May 25th, 2024

This Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost, and for many centuries the theme of this Sunday has been ‘Holy Trinity’. The focus has been the awesome situation of there being God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three persons, and yet one God. The Gospel reading fits very well into this amazing doctrine by having a text from the Gospel according to John [3:1-17], where Jesus eventually gets Nicodemus to confess (in John 3:9), ‘How can these things be?’

The writings of this website are going through the Gospel according to Mark, and it is being done in the way in which the writer has laid it out. In this particular installment we are continuing with what is usually called chapter eleven, and we will actually continue on into chapter twelve as well. The chapter divisions, like the history of Trinity Sunday, have been around for a long time, and they are helpful for pointing out some important things, but they are not so helpful in providing a structure for the various sections.

In the text below, Jesus is in Jerusalem for his last few days before his death. And the tension is heightening. The words in bold print are called ‘historical presents’, and they exist when a type of past-tense verb is expected, but instead a present tense is given. In the text below, it is usually happening when Jesus is around his enemies. This emphasis on a conflict fits well with the living creature of this gospel account being the lion—a fighter, and these historical presents will continue to happen for a few more verses after the text that is below, and then they will essentially disappear (while Jesus does a lot of talking) until very close to Jesus’ arrest.

Please notice that Jesus does not resolve the conflict that shows itself in his opponents’ question by him giving them another question. (And, of course, God the Father did not, at that moment, say in a big booming voice, “BY MY AUTHORITY!!!’) Asking difficult questions is usually not the best way to make peace with others. Jesus is ultimately battling against sin. And you could also say that, with this battle, he is making peace between us and God.

In last week’s section, it was the ‘archpriests and the scribes’ who were trying to destroy him (see 11:18). Now, in this section, you might notice that another group has been added to the list. The following is a somewhat-literal translation of the text [Mark 11:27-12:12; and you may find it helpful to look other translations or a study bible to aid in your understanding of the text]:

And they come again into Jerusalem, and in the temple, walking around, he, they come toward him, the archpriests and the scribes and the presbyters, and they were saying to him, “In what authority, these things, are you doing? Or who, to you, gave the authority, this, that these things you may do?”

Now the Jesus said to them, “I will question you one word, and answer me, and I will tell you in what authority, these things, I am doing: The baptism of the John, from heaven was it, or from men? Answer me.”

And they were dialoguing toward themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven’, he will say, ‘On account of what, therefore, did you not believe him?’ But on the contrary, we may say, ‘From men…,’ they were fearing the crowd. For all were having the John, being that a prophet he was. And having answered, the Jesus, they say, “Not we know.”

And the Jesus, he says to them, “Neither I, myself, am saying to you in what authority, these things I am doing.”

And he began to them, in parables, to speak: A vineyard, a man planted, and he put around, a fence, and he dug a winepress, and he built a tower, and he gave out it, to farmers, and he went away. And he sent toward the farmers at the time, a slave, that from the farmers he might receive from the fruits of the vineyard; and having taken him, they beat, and they sent empty. And again, he sent toward them another slave. And that one they wounded in the head, and they dishonored. And another he sent. And that one they killed, and many others, some, on the one hand, beating, others, on the other hand, killing. Still one he had, a son, loved. He sent him, last, toward them, saying, ‘They will reverence the son of me.’ Now those, the farmers toward themselves, they said, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and ours, it will be, the inheritance.’ And having taken, they killed him, and they threw out him, outside the vineyard. What, therefore, will he do, the lord of the vineyard? He will come, and he will destroy the farmers, and he will give the vineyard to others. Not the scripture, this, did you read? ‘A stone which they rejected, the ones building; this became into head of corner; from Lord became this, and it is marvelous in eyes of us’?”​

And they were seeking him, to seize, and they feared the crowd, for they knew that, toward them, the parable he said. And having left him, they came away.