Mark 12:35-37 Both Son and Lord

Mark 12:35-37 Both Son and Lord

Mark 12:35   And Jesus began to say, as He taught in the temple, “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? ³⁶ “David himself said in the Holy Spirit,  ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD,  “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND,  UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET.”’³⁷ “David himself calls Him ‘Lord’; so in what sense is He his son?” And the large crowd enjoyed listening to Him.

Jesus now teaches in the Temple, and his lesson is not in response to a question. It is material that He Himself decides to present because we need to hear it. It seems to be a twisty little argument that He uses, but it is not all that difficult.

One of the most familiar commandments is #5 from the 10 commandments: “Honor your father and your mother.” Nowhere do we find parents required to honor their children. It is the responsibility of the younger to honor the older. This applies to honoring parents, and grandparents, and forebears up the line. The older is honored by the younger.

And so if Jesus is a descendant of David, and He is, through Mary, then it is His responsibility to honor David. And yet, in Psalm 110 - these verses that Jesus quotes from the Scriptures - David speaks, referring to “My Lord,” and places this “Lord” at the right hand of the LORD, that is God. In the Hebrew text of Psalm 110, two different words are used for these two Lords. The first is clearly the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - Yahweh, or Jehovah. He is clearly divine. The second is Adonai, which is a term that refers to one who has authority, and can certainly refer to God, but could also refer to a king. It would be appropriate, then, for a descendant of David to refer to David as “my lord.” But that is not what happens here. Here David refers to a son, a particular son, different from all others, as “Lord.” He alone, and not David, is the One who will sit a Yahweh’s right hand, with all enemies subdued under His feet.

This One who would sit at Yahweh’s right hand is also the One who is about, in the flow of Mark’s Gospel, to be crucified. But again, David has already spoken about this, not in reference to himself, as Peter says, but in reference to Jesus the Christ. 

“For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;  Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”  (Psalm 16:10 NAS95)

Having suffered the pains of death, Jesus was buried, he rose again from the dead, and He has ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father, as both Son and Lord.