Someone once told me that when it comes to our children, more things are caught than taught, meaning that we can teach all the right things, read our Bibles, pray with our children, and take them to church, but in the end the way we live our lives in front of our children will have a much more profound impact on them than all the words we speak or the lessons we teach.
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.
Think about it, of all the titles God could have chosen for Himself—and there are many names for God indicating His power and character—the most intimate and relational title He chose was “Father.” The Bible instructs us to pray in the name of Jesus, but Jesus teaches us to open our prayers with, “Our Father who is in heaven.”
The relationship between children and their parents, and especially between a father and his children is a key characteristic that differentiates between the evil end of days when God will pour out His wrath, and the restoration of all things, when God “will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” In Romans 1:30, apostle Paul speaks of the decline of civilization, which will result in the wrath and judgement of God upon the earth, and among the list of things he mentions are that men will be “backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents”
