Mark 12

It is a well known fact that Jesus taught using parables. Here as He moved toward the cross, His parables were very pointed. They were words of judgment against Israel and her religious leaders. God was ready to bring to a close the era of this special land, a land that was a picture of a higher place. The end of this era would come with Israel's violent rejection of the One who was sent to save.

God is the one that planted Israel as His vineyard so long ago. He provided for her everything that she needed. The nation could bring no just complaint against the Almighty. But the Lord's complaint against them was very just. Israel was His, and He naturally expected good fruit from the vineyard. Yet those whom He placed in charge of the fruit, hated Him and resented Him, and they would not give to Him His portion. He sent representatives, the prophets, to bring His complaint, and these men were treated with great disrespect. Then He did something that none of us would do. He sent His Son into this dangerous and rebellious place that had already killed the prophets, the Son who was teaching them now, the Son whom they would also kill. This was all done in accord with Psalm 118. They were the builders, and He was the Stone that they rejected. He would also be the Sacrifice, and somehow the day of His sacrifice would eventually become a day in which we would rejoice, a day that the Lord had made.

Not all of the teaching of Jesus to the crowds came through parables. Here He taught through His responses to the questions of those who were trying to trap Him. In doing so He revealed things about them and about Himself. We hear of several of these interactions in the final encounters between Jesus and the various groups that were attempting to stop Him. First, the Pharisees and the Herodians again attempted to get Him to say something about taxes that could be used against Him in front of civil authorities. He responded to their trap by calling them to give their lives to God, who created them in His image, and to give to civil authorities the coins that bear the image of Caesar. He spoke these words as the One who is the perfect image of God before the eyes, and the only Man who completely offered up His life to the Father.

Second, the Sadducees also came to Him, attempting to make Him look foolish concerning the biblical doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Jesus would Himself prove the fact of a new resurrection of at least one human body through His own life from the dead in just a few days. This great sign would be the beginning of a much larger resurrection that will be continued when our Lord returns to judge. It is this final massive resurrection of the dead that they were trying to mock Him with that day, using a story of seven men who all had one woman as a wife, but not at the same time, each one dying and being followed in the role of husband by his younger brother. In the resurrection, who will be the husband of this woman? Jesus pointed out to them that their rejection of the truth of the coming resurrection was a symptom of two foundational problems. First, they did not believe the Scriptures, which so clearly teach the doctrine of a final resurrection age that is to come. Second, they did not understand the power of God, who is, even now, the God of the living. Even though the final day has not yet come, God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These men who died on earth so long ago, are alive in heaven now.

The third of these interactions in the chapter was with a scribe, a teacher of the Mosaic Law. This one seems more ambiguous. Was he truly interested in what Jesus had to say, or was this just another trap? Could it be that He was asking Jesus such an obvious question that any Hebrew child could have answered to get Jesus to say that there is only one God? Does He imagine Jesus to be asserting Himself as a second god of some kind? If his goal is to trap Jesus, our Lord's answer makes a very interesting point to consider. There is only one God, and we must love Him with our everything, but there is a second commandment that is like this first one, because it flows from the fact of this one God, and our duty to love the One who is not only our Creator, but the Creator of all. We must love our neighbor as ourselves. Is this man obeying this commandment in his interaction with Jesus? If not, is he truly loving the God who is the God of Jesus? The man is said to receive Jesus' answer with some wisdom. He certainly is not far from the kingdom, because the King of the kingdom is there with him.

Jesus is David's Son and David's Lord according to Psalm 110. How could this be? They had no answer for the teacher. Their hearts were filled with murderous intentions. They made a great show of their goodness and their religion, but they would steal from a poor widow if they could do so in secret. Speaking of poor widows, some of them show great love for God and His kingdom without attracting much notice from anyone. What they have, may not seem like much, but they spend it all for God, and He will surely establish the work of their hands forever in the resurrection. Their labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Jesus' life was worth billions upon billions upon billions. He spent it all for you. He did not come to win debates, though He easily could outwit anyone who tried to trap Him. He came to live and to die, that Heaven and earth might be one, and that you might be saved. He used His great resources to pay your debt.