Who is the Messiah?
Deuteronomy 34:
1-12
Matthew Chapter
22: 34-46
Deuteronomy’s
reading is quite straightforward and not so bloodthirsty as most of the Old
Testament, though Moses’ death is still squeezed in. I don’t normally have OT readings if I can
avoid it, principally because it is my belief that when Jesus came and
fulfilled his mission, he brought to fruition what we call the Old Testament,
or God’s revelation to a specific group of people. This isn’t meant to be defamatory to ancient Judaic
or Islamic scriptures, however I believe that Jesus came and announced the
fulfillment of the law, announcing a new age on that first Easter Sunday. However the death of Moses, considered to be
one of the greatest people in Jewish history, is important when laid against
our second reading, because we have Jesus explicitly challenging the viewpoint
of the time concerning the Messiah. Jesus
in claiming the title of Messiah, is claiming himself to be greater than Moses;
something that the lawmakers of the day find extremely uncomfortable.
Let’s consider
Matthew Chapter 22 in a bit more detail.
When is this debate occurring? We
are the day after Palm Sunday. Jesus has ridden into Jerusalem from the eastern
end of the City with a ramshackle collection of followers mirroring in deep
irony the arrival of Pilate with his security detachment and rich trimmings
from the west. Jesus as purposefully
used imagery to announce himself as the Messiah, as God returning to Jerusalem,
to his people.
There follows a
skirmish in the temple and Jesus retreats to Bethany, perhaps after a brief
diversion deep into the temple leading to another brush with a high priest; a
story found in an apocryphal gospel which seems to hinge around the cleanliness
laws.
And so we come to
the Monday of Holy Week, and Jesus’ opponents are bringing out the heavy guns
to embarrass Jesus and undermine his authority with his followers. Earlier in Ch 22, Jesus is challenged by the
Herodians whether it is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not. Jesus sideswipes them by asking them for a
coin which they give him, thus showing that since they use the coin they are
already part of a system that uses a graven image of an emperor that states he
is a god, and his response is that they are to give the emperor what is his and
to God what is God’s. This should not
be misread as a dividing of the spoils.
The state is secondary to God, so there is no defined loyal submission
to the state implied here. If the two
are in harmony then all is well, if not then it is clear that allegiance to God
trumps allegiance to any state. If coins
with Caesar’s image and inscription belong to Caesar, then human beings created
in the image of God, bearing God’s image, belong to God.
The Sadducees then
ask a question about resurrection. The
sadducees did not believe in resurrection, they were the sola scriptura part of
the day. A bit like the modern day
creationists and rampant evangelists.
Reflecting on that is interesting to say the least.
However they
concoct a story about a widow and ask Jesus who would be her husband after
death if she married a succession of men in accordance with the law.
What Jesus says is
actually very interesting, he says two things of import. First the resurrection is nothing like they
can imagine. We won’t be married to any
one person in the afterlife it seems.
From the horses mouth it seems we will be like angels. “For in the resurrection they neither marry
nor are given in marriage, but are like angels”. Now that’s interesting isn’t it. It pumps a huge hole in the whole
spiritualist arguments of spirits existing in a void and trying to contact or
not as the case may be. It’s also a
reminder to us as we approach Halloween not to get carried away with
things. God is not God of the dead but
of the living. Jesus seems to be
implying here that there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead. Listen to what he says; “I am the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob”. If
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were dead when God spoke to Moses he would have
said that he was the God of them, so the implication is that they are still
alive somehow.
Then a pharisaical
lawyer approaches Jesus and challenges him regarding which is the greatest
commandment. Jesus replies with “You
shall love the lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and
with all your mind”
We shouldn’t love
God just with an emotional viewpoint, or just an intellectual viewpoint, or
just a spiritual sense, God demands the totality of our focus, because it is
meaningless to just offer a part, if we are made in the image of God, then just
offering a part means we are warping the image and we are left with a
dysfunctional self. A self that exhibits
selfishness, anger, bullying, violence, hatred, prejudice. They are the fruits of not following the
first and greatest Commandment. If we
put love for the state or for money or for a way of life before God then what
happens to our ability to keep the first and greatest commandment? How can we
love God with all our heart and soul and mind if we love money or power or
status or ourselves more?
Who then is Jesus,
Who is the messiah? Jesus is one of a
load of sons of David. There were no
doubt many. And yet one of the key
points about being the Messiah was they they would be a son of David. So Jesus is challenging the focus on the
term here as being of any value at all by saying well if the Messiah is the son
of David, why is David calling him Lord.
It is interesting that this question is posed by Jesus to the Pharisees
and others rather than Jesus being questioned.
So I feel it is
totally appropriate to leave you with this very question today. “What do you
think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?
Depending on your
answer may lead you to reflect on whether you are following the greatest
commandment in your own lives, and if you aren’t then it may help you in
reflecting on what you need to do to get back on track.
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