Jesus said to them, ‘How can the Messiah be the son of David? David himself says, in the book of Psalms,
“The Lord says to the Lord of mine
Sit here at my right hand;
Until I place those foes of thine
Right underneath thy feet.”
‘David, you see, calls him “Lord”; so how can he be his son?’
As all the people listened to him, he said to the disciples, ‘Watch out for the scribes who go about in long robes, and enjoy being greeted in the market-place, sitting in the best seats in the synagogues, and taking the top tables at dinners. They gobble up widows’ houses, and make long prayers without meaning them. Their judgment will be all the more severe.’
He looked up and saw rich people putting their contributions in the Temple treasury. He also saw an impoverished widow putting in two tiny copper coins.
‘I’m telling you the truth,’ he said. ‘This poor widow has put in more than all of them. They contributed into the collection out of their plenty, but she contributed out of her poverty, and gave her whole livelihood.’
We love to categorize things, to figure things out…to put them in nice neat little boxes and then to build nice neat little stacks of boxes and if we are diligent enough and arrogant enough we may just try and build ourselves a little tower up to heaven and make a name for ourselves. Well the God that reveals Himself as the Name, YHVH …that is, ‘I Will Be Who I Will Be’ will simply have none of that. The very pronunciation of that Name ought to put its hearers on their knees in fear and wonder and awe.
That is what we learn here…our boxes…our thoughts are not His thoughts; His ways are far above our ways. First, the question of whose son the Messiah is. In this time and still today, many Jews see the Messiah as an earthly king. Jesus’ question blows apart the box which many have constructed in their minds as what ‘Messiah’ actually means. Here, through the scriptures, Jesus shows them that God had always intended David’s Lord to humble himself and become David’s son and to become the one who, in YHVH, would share the throne that is above all thrones, carrying a Name that is above all other Name’s, save the One who named Him. Being even His own right arm as it’s written…
‘And He saw that there was no man,
And was astonished that there was no one to intercede;
Then His own arm brought salvation to Him,
And His righteousness upheld Him.
He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing
And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.’
I would argue that we need, even today…especially amongst Christians, a bigger view of what ‘Messiah’ means, and of what the return of Messiah means and looks like…we need a Pauline vision, even if it means getting knocked off our horse and carried up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, who knows? God knows!
Thinking God’s thoughts after Him goes farther than just ‘thinking outside the box’…you may just have to, prayerfully, as my good friend Dan says, ‘tear the whole box apart and make shelves’…do something useful with it that will display God’s glory rather than hide it away.
How do we go about it when everything is counter intuitive? It is not through external show and popularity in the marketplaces, the best seats and the place of honor at supper who rule and rein in God’s eyes, it’s the poor in spirit! They are the blessed ones, ,the ones through whom His Kingdom comes…the ones who turn our hearts to compassion and love, the ones the world is not worthy of!
It is not the ones who give the most money, but the ones who, in need themselves, still go on giving…these are the pure in heart, the ones who see God’s face, the ones who send us to our knees, beating our chests and crying out ‘My God, my God… I’m a sinner, forgive me Lord, have mercy! Blessed are they in His eyes. Truly as we do to these…the least, we have done it unto Him and the reward there is never lost, but His recompense is with Him when He comes. Amen
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