Mark 12 - Gotcha Politics
- Chad Werkhoven
- Feb 1, 2022
- 2 min read
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
and with all your strength.’
31 The second is this:
‘You shall love
your neighbor
as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
32 And the scribe said to him,
“You are right, Teacher.
You have truly said that
he
is one,
and there is no other besides him.
33 And to love him
with all the heart
and with all the understanding
and with all the strength,
and to love
one’s neighbor
as oneself,
is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him,
“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
35 And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said,
“How can the scribes say
that the Christ
is the son of David?
36 David himself,
in the Holy Spirit,
declared,
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put
your enemies
under your feet.” ’
37 David himself
calls him Lord.
So how is he his son?”
And the great throng heard him gladly.
38 And in his teaching he said,
“Beware of the scribes,
who like to walk around in long robes
and like greetings in the marketplaces
39 and have
the best seats in the synagogues
and the places of honor at feasts,
40 who devour widows’ houses
and for a pretense make long prayers.
They will receive the greater condemnation.”
41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box.
Many rich people put in large sums.
42 And a poor widow came and put in
two small copper coins,
which make a penny.
43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them,
“Truly, I say to you,
this poor widow
has put in more
than all those who are contributing to the offering box.
44 For they all
contributed out of their abundance,
but she out of her poverty
has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Watch / Listen to the DIG DEEPER video:
Mark 12 Summary
v1-12 - Jesus tells the parable of the vineyard, and from our perspective, the meaning is quite clear.
v13-17 - The first two of three establishment sects, the Pharisees and Herodians (Jewish people who had sold out to curry favor with the Roman government) fail to trap Jesus by asking Him about taxes.
v18-27 - The third establishment sect, the Sadducees, step up to the plate with a pathetic challenge that Jesus swats down immediately.
v28-34 - The last attempt is a religious scholar, the cream of the establishment crop, asking Jesus' opinion of what the most important of the Biblical laws are.
Jesus responds with the Shema, the passage from Deuteronomy recited by all Hebrews daily.
The second most important is also drawn from the Old Testament: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
v35-44 - Jesus warns against religious pride, demonstrating that the poor widow is more faithful than the self promoting religious establishment.
Dig Deeper
If the Shema were the only law in the Bible, all people would still stand convicted:
‘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.’
Who could possibly meet all those conditions?
This wise law teacher seems different from the other establishment goons sent to trap Jesus in His words. He seems genuinely interested in Jesus' answer, and genuinely committed to fulfilling the commands Jesus references.
Jesus' final reply to him doesn't seem as harsh as Jesus' other replies, it actually ought to be the most discomforting:
You are not far from the Kingdom of God.
In other words, following God's laws will get you close to the Kingdom, but not into the Kingdom. For that, you must rely on the righteousness of Christ.
Be reminded today of
your inability to keep God's laws;
as well as your dependence upon your Savior who kept those laws on your behalf.
AAA Prayer:
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Open your prayer by reciting the Shema along with God's covenant people throughout history;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the strength to truly love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
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