Pages

Saturday 23 February 2013

Mark 12:35-37 - Greater than you think!

Having fielded many questions, Jesus now turns to the crowds and teaches them, particularly about who the Messiah would be. Psalm 110, the one Jesus quotes from, was widely acknowledged as a messianic Psalm. The Messiah was also known to be a "son of David". Now this was true, for instance in Romans 1:3 Paul says that Jesus was a descendant of David, but it did not far enough.
Now look at how Jesus uses the Psalm. First He states that David was inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Then He gets them to think more carefully about what it says. If the Messiah is Lord, then how can He be David's son. Now we have just seen that humanly speaking the Messiah was indeed a descendant of David. So when Jesus says "how can he be David's son", He means the messiah is much more than a descendant of David. 
In assessing all the things that Jesus was saying and doing the religious leaders were looking at Him as merely a descendant of David, and so judged that He was blaspheming (for He was doing and claiming things that only God had the right to do and claim). They were right, unless of course Jesus was more than a descendant of David. And Jesus is showing them that the Scriptures themselves teach that the Messiah was more than a "son of David", He was the "Son of God".
The crowd were delighted, and so should we be. We too can learn from this, even though we know He is God. No matter how much we know about Him, or how well we know Him, Jesus is greater than our present conception of Him. Likewise, no matter how many times we have read the Bible, there is a wealth of riches in there that we have yet to realise. Jesus is greater than you think!

No comments:

Post a Comment