Jesus Claimed Divinity

Mat 21:15  But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant, Mat 21:16  and they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, "'Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise'?"

Ever since Christ was on earth there has been no shortage of those who refuse to believe that He is the divine second person of the Trinity.  It seems a lot of this is because of the assumption that there can be no trinity because they don’t understand it rather than a lack of biblical support.  Over and over again we hear that Jesus never uttered the words, “I am God” therefore he never claimed to be God as if he must claim it as we expect him to or it doesn’t count.

The above text provides one of many ways the Bible teaches Christ divinity as well as provides a place where Jesus makes the claim himself.  The Jews were indignant because the children were asking Jesus the Son of David to save them in a Messianic sense.  They were claiming him to be the Messiah and that didn’t go over too well with the Jewish leaders and so they basically are telling him to tell them to stop.  Their unbelief is made worse because they had just watched him perform miracles that only the Messiah could do.

But Jesus’s response is interesting.  He says that what they are doing is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Psalm 8:2, Psa 8:1  To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Psa 8:2  Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. Psa 8:3  When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, Psa 8:4  what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Psa 8:5  Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. Psa 8:6  You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, Psa 8:7  all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, Psa 8:8  the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. Psa 8:9  O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8 is all about praising the Yahweh; notice the LORD of vs. 1 and then read the rest of the psalm.  If Psalm 8 is prophesying that Yahweh will be praised by children and Jesus says that it is speaking of him being praised at that time; what other conclusion can we come to other than Jesus sees himself as one with Yahweh.  And if we are going to be followers of Jesus and his teaching then to deny his divinity is to call him either deluded or a liar and in either case it makes no sense to follow him for any reason.

A similar conclusion can be made from his earlier discourse with the Rich, Young Ruler.  In showing him that indeed he hasn’t kept any of the 10 Commandments, Jesus commands him to sell all and follow him.  In other words Jesus puts himself in God’s place by telling him to have nothing in his life but Jesus; to have no other gods but him; prove that he keeps the first four.  He doesn’t tell him to follow Yahweh by name but tells him to follow himself.  Since Yahweh always made it clear that he will not share such devotion with any other and Jesus is demanding it of this man, then again, Jesus puts himself on par with Yahweh.