Epaggelia

v12, Why did his disciples need to ask about where the Passover meal would be held? How did Jesus make arrangements without their knowledge? The Passover meal was one of the most important laws to observe and they’ve been following him for over 2 years, why wouldn’t they be prepared? To find a man carrying a jar of water, wouldn’t be hard, because usually it was women who carried jars of water. Luke 22:8 tells us which disciples are sent by Jesus to find this man, it was Peter & John. When they find the man, he leads them to the owner of the house, and they ask “The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ The words “MY GUEST ROOM” are amazing. This has been planned beforehand with serious intent! It doesn’t sound like a last minute afterthought being miraculously snapped into action. 

v13-15, Once they found the room, What was the role of the disciples in preparing for the meal? There is a certain sense of secretive service going on, while observing the Passover Meal. No one knows who owns the house, not even the disciples, so Judas would be totally unaware, and unable to use this venue as time for betrayal, but Judas was there! And the words “MY GUEST ROOM” are amazing. This has been planned beforehand with serious intent! It doesn’t sound like a last minute afterthought being miraculously snapped into action. It is very beautiful when the Master feels free to put His hand on our possessions, and claim their use. Does he not ask for the guest chamber of our inner life? Is our lifestyle at His disposal? Do we have room for Jesus to call his own in our estate? A great series of verses to read in this context is: Luke 14:33, Acts 4:32, Ephesians 1:11-14.

v16-21, The conversation around the table is directed by Jesus to emphasize betrayal. Why do you think in the middle of the Passover meal, ‘betrayal’ was needed as the topic of teaching? What is being established here is our Deliverance from betraying Jesus. All of us are guilty, and this Meal turns into the Supper we commune in our salvation. Just as the Israelites were saved as God passed over the blood in Egypt, we are saved as God passes over us with the blood of Christ in communion. Jesus has known for a long time, the evil one was amongst his own closest disciples, John 6:70, yet he still eats this Supper with him. Shouldn’t this teach us to be very slow in withdrawing fellowship from sinful Christians in our fellowship? However Judas is condemned by Jesus in v21, with real finality. In the mind of Christ, Judas Iscariot had already gone too far to return and repent and Christ knew it, as the other disciples would soon learn. The audacity of Judas to ask the question (is it I? ) even after having already talked to his enemies (14:10) is proof that Jesus is right. 

v22-24, the body of Jesus being represented as unleavened bread, which is broken and shared to be eaten is an obvious message of suffering, especially in view of the fact that Jews would see this as being in or out of fellowship. Unleavened bread was mandatory in this feast but if you ate any leavened bread that week, you were cut out of Israel’s fellowship, Exodus 12:15. So Jesus was mandating inclusive participation in his suffering, and none of them actually understood it at the time. Remember Acts 14:22. Jesus would suffer in this body, then expect us to be disciples that serve to the point of sacrificial suffering, Colossians 1:24. Isn’t it a paradox, that the spiritual body of Christ on each Sunday shares in the bread that represents his suffering for us? When Jesus offered the cup as his blood establishing a new covenant, he was on the brink of fulfilling the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31-33.

v1-2, The Chief Priests and Scribes of the law cared more about how the Romans would keep their peace, than they did about how they would value human life. Their method in a stealthy arrest of Jesus was more important than the truth. This kind of deceit is a clear indication that the “father of lies”, Jn. 8:44, was using their hearts rather than the “Father of Israel”, Exodus 4:22, “This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son”, but Israel’s leaders had grown into a corrupt band of thieves, robbing God of all that was due Him. Someone had to offer a perfect sacrifice! Now it would be Jesus. They were driven to find a way to kill Christ, and later in Judas Iscariot, they would find it.

v3-5, Another occasion of anointing Jesus is during the passion week, there are at least three anointings of Christ, (Lk.7:36-50, John 12:1-8 & Mk. 14:3-11 is the same event as in Mt. 26:6-13). The only reason I’ve ever known for the Holy Spirit recording 3 different anointings is that they might be pointing to the appointment of Jesus by God as Prophet, Priest & King, but this is highly subjective, and I can’t find any scriptural context concluding for or against it. This particular anointing was very costly, it has been conservatively estimated at today’s value of $30K. In this anointing at Simon the leper’s house in Bethany, a similar criticism of the ‘wasted’ oil is made. In Jn.12:1-8, the criticism comes from Judas Iscariot in the house of Lazarus, Martha & Mary. So it seems his negative attitude is spreading and the warning Jesus gives against their criticism seems ignored. The point of purpose from the Lord’s perspective is that it signifies the holiness of Christ’s burial. Today the significance of His burial is in our baptism, by faith, herein is the venue for the Spirit’s application of a priceless atonement of his blood on our soul.  See Colossians 2:8-12. Which may be one reason, the woman should always be honorably mentioned as prophetically seeing the priceless value in his burial. The very word “Christ” means anointed. See 1st John 2:20-27 and then read 1st John 5:5-8, therein we can see the connection in thought, bringing holiness to our souls through faith in Christ’s blood during baptism. So it is no wonder that all four gospel writers take time to record anointings of Christ by people who loved Him. These anointings should encourage Christians to live holy lives avoiding sin, so that His gift of holiness to us and in us can grow the fruit of the Holy Spirit and benefit others, attracting them to His holiness, not our own.

v10-11, tells us of the greed of Judas Iscariot. When he is not able to make sense of such an expensive sacrifice he must have felt disappointment in the critique Jesus gave towards his excuse to put the expensive oil to better use. The real reason Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus is because he could see there was no financial gain in the direction His ministry was going in towards sacrifice instead of gain. (John 12:6).The leading priests were delighted when Judas contacted them about betraying Jesus because it gave them the opportunity they had been looking for, (v1) and they could later claim that Jesus had been betrayed by one of his own disciples. But even this horrible sin and potentially disastrous problem, a so-called disciple and/or apostle is causing, could be solved by Christ! A lesson for us in the church, that no problem of our own making is truly disastrous, if we are prepared to repent, but Judas Iscariot was not prepared, he killed himself. If we are not prepared to know what to do with our own guilt, we are in trouble, but if we know to take guilt to the Savior, we are saved, Acts 3:18-20

The difficulty of this chapter lay in the fact that the first readers of the gospel had an entirely different understanding of “the son of man coming in the clouds” v26, than we do. If we could put ourselves in their place, it would help us see the twofold nature of this chapter’s interpretation. The key lay in the way they understood Daniel 7, and the fact that we live after the fall of Jerusalem in AD70. It gives us a different perspective than what they had. Therefore it can be hard to understand Mark 13 and also Matthew 24, which are almost a copy of one another, where the same phrase, “son of man coming in the clouds” occurs, Mt. 24:30. The background for what Jesus is saying here is in Daniel 7:13-18. Jews during the days of Jesus understood this passage to point to Israel’s world domination with their Messiah, the Son of Man. The apocalyptic language of Mk. 13:6-8 reminds us of the same prophetic language of Haggai 2:6-7, where global catastrophic events surround God’s government changing. The greatness of the change would be equal to the greatness of the Temple and it’s destruction. The 2nd Temple was greater than the first for 2 reasons, firstly, Jesus Christ, Immanuel visited it several times, and he is much greater than any temple. Secondly, it was indeed smaller in dimensions, but in time, Herod lavished huge amounts of decor, and precious metals to make it’s appearance grandiose and curry favor with the Jews. This made it economically more valuable than Solomon’s first temple.

The Temple during the days of Jesus was heralded by the Roman historian Tacitus, in his, “History 5.8”, calling it “immensely opulent.” The Jewish historian contemporary with the first century, Josephus, compared it to a beautiful snow capped mountain. So when Jesus said “not one stone will remain upon another”, he was prophesying destruction unimaginable to his generation. It would be a little like someone from a country village in Mississippi, living in 1971, to promise his closest friends that the Pentagon would be hit & the World Trade Center Twin Towers would be destroyed by a small group of terrorists. This claim would be total mockery in 1971, but when Jesus made the prophecy concerning Jerusalem, none of his disciples laughed but were filled with concern and questions. This reaction and historical consequences are one solid reason why everyone today should take the gospels very seriously indeed. 

The persecution prophesied would begin with Jews “councils & synagogues”, v9, but grow to include Gentiles, “kings”, and the purpose was to be a “witness”. The word in Greek is “Martoreen” meaning “evidenced testimony”, but of course it is a root word that gave life to our English word Martyr. We see a fulfillment of this prophecy throughout Acts, but nowhere in the rest of the New Testament does it mention the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem. Why?

v14 has the phrase, “the abomination of desolation”, is an allusion to Dan. 9:27. Some have seen the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy in the actions of Antiochus IV in 167BC but the words of Jesus indicate that Antiochus was not the final fulfillment, but that there was (from Jesus’ perspective) still another fulfillment yet to come. It is historically true that the Roman General Titus desecrated the Temple by posting the “Roman Eagle” inside the Temple grounds to be honored as an idol. Then later destroyed it in AD70. Today the Arch of Titus is celebrating his triumph over Jerusalem. Still reminding the world of God’s fulfilled prophecy Jesus made, as he wept, Luke 19:41-44.

v32 “but”, may indeed mark the change in thought by Jesus, away from Jerusalem and Israel’s demise, and onto the world’s judgment day that we ourselves have yet to meet. The command for everyone to stay alert is reminiscent of The parable of the 10 virgins, Matthew 25:1-11, Do you have enough oil?

DAVID’S SON & LORD: THE MESSIAH/CHRIST, v35-37

The Lord said to my lord. Psalm 110:1, With David being the Psalmist, this shows his respect for his descendant (referred to as my Lord). Jesus was arguing that the passage is about the Lord’s anointed. The passage looks at an enthronement of his descendant and a declaration of honor for him as he takes his place at the side of God. In Jerusalem, the king’s palace was located to the right of the temple to indicate this kind of relationship. Jesus was pressing the language here to get his opponents to reflect on how great the Messiah is. It was a common belief in Judaism that the Messiah would be David’s son coming from the lineage of David. On this point the Pharisees agreed and were correct. But their understanding was shallow, since for the Messiah to be David’s Lord, he had to be God! With this statement Jesus was affirming that, as the Messiah, he is both Lord God and man. Revelation 21:22.

THE DAMNATION OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS, v38-40

Notice the things they like, have nothing to do with what makes them who they are; The Law. Long robes, public greetings, best seats in worship, honorable positions in feasts, property & lengthy prayers. Does the Law say anything about the length of a prayer?  Nehemiah 9:5-38 contains the longest prayer in all of Scripture, and it can be read aloud with expression in less than seven minutes. The longest recorded prayer of Jesus is in John 17, and can be read in about 3 ½ minutes. However he repeatedly asked his disciples to spend an hour in prayer, and it’s recorded more than once that he spent the entire night in prayer. So what was so bad about the lengthy prayers of Scribes? See Luke 18:10-14, and remember why The Spirit preserved James 3:1 for us today.

A CONTRAST IN GIVING, v41-44The offering box refers to the receptacles in the temple forecourt by the Court of Women used to collect freewill offerings. These are mentioned by Josephus, J. W. 5.5.2 (5.200); 6.5.2 (6.282); Ant. 19.6.1 (19.294). In the Mishnah, Shekalim 6, 5 (the only written evidence of the Jewish oral Law) it says there were 13 of these receptacles in the form of trumpets. The poor widow was certainly poor, because the two small copper coins were lepta (plural) or lepton (singular) the smallest and least valuable coins in circulation in Palestine, worth 1/128 of a denarius, or about six minutes of an average daily wage. This was next to nothing in monetary value. Whereas the rich people were throwing lots of money into the ‘trumpets’ and looked liberal in their free-will offerings. In appearance it was very valuable, but being “rich”, they obviously had money to spare. The contrast between this passage v41-44 and what was just written before in 11:15-18 is remarkable. The woman is set in stark contrast to the religious leaders. She was a poor widow, they were rich. She was uneducated in the law, they were well educated in the law. She was a woman, they were men. But they were not showing faith and actually stole money from God and men, 11:17, she evidenced great faith and gave out of her extreme poverty everything she had. The disciples accepted that Jesus knew the widow was giving everything she had to live on. They didn’t question a hidden investment she may have had because the contrast before their very eyes was enough to convince them that her faith was genuine and the rich people’s faith was at best shallow, and at worst absent. This teaches us that Jesus is not interested in the percentage of our giving, he is most interested in the faith of our giving!

BAITING THE TRAP, 12:13-17

If you preface an accusation with a positive compliment, then afterwards when the accusation comes, it’s better tasting and they are more likely to understand their need for repentance. They believed Jesus, as a Jew, would surely side against paying the Roman taxes, afterall, he was applauded by the Jewish majority for helping them understand the Law and speaking the truth like no one had heard before, (Jn. 7:46). The hypocrites joining forces with each other, (Mk. 3:6) approached Jesus with praise, in the hope that he would give an either/or answer, but Jesus gave a both/and answer, so slipping out of the trap. An honest inquirer on the issue, would surely seek to learn “what is God’s”, in order to give him what is his. But their hypocrisy left them in astonishment. Why would his critics put the issue of paying taxes to Jesus with both Herodians and Pharisees present?

On a more personal note: Have you ever resented paying taxes, which are so expensive you are tempted to worry about how you will pay other debts? If this happens, we should question our faith in the Sovereignty of God, who tells us to pay them anyway. Even in the face of a Government that will take those expensive taxes and execute ungodly goals, we are expected to give to God what is his, and give to the Government what is theirs. This should make us feel like a trusting servant of both God and Government, so why would any Christian have a conflicted conscience?

THE ERROR OF THE SADDUCEES, 12:18-27

The levirate law is in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage. All the reasons for practicing levirate marriage in a family were merely physical. The resurrection and resurrected bodies had nothing that could possibly pertain to this physical life. So the Sadducees were trying to make spiritual implications upon a totally physical scenario, which was almost ridiculous. Therefore Jesus takes the subject of the resurrection and puts it in a different context: Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. Demanding that they accept God’s promise of life-everlasting. If they don’t, their logical conclusion is that their “god” is dead. 

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT, 12:28-34

When I get to heaven, I want to learn who this “Expert in the Law” (Mk. 1:22) is. Jesus said he was close to the Kingdom of Heaven. He had the audacity while within eye-sight and ear-shot of his fellow peers to sincerely praise Jesus, as well as agree with him. What strength of courage, what depth of love for God’s cause. Do we have this? A faith that takes a public stand for the priorities of Jesus is very beneficial for everyone. Otherwise, his critics are shut down! Matthew 22:46, Mark 12:34 & Luke 20:40 all record this event. From here forward his critics have no more words to deceive, they only have actions to destroy. If we practice the greatest commandment as well as the second likened unto it, we will feel friction, God loves this and Satan hates it. Love in v30 is in the future tense, but in v31, it is in the present tense. Why is that?

QUESTIONING AUTHORITY: 11:27-33

Many Bible theologians have argued about the reason Jesus answers their question with a question, as if to make a deal. The reason Jesus does this is he obviously knows they simply want to argue and catch him in a fault. The Chief Priests, Scribes and the Elders aren’t interested in the source of authority Jesus has, but they are proven to be more interested in what other people think, “for they feared all the people”, v32. These religious leaders are cowards, they have no brave faith in God to help them lead the people, but they would rather fear the people. The point is that no matter what Jesus said in response to their question they were not going to believe it and would in the end use it against him. So they claimed ignorance and indicted themselves when they cited only two options and chose neither of them. The point for us: It is never a good idea to doubt the source of authority in Christ, if we keep doubting instead of believing in his authority, then we will end up incriminating ourselves. Notice Jesus was not afraid to use the subject of BAPTISM for pointing people to divine authority, see Mark 1:4. Why should we?

THE PARABLE OF THE TENANTS: 12:1-9

After the Owner of the Vineyard sends over 4 or 5 servants to try and collect his share of the crop, they all get abused or killed, until He is left with only his son to send. Sounds almost desperate, why would the Owner think they will respect his Son after all this violent abuse and murder? Because some of them did respect Him, Anna, Simeon, the 12 Apostles, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea & all the women who ministered to him and his closest disciples. God knew that some Jews were more open-minded than others and they weren’t all closed-minded idolators, see Acts 17:11. But whoever pays attention to life-giving correction will be at home among the wise. Those who disregard discipline despise themselves, but the one who pays attention to correction gains understanding. Wisdoms’ instruction is to fear the Lord, and humility comes before honor (Proverbs 15:31-33).

v9, shows the reaction of the Owner towards the greedy Tenants, the verb “kill” (NIV) or “destroy” (KJV) is the verb, apollymi, “ruin, destroy,” to cause destruction, especially, “put to death.” We’ve studied Jesus’ prediction of the fall of Jerusalem which took place in 70 AD. This crushing destruction was terrible evidence of the wrath of God upon this rebellious land. To be clear, this destruction is not because of their rejection of Jesus, it is because of their hypocrisy in loving the ability to make money in the Temple, instead of loving the ability to please the Father in the Temple by serving the Nations.

CHRIST’S INTERPRETATION: 12:10-12

The Chief Priests, Scribes and the Elders are not stupid, they can easily see that they represent the greedy tenants which turn murderous. So Christ quotes the “Cornerstone” passages of prophecy from Psalms 118:22-23.  The imagery in Eph. 2:20-22 & 1st Cor. 3:11 shows us that the term κεφαλὴ γωνίας (kephalē gōnias) refers to a cornerstone, not a capstone. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The use of Psa. 118:22-23 and the “stone imagery” as a reference to Christ and his suffering and exaltation is common in the NT, 1st Pet. 2:6-8. The irony in the use of Psa. 118:22-23 is that in the OT, Israel was the one rejected (or perhaps her king) by the Gentiles, but in the NT it is Jesus who is rejected by Israel.

The Cursing of the Fig Tree, v12-14; The only time Jesus used God’s power to harm anything was to teach a lesson on judging hypocritical religious leaders. All of Christ’s miracles were to show compassion towards people and/or establish the powerful authority of his message. Religious leaders should be fruit-bearing, and the fig tree appeared healthy, but had no fruit. Just like the ruling Scribes & Pharisees, they looked healthy on the outside, but were empty on the inside. At the expense of the tree, Christ proved to us that his insight to judge was a warning to Christians of all ages that fruit-bearing can not be neglected and we can not afford to ignore growing the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22-23. It seems Jesus had to go hungry, and if we do not bear fruit, His Spirit must be grieved, Ephesians 4:30-32.  It appears that Mark records this incident as a sign of what is going to happen to the leadership in Jerusalem. The fact that the nation as a whole is indicted is made clear in Mk.13:1-37 where Jesus speaks of Jerusalem’s destruction. On the subject of the fig-tree being out of season, true, It wasn’t the season for figs. But it was the season for faith and forgiveness. It was Passover. If there was a time Jews should be ascending to the temple in faith with expectations of forgiveness, this is it. If Jesus will curse the fig tree out of season and it withers, what will happen to the Temple which fails to bear fruit in season? What will happen to the Christian that doesn’t bear fruit?

The Second Cleansing of The Temple, v15-19; The first cleansing in Jn. 2:13-16, where Jesus renounces the moneychangers during the same feast time but years earlier, sets the stage for this final denouncement of their greed-filled ungodly gain. The language Jesus uses here in Mark is harsher, calling them “robbers”, whereas years ago, he simply compared them to running a “marketplace”. But regardless of the severity of language, The Temple in the mind of Christ was his Father’s House of Prayer for all Nations, not just Jews (Isaiah 56:7). But they had inflated the currency rate of exchange for the events using Temple Shekels only, regardless of what currency foreign proselytized believers brought to Jerusalem. Which was a strict way of working the economy considering the Romans denarius was in widespread use throughout Israel and in Jerusalem. The holiness of sacrifices must have been at stake in the minds of the Jewish Temple traders, as they would only use shekels to buy & sell sacrifices for the Feast’s activities, but of course this gave their greed a legit reason for inflating the rate of exchange and maybe even exchange fees. What made Jesus very angry was more than simply the theft, but also the perversion of purpose in the sacrifices bought. In 11:16, he even prohibited transport in the Temple of the sacrifice purchases, as if to say by his actions, that if they needed to exchange currency and conduct business in sacrifices, they should be doing it OUTSIDE the Temple grounds! If anyone wanted to prove who was holier than who, Jesus proved by banning their transport, who exactly had the holiest purpose, keep the Temple a place of prayer, not business! In the eyes of Jesus they were hypocrites of holiness. Matthew 22:21.

The Withered Fig Tree, v20-25; The power of judgment against hypocrisy was a lesson for his disciples who saw the quick death of the cursed tree, not the religious leaders in the Temple. The whole church was shown this in Acts 4:34-5:11. How often do we need to be reminded to keep the purpose of our sacrificial service holy? Whatever service we render in the name of Christianity, should benefit Christ, or your neighbor, not ourselves. Mark 12:30-31 & Duet. 6:5. Therefore forgive as our Father has forgiven us, Eph. 4:32.