Mark 12:35-37--Whose Son Is the Christ?

Mark 12:35-37
English Standard Version

Whose Son Is the Christ?
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.

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We don't have any of the larger context of this conversation, but Mark thought it important to include that the topic of whose son Jesus was came up--was He the son of Joseph and Joseph didn't admit that he had premarital sex with Mary?  Was He the son of some other man that Mary had relations with before she was married?  The Pharisees assumed one of these two cases and that since Jesus was conceived in sin (in their thinking, because they could not believe that He was conceived by the work of the Holy Spirit), then they believed that would disqualify Him from being the Messiah.  Jesus probably once again "heard" them talking to themselves in their hearts and their minds and is answering their question with a question.  "How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David" when David calls him "Lord" in Psalm 110?  If David called the Messiah Lord, then doesn't that mean that the Messiah is older than David?  But if that's the case, how can He also be David's son?  They didn't have an answer for Him, but John chapter 1 helps us out as do many other passages in the Bible that speak of the incarnation of Christ.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:1-3) "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. " (John 1:14).  You see, the Son of God (who is also the Son of David) has always existed from the beginning.  He is eternal and timeless, but He stepped into time and space and took on human form and became Jesus, who was born of the virgin Mary.  He was born in Bethlehem, then fled to Egypt so that He was called out of Egypt, just like Israel was, and then raised in Nazareth so that people would assume that He was from there--He would be called a Nazarene or Jesus of Nazareth.  So it is that Jesus can be both David's Lord and David's "son" (descendant) because when He was born of the virgin Mary, He was in the direct lineage of David, but He has always existed and has always been the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, and therefore has always been David's "Lord."

Now that we have a bit of an understanding of what Psalm 110 is talking about, let's take a look at the entire thing as Jesus often quotes one line of a Psalm (because they were songs that the people would have memorized) and expects them to recall the entire song just by Him speaking the first line.  Jesus may have only quoted a sentence here, but He intended on the Pharisees to reflect on the entirety of Psalm 110.

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Psalm 110
English Standard Version

Sit at My Right Hand
A Psalm of David.
110 The LORD says to my Lord:
    “Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

2 The LORD sends forth from Zion
    your mighty scepter.
    Rule in the midst of your enemies!
3 Your people will offer themselves freely
    on the day of your power,
    in holy garments;
from the womb of the morning,
    the dew of your youth will be yours.
4 The LORD has sworn
    and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
    after the order of Melchizedek.”

5 The Lord is at your right hand;
    he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations,
    filling them with corpses;
he will shatter chiefs
    over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the brook by the way;
    therefore he will lift up his head.

​​

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There's a lot here in this prophetic, Messianic Psalm.  It speaks of a time after Jesus completed everything that the LORD (the Father) had sent Him to do, and Jesus is told to sit at the Father's right hand for a while until the time of His Second Coming when all of His enemies will be conquered, and Jesus will be made King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  When we see "LORD" in this passage, David is speaking of the Father, and when we see "Lord" in this passage, David is talking to or about God the Son, the Messiah, whom we know today as Jesus of Nazareth, the one they called "Christ."

We've already looked closely at verse 1 as that's what Jesus quoted to the Pharisees.  Verse two tells us that the one that David is calling Lord will one day rule from Mount Zion (that is where Jerusalem is) and that He will rule not only over His people, but over His enemies meaning that His kingdom is not one where His dominion only extends to those who we woudl call "the people of God,," but all those "in heaven, and on earth and under the earth" will be subject to His authority.

Philippians 2:9-11
English Standard Version
​9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The people of God will be called "His people," and they will be dressed in "holy garments" (they will be the nation of priests that God wanted Israel to be in Exodus 19 and that the Church is called in 1 Peter 2, and other New Testament authors like Paul (in the book of Romans) and John (in the book of Revelation).  They will serve Him their entire lives (in the New Heaven and the New Earth) and He will never age so that there is no threat to His kingdom ending.  Not only will He be their king, but He will be their high priest--no in the order of Aaron from the Levitical priesthood, but in the order of Melchizedek, who we find in the book of Genesis--a man who was both priest and king, the king of Salem.  The author of the book of Hebrews explains this a bit more for us in Hebrews 5-7 (especially chapter 7) if you are interested.  Suffice it to say that it is a different kind of priesthood altogether than that one described for us in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

David then starts talking to the Father saying that the Lord (Christ) is at the Father's right hand (meaning that from the Father's perspective, Christ's work is as good as done already, even though He hasn't been born yet.  David was resting in the finished work of the Messiah before He was ever born.  That is how David called Him both "son" and "Lord."  David then looks forward to the coming "Day of the Lord" when Jesus will execute judgment on the wicked (he uses the word here commonly translated as "nations" that means the wicked Gentile nations who are enemies of God).  He will shatter their kings and their kingdoms.  Their nations will be filled with corpses as He will speak and those who are opposed to Him will die where they stand.  Not even the strong or rich will be able to escape His judgment.  David ends the Psalm by saying that He will drink from the brook along the way (you would usually not stop to take a drink and refresh yourself if you were afraid of your enemies, and that they might attack you while you were busy refreshing yourself--He will have no fear of such a thing because all of His enemies will be destroyed).

Jesus wanted the Pharisees to understand that He was claiming to be this one that David not only called "son," but "Lord," and He would be the one that would execute judgment one day on all His enemies (which right now would include all of them).  One day everyone would bow before Him and the righteous will enter into His kingdom of everlasting light and life, and the wicked will depart into the place where there is nothing but darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth (pain, suffering, torment, and torture).  They may think they have victory for the moment when they are going to crucify Him, but Jesus is reminding them that the end of the story has already been written and He will be victorious.  The Father will be well-pleased with the Son and will make Him King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  We await His coming and the day in which all these things will be fulfilled, but until then, we have much work to do so that those who are at enmity with Him now but are part of the Elect might also become part of this royal priesthood that will be citizens of His everlasting kingdom which is without border, and which will have no end.


1 Peter 2:9-10
English Standard Version
​9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.