Mark 12:13
Three Strikes. You're Out!
Wednesday nights are our Bible study nights. My goal is to preach/
teach through a book of the Bible. Tonight, I want us to step back to
see a bigger picture. For that reason, I am going to read fewer Bible
verses and skip over some details. Perhaps we will come back and look
at this section in more detail later.
We are still reading about Tuesday of the Passion Week. Mark’s record
of that day runs from \\#Mark 11:20-13:37\\. Last week I mentioned
that most of the activities of that day fall into two categories
which I described as Tempting Tuesday and Teaching Tuesday. Tempting
Tuesday refers to the attempts of the religious leaders to trap
Jesus. Teaching Tuesday refers to the teaching Jesus gave that day.
There was a lot of both.
Let’s consider three thoughts:
I. Their Motive
Mark 12:13 And they send unto him certain of the
Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in
his words.
A. "And they…" - Who are they?
1. This is actually a continuation of what began in in
\\#Mark 11:28\\.
a. The religious leaders asked Jesus that most important
question, "By whose authority do You do these
things?"
b. Jesus answered their question of authority with
another question of authority.
c. They would not answer His question about authority so
Jesus did not answer their question about authority.
(1) That may sound like children fussing in the
backyard, but in truth Jesus is teaching us the
importance of timing.
(2) While Jesus was willing to die that week, He
would not die on the Tuesday BEFORE the Passover
but on Thursday, the day OF the Passover.
d. \\#Mark 12:1-12\\ Then Jesus gave a parable that
prophesized what was going to happen to Him and to
these religious leaders.
(1) What was going to happen to Jesus had already
been clearly taught by Jesus and determined by
the religious leaders.
(2) While this parable reveals it again, what will
happen to Jesus was not the main thrust of this
parable.
(3) The main thrust in this parable was what would
happened to the chief priest, scribes, and
Pharisees.
Mark 12:9 …he (God) will come and destroy the
husbandman (those entrusted with the spiritual
keeping of Israel)….
(4) The meaning of the parable was immediately
understood by the religious leaders:
Mark 12:12 …"they knew that he had spoken the
parable against them, and they left him, and went
their way.
2. AS A RESULT OF THEIR FIRST SHELLACKING, the religious
leaders select the best and the brightest among them to
"catch Jesus in His words."
a. In their minds, it is on now!
b. In their minds, "If Jesus wants to have a battle of
wits, we’ll give it to Him."
c. In their minds, "He will be on the cross before
sundown."
B. Let’s deviate a little.
1. The religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus that week.
a. This is Tuesday, and they want Jesus dead.
b. Mark stated this as their goal:
Mr 11:18 And the scribes and chief priests
heard it, and sought how they might destroy him:
for they feared him, because all the people was
astonished at his doctrine.
c. They were asking trick questions, looking for
weaknesses, trying to find fault so that while Jesus
was in Jerusalem (and He was not there very often),
they could "destroy" Him.
(1) I don’t know that THEY wanted to crucify Him.
(2) They are probably thinking about stoning Jesus,
but God will not allow that to happen.
2. Even so, there are three days during the Passion Week on
which they would rather NOT kill Jesus.
a. The Passover \\#Ex 12:1-14\\ - The Passover has
events over several days.
(1) First day of the month a lamb was to be selected.
(a) 1 per family unless the family was very
small.
(b) The lamb was to be kept until the 14th day.
(c) It is commonly believed that the 14th day
was Thursday that year.
(d) The day the lamb was selected was NOT a holy
day.
(2) 14th day (Thursday), at even, the lamb was killed.
(a) It is accepted that the Passover was on a
Thursday that year.
(b) The 14th day, Thursday, was a holy day.
(c) The Jewish day started at sunset.
(d) The Passover lamb was killed before the
sun set on the 14th day; but afterward, it
was roasted so that it was not eaten until
the 15th day.
(3) 15th day (Friday), any time after sunset, was the
day the lamb was eaten.
(a) Officially, the 14th day is the "Passover"
and the 15th day is "the Feast Day,"
although since they are back to back, some
might refer to them both by either name.
(b) We do the same thing.
i. On the night before Christmas, you
remember you forget to buy batteries
for JoJo’s little train.
ii. You grab your coat and start to dart
out the door only to remember, "It’s
Christmas. Everything’s closed."
iii. But actually, it is NOT Christmas.
iv. It’s Christmas Eve.
v. However, we sometimes refer to both
Christmas Eve and Christmas as
Christmas.
(4) For most Jews, the eating of the Passover
actually happened AFTER sunset which would have
been the 15th day of Nissan (or Friday that
year).
b. The first day of Unleavened Bread \\#Ex 12:15-20\\
(1) The First Day of Unleavened Bread is also a holy
day.
(2) \\#Ex 12:18\\ states the first day of Unleavened
Bread started on the 14th day of Nisan (the
Passover Day) at EVEN, which would make it the
beginning of the 15th day (Friday).
(3) The feast lasted seven days with the first and
seventh days being holy days.
(a) The first day would have been Friday, I
believe the day AFTER Jesus was crucified.
(b) The seventh day would have been the next
Thursday and has no significance in the
crucifixion.
c. The Sabbath
(1) Saturday is the Sabbath and is always a holy day.
(2) No work is to be done on the Sabbath, and the
penalty for violating that law could be death.
(3) Arresting, trying, and crucifying someone would
certainly be considered work.
(4) It doesn’t make much sense to break the Law to
execute Jesus for breaking the Law.
3. I say all of that to say this:
a. The Jews wanted Jesus dead the Passion Week.
b. They may have been willing to try to kill Him later
if they had to, but that was their goal.
c. At the same time, they would prefer not to kill Him
on a holy day: Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.
d. So they are working really hard to trip Jesus up now,
on Tuesday.
e. If they can trip Jesus up, they will kill Him as
quickly as they can.
II. Their Traps
A. \\#Mark 12:13-17\\ The Tax/Political Question
1. The best and the brightest come up with three (or more)
foolproof questions to ask.
a. They are certain one of the other will get Him!
b. I do not know who picked the questions or who picked
the order in which they were asked, but in my mind,
I see them:
(1) Starting more secular and getting more Biblical
with each question. (Taxes to the most
important commandment)
(2) And so from least important to most important.
(3) However, I am thinking the religious leaders
thought their first question was their best
chance to get Jesus.
2. Do we pay taxes or not?
a. Of course there is more to the question than that.
b. Governments often take our money and do bad things
with it.
c. The real question is, "Should we give our money to
help them or not?"
d. The religious leaders probably thought no matter which
answer Jesus gave, they would win:
(1) If Jesus said, "Don’t pay the taxes," He would be
an insurrectionist, and they could turn Him over
to Rome.
(2) If Jesus said, "Pay the taxes," they hoped the
people would turn against Him.
3. Jesus’ answer was not that simple.
a. Jesus answer was, "If we are going to play with the
government’s money, then we are to play by the
government’s rules.
b. I have told you before, there are things in the Bible
that I don’t like.
(1) I don’t like that answer.
(2) I would have rather Jesus said, "No."
c. However, we sometimes forget that we are the ones who
assign value to money, gold, silver, and all other
valuable things—not God.
d. God said, "If we have food in our bellies and cloths
on our backs, be content."
e. So if we want to take the government’s currency and
value it, we are to pay the government’s taxes.
f. I am afraid that includes us too.
(1) Sadly, today they not only tax our money, but
the food we eat, the water we drink—and before
long—probably the air we breathe.
(2) Obviously things that they have no right to tax.
(3) Even so, I am not sure Jesus’ answer would
change.
4. Now, if we have not figured it out, let me state it
plainly: we do not think like God thinks.
a. We value things of this world that God cares little
about, and because we value things of the world, we
think we know what God would want us to do when we
don’t.
b. I am the world’s worse.
c. There are things that are important to God.
(1) His glory
(2) His Word
(3) Life
(4) Money has no value to God whatsoever.
(a) Someone says, "What about the tithe"?
(b) The tithe is an issue of faith and
obedience, not the money.
(c) Look what God does here with the common and
poor people of our church.
B. \\#Mark 12:18-27\\ The Marriage/Bible Question
1. This question is based on a command given in
\\#Deut 25:5\\, making it a Biblical question.
2. While the question pushed the seams of reality a bit,
Jesus answered it.
Mark 12:24 And Jesus answering said unto them,
Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the
scriptures, neither the power of God?
25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they
neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but
are as the angels which are in heaven.
3. Jesus’ answer showed that not only do we not think like
God thinks, but we do not know what God knows.
a. Jesus revealed that there is no marriage in heaven.
b. He added that, in that aspect, we will be like the
angels of heaven. neither giving or taking a marriage
partner.
(1) That was new revelation.
(2) I do not know of any place that is revealed in
the Old Testament.
(3) In acknowledgment of that revelation, our wedding
vows say, "…til death do us part."
c. However, note something Jesus did NOT say.
(1) Jesus did not say we would not remember our
earthly mates or our lives together.
(2) Jesus did not say we would in any way love our
earthly mates any less. (My belief is that we
will love everyone in heaven a whole lot more
than we ever learned how to love our mates on
earth.)
(3) Jesus did not say we would be genderless beings.
i. We may be.
ii. Angels may be genderless now, and we may be
genderless when we get to heaven, but that
is NOT what Jesus said.
iii. To be honest, I don’t know whether a soul
has gender or not.
C. \\#Mark 12:28-31\\ The Bible/God Question
1. To me, this was the best question asked of Jesus that
day.
Mark 12:28 …Which is the first (the most
important)commandment of all?
a. To the religious leaders, it may not have been their
best question.
b. To be honest, I am not sure how this question could
"entrap" Jesus.
c. Some people might have disagreed with Jesus’ answer,
but I don’t think anyone would want to stone Jesus
for His answer.
2. Jesus gave a two for one answer:
Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of
all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord
our God is one Lord:
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the
first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is
none other commandment greater than these.
3. The answer as to which is the most important commands in
the Bible probably stymied the religious leaders.
a. Their reaction is not given, but I’ll bet that one
was not even on their list of possibilities.
b. Their lists probably had things like keep the Sabbath,
be circumcised, bring your tithes and offerings, and
keep a sin sacrifice close at hand, but I don’t think
they ever thought of loving as the most important
question.
(1) That might be why there is no recorded response.
(2) Perhaps they did not have one.
4. And if you have not figured it out yet, let me plainly
state that as we do not think like God thinks, or know
what God knows, so we do not love like God loves.
a. While it might seem like I am ridiculing the
religious leaders about what I believe was a shock
and surprise to them, it is only because I believe
it would have been as much of a shock and surprise
to you and me if we had been standing there that day
as well.
b. We have had the privilege of growing up in a post
New Testament world that has been greatly influenced
by the Bible.
(1) Today where we live, we EXPECT answers like that.
(2) Few if anyone would have expected that answer
then—and only then if you were a Jew.
i. The gods were not thought of as loving.
ii. They were fearful, casting their wrath down
on helpless human being without cause or
explanation.
iii. People did not offer sacrifices to them
because they loved them, but because they
were afraid they would send a drought, a
flood, a disease, or even death itself.
c. Everything we know about God, God’s love, and God’s
command that we love one another came about with
the coming of Jesus.
(1) I suppose that is one reason why it bothers me
that people think of our God as a mean,
uncaring, hateful God.
(2) I know it will be all right; however, for as
mankind continues to make their gods in their
image, they will find out what an hateful god
is like.
III. Their Results
Mark 12:34 …And no man after that durst ask
him any question.
A. Three strikes and you’re out!
1. It did not take them long to figure out their strategy was
not and was not going to work.
2. Their best and brightest were no match for Jesus in a
battle of wits.
3. How could they be when they were so badly out matched?
4. The truth is that for most of us the term "half-wit" would
be a compliment.
5. We have no ability to reason with God.
B. I do not know how or when Judas and the religious leaders met.
1. Did Judas go to them or did they go to Judas?
2. If they did go to Judas, what made them think he would be
willing to betray Jesus?
3. If they came to Judas, when?
C. However, this should have settled something for the religious
leaders.
1. They would never get Jesus without some help.
2. If Judas had already come to them, maybe this was what it
took to make them willing to pay his price.
3. If they initiated the contact with Judas, maybe this was
is what it took to make them go.
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