David's Son and Lord

“41 But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David's son? 42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
43 until I make your enemies your footstool.’
44 David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?” (Luke 20:41-44)
Jesus confronts the Jewish leaders with Psalm 110 and its interpretation. This Psalm particularly is one of the greatest of all the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. It formed Jewish opinion as to who the Messiah would be, and what he would do. The whole psalm is about the Christ. And now Jesus will use it to attack their conception of who the Christ is. How can they say he will be David’s son. Of course, this is precisely how they greeted him just a couple days before as he entered the city. “Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” We even recite this in our liturgy Sunday after Sunday as we welcome the Messiah in the Divine Service, who comes to us with his Body and Blood for the forgiveness of our sins. We too call him David’s son. And so he is. But Jesus is letting them know that he is much more than an earthly son of David. He is pointing out that even David, who wrote this psalm, worshiped the messiah as Lord. This makes the messiah, the Christ much bigger than some freedom fighter. The freedom he came to give would be bigger than freedom from Rome, or freedom from worldly oppression, it would be freedom from the oppression of sin, death and the devil. It would be peace with God.