GOOD NEWS PRESENTED BY MARK
Study of the Gospel According to Mark
As you read Mark, be aware that you are reading the very first written account of the ministry of Jesus – a fact well documented by credible Bible scholars. Quite naturally, we want to know who Mark was, and we find that he is mentioned frequently in the New Testament.
What we know about him is that he was the son of a very well-to-do woman in Jerusalem; her name was Mary, and her home became the center of early church get-togethers. So, you can imagine that Mark was there when Jesus’ closest followers came to his mother’s house for a “church council” meeting. Peter the chief elder referred to Mark affectionately as “my son.”
Mark was also the nephew of Barnabas who talked Paul into letting the youngster go with them on one of their missionary journeys - which, you may recall, resulted in Mark’s falling out of favor with Paul by leaving and going back home. However, it’s interesting to note that, years later, when Paul was in prison, facing execution, he asked Timothy to bring Mark with him, “for he is a most useful servant to me.”
I suppose Paul saw in this young man a Christian who had the ability to write; and, apparently having redeemed himself, he could now be counted on to carry out Paul’s wishes. This explanation is plausible because Mark had served as Peter’s scribe and, as such, had written much of what Peter related to him about his eye witness account of the ministry of Jesus.
MARK SERMON IX – MARK 12:13-34 . . .
KEEP IT SIMPLE WHEN ANSWERING CRITICS OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
“Life is hard by the yard; by the inch it’s a cinch.” This old axiom serves as a reminder that, when life gets complicated, the simplest solution is usually the most effective. In mathematics, a complex problem is solved by reducing it to its lowest common denominator.
When answering His critics, Jesus was a master at stating complex issues in simple terms. Nowhere is this phenomenon more pronounced than Mark’s account of our Lord’s encounter with critics who opposed Him. According to Mark, as Jesus entered the final phase of His three-year ministry, sharp disagreements between Jesus and the Jewish rulers became intense and complex.
As you know, His enemies had constantly sought but failed to discredit this “teacher come from God” - by dispatching scribes and Pharisees to go wherever Jesus went to interrogate Him and try to trap Him into committing an act of treason – a sure way to get rid of Him.
Nonetheless, after all that He had gone through, Jesus arrived at the gate to the Holy City unharmed, but fully aware that a confrontation loomed on the horizon.
Time being of the essence, He wasted no time making His position clear as to His priorities: first, riding a donkey into the city symbolized His association with ordinary folks; overturning the money changers’ tables demonstrated God’s disapproval of hypocrisy on the part of the authorities who found fault with Jesus but allowed despicable activities to occur within the temple gates. Jesus’ actions fueled “the fires of hatred”!
So, now that “the powers that be” had this acclaimed leader of a new “Way” inside their jurisdiction, they escalated their attempts to “get” Him; they did so by changing strategy. Rather than setting a “theological trap” for Jesus - the Teacher - these “experts in the law” devised a “legal trap” - publicly invoking the name of Caesar into the “debate” and asking Jesus a “shrewd” question --- Mark 12:13-17 . . .
Don’t you suppose these guys “marveled at him” since Jesus had “turned the tables” on them? He answered their question with a question - one that was based on a very interesting bit of Jewish history:
Herod the Great had ruled all of Palestine prior to his death. Herod’s loyalty to Rome was such that he was allowed to rule with little or no direct supervision from Rome. Then, after the death of Herod the Great, Palestine was divided into three territories over which Herod’s sons reigned.
Two sons served successfully, but the third – the one who ruled over the southern kingdom - failed as a king – so his territory was divided into provinces overseen by governors appointed to act as Caesar’s “puppets.” One of the first actions of the first governor of Judea was to conduct a census so that he could hold every citizen accountable for paying tribute to Caesar and for paying taxes to the Roman government.
The Jews resented having to pay tribute to a foreign “god” because it was against their religion; they literally hated the poll tax because everyone from the age of twelve to sixty-five had to pay it for no good reason other than the fact that they existed.
So, the opponents of Jesus wondered: Would Jesus - who preached that there is only ONE God, and that He is the only begotten Son of God - dare defy the Roman government by refusing to pay tribute to Caesar, and thereby refuse to pay tax to a false god? Surely Jesus would openly oppose paying tribute to Caesar . . . paying an unjust tax! Therefore, they thought, we will have Him in a trap from which He cannot escape. Not so!
Jesus calmly and politely said, “Show me a denarius.” Then He asked whose image was on it. (At that time, Tiberias would have been the Caesar.) On the back side of the coin would have been wording that means “the high priest of the Roman nation.” But, to their amazement, Jesus did not throw the coin to the ground, stomp on it, and declare no allegiance to Caesar!
Rather, He astounded them with a very simple statement: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”
Basically, what Jesus said was, “Since you are citizens of a province ruled by the Roman Emperor and you use this coin that technically belongs to the Roman Empire, you have no choice but to abide by the rules of Rome; therefore, you must obey the laws of Caesar and pay taxes to the Roman government.”
“Moreover, since you belong to the kingdom of God, you likewise have an obligation to worship the Lord your God and to serve Him in accordance with His laws, as recorded in Holy Scripture. It is not ‘either/or’ but ‘both/and.’”
Folks: Today we live “in the world but not of the world” - in the sense that we must obey the laws of the nation in which we live, but, at the same time, as citizens of the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we are expected to live according to His rules as well.
Can’t you just hear the Scribes? “Wow! Jesus is good at answering tough questions! Let’s throw Him a curve rather than a fastball and see what He says about the most complex of all theological arguments – the Law of Moses compounded by all the commandments that have been added through the centuries – so vast and extensive that only WE can measure up to it” --- Mark 12:28-34 . . .
Do you see how expertly Jesus reduced a complex set of rules and regulations to a formula so simple that a child should be able to understand? Love for God plus love for others equals a life pleasing to the Lord God!
In what ways are we supposed to love God? The four words used by Jesus were “heart, soul, mind and strength” inasmuch as the “heart” was believed to be the source of all thoughts . . . the “soul” was believed to be the source of personal feelings and divine will . . . the “mind” was believed to be the repository of all knowledge and understanding . . . “strength” was believed to be the inner power that motivates and generates action.
By making God the supreme priority of your life, you will: keep Him in your thoughts . . . seek to follow His Will for your life . . . be involved in learning truth as taught in His Word . . . apply His truth as best you can in your daily life. These four ways of loving God constitute one half of the formula for pleasing God. Bible scholars refer to this part of the formula as the Christian’s “vertical” relationship – one’s relationship to God!
The second part of the formula is often referred to as the Christian’s “horizontal” relationship – to others – which may be the most difficult part of the formula due to the fact that a lot of folks tend to be exclusive rather than inclusive in their associations with folks who are not like them . . . whose practice of faith varies from what they consider to be the “norm”.
Genuine love requires a conscious effort to identify the needs of: the society in which we live – our “neighborhood” – people who live under the same roof – those within our sphere of influence . . . folks inside our circle of friendship and fellowship. Genuine love inquires of them how we may be of assistance . . . indicates willingness to be of service . . . involves others in our endeavor to minister in the name of Jesus.
Jesus’ answered the inquiries of His critics with such simplicity, yet so profoundly, that they were speechless! No more questions! But neither did they get involved in any effort to comply with the simple challenge that Jesus put before them to love God and love others.
We owe it to God, we owe it to others, and we owe it to ourselves to practice the formula Jesus gave us, for doing so pleases the Lord our God.
“Living for Jesus in all that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do,
Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.”
Amen.
