McGarvey and Pendleton Four-fold gospel

Mark 11


The Triumphal Entry

¹As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, ²saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.

[We see several examples in the old testament where an animal that was not to have been yolked. It was a requirement when the animal was going to be put to some sacred use.]

³If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.' "
⁴They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, ⁵some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?" ⁶They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. ⁷When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.

[They threw their cloaks on it because there was no saddle on it. Of course, because nobody has ever ridden it. It's amazing that Jesus can get right on this untrained animal.]

⁸Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.

[This same thing happened in the anointing of Jehu as king of Israel in 2 Kings 9

¹³ They hurried and took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, "Jehu is king!" ]

...back to Mark 11

⁹Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
   "Hosanna!^[1] " [this means salvation]
   "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"^{[2]
    10}"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
   "Hosanna in the highest!"

¹¹Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

Jesus Clears the Temple

¹²The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.

[They're apparently headed back to Jerusalem.]

¹³Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.

[My reference said the leaves on a fig tree usually appear after the fruit. So, from a distance, unlike the other trees, this tree looked like it would have fruit. It was false advertising. It was hypocrisy...appearing to be something that it isn't. This is similar to the Pharisees who put on an outward show of righteousness but didn't deliver.]

¹⁴Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.

[ Jesus had earlier had a parable pretty similar to what actually happened here.

Luke 13

⁶Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. ⁷So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'
⁸" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' " ]

¹⁵On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, ¹⁶and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. ¹⁷And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written:
   " 'My house will be called
       a house of prayer for all nations'^[3] ? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'^[4] "
¹⁸The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
¹⁹When evening came, they^[5] went out of the city.

[My reference said that this was actually a separate incident from a similar one three years earlier where Jesus had cleaned out the temple near the time of the Passover in John 2:13. I'd never thought about that. Imagine all the haggling and bargaining and pricing going on there in the temple. The money changers and those who were buying and selling in the temple were making a business out of God's temple. Likewise today, the church is not to become a business. The work that is done by the church is for God and the kingdom...not so that we can make a profit.

What do you think the Jewish leaders thought of all of this? Jesus marching straight into Jerusalem where they had the preeminence. Then he walks right into the temple. Not only that, but he starts interfering with the business going on there. Not only that, but the people like him. You can picture them just shuddering with anger. But they feared him couldn't touch him at this point because of his popularity with the people. They would try to deal with the peoples' opinion of Jesus first, by trying to trap him with trick questions and lying about him.]

The Withered Fig Tree

²⁰In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. ²¹Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"

²²"Have^[6] faith in God," Jesus answered. ²³"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. ²⁴Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."^[7]

[It was important for the disciples to hear this pep talk because they would later be doing the equivalent of moving mountains. They would be fighting paganism around them. They would face the anger of the Jewish leaders. They would face the Jewish traditions that kept trying to creep into the church. They needed to hear that faith could get them through all of these trials. They would be performing miracles in God's name. But today, there is no more need for these miracles and there are other verses that remind us about what it is proper to ask God for. We can't just demand anything we want. God will determine if it is right for us to have what we ask him for. Jesus also reminds us about how anger and revenge can hinder our prayers. Jesus might have been afraid that after the disciples saw him perform this miracle of judgement on the fig tree, they might be prone to perform some similar miracles on people. Jesus reminds them of their duty to forgive rather than to use their gifts for vengence.]

The Authority of Jesus Questioned

²⁷They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. ²⁸"By what authority are you doing these things?" they asked. "And who gave you authority to do this?"

[What priest gave you any authority? What right do you have to come into our temple and clean it up and teach in it?]
²⁹Jesus replied, "I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ³⁰John's baptism--was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!"

[This question has the same answer as the question they asked him about where he got his authority.]
³¹They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' ³²But if we say, 'From men'...." (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
³³So they answered Jesus, "We don't know."
Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."

[Finally, the Jewish leaders...the chief priests, tachers of the law and the elders all confront him in their home court....or so they thought. Since he was the Son of God, the temple was more his home court. But now they are faced with a dilemma. John the Baptist clearly said that Jesus was the Messiah. If they say that John's baptism was from God then they are admitting that Jesus is the Messiah. And they didn't want to say John wasn't sent by God because there were a lot of admirers of John as a prophet standing around them. So they just settle for “We don't know.” Their whole plan to confront Jesus backfired on them and made them look bad. In this incident we see how the wisdom of Christ is so much greater than their own.]

Mark 12


The Parable of the Tenants

¹He 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 went away on a journey. ²At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ³But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
⁶"He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
⁷"But the tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' ⁸So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
⁹"What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Haven't you read this scripture:
   " 'The stone the builders rejected
       has become the capstone^[1] ;
    ¹¹the Lord has done this,
       and it is marvelous in our eyes'^[2] ?"
¹²Then they 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.

[Jesus is speaking to the crowd here...perhaps right in front of the Jewish leaders. He's giving a thinly veiled parable about how the Jewish leadership has become corrupted. Jesus talks about how God has sort of withdrawn from the immediate presence of man. It had been about 400 years before this that God had given the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. He had dwelt closely with the Israelites at that time. Without his close watch, the Jewish leaders had put their own commands over his. Over time, God sent prophets...the servants...to the Israelites and the people had treated them badly. The parable talks about God's mercy. He could have wiped out the tenants for what they did to the servants and the vineyard. But he sends his son instead and they kill him too. (This part was about to happen to Jesus within the next few days.) Jesus quotes Psalms 118, describing himself as the very Messiah that they have been waiting for if they would just accept him.

Hebrews 11 talks about the plight of these prophets.

³⁶Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. ³⁷They were stoned^[6] ; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- ³⁸the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
³⁹These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. ⁴⁰God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. ]

Paying Taxes to Caesar

¹³Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. ¹⁴They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? ¹⁵Should we pay or shouldn't we?"
¹⁶But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
"Caesar's," they replied.
¹⁷Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."
And they were amazed at him.

[The Pharisees here would be angry if Jesus said they should pay taxes to the Romans. The Herodians here would be angry if Jesus said they shouldn't pay taxes to the Romans, which is probably why the Pharisees brought them. My reference said that Jewish religious dues and tributes were paid in in shekels and old Jewish coins. Taxes to the Romans would have been paid in the denarius. Jesus' answer satisfies both sides. Just because they had to pay taxes didn't lessen their allegiance to God. They did not have to worship pagan gods like the Romans just because they paid taxes to him.]

Marriage at the Resurrection

¹⁸Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. ¹⁹"Teacher," 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 have children for his brother. ²⁰Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. ²¹The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. ²²In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. ²³At the resurrection^[3] whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"
²⁴Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? ²⁵When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. ²⁶Now about the dead rising--have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'^[4] ? ²⁷He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!"

[The Sadducees are really trying to point out that the idea of the resurrection is absurd. If this woman becomes the wife of each of these brothers in turn, whose wife will she be when they're all alive again? It can't work out! Nobody before could answer what would happen in heaven. But Jesus here is able to say for the first time how the resurrection will be as far as marriage. He clarifies that God said he was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who had long been dead when he said it. If there is no resurrection, he was the God of nothing. So this whole thing is not so much about marriage as it is about the resurrection.]

The Greatest Commandment

²⁸One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
²⁹"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.^{[5] 30}Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'^{[6] 31}The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'^[7] There is no commandment greater than these."
³²"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. ³³To 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."
³⁴When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

[Jesus says that the most important command is to love God. In a way, this covers all other commands. If you love God, you'll obey him. Obeying him includes following his commands. The second most important command is also very good. If we love our neighbor, we won't commit any number of sins against him. In fact, if we truly love our neighbors, we'll actively do good for them.]

Whose Son Is the Christ

³⁵While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, "How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ^[8] [or Messiah] is the son of David? ³⁶David 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." '^{[9] 37}David himself calls him 'Lord.' How then can he be his son?"
The large crowd listened to him with delight.
³⁸As he taught, Jesus said, "Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, ³⁹and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁰They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely."

[It seems that the scribes had said that the Messiah was literally the son of David. How could this be if David called the Messiah “Lord” in Psalm 110? Well, Jesus was descended from David through his adoptive father, Joseph. So in this way he was a son of David. And yet he is the Lord of all, being equal to God. Jesus also talks about the teachers of the law and their hypocrisy. They use their religion as a cloak for their evil. Their fate is obvious.]

The Widow's Offering

⁴¹Jesus 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. ⁴²But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins,^[10] worth only a fraction of a penny.^[11]
43Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. ⁴⁴They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."

[While people might see that this woman contributed barely anything, Jesus saw the heart. She was purer in heart than anyone there.]