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Mark 13:1-2: Man looks on the outward appearance…

“As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!’ ² ‘Do you see all these great buildings?’ replied Jesus. ‘Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’ ” NIV

Don’t put your trust in anything other than God.

The Jews were proud of their temple, in spite of the fact that it was built by the Herod family to placate them. It was one of the largest and most magnificent buildings in the ancient world. Around it were many colonnades and courtyards and and smaller buildings. The temple area filled one sixth of the city. It’s frontage was covered with gold, and from a distance it shimmered in the bright middle eastern sunshine. It was quite a sight. Some of its stones were thirty feet long and twelve feet wide. It was impressive. There was no doubt about it. It seemed as if this temple could never be destroyed. Yet, forty years later, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in A.D.70, they destroyed the temple too. Since that time it has never been rebuilt.  But Jesus had already given His estimate of the temple (11:15-17), and it was different to that of His disciples. ‘’The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart’’ (1 Samuel 16:7). Jesus had already said what He had to say about the ‘heart’ of the temple. On the inside it was corrupt to the core and doomed to destruction. Its days were numbered. But the disciples were still taken with the ‘outward appearance’. It was like a terminally- diseased person, who somehow still manages to look good because of the clothes they wear and the make-up they apply.

The things in this world that seem so solid; these things we rely on, are actually transient, temporary and insubstantial. They can be destroyed in a moment. On 11^th September 2001, I was out on a pastoral visit when the news filtered through of the appalling situation unfolding in New York City. We watched the television with unbelief as the twin towers crumbled to dust, revealing devastating and deadly fragility. My colleague, who was sharing the visit with me, spoke about how he had stood on top of the World Trade Centre and watched planes flying in to a local airport below. In the wake of that day, words from Revelation 18:10 came to mind: ‘’Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!’’ I’m not saying what happened was a literal fulfilment, but the twin symbols of western capitalism crumbled so quickly.

That’s how it is with things we value. They can be gone in a moment. That’s the truth.

PRAYER: Oh Lord, how important it is that you should be my only true treasure. Thank you for the lovely things you bless us with, but help us not to make an idol of them. We cannot rely on them, only on you.

Mark 12:41-44: Sacrificial giving

^“41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. ⁴² But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few pence. ⁴³ Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. ⁴⁴ They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.’ ” NIV UK

‘’For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have’’ (2 Corinthians 8:12).

God measures our giving not so much by what we put in, but by how much we have left. As someone said, He looks at the proportion and not the portion.

 Tom Hale’s comments on this are helpful: ‘When we give a gift to God, we think about how much we give. But God thinks about how much we don’t give!…The essence of giving is sacrifice. When we give to God we should go without something we want or need. We should not be content to give only what we can afford. We need to give more than we can afford (2 Corinthians 8:1-3)…As much as we give sacrificially to others, God will give to us (see 2 Corinthians 9:6-9…)’ ‘The Applied New Testament Commentary’, p.265.

For many Christians, the regular giving of the tithe (10% of income as a minimum) will take them into this territory. If they thought about it, they might feel they could do with that money themselves. But they probably don’t think about it. They regard the ‘tenth’ as sacrosanct and not ‘up for grabs’. All they have belongs to God anyway, and the giving of the ten percent is acknowledgment that this is so.

An old epitaph reads: ‘What I gave, I have. What I spent, I had. What I kept, I lost.’

‘’One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed’’ (Proverbs 11:24, 25).

Mark 12:35-40: On the front foot.

^“35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, ‘Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? ³⁶ David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: ‘“The Lord said to my Lord:  ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’” ³⁷ David himself calls him “Lord”. How then can he be his son?’ The large crowd listened to him with delight. ³⁸ As he taught, Jesus said, ‘Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the market-places,³⁹ and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. ⁴⁰ They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.’” NIV UK

Jesus had stood at the crease for some time. He had faced violent fast bowling, fended off bouncers, and dealt with tricky spin. He had stoutly defended His wicket. But now He went onto the front foot. He had a question of His own. The point He wanted to make was that the Messiah was not just David’s ‘’son’’ (35). He was also David’s ‘’Lord’’ (36, 37). Jesus quoted Psalm 110:1 to show that David referred to the Messiah as ‘’Lord’’.

He then went on to give a warning about the ‘clergy’ of His day – the kind of people who had been bowling questions at Him (38-40). Religious leaders are supposed to seek God’s glory, but they can so easily be all about their own glory. Pride is a huge temptation for any leader, Christian or not (Matthew 23:5-7). They paraded their spirituality, made people think they were better than they actually were. So they manipulated the poor people into feeling they had to give to them. Men who prayed so much surely could be trusted? They seemed like sheep to their followers, but their only interest was in eating other sheep! (Matthew 7:15)

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you humbled yourself to come among us. You made yourself of no reputation and served. Please help our leaders to walk humbly with their God.

Mark 12:28-34: The puncturing of pride.

^“28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ ²⁹ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ 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 The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’ ³² ‘Well said, teacher,’ the man replied. ‘You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. ³³ To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’ ³⁴ When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.” NIV

I’m not surprised that today’s passage ends as it does, are you? (34b). The surprising thing for me is that they didn’t give up sooner. Whatever they had, Jesus had more. He always responded to their ‘shots across the bow’ with superior firepower.

The arrogance of this man gets me (32). It feels like he’s acting the part of the superior teacher. It’s as if Jesus is his student and the man is marking his paper. He certainly gives Jesus a good grade. How could he do otherwise? But it still seems that he’s being condescending.

It didn’t take many words from Jesus to stick a pin in His pride ‘balloon’ (34). No wonder other opponents took note and backed off. There are times when the greatest thing Jesus can do for a human being is to take them down a peg or two – even if it hurts. It will.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to humble myself before you. I would rather humble myself than have to be humbled.

Mark 12:18-27: ‘That’s why they were sad, you see!’

^“18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. ¹⁹ ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁰ Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. ²¹ The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. ²² In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. ²³ At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?’ ²⁴ Jesus replied, ‘Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? ²⁵ When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. ²⁶ Now about the dead rising – have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” ? ²⁷ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!’ “ NIV

The Sadducees were next in the queue to have a nip at Jesus’ heels. Some people will never learn. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. No wonder they were sad! They thought they had a humdinger of a question. To continue the chess playing analogy from yesterday, they truly did think they had the Lord in a corner. ‘Check.’ Get out of that one if you can Jesus.

He could. Very easily. He exposed their ignorance. Like so many people who don’t believe certain supernatural doctrines, they didn’t understand what it was they didn’t believe. They did not really know their Bibles. There is no marriage in heaven. Their question was irrelevant, based on complete misunderstanding. If we are happily married, we may find it hard to understand how we could still be happy if no longer married. But someone put it like this: imagine being in a candle-lit room. It’s cosy. It’s beautiful. It’s so romantic. But then the day dawns. Sunlight fills the room. It just overwhelms the candlelight. A greater light has come in and no one is complaining.

The other area of ignorance for the Pharisees concerned God’s power. If you have any grasp at all of how powerful God is, you will not be surprised by His ability to raise the dead (Acts 26:8).

Mark 12: 13-17: Amazing Jesus.

^“13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. ¹⁴ They came to him and said, ‘Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the poll-tax^[a] to Caesar or not? ¹⁵ Should we pay or shouldn’t we?’ But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. ‘Why are you trying to trap me?’ he asked. ‘Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.’ ¹⁶ They brought the coin, and he asked them, ‘Whose image is this? And whose inscription?’ ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied. ¹⁷ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.’ And they were amazed at him.” NIV

‘’And they were amazed at him’’ (17b) – and so are we!

Alistair Begg told a story about going into a sweet shop when he was a little boy. Someone else in the shop at the same time, praised young Alistair for some reason. When she had left the premises, the lady behind the counter said to him, ’Flattery is like perfume sonny. You can sniff the bottle, but don’t swallow it.’

‘’…their flattering lips speak with deception’’ (Psalm 12:2b).

‘’A lying tongue hates those it hurts, and a flattering mouth works ruin’’ (Proverbs 26:28).

‘’He who rebukes a man will in the end gain more favour than he who has a flattering tongue’’ (Proverbs 28:23).

‘’Whoever flatters his neighbour is spreading a net for his feet’’ (Proverbs 29:5).

There is a difference between genuine appreciation and encouragement on the one hand, and flattery on the other. To keep the ‘scent’ theme going, flattery has a certain whiff to it that trained nostrils may be able to detect. Flattery is manipulative. It uses nice sounding words with ulterior motives. The flatterer attempts to ‘wrong foot’ the one he is flattering (14). They certainly wanted Jesus in their ‘’net’’ (15b). But Jesus spotted the ‘’trap’’ on the ground and did not fall into it. They sought to put Him into ‘check’. He dealt with their slimy, sticky questions with wise questions of His own (16). Before they knew what had hit them they found themselves check-mated (17).

By the way, don’t play games with the Bible (13), the word of Jesus. Be serious with it, or nothing at all.

Mark 12:1-12: Which one did it hit?

“Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: ‘A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall round it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. ² At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ³ But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed.⁴ Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵ He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed. ⁶ ‘He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, “They will respect my son.” ⁷ ‘But the tenants said to one another, “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” ⁸ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ ‘What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture: ‘“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; ¹¹ the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes”?’  ¹² Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.”NIV

I read a book in which someone said, ‘If you throw a stone into a pack of dogs, you can tell which one it hits. It’s the one that yelps!’ Reading verse 12 automatically reminded me of those words. It looks like the whole ‘pack’ was hit by this ‘parable’.

Whenever I read this story, it never ceases to amaze me how Jesus distilled the story of the Bible, the history of Israel culminating in the gospel, into just a few lines. It shows how powerful one well-painted picture can be; how subversive its influence. It doesn’t have to be a long sermon; it doesn’t require a lot of words, to make an impact. Jesus held up a mirror and the religious leaders saw themselves looking back. No wonder they yelped!

Jesus ‘made the Pharisees realise how clearly he foresaw the fate which they were preparing for him. They were accustomed to apply Ps.118:22 to the Messiah, and recognised at once what Jesus meant when he claimed it as an emblem of his own rejection.’ F.B.Meyer: ‘Devotional Commentary’, pp.426, 427.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you whet my appetite to be a better communicator. Please enable me to speak with your wisdom, clarity and economy – and to strike oil!

Mark 11:27-33:Leading with questions.

^“27 They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. ²⁸ ‘By what authority are you doing these things?’ they asked. ‘And who gave you authority to do this?’ ²⁹ Jesus replied, ‘I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ³⁰ John’s baptism – was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!’ ³¹ They discussed it among themselves and said, ‘If we say, “From heaven,” he will ask, “Then why didn’t you believe him?” ³² But if we say, “Of human origin” . . .’ (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.) ³³ So they answered Jesus, ‘We don’t know.’ Jesus said, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’” NIV

A good question can expose what is going on in someone’s heart. That’s what happened here (31-33). It was just one sharp, pointed ‘arrow’ of a question, and it hit bull’s eye. It was all that was needed. It showed the religious leaders who they really were on the inside; not, it seems, that any of them were interested in seeing or hearing. One question, though, shone a bright beam into their dark interiors.

I’ve signed up to receive regular emails from an organisation called ‘Leading with questions.’ It’s gradually dawned on me over the years that one good question, wisely-worded, correctly-timed, can achieve far more than many accurate statements. I don’t feel I’m particularly adept at this skill, but I want to get better. I see its value.

I received an email the other day from Bob Tiede. He said that earlier this year he undertook some research, and discovered that in the ‘New International Version’ of the Bible there are 339 questions asked by Jesus. Jesus regularly posed questions of people, and how effective they were.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I want to be your apprentice. Please train me in your skill of asking great questions

Mark 11:20-25: Moving mountains.

^“20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig-tree withered from the roots. ²¹ Peter remembered and said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig-tree you cursed has withered!’²² ‘Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered. ²³ ‘Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,” and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵ And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.’ ” NIV

When Jesus cursed the fig-tree, He did so because it was an emblem of the nation of Israel. Israel looked good ‘on the outside’, but inwardly the nation was corrupt. They were not growing the ‘fruit’ of righteousness. The same thing was true of the temple, which lay at the heart of Israel’s religious life. It all looked quite impressive from a distance, but don’t get up too close! It didn’t bear inspection.

When Peter pointed out how quickly the fig-tree had withered at the Word of Christ (21), Jesus seized the ‘teachable moment’ presented by the comment. He turned it into a lesson about effective prayer. He used the occasion to teach about the authority of the disciple and the importance of faith (22-24). God can do anything, and we are to pray to Him in faith (Mark 10:27). But Jesus wasn’t saying that praying in faith is some magic formula whereby you can always have just what you want. Tom Hale, in his Applied Commentary, points out a number of vital principles for answered prayer, garnered from other parts of the Bible. He also adds that although God always answers the prayer offered in faith, He may not answer it in the way we expect. We may ask for one thing, but God in His wisdom might give something better. We can trust Him to answer our prayers as He knows best. Also, we may have to wait for the answer to arrive. God not only knows the best thing to give, but also the best time to give it. Both faith and patience (persistence) are necessary (Luke 18:1-8; Hebrews 6:12). Don’t too easily conclude that your prayer has not been answered. God sometimes ‘answers later in order to answer better’. Ronald Dunn.

In the context, we also note that un-forgiveness will ‘block’ the channel of prayer (25). Jesus is not putting into our hands a ‘blank cheque’ (see also Psalm 66:18 – a very important verse to consider).

I think Tom Hale is so right to say: ‘But God does not look at our lives only during times of prayer. God looks to see what our lives are like all day long. Does our loving and forgiving spirit toward our neighbour last all day long? Do we continue walking in faith all day long? This is what God is looking to see. God will hear our prayers according to our daylong behaviour.’ ‘The Applied New Testament Commentary’, p.260.