Matthew 22:41-46

Matthew 22:41-46 Jesus challenges the Pharisees: What do the Psalms say about the Messiah?

Matthew has now presented 3 separate confrontations between Jesus and 3 major factions of Jewish religious and political society: the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees.  Each group hoped to trip him up.  In each case, he not only outwitted them; he gave timeless guidance for how to think about major questions in life.

Jesus now turns the tables and poses a question to the Pharisees.  He knows that they believe, correctly, that the Messiah will be the son of David.  Matthew signaled from the very beginning of his Gospel that this is a key theme of the Gospel, when he presented the genealogy of Jesus in a way that showed that Jesus is the son of David (Matt. 1:1ff) and the Messiah.

First, Jesus asks the Pharisees an easy question.

What does Jesus ask in verse 42, and how do they answer?

Jesus then asks a really difficult question that had never occurred to them.  In verses 44, Jesus quotes from Psalm 110:1.  This psalm begins with a caption attributing the psalm to David, and the Jews of Jesus’s time believed that this psalm was talking about the Messiah.  In verse 43, he points out that David was inspired by the Spirit when he wrote it.

In verses 43-45, what is the meaning of Jesus’s question?  Why is this a difficult question?

In the psalm, David says: The Lord (i.e., God) said to “my lord” (meaning whom?), “Sit at my right hand….”  Who could David be referring to as his “lord”?  The Jews interpreted the psalm as speaking about a son (descendant) of David, but a child is generally not considered greater than the parent.  Who could be of higher stature than David, that David would call him “lord”?  The Jews of Jesus’s time believed that in this psalm David was talking about the future messiah, yet David calls this descendant of his his lord.  Jesus asks, how can this be?  It is a difficult question because it suggests that the messiah is greater than David, not simply a descendant who would restore David’s throne.  How can this be?

If the messiah is greater than David, not just a son of David, what might that suggest about the Messiah?

Jesus is suggesting that this Messiah is greater than David and more than just a “son of David.”  But what could be greater than David?  This raises the possibility that the Messiah is the Son of God.

Is Jesus saying something about himself?  How does this relate to Jesus?

Several people have called Jesus the Son of David in Matthew’s Gospel, and he has never rejected the title.  When the crowd called him the Son of David in Matthew 21:9 as he entered Jerusalem, he did not reject it.  And in Matthew 21:15-16 when the chief priests and scribes criticized the use of that title for Jesus, he embraced it.  So he is indicating that he is greater than David – greater than any human.

If we put the pieces together, Jesus is saying that Jesus is the long-expected Messiah and Son of God, and that David prophesied that God would say to Jesus: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”  If Jesus is described as being at God’s right hand and that God will put his enemies under his feet, what does that say about Jesus?

Are the ideas in this passage old news to you, or does it shed new light on your faith in some way?  What does this passage say to you?

Matthew wants us to understand that Jesus is more than an ordinary messiah, more than a generic descendant of David.  Who is Jesus in your life?  Who is Jesus to you?

Jesus has now stumped the people who should know the most about the Hebrew Scriptures.

What does verse 46 tell us?

Why are they afraid to ask him any more questions?

Should we be afraid to ask Jesus questions about the Scriptures or anything else?  Why not?

Why do you think Matthew has walked through these debates between Jesus and the various Jewish factions?

Among other things, Matthew is showing that no one knows the Old Testament Scriptures better than Jesus and that the Scriptures point to Jesus’s unique identity as the Son of God.  It also sets the stage for what is coming by showing some of the reasons why the Jewish leaders want Jesus dead.  And it shows Matthew’s readers why they can believe in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God.

Looking back at the debates between Jesus and his opponents in Matthew 22:15-46, how does Jesus want us to respond to what we are learning from him in these passages?

Take a step back and consider this:

One of the early debates in the Church, as it was first being formed, was whether Christians needed the Old Testament or could just discard it as a relic of an earlier time before Jesus appeared.

How do you think Jesus would respond to that question?

Why is an understanding of the Old Testament valuable for the faith of a Christian?

What is your relationship with the Old Testament?  Do you find it valuable?  If so, why?  Are there ways you think you could do more to enhance your understanding of the Old Testament?  Why?