ACC ~ Luke 20 v41 - 44

THE MYSTERY REVEALED

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: 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.” [1] 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. [2] COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 137. [3]

[1] Is 7:9 LXX.

[2] Rom 16:25.

[3] CGSL 544**.

JESUS IS SON OF DAVID AND SON OF GOD

AMBROSE: 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. [1] … 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? [2] How did the children, saying “Hosanna to the Son of David,” [3] 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, [4] yet now since we are near the judgment, we already do not know Christ only crucified [5] but also wait for him coming in the clouds. [6] The unbeliever looks on the wounds. [7] The faithful one is taken up and runs to meet Christ in the air. [8] Let us therefore believe that Christ is God and man. EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 10.1-3. [9]

[1] See Mt 26:64; Mk 16:19; Rom 8:34.

[2] Mk 10:46-52; Lk 18:35-43.

[3] Mt 21:9.

[4] 1 Cor 2:2.

[5] 2 Cor 5:16.

[6] :1–24:53 PRELIMINARY REMARKS | ON THE GOSPEL

[7] See Jn 20:25, 27.

[8] 1 Thess 4:17.

[9] EHG 387-88**.

DAVID’S LORD AND SON

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: 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 equal with him, he became flesh. He became man, perfectly and yet without departing from the incomparable excellence of the divine dignities. He continued in that state in which he had always been. He still was God, although he became flesh and in form like us. He is David’s Lord therefore according to that which belongs to his divine glory, nature and sovereignty. He is his son according to the flesh. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 137. [1]

[1] CGSL 545-46**.

THE PHARISEES’ REJECTION OF THE FAITH

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: 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 137. [1]

[1] CGSL 544-45**.