Ungrateful Residents
Jesus
begins Mark 12 with a very interesting parable.
He speaks about people literally living on land that they have no right
to possess. They are there as
renters. The master has set them up with
everything that they need to be successful.
When the time for the harvest came, the master of the land sent a
servant to claim his part of the harvest. In fact, he sent several servants. They completely disrespected the servants, so
the master sends His Son, hoping that they will respect the Son. But they don’t. They want to live their life for themselves. They kill the Son so they can have everything
for themselves.
Obviously
this is a parable about what the Jewish leaders will do to Jesus Christ. I don’t want to overlook that. This parable is a clear warning to the Jewish
leaders that they are renters of a land that they do not own and have no right
to possess and they are about to kill the very Son of the Living God. Clearly it is a warning about the events to
come later in the week for Jesus.
But this
parable also has meaning for us as well.
Has not God set us up with everything we need? Has not God set us up with every reason to be
successful in His kingdom? All God asks
is that we strive for His harvest and remember that He is the master. But we are not interested in this. We want to pursue our own agenda. So we sin.
We may not physically kill the Son, but we do give far too many reasons in
our life for which the Son needs to be killed for our atonement.
Paying Taxes
This leads
us into the next parable. Jesus is asked
about taxes. Essentially, Jesus is asked
about our relationship with the world.
The Pharisees are looking to see if Jesus supports the Roman world so
they could turn the crowd against Him or to see if He denounces the Roman world
so they can convince the Romans to get rid of Jesus for them.
In turn, Jesus
gives them a third option. Jesus teaches
us that the world is something to be a part of but not to be caught up in its
traps such as wealth and reputation.
Money is money. Use money for
what money is to be used for. Of what
concern is money to God? It’s not like
you can take it with you and it’s not like you can do anything meaningful in
heaven with it. Of course, we can do
meaningful things on earth with it, so I’m not advocating a laissez-faire
approach to money. What I am advocating
is learning to see through and beyond the money - or anything else that the
world dangles in front of us. Jesus
teaches that we should focus on God, not the stuff and ways of this world.
Trap of the Sadducees
The third
passage in this chapter is about marriage.
Now, what I have to say here might be a bit painful for some people to
hear. It is even painful for me to
hear. But it needs to be said. Do not miss verse 25. Those alive in Christ in heaven will neither
marry nor be married in heaven. There is
no marriage in heaven. That’s a little
painful, I know. But it is consistently
taught that way all throughout the New Testament.
Now, don’t
also hear me saying that we won’t have relationships in heaven, either. I look forward to the day I can be in heaven
with my wife. I may know that she won’t
be my wife in heaven, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to look forward
to being there with her for eternity.
But what is going to be special is to be with her in the presence of
God. It is the presence of God in heaven
that will make life special. Being able
to share that with my wife will be good – but good because God will be
there. For the record, I can say the
same about all the rest of the brothers and sisters we have in Christ. I can’t wait to be there in heaven with all
of them. But not because it will be cool
to be among that crowd. It will be cool
because we will be in the presence of God.
We will be the bride of Christ.
That’s going to be far more awesome than anything else in heaven.
The Great Commandments
This is an
absolutely phenomenal lead-in to the next passage about the Great
Commandment. This is an incredibly
important set of verses. Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. The whole rest of the Law follows from these
two principles. The reason that this is
so profound is because it is the “Anti Self-monger” rule. Think about what this teaching says. Who are we supposed to love? God.
Then neighbor. Who isn’t even
mentioned? The self. Jesus knows that we have no trouble loving
our own desires. What we need help doing
is to love things other than ourselves and our own desires. That is what is profound about this
teaching. The Great Commandment is about
setting a different agenda of love than what the wisdom of the world teaches
us.
Note here
that the scribe humbles Himself to Jesus.
He says, “Rabbi, you are right.”
There is no argument from the scribe here. There is a coming to Jesus moment and a
submission to His authoritative teaching.
This is a model example for all of us to recognize and ponder.
Who Is Jesus?
The next
passage is a very confusing one at first pass.
In asking “whose son is the Christ,” Jesus is really asking about the
identity of the Messiah. The Jewish
leaders taught that the Messiah would be a human descendant of David. In this they are half right. However, what Jesus is trying to get them to
open up their minds to is that the Messiah also needed to be God-made-man. David calls the Messiah “Lord.” The only being in this life that we are to
call “Lord” is God. Clearly the Messiah
must be both a human of the lineage of David as well as God-made-man. This passage – although confusing at first –
is all about making sure we understand the truth about Jesus and have a true
expectation for the Messiah.
Condemning The Religious Leaders
The
following passage is a passage I take near and dear to my heart. This is a condemnation of religious
leaders. Jesus is condemning those
leaders who demand to be first. He is
condemning those leaders who need to be told how great they are. He is condemning those leaders who need to
have people elevate their status in their midst. Jesus is saying that their leadership is not
spiritual but for worldly reasons. That
is a huge danger in leadership.*
The Widow’s Great Offering
As I’ve
said often in Mark … this leads us perfectly into the next teaching of
Jesus. What is it that Jesus praises
about the woman giving her tithe in the temple?
She gives out of her need, not out of her abundance. She thinks of others before herself. She doesn’t ask, “How much can I afford to
give?” She asks, “How can I afford to
not give?” She doesn’t count her
expenses and then give out of the surplus.
She gives what God has led her to give and trusts God to make up any
deficit that is created.
Summary
Today
we’ve had story after story about God’s authority and putting our relationship
with God before ourselves. I don’t think
that it is any coincidence that as the time for Jesus’ death draws closer that
we spend more and more time focusing upon on “defeating the self-monger
within.” When push comes to shove, that
is why Jesus died. We need to think of
ourselves and our desire less. We need
to think more of God. We need to be
grateful that until the day we can do that perfectly we can trust in our
salvation through Christ’s faithfulness alone.
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*For those of you who
know me, this is the reason I always go last at potlucks and things like that
when I am among my own congregation. I
need to be humble among others. I need
to remember that God wishes me to care for their needs before my own. Often I get teased about my behavior and it
often leads to some hectic “no, you go” kind of moments. But it is a deeply spiritual decision for me. As a spiritual leader, I need to make sure
that the people to whom God has called me are taken care of. My calling comes before my needs. It necessarily must be that way. However, if the Bishop or denominational leader
or one of my spiritual mentors ever comes to our church … I will gladly eat
before them (but still after my congregation)!
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