the lamb was not mentioned by the Gospel writers because Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Re 13:8). All other Passover lambs throughout the history of Israel were merely placeholders in time awaiting fulfillment in Jesus Christ. It was not the blood of lambs, rams, goats, or calves that could save. It is only the blood of Jesus Christ applied to the doorposts of our hearts that cleanses us of sin, defeats death, and gives us eternal life.
There will always be people who criticize our worship, our giving of time for Sunday School, Sunday worship, or Bible study on Wednesday nights. Some will say that our giving in tithes and offerings is a waste and that all the church wants is your money. The takers are always calculating, always thinking about what they can get rather than what they can give in worshipping and in service to the Lord.
When will that day be? In verse 32 Jesus said, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” We don’t know the day or the hour, but we should be able to see the signs and perceive the season. Instead of trying to figure out exactly when He will return, Jesus said that we should always be ready: “Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.”
Having said all that, I do not believe Jesus left us in the dark. Throughout the biblical teaching of the end times, there is both warning and promise. In verses 5 through 12 of chapter 13, Jesus warned the disciples of what was coming, but then He ended with the promise in verse 13 that “he who endures to the end shall be saved.” The biblical truth concerning the end of the age is not there to scare the people of God. If we have confessed our sins, asked Jesus into our hearts, and are walking by faith in His Word, then we can confidently look forward and pray with the apostle John, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Rv 22:20).
Jesus made a startling prophetic prediction that was so unlikely and so precise that it could not have been anything less than Divine insight. He was predicting the end of an era and the beginning of a new one, which was the inauguration of a new covenant in His blood.
Jesus was still on the Mount teaching, and in our two passages, we see two contrasting events through Jesus’ eyes, which should give us pause to consider how Jesus would assess us—our services, our worship, and our lives. In the pretentious scribes, Jesus saw some things to condemn, but in the poor widow, He found someone to commend.
From the time Jesus entered Jerusalem challenging the compromise and pride of the religious elite in Judaism, the people in power rejected Jesus of Nazareth as anything but a troublemaker. The chief priests, scribes, elders, and other elite religious leaders were completely mystified as to who this Jesus was, but they rejected the idea that He was the Messiah. So, they probed and questioned Him, observed and tried to find fault with Him, but they came up short each time they tried to defame Him.
When I was in my early 20s, I read the book Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis. As the title indicates, in this work Lewis tried to get to the core of Christianity, and I think he did a pretty good job. He laid a good foundation by outlining the key elements of the Christian faith. To do this, he wrote a small book of 190 pages; however, Jesus distilled all of the Law and the Prophets into only two sentences.
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.
