Luke 20:41

Luke 20:41-47 . How say they that Christ is David’s son, &c. — For an elucidation of these verses, see on Matthew 22:41-46 ; Matthew 23:5-7 ; Matthew 23:14 ; and Mark 12:35-40 . David therefore calleth him Lord: how is he then his son — “This implies both the existence of David in a future state, and the authority of the Messiah over that invisible world into which that prince was removed by death. Else, how great a monarch soever the Messiah might have been, he could not have been properly called David’s Lord; any more than Julius Cesar could have been called the lord of Romulus, because he reigned in Rome seven hundred years after his death, and vastly extended the bounds of that empire which Romulus founded. Munster’s note on this text shows, in a very forcible manner, the wretched expedients of some modern Jews to evade the force of that interpretation of the one hundred and tenth Psalm, which refers it to the Messiah.” — Doddridge.

Luke 20:41-44 . The counter question ( Matthew 22:41-46 , Mark 12:35-37 ). Lk., who had given something similar at an earlier stage ( Luke 10:25-37 ), omits the question of the scribe concerning the great commandment, which comes in at this point in Mt. ( Matthew 22:34-40 ) and Mk. ( Mark 12:28-34 ), retaining only its conclusion (in Mk.), which he appends to the previous narrative ( Luke 20:40 ).

(41, 42) How say they that Christ is David’s son ?—Better, that the Christ. See Notes on Matthew 22:41-46 ; Mark 12:35-37 . The implied subject of the verb is clearly, as in St. Mark, “the scribes.” St. Luke agrees with St. Mark in not giving the preliminary question, “What think ye of Christ? . . ,” which we find in St. Matthew.

Verses 41-44. - The question rejecting Christ's being David's Son. Verse 41. - And he said unto them, How say they that Christ is David's Son? St. Matthew gives us more details of what went before the following saying of Jesus in which he asserts the Divinity of Messiah. Jesus asked the Pharisees, "What think ye of Christ? whose Son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord," etc.? ( Matthew 22:42-44 ). This is one of the most remarkable sayings of our Lord reported by the synoptists; in it he distinctly claims for himself Divinity, partiei. pation in omnipotence. Unmistakably, lately, under the thinnest veil of parable, Jesus had told the people that he was Messiah For instance, his words in the parable of the "wicked husbandmen;" in the parable of "the pounds;" in his late acts in the temple - driving out the sellers and buyers, allowing the children in the temple to welcome him with Messianic salutation, receiving as Messiah the welcome of the Passover pilgrims and others on Palm Sunday as he entered Jerusalem. In his later parables , too, he had with startling clearness predicted his approaching violent death. Now, Jesus was aware that the capital charge which would be brought against him would be blasphemy, that he had called himself, not only the Messiah, but Divine, the Son of God ( John 5:18 ; John 10:33 ; Matthew 26:65 ).

He was desirous, then, before the end came, to show from an acknowledged Messianic psalm that if he was Messiah - and unquestionably a large proportion of the people received him as such - he was also Divine. The words of the psalm (110.) indisputably show this, viz. that the coming Messiah was Divine. This, he pointed out to them, was the old faith, the doctrine taught in their own inspired Scriptures. But this was not the doctrine of the Jews in the time of our Lord. They, like the Ebionites in early Christian days, expected for their Messiah a mere "beloved Man." It is most noticeable that the Messianic claim of Jesus, although not, of course, conceded by the scribes, was never protested against by them. That would have been glaringly unpopular. So many of the people, we know, were persuaded of the truth of these pretensions; Jesus had evidently the greatest difficulty to stay the people's enthusiasm in his favour. What the scribes persistently repelled, and in the end condemned him for, was his assertion of Divinity. In this passage he shows from their own Scriptures that whoever was Messiah must be Divine. He spoke over and over again as Messiah; he acted with the power and in the authority of Messiah; he allowed himself on several public occasions to be saluted as such: who would venture, then, to question that he was fully conscious of his Divinity? This conclusion is drawn, not from St. John, but exclusively from the recitals of the three synoptists. Luke 20:41

Lu 20:41-47. Christ Baffles the Pharisees by a Question about David and Messiah, and Denounces the Scribes. 41. said, &c.—"What think ye of Christ [the promised and expected Messiah]? Whose son is He [to be]? They say unto Him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit [by the Holy Ghost, Mr 12:36] call Him Lord?" (Mt 22:42, 43). The difficulty can only be solved by the higher and lower—the divine and human natures of our Lord (Mt 1:23). Mark the testimony here given to the inspiration of the Old Testament (compare Lu 24:44).

Ver. 41-44. The answer had been easy if the scribes and Pharisees, who (Matthew saith) were there also, had owned Christ to be the Son of God. But this they did not own, and so, as Matthew 22:46 tells us, No man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. Thus Christ nonplussed all his adversaries.