And he said unto them,
How say they that Christ is David's son?
Read Chapter 20
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Before summarizing his commandments, the Lord included the faith and mercy preceding his passion at the end of his testament. Faith is that we believe Christ is our Lord and God and sits at the right hand of God. … He rebukes those who say that Christ is the Son of David. How then did that blind man deserve healing by acknowledging the Son of David? How did the children, saying “Hosanna to the Son of David,” give the glory of their lofty proclamation to God? Here Jesus did not rebuke them because they acknowledged the Son of David but because they do not believe him to be the Son of God. The true faith does not confess one versus the other but both. Although at the beginning we judged to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified, yet now since we are near the judgment, we already do not know Christ only crucified but also wait for him coming in the clouds. The unbeliever looks on the wounds. The faithful one is taken up and runs to meet Christ in the air. Let us therefore believe...
They are not blamed here because they acknowledge Him to be David's Son, forthe blind man for so doing was thought worthy to be healed. And the children saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, rendered to God the glory of the highest praise; but they are blamed because they believe Him not to be the Son of God. Hence it is added, And David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord. Both the Father is Lord and the Son is Lord, but there are not two Lords, but one Lord, for the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. He Himself sits at the right hand of the Father, for He is coequal with the Father, inferior to none; for it follows, Sit you at my right hand. He is not honored by sitting at the right hand, nor is He degraded by being sent. Degrees of dignity are not sought for, where is the fullness of divinity.
We must believe then that Christ is both God and man, and that His enemies are made subject to Him by the Father, not through the weakness of His power...
By the sitting we must not conceive a posture of the human limbs, as if the Father saton the left and the Son on the right, but the right hand itself we must interpret to be the power which that Man received who was taken up into Himself by God, that He should come to judge, who at first came to be judged.
The Pharisees did not answer Christ’s question. They did this in spitefulness, or rather against their own selves, for perhaps being convicted by the inquiry the word of salvation would have shined in them. They did not wish to know the truth, but sinfully seizing for themselves the Lord’s inheritance, they denied the heir, or rather wickedly murdered him. They rejected the faith because of their love of leadership, greed for profit, and for their shameful gains…. To remove from them the habit of thinking and speaking of him in a derogatory and scornful manner, he asked them, “How do they say that Christ is David’s Son, etc.?” As I have already remarked, they were silent from malicious motives and thereby condemned themselves as unworthy of eternal life and of the knowledge of the truth. Commentary on Luke, Homily
We also will ask the Pharisees of today a similar question. They deny that he who was born of the holy Virgin is very Son of God the Father and himself also God. They also divide the one Christ into two sons. Let these people explain to us how David’s Son is his Lord, not so much as to human lordship as divine. To sit at the right hand of the Father is the assurance and pledge of supreme glory. Those who share the same throne are equal also in dignity, and those who are crowned with equal honors are understood of course to be equal in nature. To sit by God can signify nothing else than sovereign authority. The throne declares to us that Christ possesses power over everything and supremacy by right of his substance. How is the Son of David David’s Lord, seated at the right hand of God the Father and on the throne of Deity? Is it not altogether according to the unerring word of the mystery that the Word as God sprung from the very substance of God the Father? Being in his likeness and eq...
The Savior asked them, “How do they say that Christ is David’s son? David himself says in the book of Psalms, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit on my right hand until I place your enemies as a footstool under your feet.” ’ David therefore calls him Lord, and how is he his son?” The beginning of understanding is faith. He says, “If you will not believe, you cannot understand.” The examination of important truths leads to salvation. Emmanuel is the Son and the Lord of David. If anyone would learn in what way he is to understand this, he must certainly begin the exact and blameless examination of his mystery. This was kept in silence from the foundation of the world but has been revealed in the latter ages of the world. Commentary on Luke, Homily
Or, that He sits on the Father's right hand proves His heavenly glory. For whose throne is equal, their Majesty is equal. But sitting when it is said of God signifies a universal kingdom and power. Therefore He sits at the right handof the Father, because the Word proceeding from the substance of the Father, being made flesh, puts not off His divine glory.
We then likewise in answer to the new Pharisees who neither confess the Son of the holy Virgin to be the true Son of God, nor to be God, but divide one son into two, put the like objections: How then is the Son of David David's Lord, and that not by human lordship, but divine?.
We then likewise in answer to the new Pharisees who neither confess the Son of the holy Virgin to be the true Son of God, nor to be God, but divide one son into two, put the like objections: How then is the Son of David David's Lord, and that not by human lordship, but divine?
Now, He did not reject the attestation of those who had assumed His answer to bear this meaning. If, however, the Scribes thought Christ was David's Son, whereas (David) himself calls Him Lord.
of His own accord,
He manifests then that He is not opposed to the Father, but agrees with Him, since the Father resists the Son's enemies, Until I make your enemies your footstool.
There fore He asks the question, and having excited their doubts, leaves them to deduce the consequence; as it follows, David therefore calls him Lord, how is he then his son?
