Month: February 2009

We’re going through the Bible looking for Trinitarian understanding. We recently finished the gospel of Matthew and took a break to write about Bristol Palin and abstinence. (By the way, cheers to the North Dakota House for passing a ban on abortion) We’re going to begin today going through Mark. Why not start at the beginning?

 ¹The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. ²It is written in Isaiah the prophet: 
   “I will send my messenger ahead of you, 
      who will prepare your way”— 
 ³“a voice of one calling in the desert, 
   ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, 
      make straight paths for him.’ “

Mark is said to be an action-packed one. This is quite so. There is little time devoted to what happens and Mark moves you briskly through the events. Go through the gospel sometime and notice all the words that indicate sudden action such as “immediately” or “as soon as.” The temptation and baptism are devoted to a few verses each and the birth of Christ is not mentioned. 

However, let’s look at how this is started. Now at the beginning, I’ll go on and answer this skeptical objection that Mark obviously didn’t know the Scripture too well. He has a quote from Malachi and yet, he’s attributing it to Isaiah.

This was common Jewish practice though. Malachi was a minor prophet and when two prophets had their statements put together, it was common to attribute the whole to the greater prophet. In this case, that would be Isaiah, who is certainly a major prophet in the history of Israel.

However, looking at this passage, one wonders who is the Lord that is being spoken of? I believe that we have reason to believe that this Lord is none other than YHWH and Mark is wanting to indicate that at the start. (Yes. Mark does have a high Christology as do all the other gospels.)

When we read the passage in Haggai 2:6-9, we see this: 

⁶ “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. ⁷ I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty. ⁸ ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ⁹ ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

It looks as if readership has been up and I wonder if that has to do with the debate that has been going on with Vinny. Either way, I am pleased to have anyone on board for the journey of diving into the ocean of truth here at Deeper Waters. Tonight, I intend to wrap up looking for Trinitarian clues in the gospel of Matthew by looking at Matthew 28:16-20, the Great Commission. 

⁶Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Let’s note that when we get to verse 17, we have worship going on of Jesus. Some are doubting. What are they doubting? We don’t know exactly. Maybe Matthew doesn’t want us to know. Maybe he realizes that there might be some hesitation on the part of some but he doesn’t want that to keep us from acting. In every Christian there is some doubt. If there wasn’t doubt about the truths of the gospel, we’d all live much better lives.

Jesus says he has been given all authority. Now right now, the critic of the Trinity is saying “See? This goes against the Trinity!”

I don’t see how.

I have no problem with a functional subordination in the Trinity. The Father acts in that position and he has given the Son the right to act in that regards. This will be looked at more when we get to Acts 2:36 which many a critic has raised to argue against the Trinity.

Yet the next verse is a sign that the view is misunderstood. This is the clearest Trinitarian statement by Christ in the gospels as he says that all nations are to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Make sure you notice that. There is only one name and there are three persons that bear that one name. Jesus has already spoken of the Father numerous times in this gospel and as we say in Matthew 11, he spoke of his unique relationship to the Father. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was spoken of in Matthew 12. This is simply bringing all of the aspects together already taught.

And let us say something on one final point for this. A lot of critics have raised the charge against Christians that we are failing the Great Commission and not taking it seriously for those of us who claim to be followers of Christ. Let me say something in response to all of you critics out there on that point.

You’re absolutely right.

We, as the church, must realize that we have not kept up the same zeal that the early church did and imagine what a difference it would make if we did! Do you stop to think how many places in the world have been lost to secularism? We’re just sitting back and letting it happen. Now we’re doing mission work in new lands and trying to take the gospel to people who have never heard, and that’s excellent and what should be done, but are we doing nothing to try to reclaim territory that has been lost? Are we just going to say good-bye to Western Europe? What about right here in America? Do we think it can go along just fine as it has been doing and we’ll make it? If you think such, I urge you to read Esther 4 and listen to the words of Mordecai.

Let’s not forget that Jesus gave us an incentive to do this. The gospel started out with us being told that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. That has not changed. He is away physically, but he has promised to never leave us or forsake us, something that only makes sense if he’s omnipresent in some sense making him God. We need to keep in mind the beginning. The Son came here, but he has not abandoned us. He is still with us. It is because of that that we can fulfill the Great Commission.

Go.

Make Disciples

Baptize

Teach

Is that too much to ask considering all that he did for us when he walked among us and all he does for us to this day?

We’re going through the gospels looking for understanding into the doctrine of the Trinity starting with the gospel of Matthew. I’d like to focus in on the resurrection. Generally going through these, I might give brief arguments for the historicity of such events, but such is not my case, even though I do think a strong case can be made. After all, I believe at this point that the audience most interested in this will be Christians as well as members of various groups we see as cults today that deny the reality of the Trinity.

We’re going to be looking at the resurrection then but not looking at the Great Commission or the responses of the Jews or the women to the resurrection. For now, I plan to accept it as a brute fact that the resurrection happened. I could at some point in the future write a blog on my reasons for why I believe that to be so.

One thing I do wish to point out is the lack of theology that is found within Matthew’s account. Matthew has consistently shown Jesus going against the understanding of the Law in Judaism at the time and one could expect that when we get to this point, Matthew would want to show the difference Jesus makes at this point. He does no such thing.

Matthew has also throughout the gospel pointed to Jesus as the fulfillment of OT prophecy. At many points in his ministry, he has cited Scriptures to show that Jesus has indeed fulfilled OT prophecy. One could expect that when we reach the grand finale of the gospel that Matthew will do the same. He does no such thing.

Why? I believe Matthew could have seen it as unnecessary. It is not, for instance, because there are no theological implications to what happened in the resurrection of Christ. There certainly are and the epistles show us plenty of those.

Also, it is not because the followers of Christ did not see prophecy being fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ. They certainly did as the early Christian creed found in 1 Cor. 15 shows. Other places in the epistles constantly cite Scriptures to speak about the truths of the life of Christ.

Could it be at this point that Matthew is drawing his readers to fill in the implications of what has happened for themselves? It is as if he is guiding the reader and the reader is seeing so many clues about Jesus that when they reach the grand finale, they are expected to figure out how the gaps fit in there as well.

What does this say about Jesus? It says he is the one who conquers death and this we will see more as we get into the gospel of John. Other resurrections that have happened have always been clearly shown by an external power. However, there is no mention of God in the final chapter of Matthew. He is mentioned in the 27th chapter when Jesus asks “My God. My God. Why have you forsaken me?” One could draw from that that the answer is that God has nor forsaken Christ. Jesus quoted Psalm 22 at that point that begins in defeat but ends in the victory. It is the ultimate reversal.

Of course, it could also be what Jesus himself said. He has the power to bring his own life back. Note this points to Jesus’s continued existence apart from his body. While that has implications I believe for anthropological dualism, it has greater implications to refuting a pathetic objection to the incarnation that is often brought up and a problem with the objection can be seen when we study Colossians 1.

Some of you are wondering what that objection is.

I guess you’ll have to wait….

Moreover, the resurrection is also the vindication of all that Christ said in his life. He was crucified as a blasphemer and the resurrection is saying “No. He is not a blasphemer. He is indeed the Son of God.” The Jewish leadership mocked him on the cross saying the Son could not save himself. Surely the Son would! Jesus had been called the Son at the baptism and at the transfiguration. Now, it was demonstrated through the resurrection.

Because of the resurrection, we can be sure Jesus is who he said he was, the very Son of God. (A term we will look at at a later date to show that when understood of Christ, it does refer to him being fully deity.)

We shall wrap up Matthew’s gospel tomorrow.

We’re going through the gospels looking for some clues to the self-understanding of Christ and the way his contemporaries saw him and other relevant factors to our understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. Today, we’re going to look at Matthew’s account of the crucifixion.

What I’d like to focus on this time are the unique events that happened at the crucifixion. N.T. Wright has stated before that what makes these unique is not simply that they happened but when they happened. Using the resurrection as an example, had the thief on the cross been resurrected, we would have said this is certainly an odd universe we live in, but it would not have led to him being seen as the Messiah. What made Jesus be seen as Messiah is not simply that he rose again but the context in which he rose again. Thus, what makes these events even more incredible is not that they happened but that they happened at the crucifixion of Christ.

The first is the darkness that covered the land. There are other writers who have stated this happened, such as Phlegon. I have thought before that this could be an event that some Christians might have thought of as fulfilling the words of Amos 8. 

 ⁹ “In that day,” declares the Sovereign LORD, 
       “I will make the sun go down at noon 
       and darken the earth in broad daylight.

 ¹⁰ I will turn your religious feasts into mourning 
       and all your singing into weeping. 
       I will make all of you wear sackcloth 
       and shave your heads. 
       I will make that time like mourning for an only son 
       and the end of it like a bitter day.

The darkness could indeed be a time of mourning in that the light that had come into the world was going out, as it were. No. I do not mean Jesus ceased to exist at this point, but I am saying he died, in that his soul was separated from his body, much as what happens to all of us when we die.

The earthquake is another event worth noting as earthquakes had been seen as divine judgment before. This doesn’t mean every one was, but the fact that an earthquake occurred at this point and again at the resurrection can mean the actions of God.

One of the most noted events though is the resurrection of the dead that took place. Now I do believe that this was a historical event and someone will then say “Well geez. If that really happened, why are we not told what happened to them or left any witness of people that they talked to?”

Frankly, because it doesn’t matter.

What?

Yes. This will be the same when we get to the temple veil tearing which I’m saving for last. The earthquake event is not meant to tell us about seismic events going on in Jerusalem. The darkness over the land is not meant to tell us about what the sun was doing at the time. The resurrection of the dead is not meant to tell us about the dead.

All are meant to tell us about Christ.

If the dead had been focused on, it would have taken people away from Christ. Now some of you might think that that surely wouldn’t happen. Oh really? Go read the story again in Matthew 14 with Peter walking on the water and ask yourself, “How often do we hear sermons on this and the preacher is talking about the faith of Peter and stating things like ‘at least he got out of the boat.’?” However, Peter is not the point of the story. Jesus is. When we forget that, we’re guilty of doing what Peter did, taking our eyes off of Jesus.

If we can do it with the story of walking on the water, then we can surely do it for an event we consider much more remarkable.

However, it was a belief at the time in Judaism by some that when Messiah came, there would be resurrections. Matthew is using the resurrections there to point to the identity of Jesus and not to tell us about the dead people that were raised.

Finally, the temple tearing and this for our concerns is probably the most important one in Matthew. Matthew was writing to orthodox Jews who would know exactly what was meant by this. The way to the Holy of Holies was no longer blocked.

In the past, the high priest alone could enter the Holy of Holies and he could only do so once a year. He had a rope tied around his foot and he wore a robe with bells hanging from it. Why? Because if he was unclean, he would die and they knew he was still doing his duties if they heard the bells ringing. If they stopped, well no one could go in and get the high priest so they had to tie a rope on his leg so that they could pull him out.

That system is gone now. 

Now all can be made holy by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Our great high priest has made intercession. There is no longer need for any other priests to make intercession for us. (Which is why I also have a problem with Mormons having temples and a priesthood. Christ made those all obsolete.) 

Tomorrow, we shall turn to the resurrection to see what it says about Christ.

We’re going through the New Testament and seeing Trinitarian passages. Right now, we’re in the gospel of Matthew. For those of us reading for the first time, we are not going to touch a story in Matthew and then do the same one in Mark or Luke. Usually, we deal with all of them together so Mark and Luke could be shorter ones to go through. (John having so many dialogues will be different and we have much to touch on there.) Tonight, we’re in Matthew 26.

⁶²Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?”⁶³But Jesus remained silent. 
      The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

 ⁶⁴“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

 ⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. ⁶⁶What do you think?” 
      “He is worthy of death,” they answered.

Gary Habermas has said that he believes this is the strongest statement of deity that Jesus Christ made. Why? First off, it’s an obvious reference to Daniel 7. However, let’s take some time to look at some references to clouds in the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy 4:

¹⁰ Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.” ¹¹ You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. ¹² Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.

Deuteronomy 33:

 ²⁵ The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze, 
       and your strength will equal your days.

 ²⁶ “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, 
       who rides on the heavens to help you 
       and on the clouds in his majesty.

 ²⁷ The eternal God is your refuge, 
       and underneath are the everlasting arms. 
       He will drive out your enemy before you, 
       saying, ‘Destroy him!’

2 Samuel 22:

 ⁹ Smoke rose from his nostrils; 
       consuming fire came from his mouth, 
       burning coals blazed out of it.

 ¹⁰ He parted the heavens and came down; 
       dark clouds were under his feet.

 ¹¹ He mounted the cherubim and flew; 
       he soared  on the wings of the wind.

¹² He made darkness his canopy around him— 
       the dark  rain clouds of the sky.

 ¹³ Out of the brightness of his presence 
       bolts of lightning blazed forth.

Job 22:

 ¹³ Yet you say, ‘What does God know? 
       Does he judge through such darkness?

 ¹⁴ Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us 
       as he goes about in the vaulted heavens.’

 ¹⁵ Will you keep to the old path 
       that evil men have trod?

Psalm 68:

 ³ But may the righteous be glad 
       and rejoice before God; 
       may they be happy and joyful.

 ⁴ Sing to God, sing praise to his name, 
       extol him who rides on the clouds 
       his name is the LORD—
       and rejoice before him.

 ⁵ A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, 
       is God in his holy dwelling.

Psalm 97:

 ¹ The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; 
       let the distant shores rejoice.

 ² Clouds and thick darkness surround him; 
       righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

 ³ Fire goes before him 
       and consumes his foes on every side.

Psalm 104:

 ² He wraps himself in light as with a garment; 
       he stretches out the heavens like a tent

 ³ and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. 
       He makes the clouds his chariot 
       and rides on the wings of the wind.

 ⁴ He makes winds his messengers, 
       flames of fire his servants.

Ezekiel 30:

² “Son of man, prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: 
       ” ‘Wail and say, 
       “Alas for that day!”

 ³ For the day is near, 
       the day of the LORD is near— 
       a day of clouds, 
       a time of doom for the nations.

 ⁴ A sword will come against Egypt, 
       and anguish will come upon Cush. 
       When the slain fall in Egypt, 
       her wealth will be carried away 
       and her foundations torn down.

Nahum 1:

² The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; 
       the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. 
       The LORD takes vengeance on his foes 
       and maintains his wrath against his enemies. ³ The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; 
       the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. 
       His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, 
       and clouds are the dust of his feet.

 ⁴ He rebukes the sea and dries it up; 
       he makes all the rivers run dry. 
       Bashan and Carmel wither 
       and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.

Let’s keep in mind also that the Jews certainly understood the claim of Christ so much so that the high priest tore his robe. Why is that important? First off, the high priest did not have his robe always as the Romans ruled. It was brought out only four times a year so this is an event Rome would know about.

Second, look at Leviticus 21:

¹⁰ ” ‘The high priest, the one among his brothers who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and who has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let his hair become unkempt  or tear his clothes.

The whole trial was a violation of Jewish custom, but right here the high priest tore his clothes in response, something that the Law forbade him to do.

I believe Habermas is right. Jesus depicted himself coming on the clouds, a statement of deity, and referred to himself as the Son of Man. Ironically, the Jews were right in charging him with blasphemy.

That is, unless his claims are true, which they are.

Were they not true, then no. It was not a correct charge.

Which is one conclusion we have to realize when we come to the crucifixion. Either the crucifixion was the most wicked act of all putting to death the most righteous person of all, or it was the most righteous act of all putting to death the most wicked person of all.

No one can leave the cross neutral.

You must decide.

Tonight, we’re continuing through the gospel of Matthew trying to understand the Trinitarian doctrine that we see in the New Testament. Our passage tonight will be in Matthew 25. I’m really not wanting to get into Matthew 24 simply because I don’t want this to become about eschatology. I have my positions, of course, but that is not the purpose of this blog. With that, let’s go to the text.

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ³⁴“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

 ³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

 ⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

 ⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

 ⁴⁴“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

 ⁴⁵“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

 ⁴⁶“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Let’s keep something in mind that I got a reminder of tonight. The gospel narratives are all about Christ. We can get caught up here in the questions of salvation and how we should treat our neighbor. Of course, those are important and the gospels do have something to say about that, but Jesus is the main character and we should see what the gospels are saying about him.

Notice that Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. This is a name coming from Daniel. It’s referring to him as the one who is an exalted figure that has the right to rule. He is the Messiah that is bringing in the new age.

Note also that this goes right along with his other titles in this passage of king and Lord. We can be sure he’s speaking of the same person for he refers to the way that one relates to the Father while describing the situations going on.

I’d like to you to consider that Jesus is talking about entrance into the kingdom. Notice what he bases it on though. He bases it on his identity. Doing good to the people of Christ is doing good to Christ. Doing ill to them is doing ill to Christ. This is an exalted view of himself.

That is, unless he’s who he claims to be.

He doesn’t point to faithfulness to YHWH. He points to faithfulness to him. It’s not about how you respond to the Mosaic Law. It’s about how you respond to him. Jesus, in essence, sees himself as the focal point of the covenant and is saying “It’s all about how you respond to me.” Your eternal destiny relies on what you do with this man and how you respond to him.

What do we do with him? Consider him egotistical? It hardly sounds the character of Jesus, but you all know how you would respond if I made the claims. That goes especially for those of you who know me! If Billy Graham made these claims, we’d denounce him. It doesn’t matter who it is. No one today would make these claims and be accepted at large. (I say that because there are always nuts who makes these kinds of claims and some people follow them.) The point is that even those who are not Christians today generally do not see Jesus as egotistical. 

Are we going to say he is who he says he is and act accordingly? If his words are true, you’d better hope that’s what you do.

And if his words are true, you’d better hope you’re on his side as well. We come to the trilemma of Lewis with this. He is either a lunatic, the very devil out of Hell, or the Lord he claimed to be. It is up to you to decide.

We’re continuing our look going through the New Testament looking at Trinitarian passages and seeing the understanding of Christ especially along with how his contemporaries saw him. Tonight, our passage will be taken from Matthew 23.

First off, before quoting the passage, I urge Christians to read through Matthew 23 and tell me where you see Jesus meek and mild in this chapter. We’ve made it sound like Jesus was this nice guy who went around Israel with a kind word to everyone. No. Keep in mind also Jesus is the one who talks to the people and tells them about the wickedness of their leaders and then lets the leaders have it for all that they have done.

Let’s look at the relevant portion for tonight:

 33“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

It should be enough to consider that Jesus says that he is the one who will send the prophets to them. However, the Lukan parallel in chapter 11 of his gospel shows an interesting look at this account.

48So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. 49Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ 50Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world,

Before someone raises up the question, I’d like to remind my readers that this is a blog devoted to Mere Christianity. Many of my readers will know I have my own eschatological views, but I have no desire to touch eschatology in my blog provided it does not get into heretical eschatology, such as the neohymaneanism heresy. If you want to know the eschatological ramifications of this passage, look elsewhere.

One point I have been making throughout this series is to see Jesus as the wisdom of God. If you want to see the parallel passage to compare to Matthew 23, it would be Luke 11. Many of the same points raised there are raised here as well. However, when it comes to sending the prophets, it’s not Jesus saying “I” but saying “God in his Wisdom.” If you remember when we went through the passage on the doubt of John the Baptist, we saw again that Luke refers to Jesus as Wisdom.

Why bring this up? Because when we get into the epistles and see the outworking of doctrine based on the new revelation of Christ, this will come up again and again, most notably when we comment on 1 Cor. 1:24. Of course, that is in the future, but this needs to be brought up for now. Jesus is the one sending prophets, which is the role of God, and God is doing it through Jesus with Jesus being his Wisdom.

We shall continue tomorrow going through Matthew.

When I was going through the Old Testament book of Psalms, some of you might have wondered why I didn’t cover Psalm 110. Tonight, you find out why. It, like a few other passages, is a passage I wanted to save until I got to the New Testament. Now there is an aspect of this passage that will be saved until we get further into the New Testament, namely the book of Hebrews. The passage that Jesus quotes in tonight’s reading comes out of Psalm 110 and becomes the most quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament.

Speaking of the passage being covered tonight, ours is located in Matthew 22:

1While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” 
      “The son of David,” they replied. 43He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, 
 44” ‘The Lord said to my Lord: 
      “Sit at my right hand 
   until I put your enemies 
      under your feet.” ‘ 45If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Jesus has just answered a series of questions from his opponents. By the way, let’s keep this in mind. Jesus was a debater. He knew how to argue and he knew how to reason. While we will only cover one aspect of it in the future, in the next chapter, Jesus totally destroys our idea of him as Jesus meek and mild.

Jesus has answered all of the opposition and now he is going to turn the tables. He starts by asking a question that would be obvious. After all, these people were the experts on the Law. They knew it backwards and forwards and it is quite likely that some of them had it memorized. (And by it, I mean the whole Old Testament. There was even a rabbinic rule that you could not comment on a passage until you had memorized it.)

He wants to know whose son the Messiah will be. He is told that he will be the son of David, which is an obvious answer. However, at this point, Christ catches them on that obvious answer. After all, David was the king and was the highest authority in the land only subject to YHWH and what does David say about the Messiah?

‘The Lord said to my Lord: 
      “Sit at my right hand 
   until I put your enemies 
      under your feet.”

We do see two persons here which fits in just fine with a Trinitarian model, and this gets to the point Christ wishes to make. David says that this son of his is his Lord. How can he be a mere human being and yet at the same time be of a higher position than David is? His opponents have no answer.

Trinitarians do! Jesus is Lord by virtue of his deity. (I am aware of the Acts 2:36 passage my arian opponents and rest assured when we get there, we will see how that fits in.) Jesus is not just human after all. He is divine as well.

Tomorrow, we shall see what more we can find in Matthew on the Trinity and the self-understanding of Christ.