Mark 12 is a great chapter of Scripture. It is very hard to limit one's comments on this set of verses. I will, however, highlight just 2 things from today's reading.
1. The first thing to note is Jesus' parable about the tenants (verses 1-12). The obvious point is to critique Israel's leadership for their rejection of the Messiah. The religious leaders well understand that this parable is about them. It is easy to critque the religious leaders here. But I wonder if we aren't sometimes like them. The religious leaders saw Israel as their own personal playground. It was a place where they could exploit their religiosity to gain power and prestige and even money. They used Israel to aggrandize themselves. And many people do the same thing in churches today. They don't see that the goal of a church is to produce fruit for God. They see that a church is a place where they can build themselves up. We need to repent of this attitude. The church is a community that produces fruit for God not for itself.
2. The second thing to note is Jesus' response to the Sadduccees (18-27). The Sadduccees were the liberals of Jesus' day. They did not believe in supernatiral events. They had a very circumscribed view of Scripture. There are definitely parallels that could be drawn between the Sadducees and theological liberals today. But the biggest parallel is that both groups are liberal for the same reason. According to Jesus, they "know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God" (verse 24). Those same problems lie at the root of theological liberalism today. There is no true knowledge of the Scriptures. And there is no real believe in a transcendant, all-powerful God.
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