Lesson 9: The Cost Of Rejecting The King (Mark 12.13-13.37)

Mark 12 began with Jesus giving the parable of the vineyard. Significantly, in the parable once the tenants of the vineyard killed the master’s son Jesus declared that the master would “come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others” (vs. 9). In both this parable and in the cursing of the fig tree (Mark 11.12-14), Jesus was foretelling the judgment that was coming on Jerusalem for rejecting God and His Son. This lesson will show the magnitude of God’s judgment on Jerusalem, all because they had rejected the King.

Notes from the text:

• 12.13: note Mark 3.6. These two groups who normally were opposed on all things, were united in their desire to trap and destroy Jesus.
• 12.14: “Since the time of Archelaus’s banishment in A.D. 6, Jews had been required by the Romans to pay tribute money into the fiscus, the emperor’s treasury. Some Jews (e.g., the Zealots) flatly refused to pay it, because it was for them an admission of the Roman right to rule. The Pharisees disliked paying it but did not actively oppose it, whereas the Herodians had no objections to it. The intent of this question was to force Jesus to a direct answer (v. 15a), identifying himself either with the Zealots or with the Herodians.” (Expositors Bible Commentary)
• 12.15:
• 12.17: the new testament consistently teaches that disciples of Christ are to respect and honor government (see Romans 13.1-7; 1Timothy 2.1-6; 1Peter 2.13-17).
• 12.18: “The Sadducees considered the Mosaic directives alone as binding and rejected what they perceived to be theological innovations. Consequently, they did not believe in a resurrection since it does not appear in the Pentateuch.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary)
• 12.19: see Deuteronomy 25.5-6.
• 12.24: note that Jesus attributed their being wrong belief to not knowing either the Scriptures of God’s power.
• 12.25: note that the Sadducees didn’t believe in angels either (see Acts 23.8).
• 12.26: Jesus quoted from Exodus 3.6, from the only section of the Old Testament the Sadducees believed was inspired.
• 12.28: “The rabbis counted 613 individual statutes in the law, 365 which were negative and 248 positive. Attempts were made to differentiate between the ‘heavy,’ or ‘great,’ and the ‘light,’ or ‘little,’ commandments.” (Expositors Bible Commentary)
• 12.29-30: Deuteronomy 6.4-5. “God is to be loved completely and totally (Mk 12:30) because he, and he alone, is God and because he has made a covenant of love with his people. In the covenant God gives himself totally in love to his people; therefore he expects his people to give themselves totally (‘soul,’ ‘mind,’ and ‘strength’) in love to him.” (Expositors Bible Commentary)
• 12.31: Leviticus 19.18. The Jews had a very narrow interpretation of who qualified as a “neighbor”. Jesus declared that we are to be a neighbor to everyone (see Luke 10.30-37).
• 12.34: note that while this man was testing Jesus, Jesus was appraising the man. We do not know if the scribe ever truly believed and entered the Kingdom (see Mark 1.15).
• 12.35: see Mark 11.10; Isaiah 9.2-7; 11.1-9.
• 12.36: see Psalm 110.1.
• 12.41: “The setting is the court of the women, into which both men and women were allowed to come, and where the temple treasury was located.” (Expositors Bible Commentary)
• Chapter 13 will prompt lots of questions because many will assume Jesus is describing final judgment and the end of the world. However, the context of Mark 13 shows that the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 is of primary concern:
  • Jesus’ disciples inquired about the destruction of the Temple (vss. 1-4).
  • Jesus said that generation would not pass away until all had taken place (Mark 13.30).
  • The destruction of Jerusalem fits the larger context; God’s judgement was coming on Jerusalem and Judaism (see Mark 11.12-14; 12.9-11)
• 13.1-4: context of Jesus’ teaching
  • 13.1: “The temple complex consisted of many buildings and was one of the largest, most magnificent structures in the ancient world; it was twice the size of Solomon’s temple. Construction had begun under Herod the Great before Jesus’ birth and was still continuing at this time.” (IVP Bible Background Commentary)
  • 13.2: this literally occurred when the Roman general Titus destroyed the Temple complex on AD 70. The “wailing wall” that remains in Jerusalem was part of a retaining wall for the Temple.
  • 13.3: an interesting parallel with Ezekiel 11.23 when the glory of the Lord left Jerusalem and stood on the Mount of Olives (east of the city).
• 13.5-8: Jesus cautions His disciples from being mislead.
  • See Acts 5.36-37; 21.38
  • “Josephus claimed that what incited the nation to war against Rome more than anything else was ‘an ambiguous oracle’ found ‘in their sacred scriptures, to the effect that one from their country would become ruler of the world’.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary)
• 13.9-13: Jesus exhorts His disciples to be on their guard because persecution was coming.
  • 13.10: while the gospel may not have made it throughout the inhabited world by AD 70, Paul could say that the gospel had made it through the whole world, perhaps speaking of the known Roman Empire (see Colossians 1.6,23).
• 13.14-23: Jesus foretells the destruction of Jerusalem.
  • 13.14: note Daniel 9.27; 11.31; 12.11 where the image is used for the desecration of the Temple by Antiochus IV. “most often identify the “abomination” with either the Roman army (cf. Luke 21:20), and in particular the military standards that the Jews considered idolatrous and an abomination, or with the Zealots, or more specifically Phannias, whom they farcically made high priest (cf. Jos. War IV, 147–57 [iii.6–8]).” (Expositors Bible Commentary)
  • 13.15-18: these verses cannot apply to Jesus’ Second Coming from which there will be no escape or hiding.
  • 13.19: “His description of the terrible inferno that engulfed the city can be verified archaeologically. The Roman soldiers set fire to the temple and the city and plundered and slaughtered the remaining inhabitants so that ‘the ground was nowhere visible through the corpses; but the soldiers had to clamber over heaps of bodies in pursuit of the fugitives’.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary)
  • 13.20: “the elect, for whose sake the siege was shortened, are probably the faithful members of the Church of Jerusalem … whose intercession or whose presence secured this privilege, though it did not avail to save the city” (Expositors Bible Commentary)
• 13.24-27: Judaism judged.
  • Some see this passage as applying to the End, but I believe vs. 30 argues against that interpretation. Judgment was coming against Israel, but God’s true people would be protected (vs. 27).
  • 13.24-25: the prophets used this kind of language to describe God’s judgment on the nations (see Isaiah 13.10 regarding Babylon). 
  • 13.26-27: see Daniel 7.13-14. The point seems to be that while Judaism is judged, Jesus receives His Kingdom and gathers His people to Himself.
• 13.28-37: Jesus exhorts His disciples to keep alert.
  • 13.28: “In Palestine most trees are evergreen, but the fig tree is an exception. In the fall it loses its leaves; and when in the spring the sap rises in its branches and the tree begins to leaf out, summer cannot be far off.” (Expositors Bible Commentary)
  • 13.32: there would be signs of Jerusalem’s fall, but Jesus did not know the day (see vs. 18, Jesus didn’t know if it would be in winter)

Using the text in evangelism:

While Mark 13 isn’t about final judgment and Jesus’ second coming, there’s still a powerful lesson for us: we need to “keep awake” (vss. 33,34,35,37). Jesus will return at a time when we are not expecting; there will be no signs. All we can do is be ready (see 1Thessalonians 5.1-6; 2Peter 3.10-13). There is an urgency to responding to the gospel, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2Corinthians 5.10)