Jesus was well known for his skill in asking questions.  Of course, he wasn’t the first person to use the tactic of questioning in order to discover the truth.  In fact, we often call this methodology the Socratic method, reaching back to the ancient pagan philosopher, Socrates.  He utilized this method masterfully.  But Jesus did engaged in question asking as it was a part of his upbringing and cultural heritage.  In fact, one snapshot we have of his early life involves him sitting in the Temple courts at the age of twelve asking questions of the city’s religious elders (Lk 2:41-52).  So, clearly this was a skill which he developed and honed early on. 

Toward the end of the Mark’s Gospel (Mk 12:35-37) we read of an encounter Jesus had later in his life with other religious elders in which he proposed a classical Jewish question—called a Haggada-question.  And in so doing, he pushed his listeners to come to grips with who he really was.

A Haggada-question
A Hagagda-question is a question in which one tries to reconcile two biblical ideas which seem to contradict or at least be opposed to one another.  The goal of asking a Haggada-question was not to stump or confound, but to bring greater clarity.  Wrestling with the question would force a person to develop deeper insight through the attempt to bring together two ideas.  For instance, we often ask a Haggada-question about how God can be both absolutely just and merciful (without one truth doing damage to the other).  This is the point of “theological discussion.”  And hopefully we come to a fuller understanding of God through this process.

Jesus’ Messianic Haggada-question
In Mark 12:35-37 Jesus asked a Hagadda-question about a well-known Messianic Psalm (Ps 110) that had been written by King David.

35While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, “How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? 36David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:
   “‘Yahweh said to my Lord:
      “Sit at my right hand
   until I put your enemies
      under your feet.”’ (Ps 110) 37David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”

The two elements which Jesus wanted his audience to wrestle with and ultimately reconcile were two statements made by King David about the identity of the person in the psalm (Psalm 110 was understood by the Jews to refer to the future Messiah).  Jesus wanted to know how it could be that the Messiah would be both (1) David’s descendent (and therefore his junior), yet also (2) be rightly called David’s “Lord” (and therefore his senior).  David knew that whoever would receive the promise spoken of in the entire Psalm 110 would be greater than himself.  And David also knew that the person would be his descendent.  Here’s the crux and the difficulty of Jesus’ Haggada-question.  In this day and age, one’s offspring could never be one’s superior.  So, Jesus’ audience had to figure out how it could be possible that the Messiah would (1) come out of David’s line (being his junior), and (2) be the Lord or Master over David (being his senior).   

The Answer
The only possible answer to Jesus’ Haggada-question about the identity of the person mentioned in Psalm 110 is if David’s descendent—the Messiah—also preexisted David.  But how could this be?  Jesus put the answer more directly to a group of Pharisees in John 8.  Going even further back than David, Jesus claimed to even preexisted the greatest Patriarch of them all, Abraham (Jn 8:58).  And, of course, there was no person greater in the Jewish mind than Abraham.  Yet, Jesus claimed that by faith Abraham rejoiced and was glad at seeing Jesus’ coming.   

The shocking answer to the riddle of how David’s son could be David’s Lord is found in the person of Jesus.  It was only by the preexistent Creator of the universe condescending Himself, being made in the likeness of a mere human (Phil 2:5-11), that the ultimate riddle could be solved.  This is what Matthew meant when called Jesus “Immanuel” or “God with us” (Mt 1:23); it’s what John meant when he proclaimed that “the Word was God….[and] the Word became flesh” (Jn 1:1, 14); and it’s what the early church meant when it came to refer to Jesus as the God-man.