Lk.20:41-44 – And He said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David? Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms:
‘The LORD said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.“‘
Therefore David calls Him ‘Lord’; how is He then his Son?”
It is so easy to begin to impose our own beliefs about politics and what a good life should look like on the Bible and the role Jesus plays as the Son of God and Savior of the world. In our modern day world in the USA it is easy to think that financial prosperity, good health, good schools and plenty of vacations is all we really need. It is far too easy to separate ourselves from the crisis in our world that is ultimately brought on by the depravity of man. Alcohol, substance abuse, and immorality pound away at the fabric of our culture and ultimately destroy the family and the moral structure of our society. This is at the heart of what Jesus was saying in this passage. His question was basically, “Who do you think the Messiah is and what is the role He is to play in our lives and in the world?” The point was this, He didn’t come to fix this world necessarily but He came to change the hearts of fallen man. Here is how Barclay sees this passage.
“Jesus was doing here what he so often tried to do, trying to correct the popular idea of the Messiah which was that under him the golden age would come and Israel would become the greatest nation in the world. It was a dream of political power. How was that to happen? There were many ideas about it but the popular one was that some great descendant of David would come to be invincible captain and king.….Really what Jesus was saying here was, ‘You think of the coming Messiah as Son of David; so he is; but he is far more. He is Lord.’ He was telling people that they must revise their ideas of what Son of David meant. They must abandon these fantastic dreams of world power and visualize the Messiah as Lord of the hearts and lives of men and women. He was implicitly blaming them for having too little an idea of God. It is always our tendency to make God in our own image, and thereby to miss his full majesty.”
A true spiritual awakening can temporarily stem the tide of destruction that devastates our society. The ultimate solution will only come when the Son of David returns to reign in this world. In the meantime we preach the good news that Christ died to save sinners. He is the Son of God and all who believe in Him and His work on the cross will be saved.
