Content
Jesus’ dual identity (Mk 12:35-37; Mt 22:41-46)
(question)
Jesus had been questioned over and over. Now it was the time he questioned them back. Matt 22:41-42 tells us that this time the people he questioned were the Pharisees: “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, ‘What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?’ They say unto him, ‘The son of David.’ ” Mark 12:35-37 continued Jesus’ saying as this: “How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.’ David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son (他怎麼又是大衛的子孫呢)?” This question is actually concerned with his Christly identity.
The above saying of David is quoted from Psalm 110:1: “The Lord said unto my Lord, ‘Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.’ ” ‘The Lord’ is God the Heavenly Father and ‘my Lord’ is Christ, as interpreted here by Jesus. The tricky part of David’s word is: since he was calling Christ ‘my Lord’, that implied Christ had already existed the moment he uttered this verse by the Holy Spirit. But the scribes claimed that Christ was the son (or descendant) of David. That’s where the contradiction comes into being. How could Christ, David’s Lord who existed before David, become David’s descendant? It seems contradictory in human mind. Everyone was silent, as Matt 22:46 describes, “And no man was able to answer him a word.” Nobody could answer this question or catch the meaning of David’s word, until the resurrection of Jesus.
(answer)
The fact that Christ is the descendant of David is because the Son of God is incarnated and born on the earth by virgin Mary (conceived of the Holy Spirit), whose husband Joseph (her fiance at the time of her pregnancy) is the descendant of David and who names the new-born child ‘Jesus’. (Matt 1:20-21) Romans 1:3-4 aptly explains the dual identity of Jesus Christ: “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead.” Christ, the Son of God, was already there in the beginning of the Creation, as stated in John 1:1-2: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” It was by the power of resurrection that the incarnated Jesus was proven to be Christ. Therefore, Jesus Christ the Lord is David’s Lord either in David’s time or after his time.
(reason for posing the question)
There is reason to believe that Jesus posed this question on purpose. He wouldn’t be like the scribes and the Pharisees who asked questions to tempt Jesus or to show their familiarity with the scripture. Rather, he intended to reveal his heavenly identity by quoting Psalm 110:1. Perhaps he wanted to tell the people of his time that even their esteemed King David, who was 1,000 years before Jesus, called him ‘my Lord’, shouldn’t they also confess him to be their Lord who was standing right before them? Sadly, nobody could comprehend the real meaning of his message at that time. Until after he died and rose from the dead, Jesus was then known to be Christ who was the heir of the kingship of David forever. The audience was merely proud of his wisdom, as reflected in their response, “the common people heard him gladly.” (v37)
“Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.” (v36) Notice that Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees with this verse, which seemed to contain some very interesting meaning to them! In view of the content of the entire Psalm 110, it refers to the time when Christ becomes the ruler over all nations in His judgment day. “The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness (當你掌權的日子，你的民要以聖潔的妝飾為衣)…The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.” (Psa 110:2-6) Jesus seemed sending this important message to the Pharisees who treated him as their enemies: He was the Christ destined by God to be the ruler in midst of his enemies. In the day when he executes judgment, those Pharisees who mistreated him will become his footstool under his feet!
(reflection)
Jesus said to his twelve disciples, “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.” (John 13:13) But not all who called him ‘Lord’ confessed that he was Christ. Judas who betrayed Jesus did not recognize his Christly identity even when he killed himself but merely saw his Lord as a righteous man: “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.” Jesus said in Matt 7:21, “Not every one that saith unto me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” What’s more disappointing is that he further predicted that there would be a lot of this kind of people in future: “Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?’ And then will I profess unto them, ‘I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’ ” (Matt 7:22-23)
Today, there are many who claim themselves ‘Christians’ in churches. How do we know if they have no true knowledge of Jesus Christ? Jesus hinted in Matt 7:20, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” “In that day”, the day of final judgment, those who “work iniquity” shall expose their fake identities when they stand before Christ’s judgment seat. In that instance, Jesus Christ will sit on the right hand of God and make the enemies his footstool!