Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Mark

Son of David, Lord of All

Mark 12:35-37

 

verses 35-37

 

Even though this is a brief passage of Scripture, it is an extremely important set of verses due to the subject they address.  They are about His identity.  Is Jesus, in fact, the Messiah?  And more than that, is He the Son of God? 

 

Remember, that is the supposition the Gospel of Mark puts forth in the opening verse.  This narrative, Mark says, will be about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  

 

And that is a worthwhile subject because nothing is more essential and foundational to faith in Him. Now you may not realize, but traditional Jewish thought, regarding the Messiah, both historically and today, is that Messiah would be a man and no more than a man. Messiah would be an earthly ruler.  No doubt, he would be a man of great power and influence, but he was, nonetheless, a mortal man. 

 

When they thought about the Messiah, they though in terms of earthly rule and conquering enemies and economic prosperity and military prowess. They did not necessarily see the Messiah as a Savior of individual souls or a Redeemer. They saw Messiah as the Savior of His people, the Jews. They certainly didn’t see Messiah as God in human flesh.

 

 

And it was that claim that brought them in direct conflict with because Jesus claimed to be more than a man. And for this lowly Jewish peasant, the illegitimate son of a carpenter to be God was more than they could take.  And as a result, the Jewish hierarchy came to hate Jesus and everything about Him.  In their estimation, He was nothing more than a blasphemer.

 

Now deep in Jewish thought was the fact that Messiah would not only be a man, he would be a direct descendant of David, and in their minds, much like David in that He would defeat Israel’s foes and bring about a glorious Kingdom fulfillment. And Jesus didn’t look anything like that. And that’s why they are working so hard to discredit Him before the people and get Him in trouble with the Romans. 

 

He’s being confronted by the Pharisees with the Herodians, then the Sadducees and by a scribe.  He answers every question and they are left stunned and without any way to trap Him or turn the crowd against Him and as we saw in

 

verse 34

 

Then in verse 35 and following, this scribe becomes the backdrop against which Jesus teaches to those gathered in the temple.  There we find

 

 

verse 35

 

 

 

Now if you compare this with the parallel passages in Matthew and Luke, you’ll discover that He begins by asking, “What do you think about the Christ, the Messiah? Whose Son is He?”  And they all answer “David’s”. 

And it is there that Mark picks up the conversation as Jesus responds by saying, “So why do you believe that?  Why do the scribes teach and believe that?”

And at the core of His question is, “Why do they teach that the Christ is only the Son of David and nothing more?”   

 

That teaching reveals that they had a

 

 

 

of who the Messiah was and from where He came.  As I said, they thought of the Messiah as a man, a gifted man, a great leader, a military man, a man of might and influence and power.  And that was all to be true but that wasn’t the complete answer.

 

Compare that teaching with the answer given by Peter when Jesus asked the same basic question in Matthew 16. Jesus said to the disciples, “Who do men say that I am?”  They responded, “Some say You’re Elijah, some say You’re Jeremiah, one of the prophets.” 

 

“Who do you say that I am?” And Peter, speaking for the rest, by the inspiration of God says, “You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God.”   That’s the full answer to the question. Whose Son is the Messiah? He is David’s Son in His human lineage and He is God’s Son eternally. 

The scribes had an incomplete understanding.  All they had as an answer was the son of David as they had been taught by the scribes. 

 

So where did the scribes get that?  Well they could have gotten it from 2 Samuel 7:12-13 where the Lord says that there will come a great Son of David, who will have an everlasting Kingdom. 

 

Or they could have been referencing the 89^th Psalm which clearly indicates that the Messiah was to be a Son of David. You see it in Amos 9:11, Micah 5:2, even Ezekiel 37:24 to 27.  So they knew their Old Testament. And this is common knowledge with the people.

 

Every Jew knew, if they had been listening to the rabbis and scribes as they taught the Old Testament, that Messiah would come through the line of David.

 

And that is echoed, even in the ministry of Jesus.  For instance, in Matthew 9:27 we read about two blind men who approach Jesus by saying, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” Now obviously, they believe Him to be the Messiah, but the way they reference the Messiah is “Son of David”.

 

In Matthew 12:22, a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus and after Jesus healed him, the crowds were amazed asked, “Could this man be the Son of David?”  So to the Jew, this title, “Son of David”, was synonymous with “Messiah”.   That’s seen again in Matthew 15, 20 and 21. 

 

 

And I think it important to note that the genealogy of Jesus recorded by Matthew traces the lineage of Jesus beginning with Abraham and tracking forward  through David and up to Joseph who was His earthly father, and therefore gave Him His earthly, human identity. 

 

Luke also provides a genealogy of Jesus.  And even though it begins with Joseph, it is actually the genealogy of Mary and it tracks backward to Adam, who is identified as the Son of God. 

And in those two genealogies, we have exactly what Jesus claims as the Messiah, He is the Son of David and the Son of God.  So Jesus fits the necessary requirements of the messianic lineage. He is legally David’s son.

 

And by the way, all the genealogical records were kept in the temple. The religious leaders and in particular, the Sanhedrin, were the caretakers of those records. The scribes themselves maintained those records.  And you can be sure, when it came to Jesus, those records had been examined very carefully.

 

And there wasn’t a pure ancestry that could be claimed than that of Jesus.  And I’ll guarantee you, if they wanted to disprove Jesus as Messiah, or even as a Son of David, all they had to do was disprove it genealogically.  That would have ended any and all claims that Jesus was Messiah, but that couldn’t be done because His ancestry substantiated the claim. 

 

So they were right to teach that the Christ will be a Son of David.  It just didn’t go far enough.  It only examined one side of the lineage, so to speak.  David had many “sons”. 

There were lots of people around who were descendants of David. Jesus even had brothers who had the same lineage as Him. 

 

So how is the Messiah, as a Son of David, to be distinguished from all the others who could claim the same ancestry?  Notice

 

 

verses 36-37

 

It’s not enough to say the Messiah is the Son of David because David himself refers to Him as Lord in Psalm 110.  So if Messiah is only a man, then why does David call Him Lord? How can He be both David’s Son and David’s Lord?

 

Now just so we’re clear on what’s happening in these verses, let’s look at that statement.

 

“The Lord said to My Lord.” Here we have the “Lord Father” speaking to the “Lord Son” and the second “Lord”, who is Jesus, is David’s Lord.  Did you get it?  David said, “God the Father, the Lord, said to MY Lord, the Son of God, Jesus, “Sit down and take a load off until I make your enemies a place to rest your feet.”

 

So the One who will be exalted to reign and under Whose feet all enemies will be placed is the One whom David himself calls Lord.

 

Now the word used for “Lord” is kurios in the Greek and its Hebrew equivalent would be Adona1.  And in both languages, it is a title for God.  And notice, David calls Him “My Lord.”

And let’s we think that is insignificant or just some random usage of the word, notice that Mark tells us David said what he said “by the Holy Spirit”.  Matthew includes the same detail in Matthew 22:43.  And the idea is when David called the Messiah “Lord”, he was speaking by inspiration from the Holy Spirit.

 

So David, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls the Messiah Who is to come, his descendant, his son to come, Lord. So in Psalm 110:1, David said, “There is coming a day when God will speak to His Messiah about being seated on His throne and subduing His enemies and that Lord, that Messiah, is my Lord.”

 

Now it’s noteworthy that historically, the Jews recognized the 110^th Psalm to be a Messianic psalm.  That had never been debated.  It wasn’t questioned.  But when the early church began to teach that this Psalm referenced Jesus, they changed their interpretation of Psalm 110. 

 

Some of the rabbis applied it to Abraham. Some applied it to Melchizedek and some later even applied it to Judas Maccabees. Others applied it to other rulers or even some priests. And some rabbis,  in attempts to remove any possibility of it referencing Jesus, even manipulated the wording to create acrostics to give it other meanings.

 

But it is a messianic Psalm. They acknowledge it as a messianic Psalm. It is oft quoted in the New Testament many parts of that Psalm are connected to the work and the person of Christ.

 

And lest you think it’s not that big of a deal, what is a stake here is the deity of Christ Himself. 

 

What did the Lord God say to David’s Lord? “Sit at My right hand till I put Your enemies under Your feet.”

 

So David, who wrote the Psalm, is saying that God Himself, the Yahweh of Israel, creator of the universe, the one true God has designated a position for Messiah on the throne at His own right hand.

 

So God identifies the Messiah as Lord and gives Him a place of rule and rank that equals His own.  And the verse would literally interpret as God saying, “Take Your permanent seat in the place of power and authority that I have given You.”

 

That is why Philippians 2 says that He was exalted, given a name above every name and that is the name Lord. And at that name, everyone is to bow. That is why in Ephesians 1 it says He is the Lord over all things, over all things who has then been given to the church as the church’s head.

 

And notice, His enemies become His footstool.

 

So what we have here is a picture of the One who will take the throne beside God as a conquering victor over the enemies of God. 

 

He is a Son of David by Old Testament testimony, but He is also David’s Lord. This is the God/Man, this is the incomprehensible, infinite mystery of the person of Jesus Christ, David’s Son, and David’s Lord, born a man in the line of David and yet He is the Lord of David.

So what is at issue is the very deity of Christ.  And when Jesus teaches in the temple, just a few hours now before His death, He brings to their attention Psalm that  they all confess was a messianic Psalm and shows them by that very Psalm where David points to the one who would reign that not only will He be a man who reigns and rules, but He will rise to the very right-hand of God and be an expression Himself of the divine nature.

 

 

Verse 37b

 

That’s kind of a surprising, sad response, isn’t it?  It basically translates as, “A large crowd enjoyed listening to Him.”   Don’t you wish it had said, “The large crowd fell on their faces in the presence of the incarnate God?”

 

Where’s the repentance? Where’s the wonder and amazement?  After all, they are in the presence of the One that David called his Lord, and the only response is, “They all enjoyed listening to Him.”

 

The ending is so tragic from the standpoint of these people.  It’s no wonder the next thing the Lord will say is, “Beware of the scribes because they’re going to lead you to hell.”

 

We need to beware of anybody who ever leads you to a wrong view of Christ. Any religion that has a skewed view of Jesus Christ is deadly.  If you don’t get Christ right, you can’t have eternal life.

 

Let’s pray.