Mark 12 - Gotcha Politics
Trying to trap opponents with quick witted words in nothing new. Unlike our politicians, Jesus passes the test.
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Mark 12 (ESV)
1 And he began to speak to them in parables.
“A man
planted a vineyard
and put a fence around it
and dug a pit for the winepress
and built a tower,
and
leased it to tenants
and went into another country.
2 When the season came,
he sent a servant
to the tenants
to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
3 And they took him
and beat him
and sent him away empty-handed.
4 Again he sent to them another servant,
and they struck him on the head
and treated him shamefully.
5 And he sent another, and him they killed.
And so with many others:
some they beat,
and some they killed.
6 He had still one other, a beloved son.
Finally
he sent him to them,
saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
7 But those tenants said to one another,
‘This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him,
and the inheritance will be ours.’
8 And they took him
and killed him
and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 What will the owner of the vineyard do?
He
will come
and destroy the tenants
and give the vineyard to others.
10 Have you not read this Scripture:
“ ‘The stone
that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11 this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 And they
were seeking to arrest him
but feared the people,
for they perceived that he had told the parable against them.
So they left him and went away.
13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk.
14 And they came and said to him,
“Teacher,
we know that you are true
and do not care about anyone’s opinion.
For you are not swayed by appearances,
but truly teach the way of God.
Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?
Should we pay them,
or should we not?”
15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them,
“Why put me to the test?
Bring me a denarius
and let me look at it.”
16 And they brought one.
And he said to them,
“Whose likeness
and inscription is this?”
They said to him, “Caesar’s.”
17 Jesus said to them,
“Render
to Caesar
the things that are Caesar’s,
and
to God
the things that are God’s.”
And they marveled at him.
18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection.
And they asked him a question, saying,
19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us
that if a man’s brother
dies
and leaves
a wife,
but leaves no child,
the man
must
take the widow
and raise up offspring for his brother.
20 There were seven brothers;
the first
took a wife,
and when he died left no offspring.
21 And the second
took her,
and died, leaving no offspring.
And the third likewise.
22 And the seven left no offspring.
Last of all the woman also died.
23 In the resurrection,
when they rise again,
whose wife will she be?
For the seven had her as wife.”
24 Jesus said to them,
“Is this not the reason you are wrong,
because you know
neither the Scriptures
nor the power of God?
25 For when they rise from the dead,
they neither marry
nor are given in marriage,
but are like angels in heaven.
26 And as for the dead being raised,
have you not read in the book of Moses,
in the passage about the bush,
how God spoke to him, saying,
‘I am
the God of Abraham,
and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob’?
27 He is not God
of the dead,
but of the living.
You are quite wrong.”
28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
29 Jesus answered,
“The most important is,
‘Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God,
the Lord is one.
30 And you shall love
the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind