Matthew 22:34-46
“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’?
If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.”
This passage seems appropriate for the time of the year when students and professors are preoccupied with questions and answers – midterm examination time. Students imagine professors devising trick questions, and wonder how they can ever do all they need to do to pass the exam, or possibly learn everything they need to know to pass the course.
In today’s passage, Jesus is asked questions, answers questions, and stumps the great minds of his day with a question of his own.
