Hearing God's voice without preconceived notions

 

Hear, O Israel:  The Lord our God, the Lord is One!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.  --Deuteronomy 6:4-9

About 10 years ago there was a progressive socio-political movement called the Occupy movement.  In September and October, 2011 many independent but loosely associated groups met together to protest social and economic injustices worldwide.  I recall seeing a news clip of one such group, either in New York, Los Angeles, or Portland, Oregon (I forget which location).  The group was too large to hear the one speaking, so messengers would repeat what the leader had said in waves outward toward the fringes of the crowd.  "We must work together!" said the leader.  Then, like an echo, someone about 10 yards away would shout, "We must work together," and someone about 10 yards further out would repeat the same line, until the message was relayed to the edge of the crowd.  I have since learned that the military would use the same tactic when there was no public address system available.

Clearly, some in the group would hear the message, line by line, reiterated several times, especially if one of the repeaters had a voice that carried well.  The repetition served several purposes: first, it allowed all to hear the message at least once; second, it reinforced the message with those who heard it multiple times; finally, it was memorable--by hearing the message and repeating it for others, it became a part of their lives.

Clearly, the Scriptures were written well before the invention of PA systems and loudspeakers, not to mention radio, television, social media, podcasts, etc.  If a message was to be heard, learned, and remembered, it had to be repeated often by leaders of tribes, leaders of families, and heads of households.  That's why the Law of Moses commanded children to be taught this way: their parents were to repeat the message, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God; the Lord is One."  They were to tell it to their children when they awoke from sleep.  They were to repeat it to them when they sat in their houses, and when they walked by the wayside.  They were to tell their children again when they lay down to sleep at night.  Not only that, the parents were to keep these words affixed to their persons, either sewn in their clothing or worn as an adornment on the fronts of their turbans on top of their heads.  And just so they would not forget what they were wearing, the words should be inscribed on the doorposts of their homes.  Many people today have a mezuzah in their doorways that include these words.  Orthodox Jewish families will kiss their hand and touch the mezuzah as they enter or leave through the doorway.  These words were meant to be a reminder, not just to worship God, but that there was only one God.  They were not to worship idols, or to follow the gods of other nations.

In our passage today from the Gospel of Mark, Jesus quotes this command when asked about the greatest commandment.

Then one of the Scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?"  Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  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.  And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no other commandment greater than these."  So the Scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher.  You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.  And to love Him will 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."  Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."  But after that no one dared question Him.  --Mark 12: 28-34

A bit of background might be helpful here.  Traditionally, Scribes were keepers of the written scriptures.  They laboriously hand-copied the scrolls kept in each synagogue.  As such, they were considered experts in the Mosaic law, and were sought out to provide wise counsel on difficult matters.  Unfortunately, their interpretations added to the Scriptures, which went above and beyond the original text.  For example, when God's law said do no work on the Sabbath, the Scribes added so many layers of meaning on them that modern Orthodox Jews who still follow their teaching will not even push a button on the Sabbath. 

So this was a Scribe who approached Jesus with a question, but the question was a bit different than the previous questions from the Priests, Pharisees, Herodians and Sadducees.  Each of those groups intended to trap Jesus, so that He would be caught in His own words and they could arrest Him.  This Scribe, however, appeared to have some degree of wisdom and insight.  Verse 28 says that this particular Scribe perceived that Jesus had answered well all of the prior questions.  It appears, then, that his question was not meant to trap Jesus, but to confirm His orthodoxy and His adherence to the Word of God.  This is commendable.  Later in Scripture we see that when Paul and Silas went on their missionary journey, going from synagogue to synagogue preaching the gospel of Jesus, the Jews in Berea heard the message that Paul preached.  Acts 17:11 says, "These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so."  In the same way, this particular Scribe was said to have answered Jesus discreetly (or wisely in the NKJV) in verse 34.  The Greek word used here is nounechos and it means prudently--as in having his own mind.  Jesus saw that the man was making up his own mind, and had not bought into the groupthink of the other Scribes and Pharisees.

This is not to say he did not have an expectation of the way he thought Jesus would answer.  He undoubtedly thought that Jesus would say something out the preeminence of sacrifice.  The writer of Hebrews said, "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22).  This is a reference to Leviticus 17.11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul."  Without sacrifice, there is no atonement for sin, and if we are lost in our sins, we have no access to God.

Jesus surprised him.  Knowing that the Scribe was a religious conservative, Jesus replied in a conservative manner.  Every religious Israelite would know the Sh'ma y'israel (hear, O Israel), the beginning of a prayer that acknowledged there is one God.  Jesus went further than that, however, quoting the whole commandment from Deuteronomy 6:4-9.  Then He went one step further.  He said this was the preeminent command, but there was a second command that was as important as loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and that was to love your neighbor, even as you would love yourself.  Just as James said, "Faith without works is dead," Jesus implied that even if you loved God perfectly, without it spilling over to love for other people who are made in the image of God, then it rings hollow.  Don't misunderstand: this passage is not about self love, or that love is supreme, or that half-truth that the world loves to quote, "God is love."  Taken in its entirety, Jesus is saying to this man, "Since you asked, following the commands of God are important because God is greater than all--He is greater than all other gods, he is greater than other people you may look up to and profess affection for, He is even greater than you yourself.  So with that mindset, the greatest commandment is to love God more than anything--with all of yourself: your entire body, as well as all of your mind, will and emotions.  And the best way to show you love God totally and completely is to love your neighbor as much as you love yourself."

Jesus went beyond the question asked of Him.  The Scribe did not say, "Well, then, what is the second greatest commandment."  Jesus went beyond what he had asked because He knew what the Scribe needed to know in his heart.  When it became clear that the Scribe had heard Jesus' answer and had taken it to heart, Jesus said that he was very near to finding God and serving Him.

By way of application, we can bring our questions to God, but we must be open to the answer He gives.  Whatever new thing we hear, we must verify with the Scriptures--if the new teaching aligns with Scripture, we can follow it; if not, then the new teaching must be discarded.  If God is the one and only Supreme Being, then we must acknowledge Him as being the one authority for our lives, and we must treat Him as Lord and Master.  We must follow Him body and soul, mind and spirit.  We must love Him unconditionally, and love others as well.

Twisted Scripture

 

And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation--as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.            --2 Peter 3:15-16

According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, there are over 200 Christian denominations in the US, and over 45,000 different denominations worldwide.  These include mainline denominations, such as Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, various Protestant groups, as well as some non-traditional groups that most Christians would think of as heretical in their beliefs.  For example, Jehovah's Witnesses have their own translation of the Bible which denies the Trinity (the belief that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one).  Another example is the Mormons, who have added a third Testament to their Bible, in addition to the Old and New Testament read in most mainline denominations.

With all these disparate ideas of what Christianity means, it is no wonder that the non-believing world is confused.  It was no different in Jesus' day.  Judaism had many different sects, the main divisions being Pharisees, Scribes, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots.  In our Scripture passage today, we are introduced to the Sadducees.

According to Danny Akin's commentary Mark: A Christ Centered Exposition (2014):

A small sect of the priestly families, the Sadducees were wealthy aristocrats with significant political and temple influence. They dominated the Sanhedrin (Acts 5:17). They were sympathetic to Hellenism, the Herods, and Rome. They considered only the books of Moses (the Pentateuch) as authoritative. In a sense this made them theological conservatives. They also had a strong doctrine of human free will and did not believe in angels and demons (Acts 23:8). They did not believe in the immortality of the soul or in a future bodily resurrection. Josephus said, “The doctrine of the Sadducees is this: souls dies with bodies”…Because of their truncated Scriptures, they were not looking for a Messiah King from David’s line. With the total destruction of their center of power—Jerusalem and the temple (AD 70)—their political influence came to an end, and they vanished from history.

It is important to note that since the Sadducees did not view the rest of the Old Testament as authoritative (other than the books of Moses), they did not believe the prophetic writing of Isaiah, especially what we have categorized as chapter 53, the Messianic chapter.  Nor did they hold to the writings of the Psalms, so they did not recognize Psalm 22 as a Messianic psalm. 

Given that background, let's see what they had to say to Jesus:

Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying: "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leave no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brothers.  Now there were seven brothers.  The first took a wife; and dying, he left no offspring.  And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring.  And the third likewise.  So the seven had her and left no offspring.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be?  For all seven had her as wife."

Jesus answered and said to them, "Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?  For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.  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'?  He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.  You are therefore greatly mistaken."  --Mark 12:18-27

 Let's first look at the Sadducees argument, which encompassed some history, some theology, and some logic.  Deuteronomy 25: 5-6 says, "If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband's brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.  And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel."  In historical context, women had no claim to property or inheritance.  Also, if a man died without a son to inherit his goods and his name, then the family would have no descendants.  His name would not be carried on to the next generation, and his possessions would be distributed to others outside the immediate family.

This concept described in Deuteronomy, called Levirate marriage, may sound strange to our modern ears.  In historical context, however, it made sense.  It was showing kindness to the widow, who would have nothing and belong to no one.  It also was a way to keep the memory of the dead man alive in this world.  The Sadducees, however, had used this example to show that the afterlife was a logical fallacy.  If all seven brothers had the wife and were without a male heir, and all of them died, which of the men could claim her as his wife in the afterlife?  Assuming there was no scripture condoning polyamory, the scenario they described made no logical sense.

Jesus told them that other assumptions they had made were wrong.  He said that people in heaven do not have marital relationships.  In our New Testament understanding, we know that the Church is the bride of Christ, so in heaven our allegiance will be to Him, not to a spouse or child or any other family member other than Christ.  Jesus also made a dig at their belief system, in saying that men and women in heaven will be like the angels.  We know from history that the Sadducees didn't believe in angels, so Jesus said this assumption was also incorrect on their part.

Then Jesus made an interesting assertion using their own logic.  Citing the writing of Moses, which they claimed to believe as Scripture, He reminded them of the burning bush.  This is where the ministry of Moses began, for without this encounter with God, Moses would have died in the wilderness, a shepherd in exile from Egypt.  When Moses asked, "Who are you?", the answer came, "I AM the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob."  We know that Abraham was the patriarch of Israel through his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob.  In fact, Jacob's name would be changed to Israel.  But this is more than a historical reference.  God did not say, "I WAS the God of Abraham."  This is an I AM statement that even the Sadducees should have recognized.  God is eternal.  Therefore, men who are made in the image of God, are also eternal.  Abraham died, yes, but God did not speak of him in the past tense.  God continues to be the God of Abraham, because Abraham still lives, as do Isaac and Jacob and all their descendants.

If they had really studied the Scriptures, and left out their own assumptions and presuppositions, they would have seen that.  Friend, beware of bringing your own assumptions into your search for truth.  The world says that what is true for you may not be true for me.  Jesus said, "I AM the way, the TRUTH, and the life.  No one comes to the Father but by me."  Do not be led astray by false theologies that sound good but are based on false assumptions: "God is love" sounds good, but assumes that God will only give you good things all the time, and ignores all other scripture that describes God's wrath.  Beware of denominations that emphasize only one part of the Scripture (similar to what the Sadducees did) to the exclusion of others.  Beware of religious leaders like those that seek after spiritual gifts (tongues, prophecy, and the like) while downplaying righteous living, or that preach grace to the exclusion of God's sovereignty.  

Above all, do not twist scripture to fit your own assumptions or world view.  Instead, unwind your assumptions to fit with scripture.  God's word is eternal, and will not be re-written to condone your lifestyle, philosophical fads of the day, or even societal mores.  Deuteronomy 4:2 says, "You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I commanded you."  Revelation 22:18-19 says, "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book:  If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."  Matthew 18:6 says, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depths of the sea."  See how important the proper teaching of scripture is?  2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, "ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Death and Taxes

 

Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believ'd  --Daniel Defoe The Political History of the Devil, 1726

Daniel Defoe was an English writer, journalist, pamphleteer, and spy.  You may have read his most famous work, Robinson Crusoe.  He was a Presbyterian Dissenter, who spent time in prison because he lived in a time in which the English government persecuted those who chose to worship outside the Church of England.  He wrote of the certainty of death and taxes over 50 years before Ben Franklin made his famous quote.

In his book The Political History of the Devil, he wrote:

What a World do we inhabit! where there is not only with us a great Roaring-Lyon-Devil daily seeking whom of us he may devour, and innumerable Millions of lesser Devils hovering in the whole Atmosphere over us, nay, and for ought we know, other Millions always invisibly moving about us, and perhaps in us, or at least in many of us; but that have, besides all these, a vast many counterfeit Hocus Pocus Devils; human Devils, who are visible among us, of our own Species and Fraternity, conversing with us upon all Occasions; who like Mountebanks set up their Stages in every Town, chat with us at every Tea-Table, converse with us in every Coffee-House, and impudently tell us to our Faces that they are Devils, boast of it, and use a thousand Tricks and Arts to make us believe it too, and that too often with Success.

In Jesus' time, what Defoe called "counterfeit devils, human devils" were more commonly called Pharisees and Scribes.  In our passage today, we see that they had set their minds toward silencing Jesus--to violently kill the Prince of Peace.  Luke 20:20 says, "So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor."

And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitudes, for they knew He had spoken the parables against them.  So they left Him and went away.  Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words.  When they had come, they said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth.  Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?  Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?"  But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why do you test Me?  Bring Me a denarius that I may see it."  So they brought it.  And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"  They said to Him, "Caesar's."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  And they marveled at Him.  --Mark 12:12-17

Here is the confluence of death and taxes: the Pharisees wanted to put Jesus to death, so they asked Him about taxes.  Notice that they brought with them the Herodians, Jews who had formed a political party in favor of the Roman governor, Herod Antipas.  The Romans levied taxes on all of the conquered territories, and the Pharisees hated them; nevertheless, they were there in case Jesus advised them not to pay the taxes.  This would have been seen as an act of treason and insurrection against the Roman government, and they were there to detain Jesus and bring Him before Herod if he spoke out against taxes.  Eventually Jesus would be arrested and stand before Herod, but there was nothing that Herod could do to Him.

The Pharisees were well-versed in the law of Moses.  When Israel first became a nation, they were to be a theocracy, with God as their sovereign.  This law had set up tithes and Temple taxes within the authority of the Priests and Levites, who had no inheritance given to them (see Deuteronomy 18:1-2).  In fact, when the people of Israel begged God for a king to rule over them, the prophet Samuel warned them against naming anyone as their king, and one of the reasons was that a king would levy taxes on them (see 1 Samuel 8:10-18).  As time went on, the Pharisaical tradition was to keep up the tithes and Temple tax payments as a show of piety; any governmental taxes paid on top of that was not only a strain on their budget, but also acknowledging a power over them other than the Lord God.

Here comes Jesus, who not only ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners (see Mark 2:13-17), but He even had a tax collector (Matthew) as one of His disciples.  Did He acknowledge a power or authority other than God?  Here, then, is the test: either denounce the tax and declare independence from Rome and fealty to God (and be arrested by the Romans), or support the tax, and stir up the people of Israel, who chafed under Roman rule (so that in the riot that would surely follow, the Pharisees could take Jesus into custody).

Jesus saw through their plot, and called them hypocrites.  He asked for a coin (which all of the Jews would have carried with them, because that's how they engaged in commerce.)  A day's wage was called a denarius, and the coin bore the image of Caesar.  Jesus asked them whose image was on the coins that they, themselves, used in their daily commerce.  Wasn't that acknowledging an authority other than God?  Didn't they remember the part of the law of Moses (Genesis 1:26-27) saying, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness....'  So God created Man in His own image; in the image of God He created Him; male and female He created them."?  Therefore Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; but give to God what belongs to God."  This was not just a wise way for Jesus to sidestep being arrested that day, for the time was not right.  He was making a point that they bore the image of God, the imago Dei, and that therefore they should surrender themselves to God and obey Him as Lord.

Whoever makes a claim on our money, be it government or commerce or charity or whatever, is not as important as who has a claim over us.  We, who are made in the image of God--should we not give ourselves to Him?  I'm not saying that what we spend our money on is not important--it is, and it sometimes defines who we are or what we cherish most.  What I'm saying, and I think the point that Jesus was making here, is that every breath we take is by the grace of God.  Our abilities (as defined by the marketplace) to earn a living were given to us by God.  If we realize that, and respond by giving ourselves totally and completely to Him, then we will in turn spend our money in accordance with His will.  More than that, if we lose all our money through poor investment choices, or by theft, or by taxes, we still belong to God.  "It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves." (Psalm 100:3).  

As I researched the life of Daniel Defoe, I learned that he tried to be a successful trader.  By some accounts, he was successful--he owned an estate, and a ship with which to trade with other countries.  However, he was never without debt, and for some time found himself in debtor's prison.  This did not define him in God's eyes, however.  His lasting legacy is as a Christian writer and novelist.  In Robinson Crusoe he wrote, "Redemption from sin is greater than redemption from affliction."  Much like the apostle Paul, God used Defoe's experience of persecution for the sake of the Gospel.  May we always proclaim God's truth to power, like Defoe, like Paul, like Jesus.  For, as Defoe wrote:

Wherever God erects a house of prayer

The Devil always builds a chapel there;

And 'twill be found, upon examination,

The latter has the largest congregation.

 

Broaden your perspective, focus on the truth

 

But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."  But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.  For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.  --1 Corinthians 2:9-10

19th century poet John Godfrey Saxe gave us this retelling of a parable from India:  

It was six men of Indostan to learning much inclined, who went to see the Elephant (though all of them were blind), that each by observation might satisfy his mind.  

The first approached the Elephant, and happening to fall against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl: "God bless me! but the Elephant is very like a wall."  

The second, feeling of the tusk, cried, "Ho--what have we here so very round and smooth and sharp?  To me 'tis mighty clear this wonder of an Elephant is very like a spear."  

The third approached the animal, and happening to take the squirming trunk within his hands, thus boldly up and spake:  "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant is very like a snake."  

The fourth reached out his eager hand, and felt about the knee.  "What most this wondrous beast is like is mighty plain," quoth he.  "'Tis clear enough the Elephant is very like a tree."  

The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear said, "E'en the blindest man can tell what this resembles most; deny the fact who can, this marvel of an Elephant is very like a fan."  

The sixth no sooner had begun about the beast to grope, than, seizing on the swinging tail that fell within his scope, "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant is very like a rope."  

And so these men of Indostan disputed loud and long, each in his own opinion exceeding stiff and strong, though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong.  

So oft, in theologic wars the disputants, I ween, rail on in utter ignorance of what each other mean, and prate about an Elephant not one of them has seen.

 There are times where we need to broaden our perspective and not put God in a box.  On the other hand, we do not need to emulate Carl Sagan who said the earth is a tiny, blue dot and that all of our lives and efforts and theologies are quite insignificant in the universe.  The fact is that God, who is bigger than the universe, sent His Son to the earth so that the world might be saved from the wrath to come.

In our scripture passage today, some sought to question Jesus, and though the question was so limiting that Jesus initially refused to answer it, He eventually broadened their perspective so that the answer was self evident.  Read with me from the book of Mark, starting in the 11th chapter, verse 27:

Then they (Jesus and His disciples) came again to Jerusalem.  And as He (Jesus) was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.  And they said to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things?  And who gave You this authority to do these things?"  But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things:  The baptism of John--was it from heaven or from men?  Answer Me."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'  But if we say, 'From men' "--they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed.  So they answered and said to Jesus, "We do not know."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."  Then He began to speak to them in parables: 

 "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.  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.  And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.  Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.  And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.  Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  But those vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'  So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard."

Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do?  He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.  Have you not even read this Scripture: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.  This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."  --Mark 11:27 - 12:11

There were several layers to their question, so it is important to know what they meant when they said, "These things."  Remember earlier in Mark 11 Jesus had violently cleared the Temple; before that He had ridden a colt into Jerusalem, letting all the people shout praises to Him as they laid palm branches and even their cloaks on the ground to soften His path.  Even before that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, and many eye-witnesses had come to Jerusalem and spoke of it.  "These things," therefore, included miraculous works, being welcomed by the people as royalty, and chastising the Temple leaders for mismanagement and selling out.

On one level, their question seemed to be, "Who told you that you could do that?"  On another level, it was more like, "Where did you get your superpowers, and are you going to use them for good or for evil?"  The more self-centered of them may have been asking, "Who made you ruler over us?  You're not the boss of me--are You?"

Jesus counters with a question of His own, to give His answer more of a background, to broaden their perspective.  No doubt many of these same Scribes, Pharisees, and Elders had been present three years before when they went to investigate John the Baptist.  Some may have been there when John was baptizing by the Jordan river.  Some of them may have even come to be baptized by John, but John saw that they were not repentant, and that their hearts were hardened so they were just going through the motions.  Prophetically, John denounced them: "Brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance." (Matthew 3:7-8).

So Jesus' first answer is in the question itself.  John said, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." (Matthew 3:11)  John was a prophet, and he had testified of Jesus' authority.  Not only that, but when Jesus went down to be baptized, an amazing thing happened: "When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased'." (Matthew 3:16-17).  Not only did John testify of His authority, but God Himself spoke, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him.  You can't get much higher authority than that.

The Pharisees and Elders, though, were discussing politics instead of giving an honest answer.  They were blinded to what Jesus had just alluded to.  "What about the people?" they were saying among themselves.  "If we say John's baptism was from men, the people will rise up against us, because they thought he was a real prophet.  On the other hand, if we say his baptism was from heaven, then Jesus can say, 'Gotcha!'  We can't win either way."  They declined to answer Jesus, so Jesus told them He would not answer their question, either (even though He had already answered it without their realizing it.)

Jesus then turned to the people assembled there, but still in the hearing of the scribes and Pharisees.  He told a story that illustrated God's authority over the elders of the temple, who had been charged with "tending the vine."  Many times throughout the Old Testament God had sent His prophets to them to draw them back to God, to warn them of impending danger, or to urge their repentance after they had been punished for their sin.  Each time the elders ignored the prophets, and had them silenced or killed.  When He came to the part in the story where the owner of the vineyard (the creator, without whom there would be no vine, no fruit, no wine) sent his own son, Jesus was identifying Himself as the very Son of God.  "You really want to know where I got My power over nature, My power to heal diseases and raise the dead?  It was from my Dad--you may know Him as Elohim, or Yahweh, or Adonai.  Yeah, He gave me the authority to put you in your place.  It was Him, and the prophets He sent."

Then, proving Himself as Prophet and not just Priest and King, Jesus foretold of His own death.  The parable ends with the hired hands killing the son.  He then quoted Psalm 118:22-23, and identified Himself as the Messiah.  The Pharisees were familiar with this Old Testament passage, and it was widely thought to be a messianic prophecy.  Jesus pointed out that this passage prophesied His death, in that He was the "stone which the builders rejected."  Then He prophesied His own resurrection, because the passage goes on to say that even though He would be rejected and killed, He would become the cornerstone of the faith.

He ends the story by quoting, "This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."  The word for "marvelous" (Greek thoumastos) literally means extraordinary, striking, and surprising; but it can also mean passing human comprehension and causing amazement joined with terror.  The pharisees and elders certainly could not comprehend what they were hearing, and their hearts were filled with terror because they immediately began plotting how to kill Jesus.  That will be where we take up next time.

Friend, please recognize the authority of Jesus to rule and reign over our hearts and minds.  In Matthew 28:18 Jesus said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."  Call out to Him, and submit your life completely to Him.  The alternative is judgment, and eternal separation from Him.  He will have grace and mercy if you call on His name today.  Do it, before it is too late.