How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?
Jesus pointed out an apparent contradiction between a psalm that was widely considered to have messianic connotations and the actual content of that psalm. He did so not in order to disagree with the interpretation of the psalm but rather to shed light on it and unlock it even more fully.
David himself was considered to be the author of the psalm in question. Thus he was person indicated by "my" in the statement "The Lord said to my lord". The two others indicated in the statement were God, "Lord" with a capital "L" and another lord, this one considered to be the messiah who was to sit at the right hand of God. But the messiah was commonly (and correctly) understood to be coming from the descendants of David. Yet David would not address any normal son as his lord. Just the opposite. So something different was happening here. What could account for one who was both David's son and yet his lord?
David himself calls him ‘lord’;
so how is he his son?”
At another time Jesus explained that there was one greater than Solomon, a son of David, present in his person. He himself was greater than Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. And though he was the descendant of David he was greater even than David himself. This could not have been the case if he was offspring in the normal sense, simply a better version of Solomon, or something along those lines. Lordship is the sense of royalty was never going to produce a son superior to his father and held in honor over him. But what if Jesus possessed Lordship in some other sense? What if the son of David was also the son of the God, and therefore himself capital "L" Lord in the sense of the Lord of all creature? This was never the sort of thing Jesus simply asserted outright. Rather, he hinted at it so that people could make the mental leap themselves as they were prepared to do so. He didn't have to testify to himself, to force feed an audience that was not entirely onboard. All he had to do was set the table. Seeing the feast, the people were happy to eat at his banquet of wisdom.
The great crowd heard this with delight.
We can see that the people had been prepared for the coming of the messiah by the prophecies in the Scriptures. And even Jesus himself chose to demonstrate his messianic claims on the basis of the Scriptures, which were in fact, as he said, written about him (see John 5:46-47). Nor did the Scriptures become obsolete for this purpose after the coming of Jesus, as though his miraculous resurrection rendered the evidence of the prophets unnecessary. It was not the case that once Jesus came the Old Testament could be tidily set aside. Though it may contain much that is shocking, much that is hard to understand, and needs much in the way of context to process, it is nevertheless vital for understanding why Jesus came, what he did, and what he still means to the world. As Paul reminded Timothy:
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching,
for refutation, for correction,
and for training in righteousness,
so that one who belongs to God may be competent,
equipped for every good work.
By themselves the Scriptures of the Old Testament cannot give us salvation. But our faith in Jesus unlocks them so that they really become capable of giving us "wisdom for salvation". In our Gospel reading we see one such way in which the Scriptures invite us to have faith and faith in turn unlocks the Scriptures. But they are replete with such examples. We may not think them practical for refutation or correction of our contemporaries, who believe themselves to be too sophisticated for what they probably consider to be archaic nonsense. But the wisdom we need is really found therein. We only need the eyes of faith to see it. Jesus invites us to have such eyes open to his revelation. If we learn to do so we too will join the crowd in their delight.
Songs In His Presence - Like A Son Of Man
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