Bible Commentaries
Mark 12

Verses 1-18

1-12 Compare Mat_21:33-46 ; Luk_20:9-19 .

1 This was a most familiar illustration for His hearers. Vineyards were usually planted on stony ground. After clearing, the stones were built into a broad stone fence, sometimes not much more than a carefully piled heap, without cement. The vat, into which the grapes were cast for pressing, was usually cut in the natural rock on a hillside, with an opening in the bottom for the juice to escape. When the grapes were ripe a watchman was on guard at all times, being stationed on the tower, which overlooked the whole vineyard. Israel is the vineyard of Jehovah ( Isa_5:7 ). The parable describes the treatment accorded God's messengers and prophets, whom He sent to recall them to their duty to Him. It was one long story of rebellion and violence. Each generation prided itself that it would not persecute the prophets as its fathers had done, yet, when put to the test, exceeded them in their mistreatment of His slaves. The priests and scribes and elders were the farmers to whose care the vineyard had been committed. The Lord boldly predicts their course with regard to Himself, and, incidentally, He answers their question as to His authority. They were simply hirelings, with no authority whatever when He was on the scene. The vineyard was His Father's. They were answerable to Him. Perhaps nowhere is the darkness of man's mind and the hardness of his heart more apparent than when, in stubborn rebellion against God, he carries out the revealed will of God. Though this was a parable, they knew that He was speaking of them. Why, then, did they persist in doing what He said they would do? They will have no place or power in the kingdom.

10 Compare Psa_118:22-23 . See 1Pe_2:4-8 .

10 The capstone of the corner is usually the most ornate on a building. The very finest block of stone would ordinarily be reserved for it. But the rulers in Israel refused to give Him any place in the edifice. He was rejected and despised. But when it is finished He will have the highest and most glorious position. How blind they must have been, after this plain prediction, to go on in senseless rage to fulfill His words to the letter!

13-17 Compare Mat_22:15-22 ; Luk_20:19-26 .

18 There were many insurrections and disturbances in Palestine during the first century due to hatred of the foreign domination, and especially because of taxation. The poll tax was a practical pledge of allegiance to Caesar, or rather a badge of subjection. Some of the Jews were in doubt whether it was right to pay it. But it was a most dangerous dilemma in which they hoped to place Him. His followers would soon desert a Messiah Who openly counseled subjection to a gentile tyrant, and the authorities would make no delay in executing any popular leader who spoke against the poll tax. The crafty hypocrites who planned this trap were careful to keep clear of it themselves, for they were afraid it might lead them into complications. So they sent some of the two opposing parties, one of whom, they were sure, would cause His downfall. He first tears off their hypocritical mask. "Why are you trying Me?" Each word is worthy of separate emphasis. Their motive was wrong. They were not conscientious patriots seeking counsel from the true King of Israel, but false traitors seeking to assassinate Him. How pathetic was His next appeal! Caesar was collecting coffers on coffers of denarii, yet He did not number a single one among His acquaintances! The usurper is satiated with tribute; the rightful Sovereign is penniless. By accepting the Roman currency, they virtually acknowledged their subjection to Caesar. It was only just that they should fulfill their obligations to him so long as it was God's will that they should suffer for their insubordination to Him. But the rest of the reply was not demanded by the question. It may refer partly to the payment of the temple taxes ( Mat_17:24-27 ; Exo_30:11-16 ) for the services of the sanctuary, but, in a broader sense, included all their obligations to God. This would, of course, first of all involve paying Him the loyalty and honor due Him as God's King. They sought to show that He was a traitor to Rome. He exposed their disloyalty to God.

18-25 Compare Mat_22:23-30 . See Luk_20:27-86 .

18 See Act_23:8 .

19 See Deu_25:5-6 .

Verses 19-43

18 Now that He has answered the hardest question of the Pharisees and Herodians, the Sadducees bring Him their best argument against the truth of resurrection. There is the constant tendency, even among the household of faith, to present practical difficulties in order to discredit the truth. And the answer is always the same. Those who do not believe God are deceived because they are not acquainted with the Scriptures or the power of God. The difficulties are of their own making. The marriage state is not carried over into the resurrection.

26-27 Compare Mat_22:31-33 ; Luk_20:37-38 . See Exo_3:6 .

26 According to the Sadducees, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will never be raised from the dead, hence will never live, and God is the God of the dead. The Lord does not affirm that they are alive, for then they would not be raised. His argument demands that they be dead, and that resurrection be a necessity to bring them back to life. There were those in the Corinthian ecclesia who followed the Sadducees on this very subject ( 1Co_15:12-28 ). They denied the resurrection of any: Paul proves the vivification of all. Not only will all be raised from the dead, but all will be given life beyond death at the consummation. Then it will be seen that God is indeed a God, not of the dead, but of the living. This could never be true if there were no resurrection. Far less could it prove the necessity of resurrection if there were no death.

28-34 Compare Mat_22:34-46 .

28 We would expect the Lord to choose one of the "ten commandments". But not one of these compares with the one He selected. Mere negative precepts- thou shalt not -are not in the same class with this positive, lofty conception of conduct based on love. The second would displace all human legislation, were it possible to enforce it. But how much better is the grand truth that we rest on His love to us, not ours to Him! He loves us with all the ardor of His heart. This is unutterably better than the best precept.

29 Compare Deu_6:4-5 .

31 See Lev_:19:18 ; Rom_13:8-10 ; Gal_5:14 ; Jam_2:8 .

32 See Deu_4:39 ; Isa_41:6-14 .

33 See 1Sa_15:22 ; Hos_6:6 ; Mic_6:6-8 .

34 Compare Luk_20:39-40 .

35 Compare Mat_22:41-45 ; Luk_20:41-44 .

35 Now that the Lord has answered all His opposers, He propounds a question which they do not attempt to answer. The Messiah was the great central figure of prophecy. The scribes had many traditions about Him. Perhaps the best known title given Him was Messiah ben David, for the son of Jesse was the greatest national hero, and to him was given the kingdom covenant. But they utterly failed to see that He was also the Son of God, and was identical with the One David called his Lord. None of the theophanies, or manifestations of God, in ancient times could have been appearances of the one invisible God ( Col_1:15 ; 1Ti_1:17 ). No one has ever seen God: the only begotten God. . . He unfolds Him ( Joh_1:18 ). Jacob saw Elohim at Peniel face to face ( Gen_32:30 ). Isaiah saw Jehovah Tsebahoth ( Isa_6:5 ; Joh_12:41 ). These and others of like nature can be no other than the One Who is the Image of the invisible God ( Col_1:15 ; 2Co_4:4 ). The God of the Scriptures is one God. He has His Spirit, which is identical with Him in personality. Otherwise Christ had two fathers, for He is the onlybegotten of the Father ( Joh_1:14 ) and of the holy Spirit ( Mat_1:18 ). Just as a man and his spirit are one, so God and His Spirit are one. The Son of God is a distinct personality, as David shows when he says "The Lord said to my Lord." Yet there is the closest unity, the same as exists between an idea and its verbal expression, a person and his statue or image. God can be known to human creatures only through His Word and His Image, Who is Christ, the Son of God.

36-37 See 2Sa_23:2 ; Psa_110:1 .

38-40 Compare Mat_23:1-14 ; Luk_20:45-47 .

38 While the scribes were degrading Christ to the level of a mere descendant of David, they were seeking to exalt themselves in the eyes of the people.

41-44 Compare Luk_21:1-4 .

41 See 2Ki_12:9 .

42 The magnitude of a gift to God is not measured by its size but by the remainder which is left. True giving is a venture of faith.

Verse 44

44 See 2Co_8:12 .

1-8 Compare Mat_24:1-8 ; Luk_21:5-11 .

2 It took forty-six years to build the temple ( Joh_2:20 ). Our Lord had already hinted that it would be razed to the ground. While He was within the sacred precincts, it was the abode of God. Now that He has left it for the last time, it is a tenantless shell, forsaken by Jehovah. Hence He foretells its destruction. In the spiritual hahitation which takes its place, Peter speaks of the saints of the Circumcision as living stones ( 1Pe_2:5 ). Hence these stones of the temple may well stand for the whole structure of the priesthood, for not only the sanctuary, but the whole Levitical system was demolished at the siege of Jerusalem, about four decades later.

5 It must be remembered that the present interval of God's transcendent grace was an absolute secret, concealed in God ( Eph_3:9 ) and that even the times and eras of the kingdom could not be revealed at that time ( Act_1:7 ). If these are left out of sight, the events here spoken of by our Lord go right on from His time to the time of the end, just before the kingdom comes. We are in the interval between the demolition of the sanctuary (about 70 A.D.) and the still future course of events which are given in fuller detail under the first four seals in the Unveiling. The white horse rider ( Rev_6:2 ) is the false messiah who comes in His name, the fiery red horse brings on the battles, the black horse corresponds to the famine here foretold, while the fifth seal brings us the fate of those who testify in that day.

10 This is not the evangel of God's grace which we proclaim, but the evangel of the kingdom, which will be heralded once again in the great judgment era which immediately precedes the coming of Christ to reign over the earth. It will be carried on by an elect company in Israel who, like the two witnesses ( Rev_11:3 ), will be upheld by divine power. His coming for us is not contingent on any missionary program of the "church".

6 Compare Rev_6:2 . First Seal.

7 Compare Rev_6:4 . Second Seal.

8 Compare Rev_6:5-8 . Third and Fourth Seals.

9-13 Compare Mat_24:9-14 ; Luk_21:12-19 .

11 The method of salvation varies according to God's administration. To say that it is for those who endure to the end, in this economy of pure unmixed grace, would be most misleading. Only at the time specified, just before the consummation which ushers in the kingdom, is salvation accorded to those who endure. The same is true of preparation in speaking. It has no reference to the preaching of the evangel today, but to the defense of those who answer for their lives in the great affliction.

12-13 See Luk_12:51-53 .

14-17 Compare Mat_24:15-22 .

14 See Dan_9:27 ; Dan_12:11 .

14 The great chronological monument for the time of the end is the middle of the seventieth heptad, when the prince breaks his covenant with Israel, the daily offering ceases and the detestation of desolation is given ( Dan_12:11 ). This marks the beginning of the great unparalleled affliction, such as has never yet been known even to the persecuted Jew. So terrible will it be that not a soul would be saved through it If God did not cut it short. There seems to be some asylum for those who flee into the mountains of Judea. In the Unveiling this flight is spoken of as if by a woman. " And the woman fled into the wilderness, there where she has a place made ready by God, that there they may be nourishing her a thousand two hundred sixty days" ( Rev_12:6 ). To the wild fastnesses southeast of Judea they fly before the fury of the Satanic onslaught with no preparations, no provisions, nothing to preserve them alive for their three and a half years' sojourn. Yet they will be miraculously fed and sheltered, as they were once before in the forty years' wanderings in the same wilderness. In the inclement weather of a Palestine winter such a flight would be beyond endurance, especially to those not inured to hardship. Yet amidst it all, their safety is assured, for God has already predicted their preservation and salvation, and He is well able to care for His own.

15 See Luk_17:31-33 .

19 See Dan_12:1 ; Rev_6:9-11 . Fifth Seal.

21-23 Compare Mat_24:23-28 . See Luk_17:22-21 .

21 The coming of Christ for His body, the ecclesia to which we belong, will take place more than three and a half years before this time, possibly as many as thirty-seven or sixty-seven. But no one will be able to say when He will come to Israel until the abomination of desolation is set up and the great affliction begins. Then all may be assured that He will not come for three and a half years. By this they will recognize the many false messiahs who will rise at that time. But after three and a half years marvelous portents in the sky will herald the advent of the long-desired Messiah. He will come as a lightning flash, clothed in glorious majesty and might. His first act will be to gather the trembling outcasts of Israel from all quarters of the earth about Him, for theirs is the kingdom for the eons of the eons.