When
Your Priorities Are Challenged
Mark
11:27-12:37
Feb.
7th, 2010
As I read the scriptures for today’s lesson, one of the
things that jumped out at me was the number of questions. So, around those questions I have built us a
lesson and it goes like this:
Jerusalem at
Passover season was the delight of the Jews and the horror of the Romans. Thousands of devout Jews from all over the
world arrived in the Holy City, their hearts filled with excitement
and national pride. The population of
Jerusalem more
than tripled during the feast, making it necessary for the Roman military to be
on special alert. They lived with the
possibility that some over enthusiastic Jewish Zealot might try to kill a Roman
official or incite a riot, and there was always potential for disputes among the
various Jewish religious groups.
This is where chapter 11 begins, Jesus triumphant entry
into Jerusalem
on the back of a donkey that had never been ridden before. We talked about this before, about the donkey
and what might have been the later thought of the owner of the donkey after
Jesus was crucified outside the city.
A little geography here about the area around Jerusalem:
the city mentioned in verse 1 of chapter 11 stands about 2,600 feet elevation
and from it you have a breathtaking view of the Holy City. The Lord was about to do something He had
never done before.
We are in the last week of Jesus life. His triumphant entry into the Holy City really upset the religious
arrangement of the city. They would
continue and even step up their attempts to trap Him and arrest Him. Judas would solve the problem for them. In the days that followed, the
representatives of the religious and political establishment descended on Jesus
as He ministered in the temple, trying their best to trip Him up with their
questions. He answered four questions,
and then He asked them a question that silenced them for good.
1.
The question of
authority (Mark 11:27-12:12)
As the official guardians of the Law, the members of the
Sanhedrin had both the right and the responsibility to investigate anyone who
claimed to be sent by God; and that included Jesus (see Deut. 18:15-22). However, these men did NOT have open minds or
sincere motives. They were not seeking
truth; they were looking for evidence to use to destroy Him (Mark 11:18). Jesus knew what they were doing, so He
countered their question with a question and exposed their hypocrisy.
Now, let me ask you a question. Why did Jesus take them back to John the
Baptist? For a good reason: God does NOT
teach us new truth if we have rejected the truth He has already revealed. Remember that. The basic principle is expressed in
John 7:17: “If any man is willing
to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether
I speak of Myself”.
“Obedience is the organ of spiritual knowledge”. (F.W. Robertson – famous British
preacher) The Jewish religious leaders
had not accepted what John had taught, so why should God say anything more to
them? Had they obeyed John’s message,
they would have gladly submitted to Jesus authority, for John came to present
the Messiah to the nation.
The Jewish leaders had set a trap and then stepped into
that trap. They were not asking “What is
true?” or “What is right?” but “What is safe?”. That is always the approach of the hypocrite
and the crowd-pleaser. It certainly was
not the approach of either Jesus or John.
Jesus did not refuse to answer their question; He only refused to accept
and endorse their hypocrisy. He was not
being evasive; He was being honest.
I can just see them trying to slip away but before they
could, Jesus told them a parable that revealed where their sin was leading
them. They had already permitted John
the Baptist to be murdered, but soon they would ask for the crucifixion of God’s
Son.
Here is the parable: the story of the vineyard. The vineyard was a familiar image of
Israel (Ps. 80:8-16; Isa. 5:1-7). According to Leviticus
19:23-25, a farmer would not use the fruit until the
5th year, though we are not sure the Jews were obeying this
regulation at that time. In order
to retain his legal rights to the property, the owner had to receive produce
from the tenants. This explains why the
tenants refused to give him anything; they wanted to claim the vineyard for
themselves. It also explains why the
owner continued to send agents to them; it was purely a question of authority
and ownership.
If the tenants could do away with the heir, they would
have a clear claim to the property; so they cast him out and killed him. They wanted to preserve their own position
and were willing even to kill to accomplish their evil purpose.
Then the question: “What shall, therefore, the lord of
the vineyard do?” The leader of their
pious little group answered first and thereby condemned the whole group. Then Jesus repeated their answer as a solemn
verdict for the Judge. But before they
could appeal the case, He quoted what they knew was a messianic prophecy, Psalm
118:22, “The stone that the builders rejected is become the head stone of the
corner”. “The Stone” was a well-known
symbol for the Messiah (Ex. 17:6; Dan. 2:34; Zech. 4:7; Romans 9:32-33;
1 Cor. 10:4; and 1 Peter 2:6-8).
2.
A question of
responsibility (12:13-17)
Jesus was the common threat that forced two enemies to
unite, the Pharisees and the Herodians. We have talked about the Heordians before.
They supported the family of Herod as well as the Romans who gave them
the authority to rule. The Pharisees
considered Herod evil; after all, he was an Edomite
and not a Jew. The Pharisees also hated
the taxes imposed on them by the Romans, thus the question.
Either way Jesus answered, He would be trapped. At least that was what they thought but they
didn’t know Jesus. I woke up this past
Wednesday morning about 3:00am and couldn’t go back to sleep. My mind just wouldn’t stop so I turned on the
TV and the old movie “Sergeant York” was on and I heard this verse quoted about
giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s. The word translated “render” in verse 17
means “to pay a debt, to pay back”.
Jesus looked on taxes as the citizens’ debt to the government in return
for the services performed. If we think
our government is bad today, you should study the Roman government. Even though we may disagree with the way all
of our tax money is used, then we can express ourselves with our voice and our
vote but we must accept the fact that God has established human government for
our good (Rom. 13; 1 Tim. 2:1-6;
1 Peter 2:13-17).
Even if we cannot respect the people in office, we must respect the
office.
3.
A question about
eternity (12:18-27)
I’ve got you a question. How many times are the Sadducees mentioned in
Mark? The answer is, only here. This group accepted only the Law of Moses as
their religious authority; so, if a doctrine could not be defended from the
first 5 books of the OT, they would not accept it. They did not believe in the existence of the
soul, life after death, resurrection, final judgment, angels, or demons (see
Acts 23:8). Most of them were priest and were
wealthy. They considered themselves the
“religious aristocrats” of Judaism and tended to look down on everybody
else.
So how will they try to trick and trap Jesus? They will do it with a question about the Law
and divorce from Deuteronomy
25:7-10. There is a
woman who had a series of seven husbands during her lifetime, all brothers, and
all of whom had died. Here is their
question: “If there is such a thing as a future resurrection, then who will be
her husband?” That seemed to be the
perfect question for the perfect trap.
Wrong!
The Sadducees thought that they were smart, but Jesus
soon revealed the depth of the ignorance of two things: the power of God and the
truth of Scripture. Resurrection is not
the restoration of life as we know it; it is the entrance into a new life that
is different. The same God who created
the angels and gave them their nature is able to give us the new bodies we will
need for new life in heaven (1 Cor. 15:38ff). Freebe: You do
know, don’t you, that we are higher than the angels? (see
John
17:22-24; 1 John 3:1-2)
I admit, I had trouble with
Jesus answer to their question. You see,
the devil took it and jumped on me with both feet, telling me that in heaven I
would not even know Angie, much less enjoy her presence again. So I went to the Lord and Google and began to
look. There I found a book by James
MacDonald titled When Life is Hard, sub-titled, “When Trials Come, Questions Follow. (www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/articles/spiritualgrowth) Read from article.
Have you ever noticed how people who think themselves so
smart are often really dumb? They
claimed to accept the authority of Moses, but they failed to notice that Moses
taught the continuation of life after death.
God did not tell Moses that He was (past tense) the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. He said, and I quote,
“I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”. Duh!
Don’t you read your Bible?
4.
A question of priority
(12:28-34)
The next challenger was a scribe who was also a Pharisee
(see Matt. 22:34-35). The scribes had
determined that the Jews were obligated to obey 613 precepts in the Law, 365
negative precepts and 248 positive. One
of their favorite exercises was discussing which of these divine commands was
the greatest.
If we love God, and I mean really love God, we will
experience His love within and will express that love to other. We do not live by rules but by relationships,
a loving relationship to God that enables us to have a loving relationship with
others.
Another question for you: What does it mean when a
person is “not far from the kingdom of God”?
It means he or she is facing truth honestly and is not interested in
defending a “party line” or even personal prejudices. It means the person is testing his or her
faith by what the Word of God says and not by what some religious group
demands. People close to the kingdom
have the courage to stand up for what is true even if they lose some friends and
make some new enemies.
5.
A question of identity
(12:35-37)
Now it is time for our Lord to ask the first question,
and He focused on the most important question of all: Who is the Messiah? “What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?” (Matt. 22:42) Warning: if you are wrong about Jesus, you
are wrong about salvation. And if you
are wrong about salvation, you end up condemning your own soul. (John 3:16-21;
8:24; 1 John 2:18-23). Jesus then quoted Psalm 110:1 and asked
another question. The Jews believed that
the Messiah would be the son of David so Jesus ask how
could David’s son also be his Lord?
This section closes with two warnings from the Lord: a
warning against the pride of the scribes (38-40) and against the pride of the
rich (41-44). If a person is “important”
only because of the uniform he wears, the title he bears, or the office he
holds, then his “importance” is artificial. It is character that makes a person valuable,
and nobody can give you character: you must develop it yourself as you walk with
God. .