It was Tuesday of Holy Week, and Jesus was back in the temple in Jerusalem. He was quickly confronted by a group of the highest religious leaders, “the chief priests and the scribes and the elders." They asked, “By what authority are you doing these things?” - probably referring especially to His “cleansing” of the temple that we heard about last week.(Mark 11:27-28). Jesus knew that they had already decided to “destroy” Him, and they had no interest in really listening to Him (Mark 11:18). Jesus had already answered this question, and they did not believe Him. See, for example, John 8:42-43 and 47.
Jesus instead asked them a question, wanting their reply before He would answer them. “Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer Me.” Jesus was asking about the ministry of John the Baptist and knew that the Jewish authorities had rejected him and his baptisms and did not help him when he was arrested and executed.
If they said that John was sent from heaven, then “why did they not believe in him?” On the other hand, if they openly said they rejected John, they would be in trouble with many Jewish people who thought that John “really was a prophet.” They had to refuse to answer Jesus and said, “We do not know.” Jesus then chose not to answer them, either, as they had no real interest in His answer anyway (Mark 11:29-33).
What Jesus did do was to tell the religious leaders a parable, similar to the Old Testament parable found in Isaiah 5:1-7, about a very well-planned and constructed vineyard that produced no fruit. The vineyard was the Jewish people of Israel and Judah. God had richly blessed His people, yet they were rejecting Him and not doing what he wanted and producing only “bloodshed” and “outcry” and were facing ruin.
In the same way, Jesus described an excellent vineyard, leased out to tenants who would not give the owner the fruit that was His, but treated his servants terribly, even though he patiently sent several to the tenants to collect his fruit. Some of his servants were even killed. The owner, of course, was the Lord, and many in the Jewish nation were still rejecting Him and servants of His, like John the Baptist. John died, trying to call people to repentance and return to the Lord (Mark 12:1-5). (See Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:31-35 and the examples of 2 Chronicles 24:20-21 and Hebrews 11:36-38, about people who had suffered and died serving the Lord in the past.)
Finally, in Jesus’ parable, the owner, the Lord, sent His own beloved Son to the tenants, and they killed Him, too, trying to claim the vineyard as their own, to do with as they pleased. Eventually, the Lord destroyed these evil tenants and gave the vineyard to others (Mark 12:6-9). In this way, Jesus was predicting His own death and the eventual destruction of the Jewish nation, still in rebellion against God’s will. Jesus would only receive an “outcry” (Crucify Him!) and “bloodshed” from them.
Jesus used a quotation from Psalm 118:22-23, the same psalm quoted on Palm Sunday. “The Stone that the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” Jesus was to be the Cornerstone of the New Covenant and the Christian faith; yet He would be rejected by many of His own Jewish people. They were, in fact, watching for a chance to arrest Jesus. They realized that this parable was speaking about them and condemning them; but they did not care (Mark 12:10-12).
More religious leaders, Pharisees and Herodians, then came and tried to trap Jesus into saying something else that would get him into trouble. They lied and said that they thought Jesus “truly taught the way of God” and wanted His answer to the question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” If Jesus said “Yes” then they could tell people that Jesus supported the hated Roman occupiers. If Jesus said “No” then they could tell the Roman authorities that Jesus was an evil rebel against Rome (Mark 12:13-14).
Jesus knew again what they were doing and that they were “hypocrites,” acting as if this was a friendly question, when it was not. He asked them to bring Him a common Roman coin, a denarius, which was a day’s pay in wages, and asked them whose likeness and inscription was on the coin. It was, of course, the image of Caesar, the Roman emperor. Jesus then said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And the leaders marveled at the way Jesus was able to avoid their trap (Mark 12:15-17).
This is also an important Biblical concept that Jesus was teaching. Jesus kept on teaching, even when He was under the threat of death, coming soon. We live in two kingdoms, as believers. We live in the kingdom of this world, where we need government and order and authority in order to live and survive. Our government then deserves to have our support and respect and taxes, in order to do its work. We also live in the Kingdom of God and owe respect and worship and trust in our Lord, above all. If there is conflict, we ought to obey God, rather than man. (See Acts 4:18-20 and 5:27-28 and the general principles about church and government in Romans 13:1-7.)
Others had failed to trap Jesus; and now the Sadducees, who accepted only the first five books of the Old Testament and did not believe in life after death, came to show Him how foolish He was. They had a question about a woman who had been married to 7 different brothers, who had all died, without any having any children. To whom would the woman be married, when the resurrection came? (Mark 12:18-23. See also an Old Testament practice mentioned in Deuteronomy 25:5, where in theory, a woman could be in such a situation.)
Jesus directly challenged the Sadducees, because they did not know or ignored and rejected plenty of Scriptures which spoke about life after death. They also did not know the power of the Almighty God, with Whom nothing is impossible, and Who could solve any clever dilemmas they could think of. Jesus went on to teach more important truths. There definitely is life after death and a resurrection of the dead. In heaven, though, there is not marriage as we know it.
We are in perfect peace with our Lord and do not need to worry about any concerns about how things will work out. We will be like the angels, who do not marry, and the Lord will take care of the rest for us. Note: we do not become angels. Angels are separately created beings, from before the fall into sin. We are still humans, but with some qualities in heaven like the good and perfect angels (Mark 12:24-25).
Jesus also gave one Old Testament Scripture that the Sadducees claimed they would accept, from the second book of Moses, Exodus 3:6,15. God called Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All these people had died before God spoke to Moses in this passage. Clearly, He is a God not of the dead, but of the living, and these three early “patriarchs” were still alive with the Lord, even after death. Jesus had always affirmed the resurrection and eternal life. See John 11:23-27 and the predictions of Jesus about His own resurrection, about which we have heard. Jesus simply said to these unbelieving Sadducees, “You are quite wrong” about the resurrection (Mark 12:26-27).
Still one more religious leader, a scribe, came to Jesus that same day, and asked about which commandment was the “most important." This may have been a genuine question, as the Jews often argued about this; or it could have been another “trap” question. If Jesus picked out only a limited command, He could be accused of ignoring other important commandments that the Jews tended to emphasize in those days.
Jesus chose to quote two Scriptures which summarize what all of the 10 Commandments were about.
He first quoted from what Jews call the “Shema” and still speak regularly in worship to this day. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The second is this: ”You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). There are no commandments greater than these (Mark 12:28-31).
Jesus was giving a Biblical summary of all the 10 Commandments. The first three have to do with love for God, above all: loving no other gods but the one true God, properly honoring Him and His Name, and worshipping Him and hearing His Word regularly. The other Commandments have to do with loving other people: honoring parents, not killing or committing adultery or stealing and so on.
The scribe listened and realized that Jesus was speaking the truth. He said the same thing in his own words and added that this love for God and neighbor is better than “burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Jesus responded with the words, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” The scribe was on the right track in emphasizing love for the Lord and others (Mark 12:32-34). (See Romans 13:8-10 and “Love is the fulfilling of the Law" also.)
The problem is, of course, that none of us loves the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and strength all the time, nor always loves our neighbor. We still sin and fall very far short of God’s expectations. That is why we need to keep hearing the rest of the Gospel of Mark and what Jesus did later that week to forgive and rescue us from our sins and failures to be fully what we should be, in trusting and following our Lord.
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