TURNING THE TABLES

Matt.22:41,42 – Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?”

This whole ordeal began to spin out of control with the overturning the tables in the temple extravaganza, now Jesus is turning other kinds of tables over in His discussion with the Pharisees. They were trying to trip Him with their knowledge of the scriptures; good luck with that!!. How can you trip up the One who is the scripture in the first place. He turned the tables with a simple question about one of David’s Psalms, He asked, If David was the Messiah’s father why did David call Him Lord?” That pretty much ended the conversation, if Jesus claimed to be the Messiah He was also claiming to be the Lord. Here is how the Christ Centered Exposition Commentary describes this question.

“In the last section of Matthew 22, the tables are turned on the religious leaders. Jesus quoted Psalm 110:1 to show that the Messiah would not only be the son of David, which all good Jews would have recognized, but also the Son of God. He was forcing them to see that David himself spoke to this mysterious reality in Scripture. The Messiah would be both human (an heir of David) and divine (David’s Lord). The Pharisees had no reply when Jesus put this truth before them. This Messiah who was both human and divine was standing before them, and His wisdom had confounded them. Three questions from Jesus arise here, questions that the Pharisees needed to answer, and questions that we need to answer:
Am I the Christ? Do we believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah?
Am I the Son of God? Do we believe that Jesus was more than just a prophet? Is He, in fact, divine?
Am I the King of your heart? Have you submitted to Jesus, not only with your head but with your heart?”

So Jesus was challenging all of that accepted beliefs about the Jewish Messiah and their beliefs of what the kingdom of God would look like. We have similar problems in the church today; many see the kingdom of God as some sort of ticket to living your best life here and now. That’s just not the way it is. If Jesus is the Messiah then His life and death introduced a different kind of kingdom, its not about just the here and now but about a new life that will last forever.