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Yeshua is the Most Important Man Who Ever Lived. The Most Important Man brought the world the Most Important Message, a message that must be believed for human beings, who are alienated from God and headed to Hell, not Heaven, to death, not life, to be reconciled to their Creator and live forever. And being reconciled to our Creator is our greatest need. Everything Messiah did, everything He said, every interaction with others that has been recorded for us in the divinely inspired book of Mark, is extremely important. We want to understand as much as we can about the Most Important Man and His Most Important Message. We want to line up our thoughts and lives with the Most Important Man and His Most Important Message.
We are getting close to the end of Messiah’s most amazing life and ministry. Everything is intensifying. Everything is building to a fantastic climax resulting in some of the most important events in human history.
Yeshua repeatedly told His disciples He would be rejected and killed by the leaders of the Chosen People, who should have known Him the best and have been devoted to Him the most. That didn’t happen. The leaders opposed Yeshua and decided to kill Him – and Yeshua knew it.
A day earlier Yeshua had entered the temple courts and drove out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And He announced that the temple had been turned into a den of robbers instead of being a house of prayer for all nations. This further infuriated the leaders who looked for a way to kill the carpenter from Nazareth.
The following day Yeshua returned to the temple. The conflict intensified even more. The chief priests, Torah teachers and elders had challenged Yeshua about His authority to cleanse the Temple. Now Yeshua goes on the offensive. Mark tells us that Yeshua then began to speak to them in parables: A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed. He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, “They will respect my son.” But the tenants said to one another, “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes?”
God the Father is the man who planted the vineyard. The vineyard is Israel. The farmers are the leaders of the nation. The servants sent to collect some of the fruit are the prophets. Throughout our history, the prophets were rejected by corrupt leaders. The son who is treated worse than the prophets is the Son of God – Yeshua, who predicts He is going to be killed by the current generation of leaders. Their rejection of the Messiah will cause God to punish them and remove them from their position of leadership. Their spiritual leadership will be transferred to Messiah’s leaders – His disciples.
Yeshua reinforces this parable by quoting the prophecy found in Psalm 118: The stone (the Messiah) the builders (the leaders of Israel) rejected has become the cornerstone (the foundation of a new community). God will use the rejection of the Messiah by the leaders to advance His plan for the creation of a new, united, redeemed humanity. He will overrule the leaders and make the rejected Messiah central to His plan.
Yeshua is Someone who understood that, throughout our history, the majority of the Chosen People, including the leaders, went astray – including the leaders of His generation.
Who is Yeshua? He is a true prophet. He is Someone who prophesied that there would be disastrous consequences for the Chosen People because of our rejection of Him. And disastrous consequences happened – starting with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the scattering of Israel among the nations – where life has continued to be difficult for us for most of the past 2,000 years.
Then the chief priests, the Torah teachers and the elders looked for a way to arrest Him because they knew He had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left Him and went away.
Most people don’t like to be corrected – especially leaders. Most leaders, when corrected, respond with anger. Yeshua is Someone who loves us enough to correct us, even though we may get angry.
Telling the leaders this parable took wisdom and courage. Yeshua is Someone who has amazing wisdom and awesome courage. And He is Someone who want Christians and Messianic Jews to be wise and courageous and correct people, speaking the truth to them in love.
The conflict between Messiah and the leaders continues to escalate. Next other leaders went on the offensive. Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Yeshua to catch Him in His words. Mark lets us know that this interaction is intended to trap Yeshua. Some Pharisees and some of those loyal to Herod want Yeshua to say something they can use to accuse Him of a crime.
To put Him off guard, they begin with flattery designed to communicate they respect Yeshua – which in reality they don’t. They came to Him and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because You pay no attention to who they are; but You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
With the flattery over, now comes the trap. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?” But Yeshua knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap Me?”
Yeshua is Someone who always knows when we are being hypocrites, saying one thing but doing another; whether we are being sincere or insincere.
Yeshua is Someone who is always wiser than His opponents. None of His opponents, be they a fallen angel or the shrewdest man, will ever trap Him or outmaneuver Him.
He asked. “Bring Me a denarius and let Me look at it.” They brought the coin, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then Yeshua said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at Him.
They were amazed at Him because they thought no matter how He answered, He would be trapped. If He answered yes – it was right for the oppressed and impoverished Jewish people to pay taxes to the unrighteous Gentile conquerors – that was partially true but not entirely true and that response would have offended most of the Jewish people who liked Him and were protecting Him. If He said no, He would have been accused of telling people not to pay taxes to Rome, and that was a very serious crime. Not only did Yeshua avoid their trap, He used this challenge to teach His followers an important lesson on our obligations to the state, even if the state is pagan or secular. Roman coins were used in Israel, and on the coin Yeshua was shown was the image of the emperor. Since that coin was issued by Rome, and was connected to Rome, Yeshua declares it is right to give that coin back to Rome – in the form of taxes.
Yeshua is teaching us that Christians and Messianic Jews have obligations to God, but we also have obligations to the state, even if the state is pagan or secular. God raises up nations and God raises up leaders in those nations. Yeshua does not want us to rebel against the legitimate authorities that God has placed over us – be they leaders of the state or leaders of His Community.
Yeshua is Someone who wants us to fulfill our obligations to God and our obligations to the state – including paying our taxes.
The Pharisees and Herodians failed in their effort to trap Yeshua. Next another group of leaders tried. Then the Sadducees (who were associated with the priests and the temple), who say there is no resurrection, came to Him with a question. “Rabbi,” they said …
The Sadducees also approached Yeshua with flattery and insincerity. They addressed Him as Rabbi, but they didn’t believe the carpenter from Nazareth was a true rabbi. And, they were insincere because they asked a question they didn’t believe was a possibility. They didn’t believe in the resurrection. Their insincere question was designed to make Yeshua look foolish so as to lessen His credibility.
“Rabbi,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. This is the law of “levirate marriage” which is part of the Sinai Covenant. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
This question assumes that the future state is like the present. If that is the case, then the resurrected woman would be married to seven men, which is adultery; or, she will be married to one of the seven, which wouldn’t be fair to the other six, and there can’t be unfairness in the world to come. If Yeshua chooses either of these answers, He will appear foolish. But, Yeshua is wiser than all of His opponents, and never falls into any of their traps. Yeshua replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
Yeshua is Someone who loves us enough to tell us when we are in error. He is Someone who want to correct us and wants us to humble ourselves and receive His correction.
Yeshua is Someone who wants human beings to know the Scriptures, to believe the divinely inspired writings from Genesis to Revelation.
Yeshua is Someone who want us to know the power of God – what the Almighty is capable of doing – and God is all-powerful and is capable of doing a lot.
Yeshua outmaneuvers the Sadducees, and uses their challenge to correct them and teach us an important lesson on the reality of resurrection. Yeshua knows that the future state is not like the present. When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in Heaven.
Now about the dead rising – have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
Moses, when describing God’s revelation of Himself to him at the burning bush, did not use the past tense – I was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If God is addressing Moses hundreds of years after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob died, and He is not using the past tense, then Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must still be alive! If God is still their God in the present, and God is alive and eternal, then Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must also be alive and eternal. They will be resurrected so God can continue to be their eternal God. Brilliant!
Yeshua is Someone who knows that there is life after death for the righteous.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that the resurrection is true.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that the future life is not identical to the present life.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that Heaven is real.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that angels are real.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that the Torah is true, and that the Torah was written by Moses – it is the Book of Moses. It was not written after Moses by others.
Yeshua is Someone who doesn’t want us to fall into the trap of people who are asking insincere questions designed to make us look foolish. He wants us to take control of each challenge and correct them with the truth.
Yeshua is still at the temple. Next Mark tells us about Yeshua’s interaction with a Torah teacher – an expert in Jewish law. It doesn’t seem like he is trying to trap Yeshua – just have a good theological discussion, and Yeshua is Someone who is happy to discuss theology with those who are sincere. One of the Torah teachers came and heard them debating. Noticing that Yeshua had given them a good answer, he asked Him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
Yeshua is Someone who acknowledges that there are commandments that are more important and commandments that are less important. “The most important one,” answered Yeshua, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Yeshua is Someone who knows that God is real; that there is only one God; that the one God is the God of Israel; that the God of Israel can be loved; that the God of Israel deserves the total devotion of His creatures.
And Yeshua is Someone who does not want us to be selfish, self-centered, caring only for ourselves. He wants us to love other human beings – to care about them, to help them, to do what is best for them.
Yeshua had gained the respect of this expert in Judaism. “Well said, Rabbi” (acknowledging that Yeshua was worthy of the title Rabbi) the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but Him. To love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
This is a great insight, an insight that so many religious people never understand. The essence of religion is not about rituals and ceremonies, even God-ordained ones. The essence of religion is knowing the true God, putting Him first, being devoted to Him, serving Him with everything you have and are; and loving other human beings with a selfless, generous love.
When Yeshua saw that he had answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Yeshua is Someone who knows when we are sincere or insincere; when we answer wisely or foolishly;
who knows when we are close to the kingdom of God or far from the kingdom of God; who corrects us when we are moving in the wrong direction; who commends us when we are moving in the right direction.
And from then on no one dared ask Him any more questions – especially questions designed to challenge Him because it had become obvious to everyone that Yeshua was the wisest of all and anyone who tried trap Him would become the one who was made to look foolish.
No one dared ask the Rabbi any more questions, but Yeshua had a question of His own, designed to make it clear to the Chosen People that the Messiah had to be a man, but more than a man. The Messiah also had to be divine. While Yeshua was teaching in the temple courts, He asked, “Why do the Torah teachers say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?” The large crowd listened to Him with delight.
Everyone knew that the Messiah had to be a descendant of David, but no one understood that Messiah would be divine – except Yeshua. Yeshua’s argument comes from Psalm 110. In this divinely inspired poem, David tells us about a conversation he heard between Adonai – the Lord – who is God the Father, and One whom David refers to as his Adon – his Lord.
Who is greater than David, and sits victoriously at the right hand of God the Father, waiting for God to defeat His enemies, so He can rule over Israel and the nations? Who is greater than Israel’s greatest king, and worthy of being called David’s Lord? Not an angel, who are our servants. Not Saul who came before David, nor any of David’s descendants who came after him, nor any of the leaders of the nations of the world. Not any human being. That leave’s only one possibility. David’s Lord must in some way be divine. David’s Lord is the Adon Messiah, the divine Lord Messiah.
Who is Yeshua? He is the Divine Messiah who will rule Israel and the nations! He is to be believed in, respected and obeyed.
Yeshua continues His offensive. He warns about hypocritical spiritual leaders. As He taught, Yeshua said, “Watch out for the Torah teachers. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”
Yeshua is Someone who will not tolerate spiritual leaders who are greedy, unjust and hypocritical. Just as He cleansed the temple, He demands that our inner temple be pure and sincere – especially the inner life of spiritual leaders.
The Torah teachers were the experts in the Torah and its applications and were respected. Yeshua is Someone who teaches that there are degrees of punishment because, to whom much is given, much is required.
Leaders, who should know more, will be held to a higher standard and will be punished most severely. Do you still want to be a Bible teacher, pastor, rabbi, esteemed theologian?
Messiah is still in the temple. Mark tells us that Yeshua sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling His disciples to Him, Yeshua said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.”
Humans are impressed with the outside; with results – those rich people gave a lot. They are to be highly commended. That poor widow only gave a few cents – she is unimpressive and not worthy of commendation.
Yeshua is Someone who operates by the principle that inner motivation is more important than outward results; that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.
And Yeshua wants us to not judge by the outward appearance – by results and numbers and amounts, but by the heart – a person’s inner love and devotion and holiness.
So, who is Yeshua according to this 12th chapter of this divinely inspired book of Mark?
Yeshua is Someone who understood that, throughout our history, the majority of the Chosen People, including the leaders, went astray – including the leaders of His generation.
Yeshua is a true prophet. He prophesied that there would be disastrous consequences for the Chosen People because of our rejection of Him. And disastrous consequences happened.
Yeshua is Someone who loves us enough to correct us, even though we may get angry. And He wants us to humble ourselves and receive His correction.
Yeshua is Someone who has amazing wisdom and awesome courage. And He is Someone who want Christians and Messianic Jews to be wise and courageous.
Yeshua is Someone who always knows when we are being hypocrites, saying one thing but doing another; whether we are being sincere or insincere.
Yeshua is Someone who is always wiser than His opponents. None of His opponents, be they a fallen angel or the shrewdest man, will ever trap Him or outmaneuver Him.
Yeshua is Someone who doesn’t want us to fall into the trap of people who are asking insincere questions designed to make us look foolish. He wants us to take control of each challenge and correct them with the truth.
Yeshua does not want us to rebel against the legitimate authorities that God has placed over us – be they leaders of the state or leaders of His Community. He wants us to fulfill our obligations to God and our obligations to the state – including paying our taxes.
Yeshua is Someone who wants human beings to know the Scriptures, to believe the divinely inspired writings from Genesis to Revelation.
Yeshua is Someone who want us to know the power of God – what the Almighty is capable of doing – and God is all-powerful and is capable of doing a lot.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that there is life after death for the righteous.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that the resurrection is true.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that the future life is not identical to the present life.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that Heaven is real.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that angels are real.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that the Torah is true, and that the Torah was written by Moses – it is the Book of Moses. It was not written after Moses by others.
Yeshua is Someone who is happy to discuss theology with those who are sincere.
Yeshua is Someone who acknowledges that there are commandments that are more important and less important.
Yeshua is Someone who knows that there is only one God; that the God of Israel can be loved; that the God of Israel deserves the total devotion of His creatures.
And Yeshua is Someone who does not want us to be self-centered, caring only for ourselves. He wants us to love other human beings – to care about them, to help them, to do what is best for them.
Yeshua is Someone who knows when we are close to the kingdom of God or far from the kingdom of God; who corrects us when we are moving in the wrong direction; who commends us when we are moving in the right direction.
Yeshua was the virtually the only one who understood that the Messiah would be more than just a man. He would also be God.
Yeshua is Someone who will not tolerate spiritual leaders who are greedy, unjust and hypocritical. Just as He cleansed the temple, He demands that our inner temple be pure and sincere.
Yeshua is Someone who teaches that there are degrees of punishment because, to whom much is given, much is required.
Yeshua is Someone who operates by the principle that inner motivation is more important than outward results; that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart – and so should we.
May God enable Yeshua be all these things to us and may we respond faithfully to all that He is and become all that we should be. Amayn? Amayn!