seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Mark 12:1 Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
6 “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
7 “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’[a]?”
has become the cornerstone;
11 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’[a]?”
12 Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.
13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax[b] to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”
But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
And they were amazed at him.
18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection[c] whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’[d]? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[f] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[g] There is no commandment greater than these.”
32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:
37 David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”
The large crowd listened to him with delight.
38 As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Footnotes:a. Mark 12:11 Psalm 118:22,23
b. Mark 12:14 A special tax levied on subject peoples, not on Roman citizens
c. Mark 12:23 Some manuscripts resurrection, when people rise from the dead,
d. Mark 12:26 Exodus 3:6
e. Mark 12:29 Or The Lord our God is one Lord
f. Mark 12:30 Deut. 6:4,5
g. Mark 12:31 Lev. 19:18
h. Mark 12:36 Psalm 110:1
The commentary at the easy English site is well worth the read but it's too long..... so these are outtakes.
In Jesus’ time, there were often owners who went away. They left their vineyards in the care of tenants. The tenants would pay the owner rent, either in money or in a share of the crop. The Jewish leaders were like the tenants. God had trusted them to obey him. They should have given him the ‘fruit’ of good lives.
The slaves who went to collect the harvest were like the prophets. God had sent them on many occasions to demand sincere worship. The rulers of the Jewish nation had refused to respect the prophets. They insulted Amos (Amos 7:12). They made fun of Jeremiah. They struck him and they put him in prison (Jeremiah 20:7; 37:15). They killed Zechariah (2 Chronicles 24:20-21). God showed great patience when he sent the prophets. He gave the Jewish people every opportunity to do what was right.
In the end, God sent ‘his son, whom he loved’. God used these words about Jesus when John the Baptist baptised him (Mark 1:11). They show that Jesus was the Messiah. In the parable, the tenants murdered the son. So, Jesus knew what was going to happen to him.
The tax that they asked about was a tax on each person. Everyone had to pay a personal tax of one denarius to the great ruler in Rome every year. A denarius was a man’s wage for a day. The Jews hated it because they were not a free nation. They had to pay the tax with a silver coin. The coin had the name of the great ruler in Rome on it. When this tax began in AD 6, the Jews were extremely angry. Judas from Galilee led *ews to fight against the tax (Acts 5:37). Although the Romans soon stopped his resistance, the Eager Men continued to plot against the Romans. (See the note about Mark 3:18.)
The question was like a clever trap. Jesus might say that Jews should pay the tax. Then, he would lose his popularity. People would think that he was not being loyal to his own nation. Jesus might say that they should not pay. Then, he would be in trouble with the Romans.
Jesus did not have a coin himself, but the Pharisees and Herodians produced one. Tiberius Caesar was the great ruler in Rome at that time. His image and his name were on the silver coin with which the Jews had to pay the tax.
They had asked whether they should ‘pay’ taxes to Caesar. Jesus told them to ‘pay back’ what belonged to Caesar. Taxes were not a gift to the state. They were a debt that they owed. The coin belonged to Caesar, from whom they received benefits. The Romans made good roads. They kept peace and they made society work better. Therefore, people should be willing to pay for what the state did for them. But men belong to God because he created them (Genesis 1:26-27). Therefore, they should give God the honour and service that is his right.
The Sadducees were a powerful group in the Jewish Sanhedrin. Most of them were priests. The chief priest was a Sadducee. They were wealthy, and they did not oppose the Romans. They agreed with only the first five books of the Old Testament. They said that there was no evidence for life after death in these books.
Jesus said that the Sadducees did not know the Scriptures. They did not understand a passage in one of first five books of the Old Testament! Jesus explained this as part of his answer to their question. They were also denying God’s power to create life.
Jesus said first that life in heaven would not be the same as life on earth. He said that there is no need for marriage in heaven. One of the purposes of marriage is to have children in order to continue the human race. But in heaven, men and women will be like angels, who do not die. Friendships in heaven will be even more wonderful than those on earth. When Jesus brought angels into his answer, he showed the Sadducees another truth. They did not believe in angels.
The scribe would have been pleased that Jesus had answered the Sadducees so well. He was a teacher of the law and he did not agree with the Sadducees’ beliefs. His question was a matter that the teachers of the law often discussed. They said that there were 365 commands about what they must not do. There were over 200 commands about what they must do.
Jesus encouraged the scribe. Jesus said that he was ‘not far’ from God’s kingdom. He had understood Jesus’ answer. He still had to make the decision to follow Jesus.
A teacher of the law should have worked to feed himself. He should not ask for money for explaining the law. But the teachers persuaded the people that it was an honour to make gifts to them. God would reward them if they gave generously. They cheated widows. They persuaded them to make large gifts that the widows could not afford. Then the teachers tried to seem very religious. They said long prayers in public. God would punish them most severely because they were proud. And they loved money. Their religion was not sincere and their example was dangerous.
In the Court of the Women in the Temple there were 13 boxes. They were wide at the base and narrow at the top. People put money in them. And the money helped to pay for sacrifices or other Temple costs. Many people threw in large sums. But they had plenty of money left.
The widow’s two coins were ‘lepta’. A ‘lepton’ was the smallest of all coins. Its name meant ‘the thin thing’. It had a very tiny value.
Jesus told his disciples that the widow’s gift was really very generous. It was more generous than the gifts of those who gave large amounts. They had given what they could easily afford. And they still had money to spare. She gave at great cost to herself.
In all the years I have been a Christian..... I have never heard a preacher talk about what Jesus gave up to bring the antidote to death to the ignorant humans. He is the Son of God..... and He was hanging out around God when the earth was designed and created. He could have invented a heavenly version of Soccer and played it with angels. I bet Jesus had some input into the different breeds of dogs so that they should be most excellent for having around. I imagine Jesus was quite content in Heaven..... enjoying the greatness of it all.
Jesus would be born into the finest family in Isarel. Jesus would be born into the line of Seth, Abraham, Jacob, and Solomon. Jesus was born with royal blood to a family who could not even afford a room at the Inn. I mean I'm sure Solomon could had a room, no matter how full it was, unlike a Pregnant teenager and her hubby. He didn't need to come here. He knew those ignorant humans were going to hurt Him. The were really good at dreaming up ways to hurt people. Sticking humans on a pole like human popsicles is pretty mean.
So why did He bother? Why did Jesus come to earth, knowing that the Pharisees, Saducees, Herodians, teachers, scribes and even the people He healed would be responsible for sending Him to the tomb?
I think Jesus came because of humans like the little grannie with her two cents. Humans like this woman were being ripped off by the Temple leaders. They ran a real mind game on the rich widow and would steal everything she had. That's what they would do...... meanwhile.... that little grannie.... she only had a couple "thin things". Maybe they had already robbed her of everything she had. Maybe that was the best she had left. Jesus gave her props for that.
I think the bit about the church robbing from widows in this chapter is going to haunt me all day. Well at least it'll keep me from thinking about the virus.
