Episode 115: Mark Part 54–The Great Commandment and the Son of David
Lest we make the mistake of thinking that all scribes are against Yeshua/Jesus, we have a wonderful encounter here and *gasp* an honest question for a change. After Yeshua answers, no one dares approach Him again—and after He brings up His own controversy about the Son of David in Psalm 110, the leadership has no choice but to follow Him or kill Him.
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28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. 35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ 37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly.
Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of the Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have five years’ worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on YouTube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com and transcripts can be had for most broadcasts at theancientbridge.com. If you have kids, I also have a weekly broadcast where I teach them Bible context in a way that shows them why they can trust God and how He wants to have a relationship with them through the Messiah.
All Scripture this week comes courtesy of the ESV, the English Standard Version but you can follow along with whatever Bible you want. A list of my resources can be found attached to the transcript for Part two of this series at theancientbridge.com.
Lest we err in thinking that everyone was out to get Yeshua/Jesus, we have this scribe who has been watching this whole event and asks, *gasp*, a genuine question. And this really is a big deal because, up to this point, it can really seem as though Mark is painting every single educated Jew in a terribly negative light but, like in all eras, we tend to hear most from troublemakers and loudmouths. You know, the argumentative ones—they are the ones who make the headlines when they make up just a small percentage of people. The people who are dazzled by Yeshua, they make up the overwhelming bulk of the Jews who have been portrayed up to this point—and they are also the reason why the arrest has to be made in the middle of the night. Now remember, chapters eleven and twelve are to be seen as one unit—they happen one day after another and the events of each day serve to interpret the events that come before and after. So, we’re going to review again.
Day 1, the entry into Jerusalem where Yeshua rides into town on a dedicated donkey’s colt, goes into the Temple, looks around and promptly leaves. These were both prophetic actions hearkening back to what was expected when a king would return from battle, would be paraded into the city, and would culminate the day with a visit to the Temple and sacrifices. Yeshua only looked around and inspected the place, which didn’t bode well. They spent the night in Bethany. Day 2, Yeshua is hungry and goes to a fig tree out of season, one with no edible fruit on it (just like the Temple the night before) and declared judgment that no one would ever eat of it again. Then they went to the Temple where Yeshua performed a prophetic act of judgment against the worldly and corrupt nature of what it had become, and stayed to teach people afterward. They left and spent the night in Bethany. Day 3, they got up and made their way to Jerusalem, passing that same fig tree, now withered so badly that the roots are even withered away. Yeshua looks toward the Temple and tells them that when they pray for the wickedness within the current Temple to end (the mountain tossed into the sea) that they do so with clean hearts full of forgiveness. Then they enter the Temple, where Yeshua’s authority and the source of His authority to disrupt the commerce within the Temple is challenged. He refuses to answer unless they admit to their official position on whether or not John the Baptist’s ministry was from God, and legitimate, or from men, and illegitimate. Realizing that however they answer will spell disaster for them, they tell Him that they just don’t know and are effectively silenced. Yeshua responds with a Parable aimed directly at these men, whom I believe were a delegation send by the Sanhedrin, telling them that they have been judged and condemned and that their rulership over God’s people will be given to others, which we know historically to be Yeshua’s disciples who will assume leadership. They go off and plot as to how they can arrest Him, and send the Herodians and the Pharisees, who try to trap Him into infuriating either the crowds or the Romans—and of course, He silences them both by portraying the Pharisees as hypocritical idolaters, by their own standards, when it comes to money. The Sadducees try to trip Him up by asking about the resurrection, which they do not believe in, and Yeshua proves the resurrection and God’s faithfulness and shows them up as not understanding the only five books of the Bible that they accept as authoritative. They are also silenced, not to mention intellectually body slammed.
And all that is the context that leads in to this very interesting encounter:
28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
So, he’s been in the crowd up to this point—watching everything that has been happening. He watched as they tried to lasso Yeshua into making a mistake, into looking like he was inciting rebellion or collaborating with the Romans. He watched as Yeshua trapped the leadership of Israel in their own snares. He’s gotten the best of everyone up to this point and this scribe, and remember that scribes were the educated class of legal retainers of the day. They could read and write and worked for the upper classes, writing contracts, producing Torah scrolls, even teaching—it all depended because there were scribes of all sorts. But this one was evidently quite learned and he posed to Yeshua one of the common debates of the day—which one of the 613 commandments is the most important. And it is no small question. Although Yeshua settled the matter, it is always important to understand that there is a hierarchy of commandments. Some are weightier than others, as Yeshua mentioned in Matthew 23:23 when He says tithing is good, but there are weightier matters—such as those dealing with justice, mercy and faithfulness—which would have been shorthand for those laws dealing with caring for the vulnerable and seeing that they get justice.
Although I would never use any of my dreams to declare doctrine, I remember once, a few years back, that I was in a situation with people whose language I did not speak, and there was no interpreter, and I knew that if I did not eat the mystery meat in front of me that they would be insulted and I could never share with them about the Gospel. So, Leviticus 11 got subjugated to the need to love these people and share the Gospel and I ate it, and the results were good. By showing them respect and accepting hospitality, which is a huge thing in 2/3 of the world (or more), they were willing to accept me. I pray for different tribal groups in China every night and I remember one of the groups—they are way up in the mountains near Mongolia and live on maggoty meat and fermented yak milk and they drink a lot of booze. If you can’t sit down with them and eat it, and drink it, then you cannot preach to them. It’s a cultural thing. We have to be more concerned with their souls than our scruples. If Yeshua can die, then I suppose we can eat maggots. I just pray I never have to put that in action, seriously.
29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
This, of course, is the shema which the Jews had been praying twice a day, as a formal prayer, since at least the second century BCE. It is found in Deuteronomy 6, starting in verse 4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” And you might notice that Yeshua’s version adds the word “mind” into the mix and this is an excellent example and proof that the Bible is not a science book. When Deuteronomy was written, people believed that the brain was simply skull wadding and not good for anything. Even, and this is funny, the Egyptians would preserve all the organs in those canopic jars instead of the brains—which they would throw out! They only saved what they figured folks would need in the afterlife. So, the next time you watch a mummy movie and they can’t talk—this is why. No brains. But in about 500 BCE, the Greeks figured out that it was the brain, and not the heart and the guts, that were responsible for thinking and for emotion. By this time, it was so deeply ingrained that certain things came from the heart that it had become idiomatic and it still is today. But Yeshua reflects this change of understanding by citing that we love God with our heart, mind, soul and strength. Pretty cool. God speaks to us where we are so that we can understand, not so that He can teach us science.
31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Now, there is nothing subversive of controversial about Yeshua’s answer. In b. Shabbat 31a, we see a similar answer from Hillel, (who was born in 110 BCE and reportedly died in 10 CE, but who was in power for the last forty of those years—I say reportedly because it is not unheard of to exaggerate the lives of great sages and such to the “perfect” number of years—120). But Hillel and Shammai were both once asked to teach the Torah to a Gentile with mixed responses: “There was another incident involving one gentile who came before Shammai and said to Shammai: Convert me on condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I am standing on one foot. Shammai pushed him away with the builder’s cubit in his hand. This was a common measuring stick and Shammai was a builder by trade. The same gentile came before Hillel. He converted him and said to him: That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation. Go study.”
But the answer goes deeper than we realize. It is no small commandment to love neighbor as self. In fact, we can see from the Bible that it is impossible without that New Creation life that Yeshua gives and even then, we do a pretty pathetic job of it. But although Moses would often give laws that made allowances for hard-heartedness, as we discussed with divorce and we also see with slavery and warfare and some other things—Yeshua never does that. Yeshua always begins and ends with our “creation purposes” and calls us to faithfulness to that. That’s why the Sermon on the Mount is so uncomfortable to read and why we jump up to make exceptions when we read it. We don’t want to live Kingdom lives in this world. We want to have some very beastly allowances at our disposal so that we don’t have to love neighbor as self and carry those crossbeams.
32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.
Now, this is the first respectful and genuine address He has gotten from someone educated since arriving in Jerusalem. The crowd as He came into the city on the donkey’s colt was singing His praises but He was absolutely snubbed by everyone who had the authority to make Him welcome in Jerusalem. When He has been complimented, as by the Pharisees and Herodians, it is a ploy to knock Him off balance and compromise Him. But this scribe gives credit where credit is due and proves that He was an honest man. He also addressed Him formally as teacher, which is no small thing coming from an educated man.
33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Now. Excuse me for saying so, but this coming on the heels the previous day of Yeshua disrupting the commerce in the Temple and the brouhaha all day with the delegation challenging His authority in judging the Temple and the Temple administration—this sounds like this scribe is agreeing. It was not unheard of for first-century Jews to see the corruption of the High Priestly family, given their collaboration with the Romans, as a condemnation of the Temple. The Essenes were particularly disgusted and we have spoken previously about the allegations from Second Temple era writers that the priests were consorting with prostitutes however, this could be metaphorical for describing the condition of this time with that of Hohpni and Phineas, the sons of Eli, who served just before the destruction of the site at Shiloh. Or, it could be true because those Sadducees (as we discussed last week) didn’t believe in any final judgment.
And he isn’t just saying here that to love God and neighbor is better than sacrificing an animal—he says it is greater than all the offerings and sacrifices. Just wow. Much more, he says. He knows that the Temple cannot fulfill either of those commandments and that our hearts toward God and one another have to be right. And, of course, the Torah would agree that sacrifices are nothing without obedience and love, but it is easy to lose sight of that and descend into rote rituals as they spoke of in Malachi. Sacrifice, which is how we translate korban, which is a word meaning to draw close. Yeshua is how we draw close now. He is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices—through His love and death, He made it possible for us to truly obey God and keep His commandments to love Him and one another. That’s why the Sermon on the Mount never tells us what we can get away with like the Laws given through Moses do—Yeshua tells us God’s intentions and not the allowances made for our hardened hearts.
Pro 21:3 To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
I Sam 15:22 And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
Jer 7:22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
Ho 6:6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
These are all in agreement with this anonymous scribe. But Simon the Just, a high priest who lived three hundred years before Yeshua, had this to say, according to the Mishnah, recorded in m. Avot 1.2 Shimon the Righteous was one of the last of the men of the great assembly. He used to say: the world stands upon three things: the Torah, the Temple service, and the practice of acts of piety. Now, if Yeshua were to rewrite this list, I think He would probably say, “If you would just do right, the Torah and the Temple would be irrelevant as the first only exists to keep you from acting like brutes and the second is the place you go when you fail to not act like a brute. I mean, I know they did more at the temple than that but the Temple’s overwhelming foci were atonement and worship. If we would just obey and live sacrificially, Yahweh makes it clear that there can be no greater act of worship. We like laws, though, because we can mess with them and do the minimum and feel good about ourselves but the Kingdom is not like that.
34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Yeshua is impressed with the wisdom of the scribe’s answer but still falls short of giving him a golden ticket to the world to come. “You’re almost there,” He says, but doesn’t elaborate on that. Indeed, He can’t until after the resurrection. The final step into the Kingdom is allegiance to Yeshua as God’s chosen Messiah and King. But, again, we see that now everyone is silenced—the scribe has stepped in and honored Yeshua, in effect giving voice to the fact that He has now bested all of the leadership and on the Temple Mount right before Passover. Do you remember that I said Yeshua would slowly be gaining mastery over the Temple Mount and replacing the authority and supremacy of the Temple and the Temple administration? Well, it’s almost a done deal now. No one can stand up to His wisdom. No one can outsmart Him. And no one can humiliate Him and come out on top—and yet, He doesn’t retaliate the way they or we would. I mean, they are going to plot to kill Him. They will also succeed, even though it will take the unthinkable act of collaborating with Rome to do it. This is why I love teaching about and understanding honor/shame cultures but would never want to live in one. This one-upmanship and obsession with status is deadly.
35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?
And now, He is done answering questions and goes on the offensive with a question of His own. Yeshua is teaching now, in the Court of the Gentiles and perhaps in the area known as Solomon’s porch, which was a gorgeous colonnade along the eastern side of the Temple Mount—I will provide a link in the transcript. Now, Son of David as a messianic title first shows up in the Psalms of Solomon and we discussed this back when we talked about the healing of blind Bartimaus—who called Yeshua this as He passed by. And Yeshua didn’t correct him so obviously he had no problem with this. Note that He isn’t debating that the Messiah is the son of David, He is merely challenging them as to how they can say he is—and it’s going to become clear that what He is really asking is, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is merely the son of David?” Big difference.
Ps Sol 17:21-25 See, Lord, and raise up for them their king, the son of David, to rule over Israel, your servant, in the time which you chose, o God, Undergird him with the strength to destroy the unrighteous rulers, to cleanse Jerusalem from gentiles who trample her to destruction; to drive out in wisdom and in righteousness the sinners from the inheritance; to crash the arrogance of sinners like a potter’s jar; to smash all their substance with an iron rod; to destroy the lawless nations with the word of his mouth; to make the nations flee from his presence at his threat and to put sinners to shame by the word of their heart.
4QFlor 1.1-13 In a Messianic commentary on 2 Sam 7 and Amos 9:11, “Moreover the Lord declares to you that He will make you a house,” and that “I will raise up your offspring after you, and establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be my son.” This passage refers to the Shoot of David, who is to rise with the Interpreter of the Law and who will arise in Zion in the last days, as it was written, “And I shall raise up the booth of David that is fallen.” This passage describes the fallen Branch of David, whom He shall raise up to deliver Israel.
Sanh 96b-97a Rav Naḥman said to Rabbi Yitzḥak: Have you heard when the son of giants [bar niflei] will come? Rabbi Yitzḥak said to him: Who is the son of giants? Rav Naḥman said to him: He is the Messiah. Rabbi Yitzḥak asked him: Do you call the Messiah son of giants? Rav Naḥman said to him: Yes, as it is written: “On that day I will establish the Tabernacle of David that is fallen [hanofelet]” (Amos 9:11). That is why the Messiah is called bar nifli. Rabbi Yitzḥak said to him that this is what Rabbi Yoḥanan says: During the generation in which the Messiah, son of David, comes, Torah scholars decrease; and as for the rest of the people, their eyes fail with sorrow and grief, and troubles increase. And the harsh decrees will be introduced; before the first passes the second quickly comes.
B Sanh 98a Rabbi Ḥanina says: The son of David will not come until a fish will be sought for an ill person and will not be found, as it is stated with regard to the downfall of Egypt: “Then I will make their waters clear and cause their rivers to run like oil” (Ezekiel 32:14), meaning that the current in the rivers will come to a virtual standstill. And it is written thereafter: “On that day I will cause the glory of the house of Israel to flourish” (Ezekiel 29:21)….see more on Son of David here https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.98a.6?lang=bi
Florigelium and the Psalms of Solomon were both written before Yeshua and the Gemara on tractate Sanhedrin hundreds of years later but cites Rabbi Yitzhak, who lived only a hundred years after Yeshua. Rabbi Hanina lived in the fourth century CE. All describe the Messiah as the son of David, the Branch, the one who will raise back up the Booth of his Father David. So, this is definitely something that the scribes would have been teaching, talking about, and debating.
And they taught this based on these scriptures, from which they derived the doctrine of the Messiah and the Messianic Age. We tend to take all this for granted in retrospect, but these were the guys who saw this stuff in the first place.
Is 9:1-7 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Is 11:1-9 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Jer 23:5-6 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”
Ez 34:23-24 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord; I have spoken.
Ez 37:24-25 “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever.”
Amos 9:11 “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the Lord who does this.
Psalms 2, 89, 110, 132 also alluded to a coming Messiah, a son of David. And speaking of Psalm 110, Yeshua is going to quote from it directly here:
36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ 37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly.
This is particularly damning (well, not damning, per se but you know what I mean) to the idea that the Messiah is merely one of David’s offspring. David, the source of God’s chosen kingly line—how can there be a greater king than David to whom David would bow down and do homage to? Because, that’s what we are saying here. In plainer English, this would read, “Yahweh said to my Master, “Sit as my most trusted associate, in the most honored position in the Kingdom of Heaven over all angelic beings, until I make your enemies your footstool, bringing all things and peoples under your reign, in absolute submission to you.” David never dreamed of that kind of glory. And His enemies were never under his feet entirely—he actually had Solomon execute some of his enemies after his death just to wipe the proverbial slate clean—giving him the last word and final revenge. But here, Yahweh is saying that the Messiah will not have to lift a finger against His own enemies because Yahweh will subdue them.
In essence, Yeshua is asking, “Why are you looking for a mere mortal? Which of David’s sons ever surpassed him in accomplishments or righteousness so that they would deserve to be called his Master?” And considering David’s checkered history of doing some serious injustice, that’s a disturbing observation. “Who on earth that is born of woman can David possibly look up to?” I mean, other than Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Moses—you know, the big kahunas who went before him. But people didn’t go around exalting themselves over their ancestors and fathers did not exalt sons over themselves—that’s like the opposite of honor/shame dynamics. A son doesn’t detract from the honor of his father, he adds to it. So, say you are Joe Blow and your son gets elected President. I mean, in our culture—does anyone know President Biden or former President Trump’s fathers? No. Does anyone even care? Not really. We just don’t have that kind of culture where we do that sort of thing. But, in the ancient world, no matter how much you accomplished, you were still “son of…”
And so, Bartimaeus called Yeshua “son of David” right before they entered Jerusalem and Yeshua accepted it but now He’s upping the stakes. Really, it dazzles the crowd but it also makes the leadership want Him arrested and dead even more. They know exactly what He is claiming, even though He won’t come right out and say it. He is more than a son of David, more even than the son of David as they had ever conceived him to be. And the great throng, for whom this undoubtedly went right over their head as far as the grander implications go, just wants more. But the leadership will not be speaking directly to Him again until His mock, illegal trial.
He’s a bigger Messiah than they were expecting. He isn’t going to simply restore the Davidic Kingdom—that’s just too limited a goal. He’s going for worldwide domination but not through warfare—the blood spilled will be His own and that of His own followers. He’s not the nationalistic Messiah of their hopes. He is bigger and better. Is it no wonder that Yeshua shows up in Revelation with blood-soaked robes before the battle? And with the double-edged sword of His mouth slaying His enemies through His words? But the leadership didn’t recognize Elijah when he came in the person of John the Baptist and so there is no way that they will recognize the Son of David, the Messiah, in the person of Yeshua who is as non-militaristic and unambitious as they come, who even tells His own young disciples to be servants instead of looking to be served. He heals and feeds and delivers Gentiles, for crying out loud. He even talks to Samaritans and has women disciples. He eats with sinners and collaborators and doesn’t bow down to the respectable leadership. If this guy is the Messiah, they had to be thinking, there was no place for their way of life—that of wealth, status, ambition, and revenge—in this Kingdom He is talking about. No way are they going to give up their way of life on behalf of even their own people, much less the Gentiles this guy is friendly with. Worlds are colliding.