Winning Ways: King David’s King

You can change lives with questions.

Well, not just any question. In The Holy Wild, Mark Buchanan highlighted some really awkward questions from real-life courtroom cross-examinations. My favorite exchange has to be the following:

Q: “Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?” A: “No.” Q: “Did you check for blood pressure?” A: “No.” Q: “Did you check for breathing?” A: “No.” Q: “So then, is it possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?” A: “No.” Q: “How can you be so sure, doctor?” A: “Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.” Q: “But could the patient have still be alive nevertheless?” A: “It is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.”

I guess that’s proof that not all questions will change your life—or even win a court case. But Jesus asked some questions that were meant to re-orient a person’s entire worldview. In Matthew 22:41-46, he asked his opponents four: What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is He? How is it that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls Him ‘Lord’? If David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how then can the Messiah be his Son?

He was referring to the universal Jewish expectation that the long-awaited Messiah would come from the line of King David. He wanted them to see that expectation as a correct but incomplete explanation of the Messiah. So he took them to Psalm 110, in which King David said, “The Lord God said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” And Jesus asked, “How can the Messiah be both David’s son and his Lord?

Jesus left the question unanswered in hopes that the riddle would wriggle into their souls and re-orient their whole worldview. He wanted them to understand that he was the root as well as the fruit of David’s line.

It’s actually what the story of Christmas is all about. As we sing in Hark, the Herald Angels Sing—

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Hail the incarnate Deity

Pleased as man with man to dwell

Jesus, our Emmanuel.

Join us this Sunday @ 10 as we wrap up our 9-week study on King David. We’ll look at King David’s King, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.