Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 12-13.

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There are a lot of things I like to think about and comment on in today’s passage, but I want to start with something I never quite put together before.  It always surprises, and delights, me when that happens.  That something is the connection between the two “tests” and the genuine question in today’s passage.  First the Pharisees try to trap Jesus with a no win question about taxes, where Jesus finds a “win”.  Then the Sadducees take their crack at trapping Jesus with what they viewed as a logical paradox, who would be married to a woman who had married multiple brothers in levitical marriage (where a brother marries his brother’s widow in order to give his brother an heir) without any children in the resurrection.  Finally a random scholar asks Jesus which commandment is the most important merely to understand Jesus’ thinking.  The first two questions were intended to reduce Jesus’ influence, if not outright destroy it.  However, Jesus’ answers to them led to the third question, which was from a genuine seeker, someone who genuinely sought the truth.  Not only did the first two groups of questioners fail to stump Jesus with their questions, fail to make Him look bad in front of the crowd, but their questions caused another to be drawn to Him.

In a way this is a demonstration of what Jesus tells His disciples later in this passage when He tells them not to be anxious about what they are to say to those who accuse them for following Him.  Jesus demonstrates that God can give us answers to those who accuse us which will neutralize their accusations while drawing those who are truly seeking the truth to God.  The scribe who asked the third question was seeking truth, not trying to set a trap, when he asked Jesus his question, but he only asked it because he heard what Jesus said to the questions designed to make Him look bad.  In the same way, if we allow the Holy Spirit to use our mouths when those who oppose God attempt to make us look like fools, He will draw people to Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.