MARK 12:37 David himself calleth Him Lord, and whence is his son? The whence is logical. How comes it to pass that He is his son? The Saviour would not put the question merely to corner up, and puzzle, or humiliate. He had no love for dialectic feats on the 'diamond cutting diamond' principle. His life was too earnest for that. His spirit would be moved with emotion, when He saw how persistently the most learned men of the nation, the accredited interpreters of the sacred writings, skimmed the surface of things, and refused to turn for a moment in the direction of anything different from the most superficial conceits. Hence His question. With their view of theMessiah, as a mere monarch somewhat like David, and in the line of David, it was not wonderful that the scribes did not find anything in Jesus to elicit the echoes of their hopes. They found much that was inconsistent with their fondly cherished anticipations. It was enough for them. They concluded off hand that it was absurd to suppose that He could be the Being to whom their fathers had pointed. They were not in quest of the Divine. They were off the scent entirely, and hence off the track that would have led them to the recognition in our Lord of the fulfillment of the promises made to the fathers. No view of the Messiah could be a true view, that did not take into account that there would be such a complement of elements, in His glorious personality, as would constitute Him at once David's son and David's Lord.
- from page 345-346, A Practical Commentary on the Gospel According to Mark