Mark 12

1. Background

Jesus is beginning His third day since arriving to Jerusalem for Passover feast and ultimately the cross. The conflict between Jesus and the Sanhedrin has been building and here it will reach a climax as Jesus answers their entrapping questions and manifests His own authority.

2. What do we observe about God?

God’s victory is in spite of all that His enemies can do.

Chapter 11 ended with a challenge to Jesus’ authority and so chapter 12 begins with Jesus taking the offensive in this showdown between Jesus and the Sanhedrin.  He puts forward a parable that thoroughly explains the outrageous sin of the Jewish leaders and reason for impending judgment. In parable form, the husbandmen are the Jewish leaders who are confederate against the Lord.  They take measures to keep the benefits of the kingdom for themselves by abusing God’s servants He sends to rebuke and correct them, some prophets they killed some they treated shamefully. Finally, God sends His Son, not a servant but God’s heir.  Jesus has visited Jerusalem and the temple only to find thieves and robbers who control the temple for personal gain.  Soon they will nail the Son to the cross and God will come with judgment against them.

Knowing that Jesus spoke the parable against them, they ironically do exactly as the parable describes them and begin vigorously planning a way to destroy Jesus.  But what does it say about the God who knows what they will do to His Son, yet He still send Him anyway?  If it were anyone else it would be foolish but because God is God, it speaks of His plan to use the maneuvers of His enemies to gain the victory.

There is perhaps no greater exercise of wisdom than using the devices of the enemy with great irony to bring about victory.  But this isn’t a new concept in scripture.

Psalm 7:15

¹⁵  He made a pit, and digged it,

And is fallen into the ditch which he made.

Psalm 57:6

⁶  They have prepared a net for my steps;

My soul is bowed down:

They have digged a pit before me,

Into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.

Psalm 9:16

¹⁶  The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth:

The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.

Luke 19:22

²² And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant.

God has revealed when it’s time for judgment that He doesn’t even need to use His own righteousness standard (though He will).  All that is necessary to condemn sinners is the words and standards they produce for themselves.  In other words, people will have judged themselves by their own double standards.  Paul’s conclusion to the Jews that all are under sin, even the Jews, could be proven on this point (see Romans 2:17-24).

Therefore God uses the devices set forth by sinners to bring about His own purpose.  The husbandmen suppose to claim God’s inheritance for themselves and so kill the son, but it’s through killing the Son that God’s purpose is brought to pass and given to the gentiles through faith in Jesus Christ.

God’s value of gifts is not in the size of the gift, but in the cost to the giver.

Even in the context of a corrupted leadership in the temple system, there is still a remnant of faith that thrills Jesus.  In the bustle of rich men giving their surpluses to the temple offering, in comes a widow woman with a meager offering of two mites, one mite worth only a fraction of a penny.  What is her gift compared to the great bags of money the rich men put in? 

Jesus calls His men over for a discipleship experience and brings their attention to her gift. Jesus says on the contrary, “she hath cast more in than all they that cast into the treasury”.  More?  Can’t Jesus count?  While the world defines the size the of gift as an act of generosity, God values the cost to the giver to determine what is generous.  For the rich men, their sizable gifts cost them nothing, no change in lifestyle, no damage to their economy, but the woman had given all she had, albeit only two mites.  Jesus concludes her gift is greater than of them put together.  The first will be last and the last will be first in the Kingdom of God.

3. How does the passage point to Jesus and the Gospel?

Jesus is the Son that God sends and delivers up to the evil farmers to do with Him what they will.

Like the widow’s gift and like the parable of the lord who sent his son, so God generously gives His Son to us for our sin.  Three major purposes of God are accomplished in the gospel. 

First is Jesus’ substitution payment for our sin that we cannot go without.  Sin has left us irreparably in damnation bound for an eternity in hell.  Only God’s gift to us in His Sn’s substitutionary death are we able to escape death and the effects of sin.

Second, while the cross of Christ is the means of salvation, it is also the means of judgment to all who disbelief. The death sentence from sin simply continues on its course if one refuses God’s gift.  God has no need to add to the punishment more than what is already bound to happen.  To separate from God is to separate from life itself and thus leaves the only outcome of death in hell.

Thirdly, but why would you perish when God has already paid the price of death for you?  If God’s love could be measured, it would be measured in God’s generosity towards you in the gift of His Son.  His love is the compelling argument of why we should trust Him.  Not because we have to but because God is good. Yet if sin has hardened your heart that you insist on life without God, you may do so and accept the consequences of life without Him.

4. Application.

Even as I have already come to the cross for salvation, I still recognize that I with Jesus, I have nothing to avail myself to the love He has given to me by grace.   Even though I would have no need to beg for salvation after His blood has already been applied on my behalf, still I come frequently to the cross for renewal and transformation until the day Jesus comes to get me.

May transformation continue in the way I give, that I might give generously like my Lord.  May my giving reflect the costliness of His gift to me and thereby giving others an opportunity to receive Christ.  I will ask God for opportunities to serve through giving and give generously when they come.