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Then Jesus said to them, \u201cWhy is it said that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself declares in the Book of Psalms: \u201c\u2018The Lord said to my Lord: \u201cSit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.\u201d\u2019 David calls him \u2018Lord.\u2019 How then can he be his son?\u201d (Luke 20:41-44)

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Jesus has been peppered with questions ever since arriving in Jerusalem\u2019s temple.\xa0 But after silencing all his opponents, Jesus takes on the role of questioner himself.\xa0

Everyone knew that the Messiah would be a Son of the David, thee Son, in fact.\xa0 The terms were synonymous.\xa0 And when people referred to Jesus as the Son of David, he never took any offence.\xa0 Luke was, in fact, at pains in the first couple chapters of his gospel account to tell us that Jesus was the Son of David.\xa0 He was fit to be the Messiah.\xa0 His credentials checked out.

But now Jesus throws a wrench into the whole works.\xa0 How can the Messiah be both David\u2019s Son and David\u2019s Lord at the very same time?\xa0

No answer is given.\xa0 No one responds.\xa0 Jesus doesn\u2019t explain.\xa0 The narrative just moves on.

People\u2019s expectations of the Messiah were different than the Messiah that Jesus was.\xa0 They were looking for a new earthly King to fight their earthly battles for them, and reclaim their earthly land from Rome.\xa0 All their hopes lay within human reach.\xa0 But would David have need to refer to one of his merely human descendants as Lord?

Only God can save in the ways that we need saving.\xa0 Which are earthly ills, yes.\xa0 We need saving from the earthly, unjust, violent oppression of war, like what we see playing out in Ukraine under Putin\u2019s aggression.\xa0 We need saving from earthly abuse and its impacts, as our sisters and brothers in the Meeting House feel acutely right now following Bruxy Cavey\u2019s dismissal this week for sexual abuse.\xa0 We need saving from disease, as we know from two full years to the day\u2014today\u2014of suffering under a pandemic.\xa0 But we also need saving from a spiritual ill that shoots through and undergirds it all: sin.

Only the Son of God himself can do both.\xa0 Only if Jesus is Lord and Christ can he save us from everything that destroys and disfigures life.\xa0 Only if he is both human and divine\u2014imminent and transcendent, near enough, but also big enough\u2014can he save us from our sins and all their effects.\xa0

Thanks be to God: Jesus is not merely the Son of David, but also the Son of God.\xa0 He is Lord and Christ.\xa0 And even today: he reaches down to save, heal, and redeem us from all our violence, abuses, disease, and pain as only our Lord God can do.\xa0 But as our human King, he is also close enough to us to comfort us in our sorrow and enfold us into his care.\xa0 He is our Lord King, and in all this, we belong to him.

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