Whose Son Is the Messiah?

 Meditations of the Gospel of Mark

October 1, 2020

Whose Son Is the Messiah?

Since David himself called the Messiah ‘my Lord,’ how can the Messiah be his son?” The large crowd listened to him with great delight.

Mark 12:37

Read: Mark 12: 35-44

In Jesus’ teaching on the Messianic title ‘Son of David’, he only needed 70 words to delight the crowds and confuse us. Unlike the crowd, we are not familiar with the Messianic prophecy of Psalm 110 that Jesus quotes. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all record Jesus referring to its opening line, “The Lord said to my Lord” as pointing to the truth that The Messiah is not only a descendant of King David, he is also The Son of God. Thirteen times the New Testament connects Psalm 110 to the ministry of Jesus and his place of triumph, at the right hand of God. (Matthew 22:44; Mark 12:36, 16:19; Acts 2:34; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:30; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3, 5:6, 8:1, 10:12, 12:2) Jesus was helping the people to understand that God’s Messiah was not going to be another earthly king to lead God’s people. God’s Messiah is fully human and fully divine.

The story of the widow’s mite is very compelling. Today we talk about extravagant generosity as a way of thinking about financial stewardship. The widow’s mite is certainly a beautiful example of giving from the heart. However, as we seen several times in Mark’s gospel, still waters run deep. The widow didn’t put in just two copper coins. She gave all she had. That’s what we give when we believe the Messiah is not just a descendant of King David, another human king among human kings; he is Israel’s God who has given us all he had.

My Takeaway: At the risk of being overly redundant, I can’t help but come back to my favorite prayer:

“I acknowledge you to be my Creator and my God. I render to you the reverence of my being and my life. I am not my own. I am yours. By creation and redemption, I am yours. I will devote myself to your service this day and forever.”

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.