{The Lord} (ho kurios). It is not clear how the word would
be understood here by those who heard the message though it is
plain that Jesus applies it to himself. The word is from kuros,
power or authority. In the LXX it is common in a variety of uses
which appear in the N.T. as master of the slave ( Mt 10:24 ), of
the harvest ( 9:38 ), of the vineyard ( 20:8 ), of the emperor
( Ac 13:27 ), of God ( Mt 11:20  11:25 ), and often of Jesus as
the Messiah ( Ac 10:36 ). Note  Mt 8:25 . This is the only time
in Matthew where the words ho kurios are applied to Jesus
except the doubtful passage in  28:6 . A similar usage is shown
by Moulton and Milligan's _Vocabulary_ and Deissmann's _Light
from the Ancient East_. Particularly in Egypt it was applied to
"the Lord Serapis" and Ptolemy and Cleopatra are called "the
lords, the most great gods" (hoi kurioi theoi megistoi). Even
Herod the Great and Herod Agrippa I are addressed as "Lord King."
In the west the Roman emperors are not so termed till the time of
Domitian. But the Christians boldly claimed the word for Christ
as Jesus is here represented as using it with reference to
himself. It seems as if already the disciples were calling Jesus
"Lord" and that he accepted the appellative and used it as here.