Biblion Bible Commentary
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David's Son, and the Long Robes
Luke 20:41-47
41 He said to them, “Why do they say that the Christ is David’s son? · WEB
He asks the last question of the week, and then warns the crowd about men who devour widows' houses.
He said to them, "Why do they say that the Christ is David's son?" Luke 20:41.
The questioning has run one way all day; now it turns. The difficulty is set out in the earlier accounts Mark 12:28–44 Matthew 22:41–46: David, writing about the coming king, calls him my Lord and seats him at God's right hand Psalms 110:1, and in that world honor ran upward through the generations, so a man did not address his descendant that way.
"David therefore calls him Lord, so how is he his son?" Luke 20:44. The question is left unanswered, and the silence is deliberate. Every element of the answer has been given in this book — a genealogy running to David, an angel promising David's throne, a birth in David's city — and the pieces are laid out for anyone willing to assemble them.
In the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples, "Beware of those scribes who like to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts" Luke 20:45–46.
The address is careful: spoken to the disciples, in everyone's hearing. And the list is entirely about appearances and seating — the long robe that cannot be worked in, the public greeting, the top table. None of it is doctrinal, and all of it is enjoyable.
"Who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers" Luke 20:47.
The two charges are set side by side because they belong together. Scribes were unpaid and lived on the support of the pious, and widows were the most vulnerable donors available; managing a widow's estate was the kind of service a trusted religious man performed. Devour names what some of them did with it.
And the long prayers are the cover. This is not hypocrisy in the sense of pretending to a faith one lacks — it is real religious skill being used as a credential to get access.
"These will receive greater condemnation." Greater, because more was entrusted, which is the principle this Gospel stated earlier Luke 12:48.
The placement is the sharp part. The very next thing he does is sit down opposite the treasury and watch a widow put in everything she had Luke 21:1–4.
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