Read Mark 12:13–37
Questions from the Scripture text: What did the leaders send Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to do (Mark 12:13)? What question do they ask in Mark 12:14? How does Jesus answer in Mark 12:15-17? How do they respond to Him (end of Mark 12:17)? What do the Sadducees say (Mark 12:18)? What crazy question do they have (Mark 12:23)? What two problems does Jesus tell them they have in Mark 12:24? What do we not do in the resurrection (Mark 12:25)? Of whom is God the God (Mark 12:27)? What does that mean about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Mark 12:26)? Who comes to Jesus in Mark 12:28? What does he ask? How does Jesus answer (Mark 12:29-30)? What does Jesus add to the answer in Mark 12:31? How does that scribe respond to Jesus (Mark 12:32-33)? What does Jesus say to the man in Mark 12:34? What did no one dare to do after that?
How can we give to God what is God’s? Mark 12:13–37 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty-five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we can know, love, and obey God rightly only in Christ, by His grace.
In this passage, we learn something about government, something about marriage, and something about religion—all because people are trying to trap Jesus.
First, they try to trap Jesus (Mark 12:13) between God and the government (Mark 12:14)—as if He had to choose to honor either one or the other. But, our Lord exposes how ridiculous this is: government exists because God ordained it. There are coins with Caesar’s head on them (Mark 12:15-16), because God has permitted Caesar to reign in the first place (Mark 12:17)! The coin is made in the image of Caesar, but Caesar is made in the image of God, and government exists by the authority of God.
People today make the same mistake as Jesus’s questioners. They set God and government over against each other. Though there may be times when government commands us to disobey God, and then we have to choose obedience to Christ… except for such times, Christians ought to be known as the best citizens in the land. And even in such times, Christians are still the best citizens in the land, because Jesus is King over the nation, and it is the government that is in rebellion.
We know that government didn’t just happen because some people wanted to control other people. We know that it exists by the authority of God as a gift from God. This is also the reason why corrupt government is so offensive—it’s a sin against government’s God-given purpose! So, we should pay our taxes, and submit to the government, as part of our submission to Christ.
Then, we learn something about marriage. The Sadducees’ scenario (Mark 12:18-23) is a doozy. They are truly scoffers of what they don’t understand. And Jesus puts them in their place. Because they weren’t holding to the Bible closely enough, their view of God was way too small (Mark 12:24). They were the “liberal progressives” of their day.
But, it is in Jesus’s response to their question that we definitively learn that there is no marrying in the resurrection (Mark 12:25). We will be like the angels, whose identity is bound up in being “the heavenly host [i.e. ‘army’].” So, too, Christians will be members of one great collective: a church, a temple, a house, a body… A BRIDE! The resurrection is not an occasion for other marriages, but for THE marriage! This is what our covenant God has pledged, as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; so, of course, their souls still lived, and they would be resurrected (Mark 12:26-27).
When we reach the wedding supper of the Lamb, we arrive at the reality to which marriage has always pointed forward. May the Lord give us marriages that point forward to Him, and may we rejoice to think of the day when we shall be presented to Him, unified, as one glorious Bride for Him!
The last question seems to have been a sincere one (Mark 12:28). When Jesus answers not just the greatest commandment (Mark 12:29-30), but the two greatest (Mark 12:31), it seems as if a light goes on in the scribe’s mind (heart) in Mark 12:32-33. He realizes that God doesn’t actually delight in the burning of animal flesh, but in obedience that comes from love (cf. 1 Samuel 15:22)!
Notice, however, Jesus’s statement. He doesn’t tell the man that he is in the kingdom. He tells him that he is not far from the kingdom (Mark 12:34). Why? Because even if we know that what God wants is obedience from love, we still have the problem of being completely unable to do that! The last piece is to recognize that Jesus alone can, or has ever, done this. We must have Him as our righteousness, and only then can we begin to be made like Him.
What are some of your toughest questions for Jesus? What do the Scriptures have to say in answer? Have you asked your dad/elder/pastor what the Bible says?
Sample prayer: Lord, forgive us for when we forget that government is Your institution, to be submitted to as part of our submission to You, in Whose image we have been created. Make us to submit to Jesus as the King over our nation, and to every law that can be obeyed in submission to Him. And, forgive us for how poorly we know the Scriptures, and how little we appreciate the greatness of Your power. We are too much like the Sadducees, who knew neither their Bibles nor Your almighty power. Finally, please forgive us for how much outward religion and obedience we give that does not flow from hearts full of love to You, and to Your image-bearers. We thank You for Christ’s perfect love of You and men. Please count Him as our righteousness, and make us to be like Him, by His Spirit, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP119M “O How I Love Your Law” or TPH173 “Almighty God, Your Word Is Cast”
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