Mark 12 explained: Stories and Questions in the Temple

The tenants who kill (vv. 1-12)

The vineyard echoes an old prophetic picture of Israel as God's vineyard, and it is commonly read this way: the tenants are the temple leaders, the servants are the prophets, and the son sent last points to Jesus himself. The quoted psalm says the stone the builders threw away becomes the most important stone in the building, and the leaders realize the story is aimed at them.

A question about taxes (vv. 13-17)

Pharisees (a movement known for careful keeping of the law) and Herodians (backers of Herod's family, who ruled under Rome) set a trap: saying yes would anger people who hated paying Rome, and saying no would sound like rebellion. Since the coin carries the emperor's picture, Jesus says to give it back to him and to give God what belongs to God, which leaves his questioners amazed.

Marriage after death (vv. 18-27)

The Sadducees, a priestly group who denied that the dead will rise, mock the idea using an old law that a man should marry his brother's childless widow. Jesus says risen life is not simply a continuation of marriage, and argues from Moses' own words that God calls himself the God of long dead ancestors, so they must still be alive to him.

The greatest commandment (vv. 28-34)

Jesus quotes the prayer Jewish people still say every day, 'Hear, O Israel,' and joins it to the command to love your neighbor as yourself, both taken from the books of Moses. The teacher agrees that this love matters more than all temple sacrifices, and Jesus tells him he is not far from God's kingdom.

Whose son is the Messiah? (vv. 35-37)

People expected the Messiah, God's promised king, to be a descendant of King David, yet in Psalm 110 David calls this king 'Lord,' as if he were greater than David. Christians read this as pointing to Jesus as more than a human heir to David's throne.

Show-off teachers, poor widow (vv. 38-44)

Jesus warns against teachers who love status and take advantage of widows while praying long prayers for show. He then points to a poor widow whose two tiny coins count for more than the large gifts of the rich, because she gave everything she had to live on.

Key verse: Mark 12:30

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the vineyard being given 'to others' means God turning from Israel as a people to the church, or God taking authority away from the particular leaders who rejected Jesus.

Something to think about

Is a gift better measured by its size or by what it costs the person giving it, and why?