THE GREAT MISTAKE By Mark E. Hardgrove, PhD, DMin Mark 12:18-27, NKJV 18 Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying: 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife...
The trap they thought they were laying for Jesus was that if Jesus said one should pay taxes, He could lose popularity among the people, who saw Roman taxation as oppressive and abusive. However, if Jesus said one should not pay taxes, He would be seen as something of an insurrectionist, and the Herodians would run to Herod with the words of Jesus, thereby giving Herod a reason to arrest Jesus. They thought they had Him. They thought they would succeed where the chief priests, scribes, and elders had failed. They were sure that there was no way around this verbal snare, but they were wrong.
In verse 1, Mark writes that Jesus “began to speak to them in parables.” He knew they were trying to trap Him, but through this parable, Jesus was able to criticize their actions, let them know He knew what they were planning, yet at the same time give them no ammunition to use against Him, which frustrated them even further. In the end, they concocted lies and false witnesses in the mockery of a trial against Him.
There is coming a shaking in this world, and everything that can be shaken will be shaken, but if we build our house of faith on the firm foundation, with Jesus as the chief cornerstone, then when the shaking stops and the wind and waves cease, we will still be standing. However, if we have built our hope on what the world has to offer, it will not stand. Kingdoms are going to fall, and there is no guarantee that America will survive, but if we have put our hope in nothing less than Jesus and His righteousness, we will survive.
What happened next has been interpreted in various ways, and viewing this through my emotional lens, I might be tempted to say that Jesus was “hangry” (angry for what He saw in the temple and hungry in the morning). Then, because He was hangry, Jesus simply cursed the tree. However, that is not likely the case here. Instead, Jesus saw the opportunity to use this moment to provide a powerful illustration. The fact that what happened with the fig tree frames the account of Jesus cleansing the temple is significant.
In the case of our text, what Jesus has to say about prayer and faith must be never be isolated from the larger story and used to justify some kind of hyper-faith doctrine, which argues that any of us can have anything we want, any time we want it if we just have enough faith and are willing to speak our miracle into existence. That is not what the Bible teaches, therefore, that cannot be what this passage teaches. With all that, said, look again at our passage.
Paul rejoiced in the faith of Timothy, and he credited both Timothy’s grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice for being influential examples in Timothy’s life. Every mother needs to know how important she is in her child’s life. Though some of you may have grown up without your mother in the home, and you have overcome incredible odds to become the person you are now, it still remains a biblical truth that mothers are God’s gift to children and the primary model for nurture and love.
The good news of Resurrection Sunday is that regardless of how low we feel, or how down we get, God is able to pick us up when we’re ready to look up and cry out to Him. But it will require us to lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us. It means that we have to call out to Jesus and be ready and willing to repent.
Do you know a donkey like the one Jesus is describing here? Maybe it’s a son or a daughter, maybe a sister, brother, father, or mother. They’re on the margins, they’re bound by habits and addictions, they rebel against the church, against spiritual leadership, and their parents. Some people have already given up on them, but Jesus is telling you to untie them and bring them to Him. After they meet Jesus, they will never be the same.
Mark said that Bartimaeus “began to cry out,” meaning he said it repeatedly. There are times when we have to knock and keep knocking, ask and keep asking, seek and keep seeking, because when we persist in faith, doors open, and prayers are answered. Sometimes we are embarrassed to keep asking, but this beggar wasn’t ashamed. He kept calling, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
