A trap question about taxes gets an answer so precise it leaves both sides of the argument speechless. A trap question about marriage in the resurrection gets an answer that quietly ends an entire denomination’s whole doctrine of the afterlife. One honest scribe asks a real question instead of a trap, and hears something no one else in this Gospel is ever told to his face: that he is not far from the kingdom of God. And a poor widow who never says a word to Jesus at all gives away everything she has, not knowing that the watching eyes of the Son of God have just called her gift the largest one dropped in the treasury all day.
A study in Mark 12 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 28 min read
This Is The Heir; Come, Let Us Kill Him
Still standing in the temple, still facing the men who just refused to answer His question about John, Jesus answers the question they never asked — who they really are.
“And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. … Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.”
Mark 12:1-8
This site’s own study of Matthew 21 already unpacked this parable in full — the vineyard as Israel, the servants as the prophets, the son as Christ Himself, murdered outside the very vineyard He came to tend.
“What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others. And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.”
Mark 12:9-12
They understand the parable perfectly. That is exactly the problem — understanding it changes nothing about what they’re already planning to do.
Render Unto Caesar The Things That Are Caesar’s
This site’s own study of Matthew 22 already told what happens when the Pharisees send their sharpest young men, backed by their old political enemies the Herodians, to spring a tax question that cannot be answered safely either way.
“The Pharisees had ever chafed under the exaction of tribute by the Romans. The payment of tribute they held to be contrary to the law of God. Now they saw opportunity to lay a snare for Jesus.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 601
“And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give?”
Mark 12:13-15
“The spies had expected Jesus to answer their question directly, in one way or the other. If He should say, It is unlawful to give tribute to Caesar, He would be reported to the Roman authorities and arrested for inciting rebellion. But in case He should pronounce it lawful to pay the tribute, they designed to accuse Him to the people as opposing the law of God.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 602
“But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Cæsar’s. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him.”
Mark 12:16-17
They came holding what they thought was an unanswerable question. Jesus answers it with a coin already in their own hands — the very Roman currency the Pharisees carried and spent without complaint, proof enough of where their own allegiance had quietly settled long before they tried to test His.
The God Of The Living
One trap fails, so a second party steps in with a different one — the Sadducees, who don’t believe in the resurrection at all, and mean to make the whole idea look absurd.
“The Sadducees denied the existence of angels, the resurrection of the dead, and the doctrine of a future life, with its rewards and punishments. … They believed in God as the only being superior to man; but they argued that an overruling providence and a divine foresight would deprive man of free moral agency, and degrade him to the position of a slave.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 604
“Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren … and the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.”
Mark 12:18-23
This site’s own study of Matthew 22 already told how Jesus answers — not by defending the mechanics of the seven marriages, but by correcting the assumption underneath the whole question.
“And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.”
Mark 12:24-27
Mark’s own closing words — “ye therefore do greatly err” — are stronger than either Matthew’s or Luke’s account of the same rebuke, the one Gospel willing to let the force of that correction stand without softening it.
Not Far From The Kingdom Of God
Two traps have failed in a row, and someone in the crowd notices something the Pharisees and Sadducees never intended anyone to see — that Jesus actually answers well.
“And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:28-31
What happens next belongs to Mark alone. Neither Matthew’s nor Luke’s account of this same conversation records what the scribe says back.
“And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Mark 12:32-33
“The readiness of this man to acknowledge the correctness of Christ’s reasoning, and his decided and prompt response before the people, manifested a spirit entirely different from that of the priests and rulers. The heart of Jesus went out in pity to the honest scribe who had dared to face the frowns of the priests and the threats of the rulers to speak the convictions of his heart.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 608
“And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.”
Mark 12:34
“The scribe was near to the kingdom of God, in that he recognized deeds of righteousness as more acceptable to God than burnt offerings and sacrifices. But he needed to recognize the divine character of Christ, and through faith in Him receive power to do the works of righteousness.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 608
“Not far” is not the same as arrived. Agreement with the truth about God, however sincere, is still one step short of a living relationship with the God the truth describes — and it is that last step, not the nine before it, that the scribe still has left to take.
The Common People Heard Him Gladly
Three separate parties have now tried to trap Jesus in public and failed. Jesus turns the questioning around one more time.
“And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly.”
Mark 12:35-37
This site’s own study of Matthew 22 already unpacked what this question about David’s own Lord was really asking. Mark alone adds the small detail of the crowd’s reaction — not awed silence, not offended murmuring, but gladness. Whatever the scribes and Pharisees felt about being outmaneuvered again, the ordinary people in that temple court were simply enjoying watching Him do it.
“And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: Which devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.”
Mark 12:38-40
This site’s own study of Matthew 23 already gave this same warning a whole chapter’s worth of attention. Mark compresses the entire indictment into three verses — and ends it on the exact detail that the next scene is about to make unforgettable.
She Of Her Want Did Cast In All That She Had
“Devour widows’ houses,” He has just said. Now He sits down across from the temple treasury and watches one widow’s house being devoured in real time, one coin at a time, by the very system that was supposed to protect her.
“And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.”
Mark 12:41-42
“Presently His countenance lighted as He saw a poor widow approach hesitatingly, as though fearful of being observed. As the rich and haughty swept by, to deposit their offerings, she shrank back as if hardly daring to venture farther. And yet she longed to do something, little though it might be, for the cause she loved.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 614
This site holds no separate study of this scene elsewhere — it belongs to Mark and Luke alone among the Gospels, and appears nowhere in Matthew’s own account of this day.
“And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.”
Mark 12:43-44
“Their large donations had deprived them of no comfort, or even luxury; they had required no sacrifice, and could not be compared in value with the widow’s mite. It is the motive that gives character to our acts, stamping them with ignominy or with high moral worth.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 615
“The ‘two mites which make a farthing’ have brought to God’s treasury an amount of money far greater than the contributions of those rich Jews. The influence of that little gift has been like a stream, small in its beginning, but widening and deepening as it flowed down through the ages.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 616
A chapter built entirely out of people trying to test Jesus with words closes on a woman who never says a word to Him at all. She does not know she has been watched, does not know her two smallest coins in circulation have just been declared greater than every purse that emptied itself before hers. The scribe who came close to the kingdom did it with a correct answer. The widow arrives, without ever knowing she has arrived, by giving everything she had left.
