Like tag team wrestlers the Pharisees take over from the defeated Sadducees and ‘step into the ring’ to spar verbally with Jesus once more. His identification of love as the lens through which to understand and live the commands of the Old Testament (vs 37–40) inspires neither antagonism nor amazement – it is evidently an entirely orthodox answer. Jesus has no interest in being controversial for its own sake. He is only ever caught up in controversy when the kingdoms of this world resist the claims of the kingdom of heaven issued through his ministry. The same should surely hold true for the church as it continues Christ’s mission today.

At the heart of that mission, of course, is the declaration that, in Jesus, God entered into the world and acted to save and renew his creation. Jesus is the Messiah; he is David’s son; but more than that, he is the Son of God! That’s what he’s driving at with his question to the Pharisees concerning the sonship of the Messiah (v 42). The title ‘son of David’ is good so far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough (v 45); it fails to do sufficient justice to the full significance of Christ. The mission of the church must do full justice to Jesus. 

God, help me to love you with all my being. Transform me so that I love others as I should. 

As a biblical scholar, I confess that we academics can make Christianity much too complex. We get lost in questions, possibilities, binaries and uncertainties. Such tendencies are greater in our digital age, as we are bombarded with information overload. This encounter tells us what Christianity is really about.

Seeing the Sadducees swatted away, the Pharisees attack Jesus through a scribe. Pharisees saw 613 laws in the Torah: 365 positive and 248 negative. Naturally, they grappled with questions of the relative importance of these laws.¹ The question then is apt. Jesus’ answer is consistent with second-temple Judaism. He references the Shema as most important – loving God with everything one has – from Leviticus 19:18, the law of neighbourly love. Jesus taught that one’s ‘neighbour’ is not just one’s own kith and kin, but anyone – including one’s enemies.² Core to our faith is love: loving God wholeheartedly and loving anyone, whether friend or foe. Most of the rest is academic.

The second part of our reading would have antagonised the Pharisees. Jesus takes the messianic Psalm 110:1 and states that it predicts not merely a son of David but the divine ‘Lord’ (Adonai in Hebrew). This figure will reign until God’s enemies are overcome. Having been declared ‘son of David’ earlier,³ Jesus provocatively implies that he is this figure. Time is running out for his opponents to choose to join him, or they too will be crushed along with all God’s enemies. We are taught that core to Christianity, alongside love for God and others, is believing in Jesus as Lord and hoping for his completion of the overthrow of God’s enemies. Christianity 101 then, as Paul says, is faith, hope and love; the greatest of these is love.⁴

Read 1 Corinthians 13:13 and Galations 5:5,6. Ask God to strengthen you to trust in him, hope in all situations and love everyone non-discriminately. 

¹ RB Gardner, Matthew, Herald Press, 1991, p328  ² Matt 5:38–48; Luke 10:25–37  ³ Matt 21:9,15; cf 1:1; 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30  ⁴ 1 Cor 13:13