Mark 12:35-13:2 - Don't mess with Jesus' commands
26/2/23
Preach
Scripture
Questions
David’s son and lord
35a And continuing, Jesus said while teaching in the temple…
Jesus is still in the temple [“context, context, context”]. What has happened in the temple teachings up to this point?1
35b “How can the scribes say that the Christ is David’s son? 36 David himself said by the Holy Spirit, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’
This is Psalm 110:1 and hyperlinks to the whole Psalm. Read Psalm 110 and perhaps Psalm 2. How is the future Messiah portrayed?2
This would have been poignant to the crowd. Was the anointed one really coming afters centuries of waiting, and YHWH’s seeming silence, to throw off the yoke of Roman oppression?
37a David himself calls him ‘Lord,’ and how is he his son?”
The scribes are correct. The Christ is David’s son [Psalm 2:1–12; 89:1–52; Isaiah 9:1–7; Jeremiah 23:5–6; Ezekiel 34:23–24] but he also David’s “Lord”.
How would you answer Jesus’ question?3
The crowd are enthralled…
37b And the large crowd was listening to him gladly.
Warning to beware of the scribes
Jesus again rebukes the scribes…
38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like walking around in long robes and greetings in the marketplaces 39 and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets, 40 who devour the houses of widows and pray lengthy prayers for the sake of appearance. These will receive more severe condemnation!”
Luke calls the scribes Pharisees [Luke 11:43]. The long robes indicated that they were scholars4.
Why is Jesus so harsh? What is their sin?
And so the narrative aptly continues…
A poor widow’s offering
41 And he sat down opposite the contribution box and was observing how the crowd was putting [βάλλει5] coins into the contribution box. And many rich people were putting in many [coins] [ἔβαλλον πολλά].6 42 And one poor widow came and put [ἔβαλεν] in two small copper coins [λεπτά]7 (that is, a penny [κοδράντης]). 43 And summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow put in more than all those who put [offerings] into the contribution box. 44 For they all ⌊contributed [lit. “put in”] out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in everything she had, her whole means of subsistence.”
Read Proverbs 3:34. Who is the hero for Jesus in this little incident?
Backstory: The temple and Second Temple Judaism
We are reminded by Mark that the above [11:27-12:44] happened in the temple. We need to think about the temple in biblical theology and Second Temple Judaism to grasp something of the significance of what happens next. Briefly [!]…
Recent scholarship increasingly agrees that the Genesis 1 creation account is a temple inauguration and would have been understood as such by hearers in the ANE. The god of this account is above all the other gods having set them in the heavens. This god created all things [dry land, air and the sky above] from the primordial chaos waters. The account is functional rather than material as the god has spoken or ordered all things as a sacred space where he would live with his families [the gods above and adam on the earth]. Genesis 2 reveals Eden as a place where this god, now identified as YHWH, and other gods and adam coexist. However, sin meant that YHWH drove adam out of Eden and barred the way back with heavenly beings. This was grace on YHWH’s part lest adam be destroyed by his holiness.
In the [re]new[ed] creation all will restored. There will be no spatially limited temple as God and Jesus will live in the [re]new[ed] creation with adam.
In the interim God had created a new nation, Israel, through whom he would bring back the nations to an Edenic relationship with him and the gods. The earth however, was full of sin and darkness, and so the tabernacle and later the temple required much ritualistic separation from the world so that a ritually clean people, priests, under heavily prescribed conditions could enter into the God’s presence on behalf of the people.
For Judaism, the temple is central, utterly central. It is the place during the Second Temple Period, i.e. Ezra-Nehemiah until 70AD, where the people longed for the presence of YHWH to return. They searched the scriptures, reported revelations, speculated etc. When would YHWH return? When would the presence, absent for centuries, return to the temple. Nothing.
Jesus is clearly elevating the hope of the crowds. He speaks with an authority the other rabbis do not have. Jesus is speaking in the temple. He has brutally critiqued the religious leaders. Now what!?
The destruction of the temple predicted
Chapter 13
1 And as he was going out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look! What great stones and what wonderful buildings!”
Where are they now? Will Jesus ever enter the temple again? How will YHWH return?
2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here on another stone that will not be thrown down!”
What is going to happen? When will this be fulfilled? How would you have felt as a Jewish follower of Jesus?
The chief priests and the scribes have challenged Jesus as to his authority [11:27-33]; he had publicly spoken of the wickedness of the leaders [12:1-12]; the Pharisees and Herodians had tried to catch him out with a question about taxes in order to hand him over to the Romans [12:13-17]; he had silenced the Sadducees and their quibbles about the resurrection of the dead [12:18-27]; and had a very positive interaction with a scribe who was a devout student of the Tanakh [12:28-34]. Many of the leaders wanted him dead but are afraid of the crowd [Mark 12:12]. Jesus had been talking with a scribe [Mark 12:28-34]
These are vivid portrayals of a future Messiah triumphing, in very brutal and militaristic language, over the nations.
Christian theology would later have to attempt to formulate a Christology that answered these questions. For now, the Messiah, the scripture have already foretold, will be a descendent of David yet his lord, YHWH himself.
John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Mk 12:38.
“βάλλω (ballō): vb.; ≡ Str 906; TDNT 1.526—1. LN 15.215 throw, hurl (Mt 5:30; Jn 8:7 v.r.); 2. LN 15.122 let fall, allow gravity to work, let drop (Rev 6:13); 3. LN 15.112 sweep down, move down suddenly (Ac 27:14); 4. LN 47.2 pour, cause a liquid to come out of a container (Mt 9:17); 5. LN 85.34 put, or place something somewhere (Mt 18:30; Jas 3:3; Mt 9:17) see also prior entry; 6. LN 13.14 bring about, cause a state or condition (Mt 10:34); 7. LN 13.45 do away with, remove drive out (1Jn 4:18); 8. LN 57.217 deposit money (Mt 25:27); 9. LN 43.17 βάλλω τὸ δρέπανον (ballō to drepanon), begin to harvest, formally, swing the sickle (Rev 14:16, 19+); 10. LN 23.152 βάλλω εἰς κλίνην (ballō eis klinēn), make sick (Rev 2:22+); 11. LN 39.15 πῦρ βάλλω (pyr ballō), cause discord (Lk 12:49+), note: this idiom is sometimes preferred to be formally rendered; 12. LN 30.29 βάλλω εἰς τὴν καρδίαν (ballō eis tēn kardian), cause to think, formally, place in the heart (Jn 13:2+)” James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
Although often translated “large sums,” the plural here suggests large numbers of individual coins, which would make an impressive noise.
1 λεπτό = 1/128 th of a denarius. A denarius was one day’s pay.