Commentary in Simple English on the Gospel that Mark wrote

(See Matthew 21: 33-46; Luke 20: 9-29.)

In the time of Jesus, Galilee was crowded. There were many small farmers who wanted more land. Men like the one in this parable owned most of the land. They lived away from Galilee. Farmers paid rent for the land. They would not pay the rent in money but in fruit or wine.

The Old Testament spoke of Israel as a field of vines, that is, a vineyard. See, for example, Isaiah 5: 1-7. In the story that Jesus tells, the vineyard means the Jewish leaders. (See verse 12.)

The law at that time said that any piece of land that had no owner could be claimed. Someone who wanted it could do this by marking it out or fencing it, for example. God had sent His prophets to Israel, but they had been badly treated or killed. So the servants in the story suffer (verses 2-5). Jesus' hearers would listen to the details of what He said. They would know that He wanted them to remember what had happened to the prophets.

In this story, humble men wrong the owner. In 1 Kings 21 it is the other way round. The king, Ahab, wrongs the poor man He is called Naboth. The queen, Jezebel, kills Naboth. None of Naboth's family would dare to claim his land. So Jezebel sends the king along to claim it for himself.

So, in verse 6, Jesus speaks about His Own coming. He is the Son of God. Heaven worships Him. Hell shakes with fear at Him. Surely Israel will honour Him (verse 6). However, when the son arrives, the men who farmed the vineyard thought the owner had died. They thought that the son had come to make sure of his property. The land would have no owner if they killed him. They could then make it their own (verses 7 and 8). (See John 11: 47 and 48.)

They were quite wrong. The owner of the land was still alive. He would punish the farmers. Up to this point, the teaching of Jesus would not have shocked His Jewish hearers. Now, however, Jesus said something that hurt them. God would take away the 'vineyard'. This meant their honour as God's people. Worse still God would give that honour to others. This was new. It was not something that they knew from their Scriptures (verse 9).

People still think that God is dead. All men's evil actions are done because people do not believe that God will judge them. See Psalm 50: 21; Ecclesiastes 8: 11; and Romans 3: 25. We are now the people of God. We need to honour God and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. There must be fruit in our lives that we can give to Him. It is wrong to think that the Church is ours. It is always the Church that belongs to the Living God.

In verses 10 and 11, Jesus used the words of Psalm 118: 22 and 23. (See also Isaiah 28: 16.) The 'builders' here are the Jewish leaders. Jesus is the stone. The builders think that He is of no use to them. However, God will take Him and make Him the most important stone of all [12.1]. Jesus spoke of His coming suffering and death, but he never doubted His coming Kingdom.

(See Matthew 22: 15-22; Luke 20: 20-2.)

Now the very strict religious people come to Jesus. They bring along the people who were interested in politics. They are called the Herodians. They want to make Jesus say something that they can use against Him. What they said about Jesus (verse 14) was true, but they did not mean any of it. If bad men speak loudly in praise of us, something is badly wrong.

Jesus saw at once that they wanted to trick Him. How could Jesus answer their question (verses 14 and 15)? If He said 'No, you should not pay taxes to the Romans', they would very quickly report Him. If He said 'Yes', you should pay‘, then all the Jewish people would turn against Him.

The secret of Jesus' answer is this. They had said 'Either we pay or we do not'. Jesus says: 'You both pay the state what you owe to it and also give God what you owe to Him' (verse 17). The coin that they brought to Jesus had the head of the ruler on it. So it was his. It might show too that he pretended to be a 'god'. God's people could not give to the ruler what belonged by right to the only true God. The image of God is upon our lives and our souls. We should give our lives to Him alone.

The saying of Jesus leaves nothing for Herod. The Herodians cannot have been pleased about that.

(See Matthew 22: 23-33; Luke 20: 27-38.) [12.2]

There is not much that we know for sure about the Sadducees. We think that they were the rich people. The Jews chose the High Priests from them. The only part of the Old Testament that mattered to them was the first five books. Verse 18 tells us that they did not believe in the resurrection from the dead. Some other Jewish groups, such as the Pharisees, did believe in this. (See Acts 23: 6-8.)

The Sadducees had made up a story. Such a story is never a solid base for an argument, of course. The story may have sounded to them like the way that the Pharisees argued. The story went like this. There were seven brothers. Each of them in turn married the same woman. None had any children and then the woman died. So when they all rose from the dead, whose wife would the woman be (verses 20-23)?

All this would be done to obey the Law of Moses. (See Deuteronomy 25: 5-6.) The Jews in the time of Jesus probably did not keep this Law. The custom was much older than the time of Moses, however. (See Genesis 38: 8.)

When the first man in the story died, his brother was to raise up children for his brother, to keep his brother's name alive. Notice that the word 'children' is really 'seed' (verse 19). This was the Law. God had said this was to be done but He had not promised that children would be born.

In verse 24, Jesus begins His reply. We need to know both the power of God and the Scriptures. If the Sadducees had known the power of God, they would not have doubted His power to raise up the dead. If they had known the Scriptures they would have found the truth there. We should receive God's Word in our hearts with joy.

Jesus then says that there are angels. This was another thing that the Sadducees did not believe. When God raises us up from the dead, we shall have eternal life. Marriage will not be needed to keep the human race going. Jesus does not say that we shall become angels. He says only that we shall be like them (verse 25). In glory both Christian believers and the holy angels will be gathered with Christ as their Head. His work will then be done and God the Father will be Head of all. (See 1 Corinthians 15: 28 and also Ephesians 1: 10; 3: 15; Colossians 1: 20; Hebrews 12: 22. It may be a comfort to us when we feel that we are alone to remember this final state of glory.)

Jesus then brings forward (verse 26) some words from Exodus 3: 6. He will prove several things.

First: God spoke these words hundreds of years after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had passed from this life. If God calls Himself our God and He is eternal, then we have eternal life. He makes us His sons. Death cannot break this union. (See Ruth 2: 20.)

Second: God had promised to give children ('seed') to Abraham. (See Genesis 12: 7.) This promised son was Isaac. (See Hebrews 11:17-19.) God also promised Abraham a great number of people who would be his family (Genesis 13: 16). Abraham had to wait long years for the birth of Isaac (Romans 4: 14-21). Isaac also had to wait sixty years for the birth of the son God had promised to him. This son was Jacob (Genesis 25: 21-26). So Jesus says that God keeps His promises. They are more important than the Law, which only tells us what we ought to do. What God will do matters more. God 'raised up' children of promise for Abraham and Isaac when it did not seem possible.

As Christians we do not just believe in life after death. We believe that in glory we shall have a real body. Our bodies now are only like seeds (1 Corinthians 15: 35-44). The plant is more beautiful and more useful than the seed. The body that God will give to us will be more beautiful and useful than the bodies which we have now. If we were to be spirits without bodies we would feel naked. (See 2 Corinthians 5: 1-3.) [12.3]

So Jesus has proved life after death and also the power of God to raise up the dead. The first Easter morning will prove that God does give a resurrection body to His people (1 Corinthians 15: 20). Are we ready for that life by God's grace? Shall we enjoy it?

Jesus gives a final warning. Religious leaders can get it all badly wrong! (Verse 27).

(See Matthew 22: 34-40.)

There is a more friendly feeling about these verses. This man questions Jesus but not about His authority. He is interested in His wisdom. All God's laws are to be obeyed, of course. However, some of the Jewish teachers are said to have thought it worse to eat with unwashed hands than to murder. The question as to which of God's laws was the most important was a real one in those days (verse 28).

The reply of Jesus is first that we are to love God (verses 29 and 30) and then that we must love our neighbour (verse 31). Love does not do away with God's other laws. Love must be at work in us as we obey the law of God. In His reply, Jesus first uses the great words of Deuteronomy 6: 4 and 5. God is one: so our love for Him must not be divided. Divided love is no love at all (Psalm 86: 11). God is one: so He is the God of all the nations (Romans 3: 29 and 30). God is one: He made and rules all things. It is because one God rules all things that we can study the world around us. We find order there. The one-ness of God makes science possible. If there were many 'gods', each doing what they wanted, there would be no order in the world. As long as people believed in many ' gods', science did not make progress.

We are to love God with all our powers (verse 30). If we knew ourselves better than we do, we would know better just how much more we ought to love God. Few of us, if any at all, know which is our heart, which is our mind, which is our soul.

Jesus then turns to Leviticus 19: 18 for the command to love our neighbour as ourselves.

The story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 30-37) shows us who our neighbours are and how we should behave towards them. Notice that in this passage too, the duty to love God with all our powers comes first (Luke 10: 27). We must not forget either duty.

No Jewish writer seems to have brought these two Old Testament verses together in the way that Jesus did. The man speaks well of the reply which Jesus had given to him (verse 32) He shows that a heart filled with love is more important than forms of religion and worship (verse 33). Jesus speaks well of him (verse 36). We want to be in the Kingdom of God. 'Not far from the Kingdom' is not good enough.

(See Matthew 21: 41-46 and 23: 1-7; Luke 20: 41-47.)

No one wanted to ask Jesus questions now. Jesus Himself asks them a question.

The Jewish teachers taught that the Messiah would come from the family line of David. David lived about a thousand years before. He had been a great King of Israel. He was also a godly man. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit led David when he wrote Psalm 110. Jesus speaks about the first verse of the Psalm. Here 'The Lord' is God the Father. He speaks to someone else. He calls him 'Lord'. David calls this person 'my Lord'. Who then does David call 'my Lord'? It is not God the Father. So Jesus says that the Messiah is both the Son of David and also David's Lord. This is because He is God the Son, verses 35-37. (See Romans 1: 3 and 4.)

The desire for honour had been a weakness of the followers of Jesus. It was a more serious fault in the Jewish leaders (verses 38 and 39).

No doubt the wives of wealthy Jewish men came back to Jerusalem to end their days when their husbands died. The Jewish teachers were expert in getting money out of such rich women (verse 40).

(See Luke 21: 1-4.)

Now Jesus watches people in the Court of the Women. There were thirteen boxes to receive what people gave. They were in the shape of horns and stood against one wall. Some people threw in copper coins and some other people gave large amounts.

Then Jesus saw a woman whose husband had died. She put in two tiny coins. People called them 'thin ones' because they were so small (verse 42). Some poor people have nothing to spare. Other poor people have nothing at all. Mark says that this woman had nothing at all. She could have put in one coin and kept one for herself.

Jesus saw this woman. We should remember that God sees us even when we do not think about Him at all. Jesus talked about her tiny offering. He turned what she did into comfort for all poor Christians. They gladly give all that they have to God. They would cheerfully give more if they had it. Jesus says that she gave all that she had. So she gave more than all the other people put together. (See 2 Corinthians 8: 1-5.) 'It is more blessed to give than to receive' (Acts 20: 35). We, too, should love God so much that we are ready to give all that we have to Him.