While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,  “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”  “The son of David,” they replied.

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’

If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”  No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. 

Matthew 22:41 – 46

Jesus was facing the most difficult thing imaginable, dying to make it possible for believers to be saved, to live forever.  The horrors that he went through are beyond our ability to absorb.  We owe Him a debt that we can never pay.

But, wait, one more interchange.  Jesus asked the Pharisees, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”  Without hesitation they responded, “The son of David.”  They did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth, a nobody, so to speak, could possibly be the Messiah.  He was, by birth, a descendant of David, that was common knowledge.  But he had no right to call himself the Messiah!  In other words, can Jesus of Nazareth be the promised Messiah?  The Pharisees could not even begin to believe that.

Jesus reminded them that David called his descendant, his son, Lord.  Then Jesus got literal!  If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”  Full stop.  The conversation ended and from then on, there were no more questions.  It was getting ridiculous!  It became a play on words.