One Upped

Don't you love it when you can have the last word in an argument?

If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son? No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. - Matthew 22:45-46

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus gets the last word with the Pharisees, when he challenges them to explain how the Messiah could be the son of David and yet be David's Lord.

It may be confusing to us, since Matthew begins his Gospel with the line of David leading to Jesus.

Why bother to show how Jesus is related to David only to shut the door on that argument with the leaders of the faith?

When we read the Gospel today, we break it down into daily and weekly excerpts, taken out of context and out of order in some cases to align the stories with our lessons, rather than the other way around.

When we do that, we lose most of the impact of the full picture, the single reading or hearing of the entire Gospel account.  At the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, we are presented with the familiar school of thought that the Messiah would be a descendant of David, and so we are not disappointed to hear that this is the story of someone who fits that description and expectation.

But by the time we come to this point in the story, we have gained an understanding of Jesus as someone quite different from what we were taught to expect.  This Messiah is not the kind of King or Lord they had been lead to believe was coming.

And these leaders, the ones entrusted with the knowledge of what was to come, were not as reliable a source as previously thought.

A lot happened in 22 chapters.  And at this stage in the game, the Pharisees have given up asking Jesus questions.  They were no longer going to try to trick him into revealing himself as a fraud.

So, did Jesus one up them?  Or did he set himself up as a target?

Yes to both, I'm afraid.  From here on, they will be out to get him in other, more deadly ways.

We know this and accept it because we know how the story ends, but if we had been listening to the entire Gospel, we would be giving each other high fives for Jesus' actions against the establishment and then we would be angry as hell at what they did next.

Each generation has its rebellious period, and in time, those rebels become the establishment.  We tend to forget that, and we also fail to teach our youth that this Jesus is just like them in many ways.  He is a rebel and he is angry with the way the old folks have twisted the truth.

Do you think more would be attracted to him if they saw him that way?

I do, and I think it is important to see that the faith we follow is the faith in the Spirit of God living in us, reaching out to each other in compassion, with grace and love.

Jesus taught us to love one another, and from that, we would see God and see Him in everyone.  We will be true to each other and the law if we love God and one another.

Of course that is a radical statement and it requires a huge amount of faith and trust.  Can I trust you to do the right thing without making you fear the wrath of breaking the laws?

If we become like the Pharisees, blind to the truth because we have lost the meaning behind our laws, we are doomed to failure.  And we bring everyone with us.

But if we say, Wait a minute!  God loves us and we should do as He does, then what would the world look like?

If we don't try, we will be one upped.

More to come...