Matthew 22:46Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He first asked His disciples what others said of Christ, and then what they themselves said; but not so to these. For they would have said that He was a deceiver, and wicked. They thought that Christ was to be mere man, and therefore they say unto Him, The Son of David. To reprove this, He brings forward the Prophet, witnessing His dominion, proper Sonship, and His joint honour with His Father.

This passage is out of the 109th Psalm. Christ is therefore called David’s Lord, not in respect of His descent from him, but in respect of His eternal generation from the Father, wherein He was before His fleshly Father. And he calls Him Lord, not by a mere chance, nor of his own thought, but by the Holy Spirit.

As he prepared to face his death, he spoke to them about profound matters, not only rendering them speechless but also filling them with apprehension regarding what lay ahead.

For God puts Christ’s enemies as a footstool beneath His feet, for their salvation as well as their destruction.

Hence we learn that the poison of jealousy may be overcome, but can hardly of itself rest at peace.

That He says, Sit thou on my right hand, is not to be taken as though God had a body, and either a right hand or a left hand; but to sit on the right hand of God is to abide in the honour and equality of the Father’s majesty.

The deceitful Pharisees, seeking to ensnare Jesus Christ with their words, dispatched their disciples from Herodiana to inquire, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?” Jesus responded, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” (Matthew 22:17, 21). On the same day, the Sadducees approached Him, questioning Him about the resurrection from the dead. His replies astonished the crowd, as they were in awe of His teaching (Matthew 22:33). Subsequently, a lawyer attempted to challenge Him, but his encounter led him to exclaim, “Well said, Teacher, You have truly spoken” (Mark 12:32).

His adversaries ultimately came to the realization that even a single glimmer of His divine understanding could eliminate all the shadows cast by their complexities. "With this, their struggle with the Lord concluded," notes Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson. The primary Jewish sects—the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians—all seemingly conspired to confront Jesus Christ, presenting Him with questions and tests designed to highlight the utter inadequacy of their meager knowledge in the face of the boundless wisdom of the presumed carpenter from Nazareth. The inquiries they posed might seem trivial and straightforward today, yet at that moment, they were such that even the most erudite rabbis were at a loss for answers.

During these discussions, the topic of the Messiah’s identity arose. The Lord posed a question to the Pharisees surrounding Him: “How is it that David, inspired by the Spirit, refers to the Messiah as both the son of David and His Lord?” This inquiry likely aimed to reinforce through Scripture His teaching on the Messiah's supreme, Divine essence, which was dismissed by the spiritually blind literalists—as seen during the Feast of Tabernacles—and in relation to the temple's restoration. However, this question was left unanswered. Just as they hesitated to respond regarding John for fear of contradiction, they similarly refrained from addressing the question about the Messiah Himself.

With this inquiry, Jesus Christ is not attempting to dismiss the prevalent belief among the Jews that the Messiah should be of David's lineage. Rather, He seeks to refine and elevate their understanding of His identity. The Pharisees, along with the entire nation following them, overlooked the crucial truth that, as revealed in David's own prophetic words, the Messiah is also his Lord, signifying that He is the Son of God. This question was prompted, as previously noted, likely because the Pharisees recalled the Lord's affirmations about Himself as the Son of God and sought to elicit these statements again to accuse Him of blasphemy.

The Pharisees, ensnared by a rigid interpretation of Scripture and lacking the insight to grasp its true significance, failed to recognize that Christ the Messiah, as the God-man, had to be - in His divine nature - the Son of God, and in His human nature - a descendant of David. They anticipated the Messiah as the liberator who would deliver the Jewish people from Roman domination and subdue all nations. With such distorted beliefs, they were unable to respond to Jesus' inquiry.

The crowd enjoyed the discussion, while the Pharisees and scribes remained frustratingly quiet, filled with resentment over their humiliation and powerless to challenge the despised teacher.

How do you explain that David refers to his descendant as his Lord? The title "Lord" suggests that David's son possesses a greater honor than David himself. If the Messiah is simply a descendant of David, as others are, or if He is merely a human being, as you Jews believe, and if He did not exist at the time David spoke of Him, how could David address Him as Lord? If He is indeed David's Lord and existed then, how can He also be regarded as his descendant? This question stumped the Pharisees. The solution lies in understanding that, in His humanity, the Messiah is a son or offspring of David, but in His divine nature, as the incarnate Son of God, He is the Lord of David.

The discussions with those contesting the truth reached a conclusion. The educated and scholarly representatives of the Jewish factions, located in the heart of wisdom—Jerusalem—stood before a crowd of people and inquisitive visitors from all around the world, who had gathered at the temple for the Passover celebration. They found themselves in a contest against the supposed son of a carpenter (Matthew 13:55), and how dismal their efforts appeared when juxtaposed with the self-existent hypostatic Wisdom of God! Had their hearts not become hardened, and had they truly listened with their ears and not shut their eyes (Matthew 13:15), they could still have heeded the final warnings and exhortations of the Savior.