Jesus' Turn to Ask a Question

Read Matthew 22:23-46

      You almost feel sorry for these guys.  They keep asking questions to trip Jesus up, to maneuver him into alienating an important constituency, or incurring the wrath of the authorities.  But every attempt backfires, badly.  And then it gets even worse, because Jesus has a question of his own:  if the Messiah will be a son of David, how is it that David in Psalm 110 calls him “Lord”? 

      The answer, of course, is that the Messiah is both David’s son (descendant) and God in human flesh.  The only answer is the one they had hoped most to avoid, that the promised Son of David is Jesus, the Son of God.  People have religious questions about all sorts of things.  Some are asked honestly.  More are not, asked only in the overconfident hope that they cannot be answered.  Jesus asks only one question in return: “Who do you say that I am?” (16:15).