Truth: Jesus is the Messiah

 

The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool."  --Psalm 110:1

Lebanese author and spiritualist Khalil Gibran said, "Many a doctrine is like a window pane.  We see truth through it but it divides us from truth."  Reformed theologian and Presbyterian pastor RC Sproul wrote, "I hear people say, 'Doctrine divides.'  Of course doctrine divides, but it also unites.  It unites the ones who love God's truth and are willing to worship Him according to that truth."  American singer and actor Elvis Presley said, "Truth is like the sun.  You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't going away."

We have seen that there were different spiritual trains of thought among Jewish religious leaders in Jesus' day.  The four main factions--Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and Scribes--all came to Jesus with questions designed to trip Him up, or at least put him at odds with the masses who followed Him.  In Mark's gospel, the 12th chapter, each of these groups came at Jesus with a challenge, and He turned them all away.  The last one, a Scribe, seemed to frame his question in an honest, sincere way that showed his mind was open to the teachings of Jesus.  The question was not so much designed to trip Him up as to clarify His thinking on the subject of Scripture.  In a manner of speaking, the question was about doctrine.  When His answer was accepted, Jesus told this particular Scribe that he was not far from the kingdom of God.  Would that all our doctrine would bring us closer to God!

As if to emphasize the fact that Jesus' teaching was not in line with the teaching of all Scribes, Jesus began to preach against them generally (even after praising the one specifically).  Let's read:

Then Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, "How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?  For David himself said by the Holy Spirit:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool".'  Therefore David himself calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then his Son?"  And the common people heard Him gladly.  Then He said to them in His teaching, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."  --Mark 12:35-40

 Having been approached by four different factions of Jewish leaders with questions, Jesus turns the questions back on them.  In the parallel passage in Matthew 22:41-43, Jesus specifically raised this question to the Pharisees:  "While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, 'What do you think about the Christ?  Whose Son is He?'  They said to Him, 'The son of David.'  He said to them, 'How then does David in the Spirit call Him "Lord"?'"

The question dealt with their assumptions about the Messiah.  Having been under Roman oppression for about 90 years (Jerusalem fell to General Pompey in 63 BC), the concept of the Messiah had morphed into an image of a conquering war hero, one who would overthrow Roman rule and re-establish the Davidic kingship over Jerusalem.  That image pre-supposed a human being, a mortal man.  

Jesus was teaching them that the Messiah was immortal.  Remember that this verse closely follows verse 27, "He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living."  Where in verse 27, Jesus was referencing Moses' conversation with God at the burning bush, where God gave the I AM statement about being the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  These men had died hundreds of years before Moses, but they are still alive in heaven.  Using the same logic and similar language, Jesus referenced David saying that the Messiah was alive hundreds of years before, but the Pharisees all agreed that the Messiah (or Christ, in Greek) had not yet come.  If David spoke of the Messiah in the present tense, then He would have the same attributes as God, one of which was pre-existence and pre-eminence.  God is, was, and always will be; so, too, is the Christ.

The verse He quoted from Psalm 110 was universally understood by all Jews to be a Messianic verse.  Jesus uses it to identify Himself as the Messiah.  Remember in Mark 8:27, Jesus had put this same question to the disciples privately: Who do people say that I am?  And who do you say that I am?  Peter speaks up, saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  In fact, Peter used the same verse from Psalm 110 that Jesus did when he explained the outpouring of the Holy Spirit with tongues of flame and the gift of languages in Acts 2:34-36: "For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: 'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool".'  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

The Scribes (and others) to whom He was speaking would have known the rest of Psalm 110, specifically verses 3 and 4:

Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power; in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth.  The Lord has sworn and will not relent, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."

 This is the basis for Jesus' condemnation of the Scribes in Mark 12:38-40.  Volunteers, or ministers, should not seek the lavish robes or high praise in the marketplace or the best seats in the synagogues, or the best places at feasts.  They should not make long prayers, or demand tithes from widows who are in danger of losing their houses (more about this in the next passage).  Instead, they should be like Jesus, who was a Servant of all.  Hebrews 10:11-14 says, "Every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.  But this Man, after He had offered on sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.  For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified."

Jesus volunteered to preach Good News to the people.  He ministered to them freely, never asking for anything in return.  Ultimately, He freely laid down His life as a sacrifice for us, so that we who are covered by His blood can avoid the wrath of God and ultimate judgment from Him.  He was holy from the womb through His youth up to the point where the Pharisees had Him arrested and crucified.  Yet even there, He acted as our High Priest, giving a sacrifice without blemish to cover the sins of the people.

This, then, is truth.  It is doctrine.  It is our eternal hope, and should unite us all.  Indeed, all men will bow before Him, either in this life or the next.