NOTES Mark 11 27 12 12 April 17 2016 Scot


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Authority Issues MARK 11:27-12:12 April 17, 2016

Background and Application A single misunderstanding at a critical level can have devastating effects. Just ask the builders of the free standing bell tower of the cathedral in Pisa, Italy. They started in the year 1173 and finished 199 years later. If they misjudged the condition of the soil or skimped on the foundation, who would ever know? Now think about you. If you have made a misjudgment or error at the critical level of your identity, what could happen? What if you are wrong about who you think you are? What if you’ve always been just a few degrees off? What if you’ve swallowed a lie? Could the effects of such a miscalculation be devastating? Mark 11:27 - 12:44, the end of the chapter, presents SEVEN episodes of interactions or conversations of conflict. As Mark records them, they all seem to occur in a single day. We will look at the first TWO episodes today. Jesus is again walking in the temple and begins to interact with “the chief priests and the scribes and the elders” (11:27). These are the three groups that make up the Jewish Sanhedrin, a very powerful council of seventy-one leaders that dominated religious and political life in the time of Jesus. Until this point, Mark's Gospel has not explicitly stated the source of Jesus' authority to preach, interpret the Torah or “cleanse" the Temple. "Now for the first time, in the temple and before the Sanhedrin, that is, in the most authoritative place and before the most authoritative body in Israel, Jesus opens a window of understanding into His own authority." J. R. Edwards. Mark 11:30 - Jesus respectfully substitutes God's name for "heaven," abiding by the custom of the day, when he asks the Sanhedrin His question. Jesus is asking whether John's authority was from God or not. Answering a question with a counter question was a very Jewish and Rabbinical method. Mark 12:1 - The opening line of Jesus’ parable reveals the misunderstanding at the most critical level of identity. It was aimed at the Sanhedrin leaders but is perfectly applicable to you and I today. It is a misunderstanding of stewardship. There is a massive difference between renting and owning. The vine-growers in this parable (identified with the Jewish leaders and you and I) were renters. The vineyard was owned and developed by “a man,” who is identified with God. So God is the owner, the workers are merely stewards. The land they work and the grapes they harvest were given to them. But somehow, perhaps because the “journey" on which the owner went was so long, the renters began to misunderstand their identity. This led to all manner of devastating events (12:2-8). Jesus, the rightful owner-authority, was there. A miscalculation blinded them.