CreatorWorship

In Matthew 22 Pharisees, Herodians, and Saducees were trying to “trap Him in what He said.” (v.15)  The issues they used were the poll tax to Caesar, remarriage, and the ranking of commandments.  The real issues were heart issues of authority, belief  in the resurrection, and the prioirty of loving God and your fellow man.  Since they were questioning Jesus’ authority the whole time, after His adept answers He turns the tables and asks them a question about authority from Psalm 110:1: “If David then calls Him ‘Lord’ how is He his son? (v.45) Both Jesus and the Pharisees would agree that this passage spoke about Messiah when is says ‘my Lord’. The Pharisees taught correctly that Messiah would be a son of David but their understanding of authority structure did not allow a son to rule a father.  However, the real reason they were unable to answer Jesus was because they were spiritually “blind men” and blind guides” (Matthew 23:13,14,15,23,25,27,29).  Jesus had no need of answering them because the answer had been repeated by three sources: Scripture, the people, and Jesus’ own works and miracles. Such Scriptures as Jeremiah 23:5-6 speak of the offspring of David who is “the Lord our righteousness”, and of His suffering when “Messiah will be cut off” (Daniel 9:26), and of the time of His arrival in 69 weeks of years (Daniel 9:25).  The people were positively identifying Jesus as the “Son of David” (Matthew: 15:21: 20:31; 21:15-16,9). In the latter of these verses the Pharisees see His works and hear the peoples’ declarations and effectively ask Jesus to silence them.  Jesus affirms that their praise of Him is praise of God and happens because “You have prepared praise for Yourself” (21:16).  And the miracles testified of His authority: “the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me” (John 10:25) and that they should “believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father” (v.38). So, Jesus does not answer His immediate question to them so that “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive” (Matthew 13:14; Isaiah 6:9), but so that we might search deeper and both hear and see.