Mark, Chapter 12 - Bible Study notes - Sunday 1-10-21

 

Morning Prayer…

This morning we thank you for your word and your guidance. We are thankful for our friends in Christ who share fellowship and support through your grace.. We thank you for the blessings that we have been granted and we seek to be deserving and to use them wisely going forward.

We pray for all those who are sick and suffering may you extend healing and assistance for them. We especially pray this morning for all of the suffering children throughout the world and ask that you show mercy to them. We pray for all of the seniors in the Philippines today who have endured lock downs and restrictions far too long. We ask for relief from this type of bondage.. we ask that our leaders be granted wisdom and compassion for the people and that this covid be eradicated in the near future…

Help us to strengthen our faith each day so that we may live lives that are pleasing to you..

Bless our bible study this morning. Grant us deeper understanding as we digest your word…

We ask these things in Jesus name..

Amen

     At first glance, Chapter 12 is a little hard to summarize thematically. It starts with the parable of the tenants and the metaphor of the cornerstone; then we get two episodes in which the powers that be try to entrap Jesus, first with paying taxes to Caesar, then the story of the widow of the seven brothers which gives Jesus a chance to talk about the Resurrection; finally, we end with the widow’s gift. There is something of a unifying thread in that the apparent or expected heirs of the kingdom of God might not be the ones who actually inherit it. I think we understand clearly that there will likely be great surprises on judgement day…

The parable of the tenants provides the most explicit statement of this. The tenants are the formerly Chosen People, to whom God sent prophets who were ignored, and finally a son who was killed. It would appear that this is put under the form of a prediction. The hidden meaning is that the Gentiles will supersede the Jews as the inheritors of the kingdom of God, because the Jews mistreated the prophets and–for the first time in what became a long and ugly tradition–are accused of being the Christ-killers. Such an accusation has to belong to a time when most followers of Jesus were no longer Jews, but Gentiles. Then, this idea of one group supplanting the other is reinforced by both the metaphor of the cornerstone; those formerly rejected (the Gentiles) become the new Chosen people. And the final reinforcement comes at the end, in the tale of what has traditionally been called The Widow’s Mite. She, the poor, beggarly, scorned old woman has outdone all the pomp and grandeur–and money–of the Jewish establishment.

And the Jewish establishment has been made to look foolish twice. Twice they tried to entrap Jesus; twice they failed, and then in the end we are told that their worldly glory and wealth are nothing compared to the simple faith and deep sacrifice of this lowly and despised outcast who lived at the fringe of respectable society. AND, we get the Scribe who feel not far from the kingdom of God gasping at the idea that love of God and neighbor are worth more than all the burnt offerings in the world.

This is not to say that Jesus may have something against Judaism.. But He clearly had something against pomp and duplicity and hypocrisy..

So maybe this comes together in a more unified way than we may have thought at first glance.

One thing to note: Jesus has been doing a lot more talking in the parts that have come after the Transfiguration. Before that, it was actions. Before the Transfiguration, Jesus was either healing or expelling a demon every time he turned around. The last healing mentioned was Chapter 10; the last exorcism was in Chapter 9; we’ve now completed Chapter 12, and Chapter 13 promises to be different.

REJECTION AND RETRIBUTION (Mark 12:1-12)

12:1-12 Jesus began to speak to them in parables. A man planted a vineyard. He put a hedge round about it, and dug a wine vat, and built a tower. He let it out to cultivators and went abroad. At the right time he sent a servant to the cultivators that he might receive from the cultivators his share of the fruits of the vineyard. They took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant to them. They wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. He sent yet another. They killed him. So they treated many others, beating some and killing others. He had still one person left to send, his beloved son. Last of all he sent him to them. "They will respect my son," he said. But these cultivators said to each other, "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours." So they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What, then. will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and he will destroy the cultivators and he will give the vineyard to others. As we read passage of scripture, "The stone which the builders rejected, has become the headstone of the comer. This came from God, and it is in our eyes an amazing thing?" The scribes and Pharisees tried to find a way to get hold of Jesus… but they feared the crowd, for they were well aware that he spoke this parable against them. So they let him alone and went away for the time.

Parables are powerful but as we seek to understand them fully it is important to draw the distinction between an Allegory and a parable…

For us, a parable should not be treated as an allegory, and that a meaning must not really be sought for every detail. Originally Jesus' parables were not meant to be read but to be spoken and their meaning was that which flashed out when first they were heard. But to some extent this parable is an exception. It is a kind of hybrid, a cross between an allegory and a parable. Not all the details have an inner meaning, but more than usual have. And this is because Jesus was talking in pictures , in a sense, which were part and parcel of Jewish thought and imagery. He was again forecasting his own execution which was surrounded by all that he was contemptuous of; such as lust for riches, power, hypocrisy, deceitfulness, and pride..All of which are depicted in the husbandman of the vineyard…All of which were represented in those who betrayed and condemned Jesus to death…

So a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning…. Of course the most famous parables are found in the New Testament of the Bible , where Jesus uses simple stories to illustrate complex moral and theological concepts.

An allegory, by contrast, tends to be book- or feature-length. Every character represents a different moral or political concept or viewpoint, and the true meaning of the story is left for the reader to interpret, and different readers interpret the true meaning differently. Tom Sawyer is an allegory of the American soul.

Why is this distinction important; So that we can eliminate confusion and gain clarity as to the substance of the parables used by Jesus? They are not left to our interpretations rather they have intrinsic, spiritual meaning intended by God for us…They are earthly stories provided for us so that we can relate to them and identify with them, which is crucial to our understanding of his word…

So the owner of the vineyard is God; the vineyard itself is the people of Israel, signifying God’s people. This was a picture with which the Jews were perfectly familiar. In the Old Testament it is vividly used in Isaiah 5:1-7, a passage from which some of the details and the language of this passage are taken, “Song of the vineyard”. This vineyard was given every equipment. There was a wall to mark out its boundaries, to keep out robbers and to defend it from the assaults of the wild boars. There was a wine vat. In a vineyard there was a wine press in which the grapes were trodden down with the feet. Beneath the wine press was a wine vat into which the pressed-out juice flowed. There was a tower. In this the wine was stored, the cultivators had their lodging, and from this watch was kept for robbers at harvest time. The cultivators stand for the rulers of Israel throughout the history of the nation. The servants whom the owner sent stand for the prophets. Servant or slave of God is a regular title. So Moses was called (Joshua 14:7). So David was called (2 Samuel 3:18). And the title occurs regularly in the books of the prophets (Amos 3:7, Jeremiah 7:25, Zechariah 1:6). The son is Jesus himself. Even on the spur of the moment the hearers could have made these identifications because the thoughts and the pictures were all so familiar to them.

The story itself is of what might well happen in Palestine in the time of Jesus. Jesus knew that they could see clearly the darkness in their own hearts but more importantly they knew that Jesus saw the darkness in them as well…

Verse 12. - The scribes and Pharisees knew, partly from the words of the psalm, mentioned, and partly from the looks of Christ, that they were spoken against them. So they sought in their rage and malice to lay hold on him; but they feared the people, with whom he was still popular. Thus, however, by his rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees, he prepared the way for that death which, within three days, they brought upon him. And the counsel of God was fulfilled for the redemption of men by the blood of Christ. And the scripture was fulfilled… and the mission of Christ completed through great torment and suffering and the Lord God almighty manifest through the resurrection to come…

Until the assentation Jesus taught his disciples through demonstration and living example.. But they were on the cusp of a new era in their lives . A time when they would need to demonstrate, independently of the physical presence of Jesus, righteous lives and to also be a Christ-like example for the people… The Christian Gospels of Mark and Matthew say that, after the Ascension of Jesus, his Apostles "went out and preached everywhere". This is described in Mark 16 verses 19 and 20, and Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20. According to a tradition mentioned by Eusebius, they dispersed to distinct parts of the world.

A glimpse into our future study ..

What happened after the Holy Spirit came to the disciples at Pentecost?

Pentecost comes from a Jewish harvest festival called Shavuot. The apostles were celebrating this festival when the Holy Spirit descended on them. It sounded like a very strong wind, and it looked like tongues of fire. The apostles then found themselves speaking in foreign languages, inspired by the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2)…

Not all Christians recognize Pentecost. It is honoured in liturgical churches (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox, to mention a few). The holiday also is recognized in Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, and in many Protestant churches. However, the doctrine or selective beliefs of singular churches is not so important. It is the dramatic transition of this time that is crucial to a full understanding of the power of God’s word and the intention and purpose of the life of Jesus on earth…

Even scholars who are sceptical of the account believe Pentecost represents a powerful metaphor for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early church.

So whether or not the tongues of flame actually appeared, Pentecost is an important event in the history of the early church that enabled the rapid spread of Christianity. Within a few decades, important congregations had been established in all major cities of the Roman Empire.

It also marks a birthday -- the birth of the Church and the beginning of its mission to the world.. truly this was the genesis for the Christian world of today…

God Bless...

Thoughts shared by Pastor Gilman