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+--- Thread: NT Doctrine -- Mark 12:13-40 (/thread-1119.html)
NT Doctrine -- Mark 12:13-40 - Ed Hurst - 07-02-2022
The soul of biblical religion is mysticism, seeking to connect directly with God as a Person. It requires a rather strong notion of a higher realm that exceeds human comprehension, and a deep distrust of this realm of existence as essentially a punitive mirage. Our only hope in this life is to seek peace with God. We burn through this human existence seeking to bring Him glory.
When the Pharisees were paired up with Herodians, it was a sign of desperation in both parties. The Pharisees we know, and the Herodians were partisans who supported the royal household of the Herod, the kind of sycophants every ruler must endure. The mutual hatred between these two groups was well known. About the only thing on which they could agree would be a strong desire to shed the burden of Roman rule.
It sounds like the Herodians asking the question with their smarmy courtesan opening. For the Pharisees it was a matter of their false holiness, but for the Herodians, paying tribute to Rome was a practical matter of politics. It was tantamount to asking whether this "Messiah" was planning to get rid of Rome. If Jesus agreed with that, they could denounce Him to the Roman officials. If He rejected the idea, then it would fracture His popularity with the crowds.
Of course, Jesus saw through this plotting, and pointed out that the whole question was missing the point. What was stamped into every Roman coin? The image and inscription of one or another Caesar, whomever reigned when the coins were struck. It was part of the cultic practice of Caesar worship, claiming that he was at least part divine. Pharisees would talk about how it was a sin to even carry those coins, but they were so common that it was almost impossible to avoid them. Jesus noted that the Roman denarius was part and parcel of the presence of Roman authority. If the coins celebrate Caesar, then he can take them back any time he likes. Meanwhile, God is a much higher authority, so why was everyone ignoring His due? Would the Herodians be any less idolatrous about having someone from Herod's dynasty on the throne? How about giving God your heart?
The Sadducees took a shot at making a fool of Jesus. They trumped up this wild tale of seven brothers who all in turn passed down the wife of the eldest and dying prematurely without anyone producing heirs to the eldest brother's estate. With whom would she cohabit in the Resurrection? Not that the Sadducees believed in the Resurrection, but isn't it noteworthy how their question clung to the issue of inheritance, given this was their aristocratic claim to governing authority over the Jewish people?
Jesus shot them down on both points. Those whom the Lord resurrects to His eternal Kingdom would have no need for sex, marriages, families and children, since they would be eternal themselves. Eternal bodies don't reproduce. And given how they nitpicked over the precise words of the Pentateuch, Jesus reminded them that Moses heard from the Burning Bush how God was alive in Eternity, and so were the Patriarchs. David spoke openly of an afterlife in God's Presence. The Sadducee insistence on no afterlife was simply sullen obstructionism.
Given how the majority of all Ancient Near Eastern philosophers and scholars believed in the afterlife in a higher realm of existence, you have to wonder how the Sadducees could claim to be the true representatives of Moses' teaching.
One of the scribes noticed that Jesus was very sharp, and admired His poise in such a public setting. So He asked Jesus one of the most common rabbinical questions about the two greatest commandments. Jesus simply echoed the common answer. When the Scribe agreed and affirmed how actually loving Jehovah from the heart was the true measure of holiness, Jesus noted how close this fellow was to entering the door of Eternity.
Just to nail it all down, Jesus added a final rhetorical flourish. He noted a paradox: How could the Messiah be David's descendant and superior at the same time? It was something the rabbinical scholars could not answer. Not because it was such a deep mystery, but because the only plausible answer was to embrace mysticism, and neither Pharisee nor Sadducee would do that. The Messianic Son of David was also the Son of God, the preexisting Lord born as a human. Jewish rabbis choked on that.
Finally, Jesus warned His audience to stay away from Scribes and not trust them. They were only concerned about one thing: reputation. Their holiness was transparently fake. They had no peace with God, and weren't too friendly with their own kind.