Mark 12

CHAPTER 12THEME: Man demanding fruit from vineyard; question of taxes; the Resurrection; the great commandment; the Messiah; the widow’s miteNote in this chapter and in succeeding chapters that there are no miracles. We have stated before that Mark is the Gospel of action with the emphasis on miracles. According to this premise, it would seem that the action is slowing down now to a standstill. Actually, this is the lull before the storm. And we’ll see a lot of action coming up. Now I’ve made a little outline of this chapter that I’ll give you:

1. Jesus quickens the battle with the religious rulers with the parable of the vineyard (vv. Mar_12:1-12);
2. Jesus queers the plot of the Pharisees and Herodians about paying taxes to Caesar (vv. Mar_12:13-17);
3. Jesus quells the skepticism of the Sadducees concerning the Resurrection (vv. Mar_12:18-27);
4. Jesus quiets the mind of the scribe about the greatest commandment (vv. Mar_12:28-34);
5. Jesus questions the Pharisees about the Messiah and quotes Psalms 110 (vv. Mar_12:35-40);
6. Jesus qualifies scriptural giving by evaluating the two mites of the widow (vv. Mar_12:41-44). We are coming to a great deal of action, but a different kind. The Lord Jesus is the Passover Lamb and He is put up for close inspection now before He is to be slaughtered. (You remember that the Passover lamb was kept up and closely observed to make sure it was without blemish.) All the waves of men’s wrath will roll over His head in a few days now. This is not a period of quiet and inaction, but it is the fiercest encounter with the religious rulers. Both sides bring up their heavy artillery and make every arrangement and preparation for the battle of heaven and hell, night and darkness, God and Satan. This could hardly be called a period of inaction or cessation of hostilities. The three years of periodic skirmishes of Jesus with the religious rulers break out in a bitter verbal encounter. He takes the initiative, wins a victory in the verbal area, and they cease trying to trap Him in that way. They had hoped to force Him to say something that would turn the people against Him. All the questions they asked Him were loaded. He precipitated this action by giving the most pointed, plain, and direct parable of His ministrythe vineyard. The meaning is obvious. The chapter opens with this parable.

Mark 12:1

MAN DEMANDING FRUIT FROM VINEYARDThe vineyard is the nation Israel according to Isa_5:1-7. He brought that “vine” out of Egypt; He planted it (the nation of Israel). He gave to them a God-given religion. They are the only people that ever had a God-given religion and the visible presence of God. Churches have never had that. Now He gives a parable for the religious rulers of His day.

Mark 12:2

It is quite obvious what He is talking about in this parable. The servants that God sent were the prophets. The “certain man” who had the vineyard is God the Father. The vineyard is the nation Israel. God had chosen and protected this nation. The husbandmen were the religious rulers.

Finally, He sent His Son; and that, of course, is the Lord Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father. In a special way, Jesus came to the nation Israel first. “…I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mat_15:24). But He also came for the entire world, according to Joh_3:16. But here our Lord is making a deliberate and direct thrust at the religious rulers who stood before Him. They had already plotted His death and He brings their plans out into the light. “He knew what was in man.” He tells the religious rulers what they will do. He prophesies their every step and anticipates their every move.

He charges them with murder before they kill Him. This is a remarkable incident, friend. Then He predicts the judgment of the religious rulers. We can see the fulfillment of that in A.D. 70 when Titus the Roman destroyed that city and took them into captivity. We can look at the Colosseum in Rome. It was Jewish slave labor that built it. Now let us notice something wonderful here. “The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner.” This is like a two-in-one parable of the vineyard and the stone. Christ was a stumbling stone and a rock of offense to the religious rulers, but many of the people turned to Him and He became the headstone of the corner. This will ultimately be fulfilled in the future when He comes again to earth. We find this described in Zec_4:7: “Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” The religious rulers would have taken the Lord Jesus at this time and executed Him, but they were afraid of the people, you see. This parable of the vineyard set off a verbal war, and they send further delegations to Him.

Mark 12:13

QUESTION OF TAXESTheir question is a masterpiece. They flattered Him, but He called them hypocrites. He didn’t accept their flattery. (By the way, He did accept what Nicodemus had said to him because he was sincere.) My, but they were hypocrites! Why did He ask them for a penny? He is going to use their own coin, it is true, but I think that He didn’t have one Himself. Just think of that. The Lord of glory was in this world and He didn’t have a dime in His pocket, friend. Can you imagine that? How wonderful He was! He didn’t have a coin, and He didn’t have a lot of credit cards in His pocket either. So He just asked them for a coin, and they gave Him one.

Mark 12:16

They gave Him a coin, and He asked them the question. You see, if He had answered them that they were to pay tribute to Caesar, then that would have meant that He put Caesar ahead of Moses and ahead of the Messiah. And if He said they were not to pay tribute, He would have been guilty of insurrection against Caesar. They thought they had Him in a trap, but they didn’t have Him at all. They had to marvel at His answer. His answer reveals that a child of God has a twofold responsibility and, in fact, maybe even more than twofold. Someone told me some time ago that his father was in the hospital and his mother was sick but that he had some money set aside as a church contribution. When I inquired further, he said his parents were really in dire need and would have to accept charity if he didn’t help them. So I told him that his responsibility was to them. We get some strange, pious notions today. We do have a responsibility to our government. When I see my income tax, sometimes I think I have too much responsibility. It pinches and hurts me when I see the way some of our senators are living and when I see the corruption that is taking place in all areas of government today. I must confess that then I resent paying the income tax. But that does not mean that I ought not to pay some. We have a definite responsibility to government. Also, we have a responsibility to our loved ones. We have a responsibility to our church. I have a responsibility to you, today, to give the Word of God to you. We all have our responsibilities, and that is what the Lord is saying. You have a responsibility to Caesar. Discharge it. But that doesn’t relieve you of your responsibility to God. My, what a marvelous incident! Actually, He takes this incident and turns it into a parable. “Give me a coin.” With that coin, He illustrated a great truth. The coin has two sides. These are two areas of life in which we have a responsibility. Man has both an earthly or physical and a heavenly or spiritual obligation. Citizens of heaven pay taxes down here. Pilgrims down here should deposit eternal wealth in heaven. So you see how He silenced these Herodians who wanted to put the house of Herod into power.

Mark 12:18

The Sadducees, you will remember, were the liberals of the day. They denied the supernatural. What they stated was accurate, by the way. They referred to the law of the kinsman-redeemer which is illustrated in the Book of Ruth. They knew what the Scripture said.

Mark 12:20

This is a ridiculous illustration, isn’t it? Well, it could be duplicated today in Hollywood or in our contemporary society perhaps, but it is ridiculous. So their question is:

Mark 12:23

I would say that this is the difficulty today with those who are so critical of the Scripturesthey do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God. I notice that right now there is a promotion to cut down the population explosion and some folk say this is contrary to the Bible. God said to Adam, “Be fruitful and multiply.” It is true that God did say that to Adam, but He didn’t say that to the “Adamses” today. He wasn’t talking to this present generation. If you and your spouse were the only couple on earth, I imagine that is what He would say to you. He did repeat it again to Noah when Noah was very much alone with his family and there was no one else on earth.

But He didn’t repeat that for us today. This is not even stated for Christians to do. It shows a woeful ignorance of the Bible; yet today such people spout off about the Bible when they should not be heard. The Lord told the Sadducees that they were ignorant of two things: (1) They did not know the Scriptures and (2) they did not know the power of God.

Mark 12:25

This doesn’t mean that a man and a woman who were together down here can’t be together in heaven. They won’t be together as man and wife. They are not establishing a home up there, nor are they raising children. That’s the thing that He’s saying to them here.

Mark 12:26

They do not know the power of God. Abraham is not dead; Isaac is not dead, Jacob is not dead. Their bodies were buried there in Hebron, but they are not dead. They have gone to be with Him, and that is where Christians are today that die in the Lord, friend. He is devastating in His answers to these religious rulers. Now we have another person coming to our Lord, after hearing the discussion with the Sadducees.

Mark 12:28

THE GREAT COMMANDMENTThis is a quotation from Deu_6:4. It is not one of the Ten Commandments, but it is the greatest doctrinal statement in the Old Testament. Literally it should read, “Jehovah our Elohim [plural] is one Jehovah.” Israel was to witness to a world of polytheism and idolatry concerning the unity of the Godhead. The church is to witness to a world of atheism and unitarianism concerning the Trinity.

Mark 12:30

By the way, do you keep this commandment, my friend? If you say that you don’t need Christ as a Savior, that you obey God, then I ask you this question, “Do you love God with all your heart and mind and soul?” If you don’t, then you are breaking His commandment and you need a Savior. I know I need a Savior. I don’t measure up here. I wish I did. I love Him, but not as I should.

Mark 12:31

Now, if you can measure up here, maybe you could apply for salvation on your own merit. Until you do you need a Savior.

Mark 12:32

What the scribe said is certainly true. To love God and to love our neighbor is more than all offerings and sacrifices. Friend, may I say again, if you don’t measure up to loving God with all your heart and understanding and soul and strength and to loving your neighbor as yourself, then you need a Savior. Turn to Him! Now this ended the question period as far as men asking Jesus questions was concerned. The enemy could not trap Him. Now Jesus is going to do the questioning.

Mark 12:35

THE MESSIAHRight here Jesus is teaching His own virgin birth. How could David, in Psalms 110 where he is speaking of a future descendant of his, call his own great-great-great-great-grandson his Lord? Well, the only way he can call him his Lord is for Him to be The LORD, friend. The only way He can be The LORD is to be more than David’s son. He must be virgin born to be the Son of God. This is a great thought that our Lord is teaching here. Notice also that here Jesus definitely ascribes Psalms 110 to David. He says that David wrote this psalm by the Holy Spirit. And Jesus says that this psalm is speaking concerning Him, the Messiah.

Mark 12:38

Jesus is teaching that privilege creates responsibility. He denounces the scribes because their lives contradicted the Scriptures they taught. Their judgment will be more severe than those who have not heard the Scriptures.

Mark 12:41

THE WIDOW’S MITEThe final incident in this chapter shows Jesus doing an audacious thing that only God should do. He watched how the people gave. He has the authority today to stand over the taking of the offering in your church or whenever you are asked to give to some cause; that is, for God’s work. He’s there to watch you, friend. He doesn’t watch what you give. He watches how much you keep for yourself.

Mark 12:42

He had noted that the rich cast in much. They were the big givers. The rich gave generously. But He didn’t commend that. He watched that widow, and she gave two mites. Compared to the wealth of that temple, friend, what she gave wasn’t worth a snap of your fingers. But do you know what He did? He took those two mites, and He just kissed them into the coin and the gold of heaven and made them more valuable than anything any rich man ever gave. Do you know why? Because He saw that she kept nothing for herself but gave all to Him. Her love and devotion were in the gift. I tell you, that is the way He measures. Some folk ask whether they should give a tenth to God. My friend, how much do you keep for yourself? It’s not how much you give to Him. You’re not required to give a certain amount or a certain percentage. The question is, how much do you really love Him? The Lord is the one who watches how people give. It’s not what they put in. The widow didn’t give anything of great value, friend. I doubt that the treasurer paid much attention to it. But the Lord takes the two coppers of the widow and exchanges them for the gold of heaven.