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Thursday 2 February 2012

Matthew 22:41-45 - Whose Son?

Now Jesus turns the questioning on to the Pharisees, asking them whose son do they think the Messiah is. The Jews all had an expectation of a Messiah whom God would send to rescue His people. Beliefs that we hold can easily become just words, without us thinking about what they mean, or we get wrong impressions of what they mean. 

Almost every Christian would say that they believe in eternal life, but for many this means "we will go to heaven when we die". It means far more than this. It is about a whole new level of life, a whole transformation. Tom Wright has written a very good book on the subject, called "Surprised by Hope".

The Pharisees reply "the Son of David". Jesus then quotes from Ps 110, a well known messianic Psalm (ie one talking about the messiah). Jesus points out that David refers to the Messiah as his lord. This means that the Messiah must be greater than David, he must be more than the son of David (ie a human descendant of David).

All of us need to read the Bible more, and think about what it says more. Don't just skim over passages thinking, "yes, I know what this says". There can be passages we have read many dozens of times, yet suddenly we can realise something new and exciting in them.

1 comment:

  1. Christ was helping to establish the Messiah's divinity through this correct?

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