ interpretation the LORD (YHWH) had said to David’s Lord, “You sit on my right hand, until I put your enemies underneath your feet?” To be placed on the right hand was to be given supreme honor (Psalm 45.9). The Messiah was thus to be supremely honored by God and vested with His authority. To have all enemies put under His feet indicated total victory over all His enemies. Thus, the Messiah was to be totally supreme enjoying the very authority of God Himself, and acting in His Name (28.18-20).
45 If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?”
That all being so, how can he be called simply David’s son? The idea behind the title ‘son of David’ is therefore to be insufficient for a description of the Messiah. ‘Calls Him Lord’ is here to be indicating all that is included in the quotation in verse 44. Thus, David is seen as declaring and proclaiming the supreme power and authority that will be the Messiah’s, setting Him far above himself (compare Romans 1.3-4), and we know from what is previously said that this title Messiah refers to Jesus. The supreme light (4.16) is now shining before Israel.
This does not, of course indicate that the Messiah would not be the son of David lineally. It indicates rather that he could not be seen in the way that He was by the Pharisees, as inferior to or simply on a level with David, and as acting in the same way that David did. He must not be equated with David on the same terms. In Hebrew thought ‘son of --’ indicated not only relationship, but likeness in standing and behavior. However, the point here is that there was no way in which David could be the full archetype of the Messiah because the Messiah was so much greater than David. He operated in ways, and with a power, that David could never have dreamed of, in other words, as He Himself did.
46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.
Once again, they could give Him no answer, for they had to mentally acknowledge the truth of what He said. But they were not willing to receive it into their hearts, and there is a sense in which at this moment they finally sealed their own fate, as described in what follows in 23 onwards, because of the hardening of their hearts.
It was also the end of trying to test Jesus out. No one from that day on dared to ask Him any more questions. So, they withdrew to lick their wounds, and began instead to plot His death. They now recognized that it was the only way in which they could defeat Him. It was the recognition of their intellectual and spiritual dishonesty in this that caused Jesus to speak as He does in chapter 23. They had as a body proved themselves to be beyond redemption.
