Matthew 22:41-46

Mat 22:41-46 The King Asking Questions

41, 42. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. The King now carried the war into the enemy's country. Ho had answered all the questions put to him; it was his turn to propound some to those who had come to examine him. While the Pharisees were gathered together, that is, while they still lingered near him, disappointed and defeated, yet watching for any opportunity of assailing him, Jesus asked them, saying, "What think ye of Christ? "Our Lord here sets his servants the example of how they should deal with cavillers, quibblers, objectors. Having wisely answered all their questions, he pressed homo upon them the question of questions: "What think ye of Christ?" They had tried to puzzle him with their enquiries about Church and State, the future life, and the relative value of the commandments; but he put to them the much more vital question, "What think ye of Christ?"

Jesus also pressed upon his hearers a further enquiry about "the Christ" (R. V.), for the words used evidently mean the Messiah: "Whose son is he?" They say unto him, "The son of David." They knew that the promised Deliverer would be descended from David; but they either did not know, or would not confess, that he had a divine as well as a human origin. This the Saviour brings out by further questions.

43-45. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?

These questions of our Lord themselves contain the answers to the present-day critics who deny the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and the Davidic authorship and Messianic application of certain Psalms. He saith unto them, "How then doth David in spirit call him Lord?" quoting from Ps. Exodus 1, "saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool," our Saviour declared that these were the words of David, speaking "by the Holy Ghost" (see Mark 12:36), concerning the Christ, the Messiah. This ought for ever to settle the question about the inspiration, authorship, and application of that Psalm at least. "The Lord said unto my Lord,"—Jehovah said unto my Adonai: David, by the Holy Ghost, learned what the Father said unto the Son; and thus he was brought into connection with the whole sacred Trinity. "Sit thou on my right hand ": the Messiah was bidden to rest after his great mediatorial work was accomplished, and to sit on his Father's right hand, in the place of honour, power, and majesty. "Till I make thine enemies thy footstool": Jesus is to keep his seat till his foes are all prostrate at his feet. This was the problem the Pharisees had to solve: if the Messiah was David's Son, how was it that David, by the Holy Ghost, called him his Lord? The Christ must be something more than mere man; otherwise the Psalmist's words would have been unsuitable, and even blasphemous. He was higher than the angels, for unto none of them did Jehovah ever say, "Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool" (Heb 1:13).

46. And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

If the Pharisees could have denied that the Psalm had reference to the Messiah, it would have been easy for them to reply to Christ's question; but no man was able to answer him a word. The Rabbis of our Saviour's day admitted that this was one of the Messianic Psalms, without recognizing what their admission involved; in later times, as at the present day, false teachers sought to wrest it from its proper meaning.

Christ's questions silenced his adversaries in a double sense; first, they could not answer him a word; and next, neither durst any man from that day forth ash him any more questions. He remained Master of the field. They could not entrap or entangle him in his talk; if they would put him to silence, they must do it by putting him to death.