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Well, we find Jesus here in the midst of a battle of wits with the top religious and political authorities back then. He has for all shapes and purposes won the debate. His opponents are amazed with spiritual awe. I might even say he’s gloating, but there’s no time this morning to make my case for a gloating Jesus. This debate occurred the day after he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey while a crowd of people shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! Hosanna in the highest!” If you didn’t know, “hosanna” means “Save us now!” They were welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem as a king; specifically, the King, the Messiah – the Holy Spirit anointed descendant of King David who would be the one to liberate the Jewish people from all their oppressors and set up the eternal Kingdom of Heaven on earth. When he got to town, he started to establish his kingdom not by challenging the Romans but by cleansing the Temple of the big business money making scam that the priests had made of the sacrifice-based worship Israel practiced. He upset some people.
The next day, contrary to what one would expect, Jesus didn’t go challenge the Romans. Instead, he went back to the Temple not to rally an army but…to teach. Almost immediately the chief priests and scribes, the powers that be, like mad hornets swarmed him to find out by whose authority he was doing these things. He certainly wasn’t acting on their “Supreme” authority which to them meant he couldn’t be acting on God’s authority either. So, they would have presumed he was acting on his own authority and were out to get him. They wanted to trap him into some sort of self-incrimination. One after another, members of the different “denominations” took their turn at trying to best him in a battle of wits.
What we read today is the last subsection of the debate and here the Pharisees try to trap him with a question on the Law that they hope might get him to put one commandment above the others which would then sound like the rest of the Law didn’t matter. Jesus does just that but with two commandments and he sums up the intent of the whole Law perfectly – Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and, love your neighbour as you love yourself. Jesus also did a very good job of exposing what the Pharisees in their jot and tittle legalism were short on – love.
Jesus ends the debate with a question for the Pharisees with respect to their thoughts on the Messiah. Be mindful that they would have been considered to be experts on the matter. Just need to point out here that the Pharisees were one of the groups that were passionately expecting the Messiah to come at any moment and their legalism was based in the thoughts that one, be ready for him and two, the belief that more people keeping the Law would hasten his coming. These are the experts with the informed opinion on who the Messiah is and when he would be coming. So, Jesus asked them in their expert opinion about the Messiah and his royal lineage – Whose son is he. Easy question. They are, of course, glad to have their egos stroked and with puffed up chests answer, “The son of David.”
So, if we had been sitting in a first century house church listening to a full, one-sitting reading of Matthew’s Gospel, we would probably be rolling on the floor laughing at how Jesus was mocking their ignorance. Jesus is the Son of David. Their Messiah standing right in front of them. How obvious does it need to be? Just a couple of hours before, the chief priests and scribes were livid because children were following him around in the temple shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David.” From the mouths of babes, I’m pretty sure there was a prophecy to that effect, Psalm 8:2 probably. When the crowds escorted Jesus into Jerusalem they were shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David.” The day before that as he left Jericho on his way up to Jerusalem two blind men…blind men…even they could “see” who Jesus is. They made a nuisance of themselves shouting over and over again at the top of their lungs, “Have mercy on us, Lord, son of David.” They also called him Lord in clear indication they could see somehow that their God was in him. Jesus restored their sight. Not long before that a non-Israelite Canaanite woman came to him begging, “Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David.” She begged him to deliver her demon-possessed daughter. Even though she wasn’t an Israelite, she could see who Jesus is. He cast the demon out of her daughter. Weeks earlier when Jesus delivered and healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, the crowds openly asked, “Can this be the son of David?” Not long before that, again two blind men were following him around shouting repeatedly and loudly, “Have mercy on us, son of David.” He healed them.
It was obvious who Jesus is. None of these things happened in private. The Pharisees would have been well aware that the people considered Jesus to be the son of David, and therefore the Messiah. Yet, he was so much more than just a king in the line of David. He did things only God could do. He exceeded the expectations. He was more than just a son, a descendant of David. Jesus pointed this out to the Pharisees asking that if the Messiah is the son of David, why does David call him Lord? He quotes Psalm 110:1 written by David, “The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Come and sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.’” Jesus was more than just a son of David. He was doing things that were obviously by the hand of God. He was at the right hand of God and they had made themselves out to be his enemies in trying to trap him so they could put him to death. At the end of this debate the Pharisees were clearly defeated. They are under his feet so to speak! Is Jesus gloating…quite possibly...maybe…a little?
Thinking about what this could mean for us today, if you’ve got nothing better to do and want to kill some time, go on to YouTube and in the search box type in a question like “Who do people think Jesus is?” You will find many videos of interviewers stopping people on the street to see how they answer that question. I did and there is a huge array of answers. People would say he was just a man or a good man, or a prophet. Or, he had good teachings that help us to be more civilized. Or, one woman said Jesus was “a son of God just like Ghandi and Mohammed and really all of us. Everyone’s a son of God.” Or, he was a man who lived a long time ago who still impacts our lives today. There was also this one man sitting on a park bench with pigeons all around him, some roosting on him. One was right on top of his head. He said, “If David Copperfield was alive back in that day, they’d have said he was Jesus.” Of course, there were some churched people who gave more traditioned answers like he was the Son of God who died to save us from our sins. One woman said she prays to him. One young man said Jesus was his best friend.
Such a wide array of answers and I could analyze and categorize but that’s not my game. It’s not my place to judge right or wrong answers from people on the street. It’s a huge question. How would you answer it? That’s a rhetorical question. You don’t have to answer it. No matter who’s answering, no one can deny that the man Jesus of Nazareth changed history. That he came from a people through whom God changed the course of history many times over even outside of biblical times. The world would not be what it is today had the Jewish people and Jesus of Nazareth never existed.
Me personally, how would I answer that question? Well, first here’s a little pre-ramble. I’d be comparable to one of the priests, scribes, or Pharisees. I’ve got a university degree, two master’s degrees, and a doctoral degree and a certificate of ordination all in the area of the Bible and Christian Theology and the practical application of said areas in the life of the church. All that paperwork would indicate that I am recognized by both academic institutions and my denomination as qualified to give a learned opinion on who Jesus is as presented in the Bible and the theological tradition of the Church. Sadly, these days people don’t want to listen to what a well-studied, experienced minister has to say about Jesus…unless of course I’m one of those who have turned on the church and on him.
Putting my education and vocational experience aside, I will say that I am keenly aware that it is quite possible and likely to know a lot about Jesus but not know him. I am also quite aware that I can mistake my values, opinions, wants, and will for what I believe Jesus would value, think, want, and will. I also know that how or what I feel in the presence of another person are my own feelings that may and may not have any basis in reality. So also, my feelings or lack thereof about Jesus say more about me than they do about him.
To answer the question, what I actually know of who Jesus is I know because of being pointed in his direction by a handful of people who had a profound trust in him due to life-changing, healing experiences they had had which they believed were done by him. These people also had a profound sense of his presence with them and that he had an active hand in everything that was going on in their lives. They were people who were learning how to place their hope for healing and life-direction in his personal love for them during some pretty difficult times in their lives.
When I went in the direction those folks had pointed me, to Jesus, looking for hope, healing, and life direction, looking for him to be real, well…I felt his presence at gatherings of his followers and it was “good”. I gained a pervading felt-sense that I am not alone. He is with me. I felt the calling to ministry when I didn’t know what else to do in life. All other career directions just seemed impossible to pursue. I have found this calling quite fulfilling and that’s coming from someone who is prone to dysphoria. I had a profound emotional healing experience of having the burden of unforgiveness lifted from me that I was harbouring because of my parent’s divorce. He brought me to Canada to start a family. When a very unfortunate side-effect of the antidepressant medication I went on to treat anxiety and depression was what they now call alcohol use disorder, he took away the compulsion to drink that I was powerless over. Took it away.
My final answer to that question is “Jesus loves me, this I know.” I now find myself living with the daily struggle that in the face of some pretty difficult stuff I must rest in the reality that he is present with me and I must place my will and hope in the fact that he loves me and will work the things of my life out according to that love. I just need to sit prayerfully at his right hand and follow his guidance.
Learning to have hope in a very real and present God and his love is something new we encumber when we encounter Jesus. That’s part of the biblical definition of faith. Faith isn’t the opposite of doubt. Faith isn’t just believing there’s a God when he can’t be seen or scientifically measured. Faith is what comes about in us when we begin to realize and trust God’s love for us and we place our life’s hopes in that direction. I want what God in his immeasurable love for me wants for me. Placing our hope in God’s love and waiting for God to act in our lives for us according to that love…that’s what I think of when I think of this passage here where it says, “Come and sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” So, come and sit a spell. Amen.
