What Do You Know? - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah
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We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this week.
The last time we looked at Jesus’ confrontation with the religious leaders over who had real authority and we compared that to our struggles with Jesus’ authority in our life.
Today we’re going to look at Mark chapter 12 together as a group. As I was looking this over I had a hard time breaking it into sections so we’re going to take it all together.
From our past weeks we know that this event takes place during Jesus last week before His crucifixion. Up to this point Jesus had tried to steer clear of confrontations with the religious leaders, but now He has entered Jerusalem and is pushing the leaders to do something about Him.
Jesus had exposed their hypocrisy and established His authority and now in chapter 12 He’s exposing their self serving interpretations of the scriptures and their impure motives.
In this chapter Jesus sets up the confrontation with a parable that challenges and exposes the corruption of the religious leaders which provokes the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Scribes to try and entrap Him.
Let’s read the first section Mark 12:1-12….
This parable is based on Isaiah 5:1-7 which portrays Israel as God’s vineyard. One of the interesting images from Isaiah is of God’s desire for a fruitful vine, but the vineyard produces wild vines instead and God promises to clean it out.
In using this parable Jesus is saying to the religious leaders that they are guilty of allowing the vineyard to become unfruitful because they wouldn’t listen to the word of God sent through the prophets and they actually persecuted them because they wanted to be in control. Jesus was also saying that they were even more guilty than the previous generations because they are about to kill the Son of God.
But Jesus is also telling them that His actions are the start of God’s judgment on them and Israel. He has come to start the vineyard cleaning work and He’s starting in the temple which represents the heart of their religious life. When they crucified Jesus they set in motion the very thing that is mentioned in vs. 9. They intended to remove Jesus but they actually removed themselves and opened the door of God’s vineyard to the gentiles, people like us.
As a side note I thought it was interesting that the OT was written for the people of Israel and the last word’s that God spoke to them are through the prophet Malachi 4:5-6 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 6 And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse."
Then God goes silent until the Apostle Paul comes along and is inspired to write the letters to the churches. Up to this point God had communicated to Israel, now God communicates to the church and the church to the world.
We are the fulfillment of verse 9! So turn to your neighbor and say “It’s nice to meet a fulfillment of a prophecy.”
As you can imagine the leaders weren’t very happy with this and they were even more angry when Jesus asks them if they even read the scriptures (they were after all the teachers and interpreters of the scriptures). While there is probably some plotting going on behind the scenes the religious leaders feel forced to entrap and silence Jesus because they sense the people beginning to move toward Jesus.
In vs. 13-17 the Pharisees try to trip Him up with a political trap about taxes. The Herodians represented the political lobbyists who were helping the Pharisees trap Jesus. If Jesus says taxes are not to be paid then they could turn Him in to the Romans. If Jesus said that taxes were to be paid the people would reject Him as a Roman puppet. But Jesus doesn’t allow Himself to be pulled into this political argument.
In vs. 18-27 the Sadducees try to tangle Jesus in a theological trap. The question they ask Him isn’t a major issue of concern to them, they just want to force Jesus into an endless no win discussion. If you’ve ever been in one of those you know how frustrating it can be. The Sadducees believed that the 5 books of Moses (Gen. Ex. Lev. Num. Deut.) were the only true Scriptures so if Jesus was going to turn this around He would have to use the Scriptures they accepted. Jesus uses Exodus 3:6 to prove that they were mistaken and discredits them.
In vs. 28-34 a Scribe is next and asks Jesus a question of interpretation. It’s not clear if this Scribe is genuine or trying to trap Jesus, but even if He is honest those listening would use Jesus’ answer against Him. Jesus again uses Scriptures from the 5 books of Moses that everyone accepted and answers wisely.
Jesus gives us the example for responding to challenges to our faith that we have to deal with.
First we have to be led by the Spirit because if we lean on our own understanding we’ll get tangled up in a mess that will end in nothing good. John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
Second, we have to be wise about the challenges we take on because if we enter those kinds of endless winless arguments we’ll be distracted and led away from the things we should be focused on. Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless.
Third, we need to know the Word of God. In each situation Jesus used Scripture to disarm the traps. 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
Finally Jesus draws a comparison that we need to pay attention too. In vs. 35-44 Jesus reveals that the Scribes who look very spiritual and all religious are actually just hiding the corruption that’s really in their heart. There’s a key phrase I want you to see in vs. 40 that connects it to the story of the widow’s two mites. It says they devour widow’s houses. They take from them to line their own pockets and could care less about what happens to them.
Then as Jesus is watching the hypocritical show of the offerings in the treasury when one of the very widows who the Scribes have devoured comes in and gives an offering of what she has left and Jesus points out the purity of her actions. What she did was far more than give and offering, she was in that act of giving surrendering herself into the care of her God.
The phony hypocrites were all about what they had left for themselves and the widow was all about Who she had left.
Are we more concerned with what we have or Who we have?
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We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this week.
The last time we looked at Jesus’ confrontation with the religious leaders over who had real authority and we compared that to our struggles with Jesus’ authority in our life.
Today we’re going to look at Mark chapter 12 together as a group. As I was looking this over I had a hard time breaking it into sections so we’re going to take it all together.
From our past weeks we know that this event takes place during Jesus last week before His crucifixion. Up to this point Jesus had tried to steer clear of confrontations with the religious leaders, but now He has entered Jerusalem and is pushing the leaders to do something about Him.
Jesus had exposed their hypocrisy and established His authority and now in chapter 12 He’s exposing their self serving interpretations of the scriptures and their impure motives.
In this chapter Jesus sets up the confrontation with a parable that challenges and exposes the corruption of the religious leaders which provokes the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Scribes to try and entrap Him.
Let’s read the first section Mark 12:1-12….
This parable is based on Isaiah 5:1-7 which portrays Israel as God’s vineyard. One of the interesting images from Isaiah is of God’s desire for a fruitful vine, but the vineyard produces wild vines instead and God promises to clean it out.
In using this parable Jesus is saying to the religious leaders that they are guilty of allowing the vineyard to become unfruitful because they wouldn’t listen to the word of God sent through the prophets and they actually persecuted them because they wanted to be in control. Jesus was also saying that they were even more guilty than the previous generations because they are about to kill the Son of God.
But Jesus is also telling them that His actions are the start of God’s judgment on them and Israel. He has come to start the vineyard cleaning work and He’s starting in the temple which represents the heart of their religious life. When they crucified Jesus they set in motion the very thing that is mentioned in vs. 9. They intended to remove Jesus but they actually removed themselves and opened the door of God’s vineyard to the gentiles, people like us.
As a side note I thought it was interesting that the OT was written for the people of Israel and the last word’s that God spoke to them are through the prophet Malachi 4:5-6 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 6 And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse."
Then God goes silent until the Apostle Paul comes along and is inspired to write the letters to the churches. Up to this point God had communicated to Israel, now God communicates to the church and the church to the world.
We are the fulfillment of verse 9! So turn to your neighbor and say “It’s nice to meet a fulfillment of a prophecy.”
As you can imagine the leaders weren’t very happy with this and they were even more angry when Jesus asks them if they even read the scriptures (they were after all the teachers and interpreters of the scriptures). While there is probably some plotting going on behind the scenes the religious leaders feel forced to entrap and silence Jesus because they sense the people beginning to move toward Jesus.
In vs. 13-17 the Pharisees try to trip Him up with a political trap about taxes. The Herodians represented the political lobbyists who were helping the Pharisees trap Jesus. If Jesus says taxes are not to be paid then they could turn Him in to the Romans. If Jesus said that taxes were to be paid the people would reject Him as a Roman puppet. But Jesus doesn’t allow Himself to be pulled into this political argument.
In vs. 18-27 the Sadducees try to tangle Jesus in a theological trap. The question they ask Him isn’t a major issue of concern to them, they just want to force Jesus into an endless no win discussion. If you’ve ever been in one of those you know how frustrating it can be. The Sadducees believed that the 5 books of Moses (Gen. Ex. Lev. Num. Deut.) were the only true Scriptures so if Jesus was going to turn this around He would have to use the Scriptures they accepted. Jesus uses Exodus 3:6 to prove that they were mistaken and discredits them.
In vs. 28-34 a Scribe is next and asks Jesus a question of interpretation. It’s not clear if this Scribe is genuine or trying to trap Jesus, but even if He is honest those listening would use Jesus’ answer against Him. Jesus again uses Scriptures from the 5 books of Moses that everyone accepted and answers wisely.
Jesus gives us the example for responding to challenges to our faith that we have to deal with.
First we have to be led by the Spirit because if we lean on our own understanding we’ll get tangled up in a mess that will end in nothing good. John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
Second, we have to be wise about the challenges we take on because if we enter those kinds of endless winless arguments we’ll be distracted and led away from the things we should be focused on. Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless.
Third, we need to know the Word of God. In each situation Jesus used Scripture to disarm the traps. 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
Finally Jesus draws a comparison that we need to pay attention too. In vs. 35-44 Jesus reveals that the Scribes who look very spiritual and all religious are actually just hiding the corruption that’s really in their heart. There’s a key phrase I want you to see in vs. 40 that connects it to the story of the widow’s two mites. It says they devour widow’s houses. They take from them to line their own pockets and could care less about what happens to them.
Then as Jesus is watching the hypocritical show of the offerings in the treasury when one of the very widows who the Scribes have devoured comes in and gives an offering of what she has left and Jesus points out the purity of her actions. What she did was far more than give and offering, she was in that act of giving surrendering herself into the care of her God.
The phony hypocrites were all about what they had left for themselves and the widow was all about Who she had left.
Are we more concerned with what we have or Who we have?
Labels: Jesus, Mark 12:1-44, Messiah, pharisees, radical, sadducees, scribes, temple
posted by Jerry Stitzel @ 3:20 PM
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