The Christ, Son of David

"The Lord said to my Lord : Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies as your footstool." Psalm 110. 1

Jesus entered Jerusalem acclaimed like the Messiah by the crowd that accompanied him : "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matt 21: 9). Children receive him with the same cry in the forecourt of the temple (verse 15).

During the next two days, the people witnessed various confrontations between Jesus and the religious leaders. The Lord put an end to it with a question : "What do you think of Christ ? Whose son is he ?" (Matthew 22:42). Without hesitation, they answer : "Of David". This is not surprising : in Judaism, it was known that the promised Messiah would be a man descended from David (see Isa. 11: 1; Jer. 23: 5-6). But would he be a man ?

Jesus then asks them a second question, for the Old Testament also affirms the divinity of the Messiah. On the basis of the psalm quoted in the verse of the day and inspired, it must be emphasized, to David himself, he said to them : "How then is David by the Spirit calling him Lord ? Saying, The Lord (Yahweh, Jehovah in Hebrew) said to my Lord (Adonai in Hebrew) : Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet? "(Matt. 22. 43-45).

How could King David, who had no one above him on earth, take the position of a subject with regard to a Lord whose dignity, position and power surpass him a lot ? How then can the Messiah be both the son of David and the Lord of David ?

"No one could answer him a word. Since that day, no one dared ask him anymore "(v. 46), implicitly recognizing his authority and superiority of divine origin. Here ends the ministry of Jesus in the midst of his adversaries, defeated, but not convinced.

And for us Christians, who is Jesus ? By his double ancestry, he is :

- Son of David according to the flesh,

- Lord of David, for Son of God and Son of man raised in glory.

It is under this double title that the Lord presents himself at the end of the divine revelation : "I am the root and the seed of David" (Rev. 22:16).

Source (To pleasing the Lord)