Luke 20 v 41. “Then Jesus said to them, “How is it that they say the Christ is the Son of David?”
Jesus now carries the argument regarding the resurrection on to the offensive. His opponents, the Sadducees had quoted an Old Testament law without any regard to its context and purpose, now Jesus will also quote from the Old Testament. First though, it is good to remember that the very law referred to by the Pharisees lay behind the existence of Jesus as the descendent of David. They however were quite oblivious to this fact.
Now Jesus quotes from Psalm 110 v 1. In this passage David called Messiah his Lord. But how could this make sense unless:
1. Messiah was already existent in David’s day and,
2. If by the time Messiah was born, David himself had ceased to exist.
In other words how could David call a non-existent Messiah his Lord? And how could Messiah be Lord to a non-existent David? Furthermore, if David called him Lord, how can he be his Son (i.e. Son of David, Messiah)?
You can imagine how the ears of these Sadducees must have been ringing. Messiah was not simply the son of David (Revelation 22 v 16). He was more. He was David’s Lord. He was the Owner’s Son. His death would be followed by resurrection.
In this passage quoted by our Lord, the command from God to “sit at my right hand”, would be pointless, if Messiah had been there all along. No. Rather it implies a time when he was not sitting there, but was obtaining our salvation. Then he rose from the dead and ascended back to his rightful position.
We are now living in the era when his enemies are being made a footstool for his feet. That means, his message is going out into all the world and he is drawing to himself a great multitude of people who will believe in his name.
This is the time God is calling people to His Son. When and how that ever will cease, no one knows. We must take our opportunity while we can.