Following Jesus: Mark 12 Series

Following Jesus (13)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Scripture: Mark 12:28-34

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 3/26/2017

Jim Dunn was serving as the pastor of the First Baptist Church, and his wife, Gladys, was very friendly and welcoming to people. One particular Sunday when the sermon seemed to go on forever, many in the congregation fell asleep. After the service, to be sociable, she walked up to a very sleepy looking gentleman. In an attempt to revive him from his stupor, she extended her hand in greeting, and said, "Hello, I’m Gladys Dunn." To which the gentleman replied, "You and me both, lady!"

I hope you’re not “Gladys Dunn” when you leave here this morning; rather, I’m glad you’re here and I hope you are too.

For the past few months the Gospel of Mark has been our guide as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus. We’ve seen Jesus heal the sick and cast out demons. We’ve heard him debate the religious elite and command a storm to be still. He’s been rejected by his neighbors but embraced by the masses. He’s walked on water, fed thousands, and radiated heaven’s light on the mount of transfiguration.

Last Sunday, in Mark 11, Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The people cheered and threw their coats and palm branches on the ground before him as if to create a red carpet. Afterward, Jesus chased the moneychangers and merchants out of the Temple and cursed a fruitless fig tree, symbolic of Israel’s barren spiritual lives.

Building on the theme of Israel’s sin, Jesus begins Mark 12 with the parable of the evil farmers. It’s the story of a man who planted a vineyard and leased it to tenant farmers. When it came time to harvest the grapes, the owner sent a servant to collect his share of the harvest, but the tenants grabbed the servant beat him up and sent him back empty-handed. The owner sent another servant, but they treated him the same way. Finally, the owner decided to send his son, thinking, “Surely they’ll respect my son.” But the tenants brutally murdered the son and threw his body out of the vineyard. The parable indicts Israel for rejecting God’s prophets in the past and predicts the violent execution of Jesus himself. But, Jesus adds, Israel won’t get away unpunished. He concludes, saying, “The owner of the vineyard will come and kill those farmers and rent the vineyard to someone else.”

This parable, along with the fig tree, loomed like an ominous cloud on the horizon. Jesus knew that judgement was coming for Jerusalem and the religious leaders—the Pharisees—knew that these stories were aimed toward them. So they ramped up their effort to discredit Jesus. Religious leaders of all sorts publicly confronted Jesus with trick questions, trying to trap him into saying something stupid, illegal or unpopular. But, one by one, Jesus responds with wit and wisdom.

Then, right in the middle of Mark 12, we read one of the most significant conversations ever recorded. If you have a Bible, or an app on your phone, open it to Mark 12:28-34. I want to look at this conversation in three chunks, beginning with the guy asking the question.

• THE ASKER

Who is this guy and what makes him different from Jesus’ other interrogators? Mark writes: One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” (Mark 12:28 NLT).

Right away Mark identifies this guy as a “teacher of religious law” or as the more literal translations put it: “a scribe.” Scribes in ancient Israel were educated. men whose business was to study the Torah, transcribe it, and write commentaries on it. Since the majority of people in those days were illiterate, they were also hired to write legal documents or even personal letters. The scribes took their job of preserving Scripture very seriously; they would copy and recopy the Bible meticulously, even counting letters and spaces to ensure each copy was correct. We can thank Jewish scribes, like this man, for preserving Scripture from generation to generation.

However, many of these scribes became professionals at spelling out the letter of the Law while ignoring the spirit behind it. The scribes were hypocrites at heart. They were more interested in appearing good to men than they were in pleasing God, which is why they were in constant conflict with Jesus. But there was something different about his scribe.

He had a question. A question that tickled the back of his brain. A question that kept him up at night. He wants to know “of all the commandments, which one is most important?” You see the Pharisees recognized over six hundred Torah laws from Genesis to Malachi and they often argued over which laws were weightier than others. Some rabbis tried to differentiate between major and minor laws; others between moral, civil and ceremonial laws. Still other taught that all the laws were equally binding and it was dangerous to make any distinctions. The heart of this issue is what matters most to God. To the scribe, this wasn’t a trick question. He wasn’t trying to trap Jesus. He really wanted to know.