Jesus claims a dual paternity: he is both human and divine.
Jesus has claimed earlier in Matthew to be the Messiah that was predicted in the Old Testament. One of the identifying markers of the Messiah was that he would come from the lineage of King David. Jesus' family line - through both his mother and Joseph - were well documented back to King David and his lineage was never disputed even by the Jewish authorities.
But many of the 1st century Jews were mistaken in thinking that the Messiah, would be an ordinary human who would overthrow the Roman government and give the Jews back their land. But here, Jesus points out that the Messiah is not an ordinary human being. The Messiah has a strange dual paternity that the Spirit had revealed to King David centuries earlier. King David writes that the Messiah is both a descendant of King David and King David's Lord (someone King David submitted to). Jesus' question is "How is this possible?" A father does not submit to his son. Nor does a dead man submit to anyone - unless that someone is God.
Matthew 22:41-46 41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42 "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." 43 44 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet" '? 45 If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" 46 No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
Jesus wants the Pharisees to take their version of the Messiah out of the box they have placed him in and see the truth. Jesus' claims to be the Messiah and his audacity to call God, "Father" are legitimate. He wants them to pick up on this.
Do we ignore Jesus' teaching that he was both human and divine? How does this teaching change the way we live? How does it change our desire to follow Jesus? He is either crazy or he was who he said he was.
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