My Lord

Matthew 22:43 – Jesus said to them, “How is it then that David by the spirit calls him (the messiah) my lord?”

Jesus is referring to the first verse of Psalm 110, which he goes on to quote. David, the presumed author of the Psalms, calls the messiah my lord. Yet, in the hierarchical society of Ancient Israel, people honored their elders, not their descendants. Why would David do the latter? That is what Jesus is asking the Pharisees. What does it mean that he is honoring his son in this way?

Jesus is pointing them to a theological claim that we in the 21^st century take for granted. The idea that the messiah was an eternal spiritual being would have been completely new to the Pharisees. In their thinking, the messiah would be a human being blessed by God to save Israel. Most Christians now believe that Jesus is co-eternal with God and the Holy Spirit. This is the claim that Jesus is hinting at, although he never comes out and says it.

If he had come out and said it, it would have blown the Pharisees' minds, and they would have their charge against him. It was outrageous is what I’m saying. We don’t think of this claim as outrageous any more. Maybe we should. Maybe we need to have our hearts and minds re-opened to the outrageousness of who Jesus is and the message he taught. He said to follow him, but mostly, we don’t. Our own concerns come first. I think that’s because we’ve forgotten to be amazed by Jesus' life and ministry.

I’ve written before that Jesus was into expanding people’s visions of what is possible, of what God is capable of, of how to see heaven on earth. The kin-dom is here, yet we live as if it isn’t. We look around and see chaos and poverty and hurting people and mass shootings, and we do not see the field ripe for harvest. Jesus came into the same conditions – living under the Roman occupation of Palestine – and saw the kin-dom. I want that vision!

The truth is that we can all have that vision when we learn to open our eyes to the miracles occurring all around us every day: newborn babies, trees, birds chirping in the early morning sunshine, music, the feel of sunshine on our skin, growing up, aging, the soft sound of rain on the roof, dying, our own existence. Seeing the tragedy and beauty of life in the midst of these miracles opens our hearts to the Love that surrounds us. Such vision gives us faith and sustenance to address the chaos, poverty, mass shootings, and other societal problems with that Love in our hearts. 

It gives us confidence to follow Jesus.