Digging the Word: Was Jesus The Messiah

It's Jesus' turn to ask the Pharisees some questions.

Luke 20:41-47 Then Jesus presented them with a question. “Why is it,” he asked, “that the Messiah is said to be the son of David? 42 For David himself wrote in the book of Psalms:

‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit in the place of honor at my right hand 43 until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.’

44 Since David called the Messiah ‘Lord,’ how can the Messiah be his son?”

Jesus has just been questioned by the leaders in the temple, they were "Putting Out Some Traps" to try and catch Jesus in a debate with a controversial answer, problem with that was that he gave the perfect answer to every question that they threw at him. You would think that they see how futile their discussions with Jesus are.

After he answers them, Jesus turns the tables on them, according to the account of these events in Matthew 22:41-46, Jesus asked them two questions:

Question number one: “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

Every Israelite knew the answer to that question. For hundreds of years they have been waiting for the arrival of the Messiah, they thought that they knew everything about the Messiah and what the signs of his arrival would be, but in their study of the Old Testament prophets they missed it somehow.

They knew that prophecy said that:

The Messiah would be a descendant of David
He would be born of a virgin
He would be called out from Egypt after hiding from Herod
The children would be killed by Herod
A messenger would precede the Messiah's arrival

The Pharisees answered the question, the Messiah will be a son of David, but they didn't put it all together. Jesus, David's son fulfilled so many prophesies, it was even prophesied that he would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, which he did just a few days before today's scripture and yet they still cannot see the Messiah. Sometimes the obvious isn't so obvious, they had all of the information about the Messiah but they didn't have the spiritual eyes to see him.

Question number two: "Since David called the Messiah ‘Lord,’ how can the Messiah be his son?”

Jesus quotes Psalm 100:1 and asks them the question that they can't answer, it would be ridiculous for King David to call any of his sons "Lord," a new king would never be given that esteem by the old king. The people knew that this Psalm referred to the Messiah. David was referring to somebody greater than himself, somebody with a greater mission than David.

The king described in Psalm 110 that David call Lord, is a king that sits at the right hand of God, he is a king that rules over all other rulers, an everlasting priest and the judge of the nations. Israel looked for a Son of David to sit on the throne in Jerusalem and restore Israel's political fortunes. Jesus tried to tell them that they had the wrong idea of the Messiah.

The resurrection is the final proof

Romans 1:2-4 God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. 3 The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, 4 and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.

There was already so much overwhelming evidence to prove that Jesus is their Messiah, but if that isn't enough for you then there is always an empty tomb, the apostle Paul makes it all crystal clear.

Nobody could decide to be a phoney and try and imitate the Messiah. Nobody could decide to fulfill all of the prophecy that Jesus fulfilled, the evidence is undeniable, I just pray that each reader of this column has the ability to see the plain truth better than the citizens of Jerusalem did.