mark 12: The Hated King

This sermon was first preached at Twynholm on October 12th 2008.
Audio available here

The headlines have been focusing on the financial markets more in this last week than in living memory. The FTSE 100 index is often on the front page of the Financial Times. But looking at the front pages of all the newspapers there’s been financial news on the front page of broadsheet and tabloid alike. But rarely is it on the front page of the Mail, Mirror and Sun as it has been this week.
Investments don’t look too certain…
I was having lunch with someone this week who told me that the only business that seems to be thriving at the moment is those who sell safes, as a significant number of people have been getting their money out of the bank and keeping it at home in cash!
Perhaps Thursday’s headline on the Prime minsters discussion with the Icelandic banks in the Mail “cold War” didn’t match the FT’s precision “FTSE looses a fith of its value in a week”, but the focus was the same.
The fear are what the markets anticipate in terms of what else will be lost in the coming months: how many will lose their savings,
How many will lose their pensions?
how many will lose their jobs?
how many will lose their homes?
Such instability does cause us to re-asses what it is that we have had as our goals; where we have ben investing not just our finances, but our lives.
What have been some of the goals of your life that you have been working towards? Are they at risk?
Where is your life invested?
What have you invested?
What kind of return are you looking for?
You might think it strange that the bible has rather more investment advice that you might think. Yet it is rather different advice than you might be given from a financial advisor. The investments are rather different than those you can make in your bank or stock market.
But, we shall see this morning as we look at Mark 12, that they are far more secure; if investments in this world look shaky this week, there will come a day when they will be revealed to be far less secure, and far more costly than we ever imagined.
Turn with me to Mark 12. (Page 1022)
In mark 12, Jesus is continuing the contoroversy that he had begun in the temple. In 12:1 the “them” that he is speaking to is the same group as in v27: the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. As you may remember, they comprised the Sanhedrin, and they were looking for a way to find a charge against Jesus that would stick.
But Jesus exposes both their hypocritical motivation, and their self-defeating folly in rejecting him, when he was in fact their only hope.
We are going to see in this chapter
Those who reject Jesus will be rejected (1-12)
Those who set traps for Jesus will themselves fall into them (13-27)
Those who miss Jesus out will miss out on Jesus (28-44)

Those who reject Jesus will be rejected (1-12)

Read 1-12
1(A) And he began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted(B) a vineyard(C) and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and(D) leased it to tenants and(E) went into another country. 2When the season came, he sent a servant[a] to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3(F) And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4(G) Again(H) he sent to them another servant, and(I) they struck him on the head and(J) treated him shamefully. 5(K) And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6He had still one other,(L) a beloved son.(M) Finally he sent him to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 7But those tenants said to one another,(N) 'This is the heir. Come,(O) let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8And they took him and killed him and(P) threw him out of the vineyard. 9What will the owner of the vineyard do?(Q) He will(R) come and destroy the tenants and(S) give the vineyard to others. 10(T) Have you not read(U) this Scripture:

(V) "'The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;[b]
11this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
12And(W) they were seeking to arrest him(X) but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they(Y) left him and went away.
The story would have had a familiar ring to it for chief priests and scribes and elders – for it picks up a story from Isaiah.
Turn with me to Isaiah 5, p687
1Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had(A) a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with(B) choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and(C) he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
7(J) For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;[b]
for righteousness,
but behold, an outcry![c
So, the similarities are striking: so, we assume that the vineyard is again the members of God’s people, Israel. The watchtower was generally thought to signify the temple, and the winepress the altar.
The owner of the vineyard is the Lord, and he is rightly angered by the circumstances.
But you’ll notice also some subtle differences between the two parables.
1) The story isn’t told against the vineyeard itself, against the whole nation of Israel, but against the tenants – the religious leaders who were supposed to look after Israel.
They realise this in Mark 12:12.
They knew he had spoken the parable against them
Jesus is making a devastating accusation. The religious leaders wanted to make sure that there would never again be a day when the Lord could condemn Israel for bring fruitless. Yet Jesus is accusing them that they don’t really want fruit for the glory of the Lord, but for their own purposes.
If they had been concerned about the glory of the Lord, they would have welcomed the prophets. But the last of the prophets, John the Baptist, had been murdered by Herod, and they had been fairly pleased he was gone.

- It is possible to want fruitfulness for our own ends rather than the Lord’s glory.


I was looking through an old membership role of this church, and saw numbers of members at 300, 400, nearing 500. Wouldn’t it be great if it was like that again, I thought. But was it really the name of Christ that I wanted to see restored, or merely the name of Twynholm. What is Twynholm? If the Lord chooses to restore the honour of his name in Fulham through some other vehicle we should rejoice.

We can tell if we want glory for ourselves or Christ best when it is most indanger of being take away from us. Do we hold on for dear life, or gladly hand it over.
The tenant considered the fruit their own: so much so that even when the heir himself came, they were ready to kill him, lest he should steal their glory.
He is the beloved Son. We’ve heard this before from the lips of God from heaven at the baptism and transfiguration. Now Jesus proclaims himself the beloved son of Psalm 2 openly in the temple. Would they welcome him as God’s great king? No! They would kill him.
We are rightly horrified when we hear stories of people who murder for money, as if a uman life is worth so little.
What a terrible crime to kill the Only Son of God in hope that you might steal glory for yourself.
But that is what we have done, as a human race; jew and gentile alike, when the son came, we crucified him?
Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus has undone thee.
‘TWas I Lord Jesus, I it was denie thee,”
I crucified thee.”
Jesus warns them that if we persist in holding onto glory for ourselves, we will lose everything.
9What will the owner of the vineyard do?(Q) He will(R) come and destroy the tenants
They had hoped to hold onto the fruit for themselves. But if you will oppose Jesus, you can be sure that one day He will oppose you. And you will not be able to bear that opposition in all of eternity.
But this story is not without hope...
- There is another big difference from the original story in Isaiah 5. There the vineyard was town down and went to ruin.

Isaiah 5: 5And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove(F) its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;[a]
(G) I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.

- Here, there would be new tenants.
- Q) He will(R) come and destroy the tenants and(S) give the vineyard to others. 10(T) Have you not read(U) this Scripture:

(V) "'The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;[b]
11this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
Jesus shifts the parable from vineyard to temple. The very one they slew, the son, would be raised again; is the stone that will be the pinnacle of a new temple: a temple in which we may be bricks. We are that temple if we trust in the risen son. The Lord has delighted in taking his rejected Son and highly exalting him in heaven.
Is our delight in that Son? The new tenants are not like the old tenants, given charge of a piece of land in the middle east, and a tiny nation that lived there. No, they are incorporated into a vast body; a multinational, multiethnic body that covers the whole globe and unites in praising the Risen Son giving all the glory back to God.

This is marvellous in his eyes: is it marvellous in yours?
Those who reject Jesus will be rejected (1-12)
- But those who welcome the Son will receive an inheritance


Those who set traps for Jesus will themselves fall into them (13-27)
The Sanhedrin continues to look for ways in which to carry out its murderous intent against Jesus, even after the warning of the parable.
They come up with another plan that they think if failsafe, but once again Jesus not only outsmarts them, but reveals their hypocrisy.
a. Render unto Caesar
13(Z) And they sent to him some of(AA) the Pharisees and some of(AB) the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14And they came and said to him, "Teacher,(AC) we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For(AD) you are not swayed by appearances,[c] but truly teach(AE) the way of God. Is it lawful to pay(AF) taxes to(AG) Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?" 15But, knowing(AH) their hypocrisy, he said to them, "Why(AI) put me to the test? Bring me(AJ) a denarius[d] and let me look at it." 16And they brought one. And he said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said to him, "Caesar’s." 17Jesus said to them, (AK) "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s." And they marveled at him.

The hypocrisy with which they ask the questions is contemptible. "Teacher,(AC) we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For(AD) you are not swayed by appearances,[c] but truly teach(AE) the way of God.’
True, but if they believe that, why are they trying to kill him?
But their hypocrisy runs deeper: if they were so against the Roman rule that they were unwilling to pay its taxes, why would they even carry the money. Jesus doesn’t have a denarius, but they do!
The money was an abomination. Not only did it bear the image of the Pagan Roman emperor deified in the picture, and the inscription said, “Son of the Divine Augustus”
Yet they were happy to use this idolatrous currency to suit their own purposes. There were just not so happy to pay the tax.
Jesus words are extraordinary.
"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s."
Jesus make the most significant comment in the history of the word as to how we are to live as God’s people under godless rulers. We are to submit to governing authorities even at times we find them harsh, unless they are commanding us to disobey the Lord.
In other words, Civil disobedience is only permissible for Christians when civil obedience would imply disobedience to the Lord.
And why?
Just a few days later Jesus would stand before a roman ruler who had his life in his hands: john 19
Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?" 11Jesus answered him, (N) "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.”
Whether it is paying your taxes, or submitting to the rulings of the courts, Christians are declaring that they are under a higher authority; in rendering unto Caesar what is Caesars we are rending to God what is God’s. Even in civil obedience we can be investing in our heavenly kingdom.
Yet for the hearers there were more far reaching consequences... were they handing over the fruit of the vineyard to the one to whom it belonged?
How can you tell? How can you tell if you are rendering to God what is God’s? Is being an upstanding citizen the full extent of it? No, if the coin bore Caesars image, eachone of us bears God’s image. To render to God what belongs to him is to give ourselves up entirely to his service.
That is the investment we are called to make.
Having been foiled once, they don’t give up.
b. Marriage at the resurrection
18And(AL) Sadducees came to him,(AM) who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19"Teacher, Moses wrote for us that(AN) if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man[e] must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife."
24Jesus said to them, "Is this not the reason you are wrong, because(AO) you know neither the Scriptures nor(AP) the power of God? 25For when they rise from the dead, they neither(AQ) marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26And as for the dead being raised,(AR) have you not read in(AS) the book of Moses, in(AT) the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying,(AU) 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? 27He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong."
The Saducess were different the Pharisees in two major ways. Firstly they held the 5 books of Moses to have a igher weight than the other books of the old testament.
Secondly, as we read in v18, they did not believe in the resurrection. (And as the old cheesy joke puts it, that’s why they’re so sad, you see).
Jesus claims that even after being the slaughtered Son he will become the central stone assume that there would be a resurrection. And so the Sadducees think that they might have him here. Their somewhat ludicrous story was trying to make the idea of the resurrection look ludicrous. Would heaven really be a place full of women with seven husbands, or a place where 6 marriages have to be annulled?
But once again, Jesus’ answer is penetrating.
If the Sadducees revered Moses, there could be no more critical passage for them than the extraordinary encounter that Moses has with the Lord who appears to him in a burning bush.
It is the defining moment of God’s self revelation in the entire Old Testament, as he explains that He is Yahweh, the great “I AM”.
Yet when he describes himself as the great unchanging all-powerful I AM, he says ) 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' people who had been dead between 300-400 years.
And the very reason that God was appearing to Moses was to fulfil promises that he had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Was this I AM so powerless that he couldn’t fulfil those promises when they were still alive?
No this promise-keeping God was keeping promises to those whom he had kept alive, so that one day they might be raised and enjoy sharing in the inheritance.
They had not seen the power of God. They had not understood even the Scriptures that they claimed to love so much. Their God was too small, with purposes too limited.
When the great capstone has returned and been revealed to be the one in whom the whole temple of God’s people hold together, the purpose of marriage will be fulfilled.
If marriage is to be a picture of unity, self sacrifice and love, it finds its fulfillment not in eternal nuclear families, but in the unity that the community of the redeemed will have with God’s beloved Son. There will be no more marrying or giving in marriage, for we shall all be united to him.
We live in a world where marriage is all about the people getting married.
People imagine that we can define marriage for ourselves, to say about ourselves whatever we want to say. I was at a wedding yesterday, and it is so tempting, even at a Christian marriage to think that it is all about the bride and groom.
But it is only temporary. Till death us do part. But it is a picture of something that will last forever.
When you go to hear your favorite band live, it doesn’t matter if it’s the Prague symphony orchestra, Pink Floyd or the Pigeon Detectives. When the lights dim, you take off your ipod and stop listening to the copy. The real thing’s beginning.
When our lifeless corpses are raised and given new life in the resurrected world, the copy in marriage will give way to the reality in Christ. We will be like the angels, not because of some sentimental notion that we’ll grow wings, but because, like them we will see Christ face to face.
The intimacy of marriage now is to be an ipod nano anticipation of the face to face elation with Christ then.
As Paul writes in Ephesians 5:, marriage is a picture of Christ’s love for his people.
Too often I think that Christians hold onto a traditional view of marriage because we are traditional, not really because we are Christian.
So, for example our opposition to homosexual marriage too often sounds like it comes from mere squeamishness, rather from a deep sorrow about the lies that homosexuality tells about Christ and his church, as if Christ laid down his life for another Son of God, rather than for his bride the church.
No, we are to love those in homosexual relationships; bring all your homosexual friends to church; and if you haven’t got any homosexual friends, make some. But let them see the gospel of Christ who laid down his life for one who was radically different from himself as the only picture that will provide a more beautiful alternative to them than their current lifestyle choices.
Homosexual marriage is wrong because it tells lies about Jesus and his church. But what about our marriages? Too often our marriages tell the lie that Christ is harsh, or disinterested, or patronizing because we husbands treat our wives like that. Too often our marriages lie that the church is calle to to manipulate, ignore or infuriate Christ, by the way in which wives treat their husbands. No, we have a wonderful model in Christ and the church – let’s tell beautiful trust about Christ in our marriages.
Married couples: talk with one another about how well your marriage is a picture of Christ and the church. Husbands, ask your wives ways in which you have been unlike Christ in your love for them. And be Christ-like in the way in which you listen to the answer.
Wives, ask your husbands ways in which they could more reflect their honour for Christ in the way they relate to you, and don’t punish them for answering you!
If you are not married, which fills your life with more eager anticipation: the possibility that you might one day enter into a relationship that models Christ’s relationship with his church; or the delight that you are already in that relationship with Christ, and one day it will be perfected?
Ok, all of you… it’s time to be honest with yourself now. Are you disappointed that there will be no sex in heaven?
Guys, you’re either nodding, or you’re aspleep, or you’re lying.
What other joy in this world do you hope will be the same in the next? We are not to invest in this world. For all the joys are but a glimpse of the coming joy of being with Christ.
In “The weight of glory” C S lewis says,
The books or the music in
which we thought the beauty was located
will betray us if we trust to them; it was
not in them, it only came through them,
and what came through them was longing.
These things—the beauty, the memory of
our own past—are good images of what we
really desire; but if they are mistaken for
the thing itself they turn into dumb idols,
breaking the hearts of their worshippers.
For they are not the thing itself; they are
only the scent of a flower we have not
found, the echo of a tune we have not
heard, news from a country we have never
yet visited.
How often our silly arguments are constructed to protect the scent and the echo and the news, when all they do is rob us of the flower, the tune, the country itself.
It is a foolish and dangerous thing to laugh at yourself for how cleverly you have outwitted Jesus. How clever our arguments can sound to ourselves as we rehearse them. Perhaps this might be attitude of the whole life; or it might just be the defense of one area of our lives from his Lordship.
But one conversation with the Lord Jesus and these very learned men and their well rehearsed arguments looked very foolish indeed.
Those who lay traps for Jesus will indeed fall into them.
We are not so clever. But he is the master surgeon who can lower our defenses to accuse us, so that he might humble us, and then embrace us into his.
Those who set traps for Jesus will themselves fall into them (13-27)
But those who are humbled before him will be raised and welcomed into eternal joy.
Those who miss Jesus out will miss out on Jesus (28-44)
Among those in the temple there was at least one who was a great deal less hostile. He didn’t seem openly hostile to Christ, nor is he presented here as trying to trap Jesus.
a. The greatest commandment
28(AV) And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" 29Jesus answered, "The most important is,(AW) 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God,(AX) the Lord is one. 30And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31(AY) The second is this:(AZ) 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment(BA) greater than these." 32And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that(BB) he is one, and(BC) there is no other besides him. 33And to love him with all the heart and with all(BD) the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself,(BE) is much more than all(BF) whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."(BG) And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

It was a common conversation among teachers of the law to ask which commandment was greatest. It’s an important question, for if our designer gives us commandments, they tell us what we are designed for.if there is a greatest commandment, it tells us what the central purpose of our lives should be.
What is a human being?

One who invests his or her whole life in the love of God…


What resources do you have?
Where are they all to be invested?
In the love of God...
The scribe and Jesus agree what a human being is. One who will find their purpose only in fully loving God.
Why then is he “not far from the kingdom of heaven”?
For the law was not enough. To know what we are to do is no good. We don’t do it.
We need God to give us not just a law, but to rescue us. We should love God and invest all for his glory, but we have made some other very bad investments with our life, that pay out with untold misery.
Romans 6:23 The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Though not far from the kingdom of God he had not entered it. Nobody can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again, and believes in the Son.
35(BH) And as(BI) Jesus taught in the temple, he said, "How can the scribes say that(BJ) the Christ is the son of David? 36David himself,(BK) in the Holy Spirit, declared,
(BL) "'The Lord said to my Lord,Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies(BM) under your feet.'
37David himself calls him Lord. So(BN) how is he his son?" And the great throng(BO) heard him gladly.

But there are some who cannot pretend that they can earn their way into God’s favor through keeping the law. The fact that they give with greater abandon shows that they know that their inheritance is already secure.
b. the widow’s mite
38(BP) And in his teaching he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39and have the best seats in the synagogues and(BQ) the places of honor at feasts, 40(BR) who devour widows’ houses and(BS) for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation."
The Widow’s Offering
41(BT) And he sat down opposite(BU) the treasury and watched the people(BV) putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42And a poor widow came and put in two(BW) small copper coins, which make a penny.[f] 43And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you,(BX) this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her(BY) poverty has put in everything she had, all(BZ) she had to live on."

If we are nt secure in the rescue of the Son. In the share of the inheritance that we have eternally secure for us with Christ, then we will try to grab what we can for ourselves in this life.

That is how the scribes, the religious teachers lived their lives. They were respectable, but uncaring. They received much, but helped little. Those in greatest need, the widows, who had no source of income were left destitute.


She may appear the poorest, but she is far richer.
We may see her as a victim of circumstances, and of a corrupt leadership who have led the nation into the social evils that leave her with nothing.

We might pity her...

But Jesus doesn’t pity her. He sees in her a joy that means that compared to here it is those who gave safely out of their riches that are to be pitied.

She has shown that she is a creature who is more valuable than her coins, and more valuable than this earthly life.

She loves the Lord her god with all her heart and all her soul and all her mind and all her strength.

She knows that in the greatest commandment is given the creator’s clearest blueprint for the human life.

One of the things that we are hoping to do is set a budget for this church. I pray that the lord increases the amount people give to the Lord’s work here, not first and foremost because of all the great plans that we have as elders as to how we spend the money. That’ll be fun investing it in God’s kingdom. No but I pray that as it would be such an encouragement to see this congregation more and more to declare its independence from the desires and demands of this world.

Her gift shows that she is investing in what will really last. The world to come.

As Lewis concludes "The weight of glory"

- There are no ordinary people. You have
- never talked to a mere mortal. Nations,
- cultures, arts, civilization—these are
- mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of
- a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke
- with, work with, marry, snub, and
- exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting
- splendours. This does not mean that we
- are to be perpetually solemn. We must
- play. But our merriment must be of that
- kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind)
- which exists between people who have,
- from the outset, taken each other
- seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no
- presumption. And our charity must be a
- real and costly love, with deep feeling for
- the sins in spite of which we love the
- sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence
- which parodies love as flippancy parodies
- merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament
- itself, your neighbour is the holiest object
- presented to your senses. If he is your
- Christian neighbour he is holy in almost
- the same way, for in him also Christ vere
- latitat—the glorifier and the glorified,
- Glory Himself, is truly hidden.