I will be sharing a study I wrote of the final six chapters of Mark as we approach Easter.
"When
Priorities Are Challenged"
Mark 11-12
How have your priorities changed over the years?
As
Christians, we know that our first priority should be our relationship with
God. Jesus highlighted this in His
teaching on the greatest commandment which is part of our larger study today.
Even though we know that God is our number one priority, the demands on our
time and energy from other sources such as a demanding job, boss or family seem
to take first place. Often we find
ourselves at the end of the week with little energy for study, worship and
fellowship with our family of faith.
When you examine your life
where does God fit in with your priorities?
It has taken
Mark 10 chapters to cover 33 years and it will take him 6 chapters to cover one
week. This shows the profound effect the
Passion of our Lord had on Peter and Mark.
The
miraculous birth of Jesus as awesome as it was, or the feeding of the multitude
with just a few loaves and fishes, or the healing of the blind man, the raising
of a young girl from her death bed, or the deaf and dumb man being healed; none
of these miracles as tremendous as they were would atone for our sin. It would take the shed blood of Jesus to
satisfy the demands of the law.
Hebrews 9:22 (New King James Version)
22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with
blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
The Holy Week begins with the triumphant entry of Jesus into the
Holy City. By the time Jesus gets to
Jerusalem His entourage must have grown.
He stops at the edge of town and instructs two of His disciples to go
into the city and tells them where they will find a donkey. They are to untie him and if anyone asks what
they are doing to say to them "the Lord has need of it". Mark
lets us know it happens as Jesus had predicted and the disciples were asked
what they were doing and they supplied the answer as Jesus had instructed.
After they return with the donkey the disciples use their cloaks
as a saddle blanket and Jesus rides into the city amid the shouts of "Hosanna!" (Which means in this context,
“save now.”) “Blessed is He who comes
in the name of the LORD!’ 10
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the
Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
This was the fulfilling of another Old Testament prophecy found in
Zechariah 9:9:
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is
just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.”
The colt they brought had
never been ridden upon. That was fitting, for an animal to be used for a sacred
purpose must never have been used for any other purpose.
The whole picture is of a
people who misunderstood.
How had they misunderstood?
They were thinking of
kingship in the terms of conquest in which they had thought of it for so long.
Do you think the 12
disciples might have been involved in the shouting of praises to the King along
with the people?
One hundred fifty years before, Simon
Maccabaeus entered Jerusalem amid shouts of praise and music after defeating
the Seleucid Empire. It was a conqueror's welcome such as this that the people sought
to give to Jesus, but they never dreamed of the kind of conqueror He had
come to be. When one looks at Jewish
history the pattern is repeated over and over. If they were not fighting those
who ruled over them they were fighting among themselves.
After entering the city
Jesus surveys the temple and then departs back to Bethany. One can only imagine the gaze of Jesus as he
takes in the hostile stares from the scribes and Pharisees and the
commercialization of the temple. The
next day He would address that problem.
The next morning as Jesus
departs from Bethany Mark tells that Jesus was hungry and includes an event
that is seemingly so out of character for Jesus. Many have tried to decipher what Jesus is
teaching with the fig tree. And I must
admit, it is a passage that had troubled me.
Through the years, overly
critical minds have found reasons to reject the account of Jesus' cursing of
the fig tree. Some theologians have thought Jesus acted in a capricious way,
cursing a tree because it had no fruit even though it was not the season for
fruit.
After reading several
commentaries the gist of their understanding is Jesus is enacting a living
parable. The fig tree had every evidence
of fruit yet was fruitless.
In this region the fig
tree would sprout early, small figs simultaneously with the leaves and are ripe
in May or June. The larger figs would be
gathered later in August. But since it
was Passover time, it would logically be around April, so the early figs were
not ripe and the later figs had not appeared; therefore it “was not the season for figs.”
V.13
Evidently, Jesus noticed
this tree because it was in full foliage, and could therefore be expected to have
fruit, but it had nothing but leaves. It
promised much but provided nothing.
The fig tree was a
standard symbol for Israel, as numerous Old Testament passages attest. (Jer.
8:13, Hosea 9:10, 16, Joel 1:7 and Micah 7:1-6). The fact that this particular fig tree had
luxuriant foliage, but bore no fruit portrayed exactly what Jesus had seen in
Jerusalem the previous day. In this
living parable Jesus is showing that the outward form of religion and worship
was evident but it produced no fruit therefore it was barren.
Mark gives another of his
characteristic personal notations in verse 14 – “And his disciples heard it,”
or “His
disciples were listening.”
The same Jesus who had
shown such compassion to the multitudes, the one who had helped and healed, is
now pronouncing a curse on a fig tree.
Do you think they had any idea of the significance of what had happened?
One other note of interest
here is the fact that with the exception of such multiple miracles recorded
throughout Mark and the greatest miracle of all, Christ’s rising from the dead,
the Gospel of Mark records 18 miracles, and the blasting of the fig tree is the
last.
V.15 - They came to Jerusalem
and entered the temple. Jesus
immediately begins to drive out the money changers and those who sold doves. . (John 2:13-25 tells of an earlier cleansing of the Temple.) Both
of these groups, the money changers and those sold doves, were making a profit.
The temple tax could only be paid with a shekel. Those who did not have the required currency
could exchange their money but they paid a heavy penalty. The dove sellers made a profit because the
priests were in on the money making scheme and would find the poor people who
brought their own doves for a sacrifice "unclean" thereby forcing
them to buy "clean" ones from the dove sellers.
V. 16 – “And he would not allow anyone to
carry anything through the temple.”
Also
the Court of Gentiles had become a short cut from one part of town to the other
and people were carrying burdens even though the Mishnah contained an ordinance aimed at curbing traffic by
forbidding anyone to enter the Temple Mount carrying his staff or sandal or
wallet, or to use it as a short cut.
This is an excellent
example of the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees – they had strained at
every knat to entrap Jesus and yet were not only allowing but participating in
the breaking of every law regarding keeping the Temple site holy.
And, the Lord saw this for
what it was: a monstrous desecration of holy ground and He begins to clean
house. Those who want to see Jesus only
with qualities of lamb-like gentleness and meekness- which he did indeed possess
– must also see the magnificence and the ferocity of a lion. Our Savior is also Judge. The Scriptures speak of the "wrath of
the Lamb." (Rev. 6:16)
Jesus quotes Isa. 56:7 "My
house will be called a house of prayer for all nations".
The main purpose for the Court of the Gentiles
was to be a place where the Gentiles could come for prayer and meditation in
seeking God. But as it was, it was
impossible to concentrate on anything, much less to pray and worship.
"But you have made it a
den of robbers". Jesus has just come through
the Robbers Roost that existed between Jericho and Jerusalem where people were
often robbed and in the process beaten or killed. He likened the Court of Gentiles in the same
way. A place where one is robbed and
taken advantage of.
V. 18 – “And
the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy
him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his
teaching.”
No wonder the chief
priests who were getting rich off of the people began to seek how to destroy
Him. They were also afraid because of
His popularity with the people. Jesus
does not stay in Jerusalem but returned to Bethany at night. The next morning the disciples noticed the
fig tree withered from the roots up.
Mark is letting us know it
was dead. No trimming off the dead
branches and it produces new growth. It not only will not bear fruit it will
not even bear a leaf. Just as the tree
was rotten clean through and through the nation of Israel was rotten clean
through and through.
In cursing the fig tree
and cleansing the temple Jesus performed two symbolic and prophetic acts, with
one meaning. He was predicting the
downfall of unfruitful Israel and from its ashes would come an everlasting
kingdom that would gather both Jews and Gentiles.
Jesus now turns the
withered fig tree into a teaching moment on prayer.
V.22-26 So
Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you,
whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does
not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he
will have whatever he says. 24
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you
receive them, and you will have
them.
25 “And
whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him,
that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive,
neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
This is a powerful teaching on prayer and the role
forgiveness has in relation to our sins being forgiven.
V. 27-33
Jesus shows back up at the temple. This
is the third day and the scribes and Pharisees have decided they had better try
and get a handle on things so they decided to confront Jesus with who is in
charge around here.
Jesus
challenges their question with a question of His own. In essence, you answer my question and I will
answer yours.
Jesus'
Question - "Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me."
Mark tells
of their dilemma.
31 And they reasoned among
themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you
not believe him?’ 32
But if we say, ‘From men’”—they feared the people, for all counted John to have
been a prophet indeed. 33
So they answered and said to Jesus, “We do not know.”
Jesus counters with His
answer "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."
But Jesus does tell them a
parable.
“A man planted a vineyard and set a
hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a
tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 2 Now at vintage-time he sent a
servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the
vineyard from the vinedressers. 3
And they took him and beat him
and sent him away empty-handed.
4 Again he sent them
another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him
away shamefully treated. 5
And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some
and killing some. 6
Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last,
saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the
heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.
9 “Therefore what
will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers,
and give the vineyard to others. 10
Have you not even read this Scripture:
‘The
stone which the builders rejected
Has
become the chief cornerstone.
11
This was the LORD’s doing,
And
it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
Some of Jesus' parables
may have been hard to understand but to the scribes and Pharisees this was
pretty plain.
12 And they sought to lay hands on
Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against
them. So they left Him and went away.
This parable shows the
love of the Father. Though this story is
told as a parable it was exactly what God had done. In various ways He had sent His servants to
call the nation of Israel to account and they were indeed scorned, wounded, and
rejected.
Most of us would have reacted
the first time the tenants rejected the men sent by the owner. The Father had demonstrated His patience and
love throughout the Old Testament. This
was the history of Israel, a history of opportunities neglected, privileges
abused, and a great trust betrayed.
Jesus knows that He too will be rejected and killed just as the owner's
son was killed.
V.9 Speaks of the tenants
being destroyed……
Who is Jesus
speaking of?
Who will the vineyard
be given to?
What about today? God's love is still coming even to those who
have cast His messenger aside. In fact,
the Son is coming to them right now, persistent in His love for them.
V. 13-27
Jesus now has two
encounters with the religious leaders trying to entrap Him. The first were two groups who normally
despise one another banding together in their mutual hatred of Jesus because
Jesus threatened their personal agenda.
We see these two groups banding together for the first time in Capernaum
after Jesus had healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath.
With both the religious
and the political elements being represented they were sure to trap Jesus when
He responded to their question.
V.14 The Pharisees’
spokesman said 4 things in a mocking flattery.
What were they?
1. True
2. Do not care about
anyone’s opinion
3. Not swayed by
appearances (high or low position in life)
4. Teach the way of God
In essence, what they say
is “You are a teacher on whom people can depend, you faithfully declare the
will of God for doctrine and life. You speak your own mind without trying to
cater to any person’s likes and dislikes. You do not allow yourself to be
swayed by rich or poor, learned or unlearned, master or slave.”
Quite a flattering
introduction to a question they hoped would trap him into declaring something
that would put him in trouble with either the political faction or religious
faction.
The question “Is it lawful to pay taxes to
Caesar, or not- Should we pay them or not?”
Their question came after
a honeyed introduction seemly asking for direction in deciding what to do in a
difficult matter of ethics, but their real intention was the destruction of
Jesus.
Jesus saw through this
hypocrisy, and said “why do you test me?”
Jesus then asks for a
denarius, which amounted to a day’s wages, saying that He wanted to look at it,
thereby directing their attention to the coin.
The coin has on one side
the bust of the reigning Caesar who was Tiberius Caesar Augustus.
On the other side Caesar
is shown seated on a throne. He is wearing a diadem and is clothed as a high
priest. The sticking point to the Jews,
besides paying a poll tax, is the graven image the coin represented. Caesar is to be worshiped as a god.
Jesus neatly side steps
the trap
How does He answer them?
“Render or give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the
things that are God’s”.
He is saying they should
pay the poll tax which paid for the government’s services since they enjoy the
benefit of the tax. But to God alone
worship should be given.
Mark lets us know after
the Pharisees and Herodians failed, the Sadducees try their hand.
What was their question?
The Sadducees did not
believe in the resurrection so they concocted an impossible dilemma showing how
ridiculous the belief about the resurrection was. They allude to the Levirate law of marriage
as outlined in Deut. 25. 5, 6. - giving the example of a man’s brothers
marrying the widow. Jesus counters their
false assumption that there would be a resumption of marriage after the
resurrection.
They deceived themselves
in two ways Jesus said.
1. They did not know the
scriptures because nowhere in scripture does it speak of a continuation of
marriage after the resurrection and
2. They did not recognize
the power of God to raise the dead.
V. 25 Jesus answers their false assumption by
declaring in the resurrection there will
be no marriage or will anyone be given in marriage but are like angels in
heaven.
Although the Sadducees
ridicule a wonderful truth accepted and taught by Jesus, namely, that of the
resurrection of the dead, He does not refuse to impart needed instruction to
them on this very subject;
V. 26,27 But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read
in the book of Moses, in the burning
bush passage, how God spoke to
him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the
dead, but the God of the living.
The very scriptures they prize so highly in keeping are in
actuality unknown to them. Jesus is
telling them exactly where it is found “in the burning bush passage”.
V.27b. Jesus tells them bluntly “You are therefore greatly
mistaken.” Or you blunder. When a person departs from the Scriptures he
is bound to blunder, to be badly mistaken, to wander.
The Pharisees must have gloated over the fact that Jesus had
put down the Sadducees for their disbelief in the resurrection, a position the
Pharisees supported. But they were not
too pleased the crowd was amazed or astonished at Jesus’ teaching. So once again they cook up a plan to entrap
Jesus in order to discredit Him.
V28 During the debate
with the Sadducees a scribe comes up and
seeing Jesus answers them well poses a question to Jesus. In a parallel passage found in Matt. 22:34,35
Matthew indicates Jesus is once again tested by the Pharisees.
The question posed by this scribe, this expert in the
knowledge of the whole body of Jewish religious literature – God’s written law
and its oral interpretation and application-, could be expected of him. The rabbis, devoted to hairsplitting
legalism, carried on lengthy debates about the commandments, arguing whether a
particular one was great or small, heavy or light. It was natural therefore, that they debated
the question, “Which of the 613 commandments, 248 of them positive, and 365 of
them negative is the foremost commandment.”
Among the Jews two contrary tendencies were at work. One was to analyze the law, dividing it into ever so many hairsplitting
ramifications. Another tendency was the
very opposite, namely, to synthesize,
that is, to express the summary of the law in one brief sentence.
In a sense this latter attempt was excellent. Religion is, after all, a matter of selecting
the right priorities. If that is not
done, it easily degenerates into majoring on minors.
Jesus covers this in Matt. 23:23
“Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and
cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters
of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without
leaving the others undone.
Churches have been admonished to “Keep the main thing, the
main thing”.
Jesus teaches this by saying the whole moral-spiritual law,
can be summed up in one word; love.
“The first of all the commandments 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, with all your soul,
with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is
this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
This love must first be directed toward God. This quote, from Deu. 6:4, is called the Shema which is a transliteration of the
word “Hear” the first word.
It is readily understood that the Shema was and is the very
foundation of monotheism. Not only that,
but it stresses the fact that this one and only God wants to be loved! He want to be loved with our total being. This encompasses the heart, the hub of the
wheel of man’s existence, the mainspring of all his thoughts, words, and
deeds. The soul, the word used in
the original has a variety of meanings but probably means here the seat of
man’s emotional activity; the mind is not only the seat and center
of our purely intellectual life but also of our dispositions and
attitudes. With all your strength conveys
the idea of using these heart, soul and mind to the full. Note the fourfold “all”. The point is that God’s wholehearted love
must not be answered in a halfhearted manner.
As He is an “all in
all” God” He wants our “all in all” love”.
This love must be directed not only toward God but also
toward man. The second commandment
resembles the first in this respect; both require love. This love for our neighbor flows forth from
love toward God. God loves the world
therefore we are to love also.
Jesus gives us a
measuring rod for the love we are to have for our neighbor “as you love yourself”.
Jesus brings his answer to a climax by declaring, “There
is no other command greater than these.”
One can almost hear the excitement in the scribe’s voice as
he recites back to Jesus the lesson he has just been given.
Well said,
Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other
but He. 33 And to love Him with all the heart, with all the
understanding, with all the soul,
and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than
all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
What do you think the scribe meant by “is more than all the whole burnt
offerings and sacrifices”.
V.34
Much has been
speculated as to the disposition of this scribe. Had he been favorably inclined toward the
Lord from the very beginning of the present incident, and perhaps even earlier? Or had he been hostile before and had his
unfavorable attitude melted in the presence of Jesus and because of the way
Jesus answered his question. Jesus in
turn encourages the scribe by declaring “,
“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
It will be interesting to see
if in glory we meet this scribe who had answered wisely.
But
after that no one dared question Him. Jesus
had completely crushed the opposition, and in the process of doing this had
even succeeded in encouraging a member of a largely hostile group closer to his
own side.
We are challenged day after day to “keep the main thing the
main thing”: To love the Lord and our fellowman. How that translates out in your life is
between you and God. Jesus reminded the
disciples when Peter said……
“See, we have left all and
followed You.”
29 So Jesus answered
and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or
brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife
or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a
hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and
children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the
last first.”
There are three remaining studies in the gospel of Mark. The next lesson Jesus will prepare his
followers for the future, not only the crucifixion but the years of persecution
that would follow.
The last lesson will deal with the crucifixion and the
resurrection.
