How big is your Jesus? (Matthew 22:41-46)
Read 📖
Today’s reading is Matthew 22:41-46
“If then David calls [the Messiah] Lord, how is he his son?”
Matthew 22:45
Reflect ❤️
How Big Is Your Jesus?
During Passion Week, Jesus stood in the temple courts being questioned by the Sadducees and Pharisees—two groups who often opposed each other, but who were now united in their attempts to interrogate Him (Matthew 22:15–40). After their questions failed to trap Him, Jesus turned the tables with a question of His own:
“What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”
Their answer was immediate and clear: “The Son of David.”
From our study of the Davidic Covenant and 2 Samuel, we know that Israel was waiting for a Davidic King—the one who would restore the kingdom, bring Israel back to its former glory, lead God’s people, and deliver them from the oppression of their enemies. But was that all they expected? Merely a Son of David?
If the Messiah were only a son of David, that category would not be enough. David had many descendants, and in 2 Samuel we see exactly how the earthly sons of David played out: Amnon and his heinous sin against Tamar, Absalom’s descent into murder, rebellion, and civil war, and later Adonijah’s desperate attempt to seize the throne. Israel did not simply need another flawed human descendant of David. They needed someone greater.
The Pharisees had not grasped the true fullness of the Messiah. Their expectation was that the Messiah would just be big enough to redeem their immediate political circumstances, but not big enough to bring an end to sin and suffering, and separation from God.
Jesus responded by quoting the opening of Psalm 110:
“The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet.’”
Jesus asked them: if the Messiah is merely David’s son, how can David, speaking by the Holy Spirit, call Him Lord? David was not writing from his own human imagination. Guided by the Spirit, he called the Messiah his Lord. How is that possible?
The Messiah had to be more than just the Son of David.
So how big is Christ? How big is our Jesus?
From the very beginning of Scripture, humanity has been in need of someone righteous enough to stand in the presence of God and plead our case. In Job 9, Job gives voice to that longing. He cries out for an arbiter—someone who could bridge the gap between God and mankind, someone who could lay his hand upon both. He longs for a mediator who can stand in the place of humanity, yet also be righteous enough to stand before God and plead our case.
Jesus is that mediator.
He is both the Son of David and David’s Lord—fully human and fully God.
Paul opens his letter to the Romans with this truth: Jesus was descended from David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God in power by the Spirit of holiness through His resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:3–4). Paul later reminds us that those who belong to Christ are justified and are actively being conformed to His image, but what is this image that we are being conformed to?
As Paul writes in Colossians 1:15–20, Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. He is not part of creation; He is supreme over it. He exists before all things, and in Him all things hold together. By His sacrifice and the shedding of His blood on the cross, He reconciles all things to Himself—whether on earth or in heaven—making peace by the blood of His cross.
And this Messiah will return.
Right now, “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God,” groaning to be set free from its bondage to corruption (Romans 8:19–23). As believers, we are waiting for the fulfilment of God’s promise: “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).
When He returns, we will see and live in all that Revelation 21:3–5 promises:
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
He is a Messiah big enough to redeem the whole of creation.
The Pharisees expected a Messiah who would restore an earthly kingdom. Jesus brings something greater: the restoration of all creation, the reconciliation of heaven and earth, the renewal of humanity in His image, and the establishment of God’s eternal reign over a world remade in righteousness.
This is a Messiah big enough not only to redeem us from our sins and bring peace to our immediate circumstances, but also to return and make all things new.
So, is your view of Jesus too small?
Pray 🙏
Lord Jesus, You are the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. You are the Son of David and David’s Lord, the image of the invisible God, the mediator between God and man, and the one through whom all things will be made new. Help us to see You more clearly, worship You more fully, and to know and trust You more deeply. Amen