Son and Lord
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus was like a
juggernaut; He could not be stopped! First Jesus silenced the Sadducees when
they tried to trap Him on the question of marriage. And then He tore through
the Pharisees and their test about the greatest commandment and the nature of
the Messiah. Those hypocrites needed to be set down a peg! The Lord deserves a
standing ovation! But hold on there just a second. Jesus doesn't need our
applause. He doesn't need any more people heaping honors on Him. He doesn't
take the Pharisees to task just for the sake of scoring points. No, He does
what He does to save you and me from our constant questioning of God.
Don’t bother to
deny it: we interrogate our Lord all the time. We hold our little inquisition
with God. We call upon Him to do what we want Him to do when we want Him to do
it. We demand that He be the sort of God we think we need. When we lack money,
we press Him to give us what we need…“and a little extra wouldn’t hurt either,
Lord.” When there is a storm coming our way, we press Him to get to the work of
being our God to save us. When our children are struggling or suffering, we
storm the gates of heaven; we wonder why He allows such things to happen, and
we demand that He fix what’s wrong. “Answer me the way I want, Lord! Take care
of my problems, and be quick about it!”
Jesus changes the
subject to save you. There can be no more asking questions about what kind of
God He should be or how you think God should work for you. There can be no more
testing God to make Him the sort of God you want Him to be. He directs you away
from your fleshly desires, and He turns you to Himself. He pulls you away from your
demands about what sort of God He is, and He leads you to a deeper confession
of how the Father deals with you in Christ.
So let's talk
about the Christ. “Whose Son is He?” Is
the Christ David's Son or David's Lord? The answer is simple: He is both! The
Christ is the Son of David and He is the Son of God. He is Son of David,
having been born of the Virgin. He is the only-begotten Son of God. He is both
God and man. He is Immanuel, “God with us,” God made flesh to dwell among His
people.
St. Matthew says
that after no one from the Pharisees, Sadducees, or the crowd dared to question
Jesus again after this. And then, on Good Friday, one dared. The Roman Governor
Pilate interrogated Jesus: “Are you the
King of the Jews?” Jesus, now bruised and beaten, answered, “It is as you say.” That's Jesus telling
Pilate—telling you—that He is the Christ. He is both King David's Son and King
David's Lord. And then, from Pilate, Jesus went to Cross to show you what it
means that He is David's Son and David's Lord. His death counts for you. His
death counts for all the times you interrogated and doubted God. His death
counts for you once and for all. On the third day, God raised Jesus from the
dead. He raises you with Him in the waters of Holy Baptism. The Christ now sits
at the right hand of God with all His enemies as a footstool under His feet.
The devil, sin, death, and the world have all been defeated.
Today our Lord
turns you aside. He keeps you from going on and on about what you think He
should be doing. He is no longer your Mary Poppins or genie in a bottle to act
according to your whims. Instead He says, “Enough about what you think. Here is
what I did for you on the Cross. And here the daily bread you need to live.” David’s
Lord died for you so that your old Adam would die with Him in the waters of
Holy Baptism; and then the David’s Son rose to raise you with Him from those
same waters. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God
which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
always. Amen.
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