Trying to cover two chapters in one night is rough. We dove into several stories in chapter 12 and gave a tip of the hat to chapter 13. If you have any questions or observations from sections we didn't cover in either of those chapters please put it in the comment section below. I may not have anything worthwhile to say in response but I believe wisdom will be heard from among the group.
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Mark 12 opens with Jesus telling a parable that is a direct response to the religious leadership's challenge of Jesus' authority. The parable Jesus tells has a striking resemblance to a illustrative prophecy told by Isaiah.
Not all of the parables are meant to be interpreted as allegories but this one by Jesus seems particularly pointed given: his past condemnation of the religious leaderships practices (Mark 7:6-9); his confrontation of the religiously sanctioned practices at the temple (Mark 11:12-23); the fact the religious leaders took the parable as aimed directly at them (Mark 12:12). So how might we break this allegory down? Let's look at the principle figures:
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Mark 12:13-17
This story contains the oft quoted line, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's and render to God what is God's." Another faithful way to translate that phrase from the Biblical Greek would be to say, "Pay back to Caesar what you own him and pay back to God what you owe him." If we were to flip it into a question it'd be, "Who are you indebted to? Where does your allegiance lie?"
The story begins with a tag team duo that embodies the old Sanskrit proverb, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." The Herodians (socially elite and wealthy Jews who were puppet political rulers propped up the Roman empire and thus had a vested interest in seeing Rome's domination endure) paired up with Pharisees (religious leaders more commonly associated with the hoi polloi who wanted to see God kick Rome out of the land of Israel) to ask Jesus a question. "Should we pay taxes to Caesar?" It's a great trap.
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Mark 12:38-44
Your Bible may insert headings that imply these are two separate stories, yet I contend that it is one story. When studying the Bible it's important to keep in mind that headings, chapters, and verses are not sacred scripture. They are later additions:
Often these additions have a subtle way of shaping the way we understand the text. It's not malicious by any means, but it does unconsciously point us along the interpretive path of someone we've never met.
Back to the story at hand. Jesus has made it pretty clear that he is frustrated, disgusted, brokenhearted, at what the Temple has become. The symbol of God's presence has become wedded to and infected by a system of domination and oppression. Many of the religious leaders seem to have abandoned God's repeated call to care for and protect the marginalized and vulnerable among the community. In verse 38 Jesus again goes directly at the injustice and hypocrisy paraded before him.
After condemning the scribes, Jesus turns to face the Temple Treasury. At the treasury, those making an offering would have to declare publicly the amount and the reason for the offering. He watched the show as those with wealth came proclaiming their large gifts. He watched as a poor widow came and gave all that she had to the Temple because of the offerings required during the celebration of the Passover. Keep in mind Jesus attitude towards the Temple and his recent condemnation of the religious leaders who are "devouring" the livelihood of widows as you listen to his words.
I think the scriptures give clear teaching on giving from a place of faith (2 Corinthians 9:6-8; Proverbs 11:24-25; 1 Kings 17:7-16) but I don't think that's Jesus' main point in this passage. There stories do seem to contrast intentions of the heart, the proud and the humble, and the oppressor and oppressed. Jesus is illustrating his point that the widow is being devoured right before their eyes. Jesus saved his harshest critiques for those who used religion as a means to disenfranchise and demean others.
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Mark 13:1
Josephus was a Romano-Jewish historian both in Jerusalem in the first century. He initially fought against the Roman occupation but later defected becoming a friend of Rome. He became a historian of the Jewish - Roman conflicts in the first century. Hear his description of the Temple during the time of Jesus:
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So what?
The words of Jesus remind me again of the "So What?" I posted in last week's notes under the section entitled, "True Religion". It also causes me to reflect on the daily little choices.
I'm convinced that none (or at least very, very few) of the scribes and the chief priests woke up in the morning with an evil laugh and a plot to fleece the poor. I think that they even began with (and perhaps still possessed at some level) good intentions. Yet what happened along the way? My guess, the maintenance and growth of the institution eclipsed the simple initial vision God gave his people. How does such a switch take place? The daily little choices. The ways we respond to hurt, disappointment, fear, and success. Kingdoms are built a brick at a time. It's passages like those in Mark 12 that invite me to pause, reflect, ask others, and take stock of the kind of kingdom I'm building in my heart.
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Mark 12 opens with Jesus telling a parable that is a direct response to the religious leadership's challenge of Jesus' authority. The parable Jesus tells has a striking resemblance to a illustrative prophecy told by Isaiah.
| Mark 12:1-9 Then he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. | Isaiah 5:1-8 Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry! Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land! |
Not all of the parables are meant to be interpreted as allegories but this one by Jesus seems particularly pointed given: his past condemnation of the religious leaderships practices (Mark 7:6-9); his confrontation of the religiously sanctioned practices at the temple (Mark 11:12-23); the fact the religious leaders took the parable as aimed directly at them (Mark 12:12). So how might we break this allegory down? Let's look at the principle figures:
- The Owner of the Vineyard = I think the Isaiah 5 reference says clearly that this is God.
- The Messengers Sent by the Owner = Both Luke 13:34 and Matthew 23:31 make it clear that the messengers are the prophets. Nehemiah 9:26 also points to this as an established pattern of the Israelite's response to the prophets.
- The Son of the Owner = Jesus seems to be referencing himself here particularly given the next verse where he quotes Psalm 118, again seemingly referring to himself.
- The Land = Again the Isaiah passage points us to a particular conclusion. The land is the people of Israel.
- The Tenants = If the land is the people of Israel then those meant to care for the land are the religious leadership. The condemnation of the tenants and the offence the religious leaders took also points to the conclusion that they are symbolized by the tenants. Fun Fact: The chief priests and the scribes referenced in this section would have been wealthy absentee landlords. Jesus flips the script on this reality by referring to them not as owners of land but as merely tenants on God's property.
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| A Roman Denarius inscribed, "Caesar, son of the Divine" |
This story contains the oft quoted line, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's and render to God what is God's." Another faithful way to translate that phrase from the Biblical Greek would be to say, "Pay back to Caesar what you own him and pay back to God what you owe him." If we were to flip it into a question it'd be, "Who are you indebted to? Where does your allegiance lie?"
The story begins with a tag team duo that embodies the old Sanskrit proverb, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." The Herodians (socially elite and wealthy Jews who were puppet political rulers propped up the Roman empire and thus had a vested interest in seeing Rome's domination endure) paired up with Pharisees (religious leaders more commonly associated with the hoi polloi who wanted to see God kick Rome out of the land of Israel) to ask Jesus a question. "Should we pay taxes to Caesar?" It's a great trap.
- If Jesus says yes...Then he would lose favor in the eyes of the crowd who were at the moment the only thing preventing the religious leaders from moving against Jesus (Mark 12:12). The taxes levied by Rome and by their Jewish proxies (such as the late Herod the Great who built the temple by heavily taxing the poor) were despised by the Jewish people. Taxation was one of the issues that led to consistent uprisings among the people of Jerusalem.
- If Jesus says no...He'd win points with the people but the Herodians would have clear justification to have him arrested by the Roman authorities for inciting dissension and treason.
Jesus does neither. Instead, he flips the script. In asking for a coin he exposes that they were guilty of idolatry as they were carrying a graven image (a no-no particularly by the religious leadership in the temple). His response further exposes their hypocrisy by the clear implication that they are in fact beholden to the kingdom of domination and oppression (symbolized by Rome) rather than to God and God's kingdom vision for Israel and for all.
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Mark 12:38-44
Your Bible may insert headings that imply these are two separate stories, yet I contend that it is one story. When studying the Bible it's important to keep in mind that headings, chapters, and verses are not sacred scripture. They are later additions:
- Chapters, as we know them, came about in about the 13th century (nearly a millennium after the Bible in it's current state was formed).
- Verses came about in the 16th century.
- Headings are mostly created by the publishers of any given version of the Bible.
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| The Greek Text of John 1:1 |
Back to the story at hand. Jesus has made it pretty clear that he is frustrated, disgusted, brokenhearted, at what the Temple has become. The symbol of God's presence has become wedded to and infected by a system of domination and oppression. Many of the religious leaders seem to have abandoned God's repeated call to care for and protect the marginalized and vulnerable among the community. In verse 38 Jesus again goes directly at the injustice and hypocrisy paraded before him.
"Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers."Scribes were those who copied the Hebrew scriptures (aka the Tanakh). This was an esteemed profession that garnered them respect as experts on the Torah. As experts on the law they were sought after as teachers, arbiters, trustees, and executors of estates (it was in this capacity that they would have been able to "devour widow's houses").
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| Mosaic of the Widow's Mite in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Italy |
"Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."Is he commending her faith? Or is he illustrating his condemnation of the way the religious system has followed the ways of the world in oppressing the poor?
I think the scriptures give clear teaching on giving from a place of faith (2 Corinthians 9:6-8; Proverbs 11:24-25; 1 Kings 17:7-16) but I don't think that's Jesus' main point in this passage. There stories do seem to contrast intentions of the heart, the proud and the humble, and the oppressor and oppressed. Jesus is illustrating his point that the widow is being devoured right before their eyes. Jesus saved his harshest critiques for those who used religion as a means to disenfranchise and demean others.
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Mark 13:1
Josephus was a Romano-Jewish historian both in Jerusalem in the first century. He initially fought against the Roman occupation but later defected becoming a friend of Rome. He became a historian of the Jewish - Roman conflicts in the first century. Hear his description of the Temple during the time of Jesus:
… The exterior of the building wanted nothing that could astound either mind or eye. For, being covered on all sides with massive plates of gold, the sun was no sooner up than it radiated so fiery a flash that persons straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes, as from the solar rays. To approaching strangers it appeared from a distance like a snow-clad mountain; for all that was not overlaid with gold was of the purest white... - Josephus from The Jewish WarNow listen to one of the disciples (my money's on Peter) in Mark 13
"As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!"The disciples response seems appropriate given Josephus' description. Yet remember Jesus' illustration of the withered fig tree? Jesus ceases speaking in images and implications.
“Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”Some see this as evidence that Mark was written after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple by Rome in 70 AD. Others contend that since the temple was burned and not torn down completely that this is a clear indication that Mark was written before the fall of the temple. Either way, in our narrative, Jesus' claim points to an end and a new beginning for the people of God. If the temple was not to be the center of life then what would be? Where would humanity seek God? What sign would point to God's presence in our midst?
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So what?
The words of Jesus remind me again of the "So What?" I posted in last week's notes under the section entitled, "True Religion". It also causes me to reflect on the daily little choices.
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| Mr. Burns from the Simpsons perfected the evil laugh. |
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