Sometimes the Authorised Version
just isn't good enough.
What a bold statement to make!
But it is true.
Sometimes, the English language
gets in its own way
when we try to understand what it's saying.
Take Psalm 110 for example.
Our Lord tells us that it begins:
"The Lord said unto my Lord
sit Thou at my right hand
until I make Thine enemies
Thy footstool."
Now, who said what to whom?
[PAUSE]
The Lord said to my Lord.
Who are we talking about here?
We can try going into the
Biblical languages.
We don't fare much better with Greek.
That just translates to
"The Lord said to my Lord"
While this means that
our English translation
is pretty spot on,
it doesn't solve the problem.
We have to go to the Hebrew.
If we do, then we find that
the Hebrew translates literally as
"Yahweh said to my Lord..."
The Hebrew uses
the Sacred Name of God here,
but it wouldn't be pronounced.
They would use the word "Lord"
instead of God's Sacred Name.
What about the other "Lord"?
Well, both Jesus and the Pharisees
say that this other "Lord"
is the Messiah,
the Christ,
the Anointed One
the saviour of Israel.
And that's why the confusion arises.
So the verse says:
"Yahweh said to my Messiah..."
Well, this is all very well
and rather clever,
but what does it mean?
[PAUSE]
There's one other word to worry about.
Who is the "my" in "my Lord"?
Well, this is David.
It says so at the beginning of the psalm.
And Our Lord says that it is David too.
So this psalm starts
"Yahweh said to David's Messiah..."
"David's Lord..."
Now perhaps you begin to see
that there is something
very deep happening here.
Our Lord Jesus asks these questions of the Pharisees.
If David calls this person "Lord"
and David is the king of Israel,
then clearly this "Lord"
whom the Pharisees recognise as the Messiah
is greater than David.
This Messiah is both the Son of David
and yet before David.
How can this be?
[PAUSE]
Hindsight is a lovely thing,
and we Christians
know the answer already.
The only way that this Son of David
can be before David
is if the Messiah is God Himself.
And if the Messiah is a son of David,
then He must be a human being.
God and Man simultaneously.
Here, in our Gospel reading
we see Our Lord Jesus Christ
prove Himself to be God Incarnate
to those who will not listen,
to those who wilfully will not understand,
to those who will laugh at His claims to be Christ
and thus to be God,
to those whi will kill Him for saying so.
[PAUSE]
Even today,
we still hear the same heresies.
"Jesus was just a good man."
"Jesus was like God but not really God."
"Jesus didn't exist."
We know better,
and our Gospel tells us so,
It may not convince those
who refuse to engage with Our Lord,
but it should strengthen our faith
that when we preach
a doctrine as difficult understand
as that of the Holy Trinity -
three Persons, one God -
we have it right
even if we cannot fully grasp it ourselves.
The major point is
that if Jesus Christ
is both human and divine in one Person,
then, as he shares in our human nature
we share in His divine nature -
that's exactly what salvation is.
It's not just being saved from Evil,
it's being healed so that we can
enjoy living God's life in us
with our lives in Him.
As Christians,
we embrace the mystery
and find greater joy
in listening to the Lord
tell Our Lord
that His enemies - Sin and Death
are put down beneath His feer
and ours too.
The Lord speaks to Our Lord
and we hear His words
and are healed Eternally.
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