Escalating Tension

Some people are impressive because of their sheer skill and determination. I wonder if you saw the Winter Olympics a few weeks ago and whether you saw the figure skating and Alisa Leu who won the gold medal for figure skating. Her signature move is the triple axle triple toe loop combination. I can barely pronounce it let alone know what it is but when you watch it you say to yourself how many times do you think she would have practiced that and got it wrong before she got it right. She apparently walked away from the sport when she was 16 because she was burnt out. When she came back to the sport she came back gradually. She said "I am going to come back but I'm going to decide on the music I'm going to decide on the costume I wear I'm going to decide on the hairstyle I'm going to decide on the training schedule I'm going to decide on what I do and I don't eat and I don't actually care whether I win or lose." That's highly impressive don't you think?

You might have heard a few weeks ago, five or six weeks ago, the story of that 13-year-old boy who swam for 4 hours through the ocean off the coast of Western Australia. They tell me it's shark-infested; I've never tried it myself. He did that because his mother and brother and sister and he had been all washed out to sea on their various kayaks and things like that. He swam for 4 hours, 4 kilometers and when they finally he raised the alarm when they finally found his family they were 14 kilometers out to sea. Now that's courage, isn't it for a 13-year-old boy? Some people are impressive for their courage. Some people are impressive because of their quick wit. I recall being told the story of Oscar Wilde on an opening night at the end he was being presented with bouquets when someone who was not trying to be very nice to him brought him a rotting cabbage and he swept it up in his arms and said "Thank you my fine fellow and every time I smell it I'll think of you."

I am told of Robert Muldoon the New Zealand prime minister of some years ago who famously said on commenting on the immigration from New Zealand to Australia he said "I should think it will improve the general IQ of both countries." But my favorite is the stories told about former prime minister Robert Menzies speaking at a public gathering where a heckler called out from the crowd "Tell us all you know Bob it won't take very long." Quick as a flash Menzies replied "I'll tell them all we both know and it won't take any longer." Those were the days before there were media managers for politicians who schooled you on how to say well how to not say anything really in interviews. On another occasion a woman yelled out from the crowd to Menzies "I wouldn't vote for you Bob if you were the Archangel Gabriel." Menzies replied "If I were the Archangel Gabriel you wouldn't be in the electorate." I'm always deeply impressed by people who can think quickly on their feet.

For me I usually come up with my best answers around about a week after the event and it's very hard to come up with your best answers when you're under pressure. For me when I'm under attack that is the point at which I can't really think of anything to say and you might know the experience yourself you just sort of draw a blank. I'm very very impressed with people who can think well under pressure. Now you can get lots of help with this on the internet; in fact if you Google this you'll find lots of advice. Be calm, be assertive, don't be aggressive, have good body language. What I want to say is it's easier said than done in the situation isn't it? It's very easy to say that it's much harder to do it.

Now we're in the second half of Mark's gospel and we're in the midst of rising tension. If we were reading a novel, and we're not reading a novel but if we were reading a novel, this is the part where you can't put it down. You just keep going "What happens next what happens next?" If we were watching a film this is the part where you can't leave the TV or you can't leave the cinema. You certainly don't go and get popcorn during this particular part because you don't want to miss anything. You are so engrossed by what is going on. Last week we were talking about the twist. The twist happens in Mark chapter 8 where everyone works out finally that Jesus is the Christ the Messiah. We the readers have known it from the beginning but now the actual characters work it out. Peter works it out and then Jesus says the Messiah is going to die. He says that in chapter 8 the Messiah is going to die and he's going to rise. They don't quite know what the rising bit means but they're worried about the dying part. Then in chapter nine he says it again the Messiah is going to die and rise and then in chapter 10 he says it one more time the Messiah will die and will rise. And so it's unsurprising that we see this rising opposition to Jesus and it says in 11:18 they were looking for a way to kill him.

Now Jesus rides into Jerusalem and he goes straight to the temple which is God's house and he clears the temple. You've heard stories about this; you've no doubt perhaps you know seen little Sunday school plays about this sort of thing. Jesus goes to the temple and clears the temple; it's deliberately provocative. The next day he goes to the temple and the chief priests and the teachers of the laws and the elders come to him and say "Who gives you right who gives you the right to do any of this?" And he has a discussion with them and he's not the slightest bit scared of them and it seems like more than anything they're a little bit afraid of him and what he might do. And then rather than manage the situation he tells them the parable in chapter 12 verse 1.

The parable that was read to us is a man plants a vineyard; he goes to a lot of trouble to plant the vineyard. He rents it out to a tenant; at harvest time he sends the servant to collect the rent but they beat him up and send him away empty-handed. So he sends another servant and the same thing happens and then another and then another. They could be nice tenants; these are not nice tenants. They could be nice tenants or not nice but the issue here is that the owner is the owner and if he's the owner he deserves the rent. Imagine for a moment you're a landlord. Imagine let's say you've got two rental properties let's say they're right next to each other and you rent out one of them to a nice tidy older couple who are very nice and you rent the other one out to a messy difficult young man. But if neither of them pay you rent and neither of them answer your emails and they completely ignore you and you've been very patient with them over a long period of time which of the two would you evict? And the answer is you should evict both of them because you're the owner. That's the point. Finally he sends his son saying they will respect my son. But verse 12 the chief priests the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he'd spoken the parable against them but they were afraid of the crowds. They left him and went away.

But what happens next is they get really devious. In fact the next thing that happens is that they begin to do exactly what Jesus said they would do in the parable that is they lay a trap to have the son killed. Chapter 12:13 later they sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. It's a deliberate trap; Jesus recognizes it as such. It says here they sent it to catch him in his words to trick him. Verse 14 "Teacher we know you're 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 so slimy so disingenuous just sarcastic flattery really." And they say to him "Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not should we pay or shouldn't we?" And now ladies and gentlemen this is wedge politics at its best. See if he says "Pay it to Caesar," well he's going to be in trouble from the Jews; he's going to look like a puppet of Rome and the Jews at the time and the people of the time they hate the Roman occupation. They hate the worship of Caesar; it's Caesar's head that's on the coin that's being spoken about. The whole coin is blasphemous to them. So if he says pay the taxes to Caesar he's in trouble from the people and if he says no don't pay taxes to the Caesar to Caesar he's in trouble with the Romans because well effectively he's an insurrectionist he's a rebel. There'd been a history for the last few decades of people rising up against this; there'd been a Galilean several decades beforehand who was advocating the same thing. So Jesus has a dilemma is he going to get in trouble with the crowds or get into trouble with the Romans?

Well Jesus knew their hypocrisy. Verse 15 bring me a denarius let me look at it. They brought the coin and he asked them "Whose image is this?" "Caesars," they replied. Very well Jesus said to them "Give back to Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is God's." Now you give your right arm in debating to come up with something like that wouldn't you? I mean under pressure it's all very well once you know the answer of course it makes sense once you know the answer but if you don't know the answer it's highly impressive to come up with that on the spot. See they're trying to wedge him between God and Caesar and he neatly puts the ball back in their court. Notice just for a moment that he doesn't he could have spoken against Caesar but he doesn't do that; he could have easily done that. It's kind of like he says there's a local government up the road and local governments are important. You could it would be hard to get a worse government for the Jews than than Caesar's government but but Jesus doesn't speak against it. It's very easy today to just speak about governments whoever they are speak against them; it's very easy just to go along with that. That's interesting that Jesus doesn't do that but he makes it clear there's some things that are due to Caesar but there are some things that are due to God; don't get them mixed up. Totally faithful to God properly different to Caesar and they were amazed at him.

Well next in verse 18 and this is the last one I want to talk about this morning he's approached by a group of people called the Sadducees. A group of people who don't believe in the resurrection; they don't believe there's a resurrection at all. And so they come to him and they say "Teacher Moses gave us a law that if a man's brother dies leaving his wife without children the brother must marry the widow to produce offspring." Now this sounds really weird to us today in the 21st century but you need to understand that it was designed by God to protect the vulnerable. There are few there would be few things more vulnerable in the ancient world than a widow and especially a widow without children. To lose a husband might make you destitute and it's still like that in a lot of the world today. We are used to government and social security but it's a very recent innovation and it's still very western. So this is something that that God has put in place to protect vulnerable people because if you're a widow you don't have much means of support and if you don't have children you don't have means of support as you get older.

So they go to Jesus and they say "Look Jesus we've got a parable for you there are seven brothers the first married a woman and he died." Oh that's no good. But then they say "So the second brother or the first brother married her and he died and then the next brother married her and he died and then the next brother married her and he died and you start to worry about this woman and then you think 'All right okay I get this this is a joke this is a joke at my expense'." When I say these things to my daughter she says "Are you doing a bit Dad are you doing a bit?" That's like you know she recognizes it's a bit of a joke. The fifth one marries her he dies; the sixth one married her marries her he dies; the seventh one married to her he dies. Then finally the woman dies. Now Jesus in your funny little heaven ha-hardy-ha when she walks in there who does she hug? It's mockery; they are mocking Jesus.

Jesus replies "Are you not in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God you are badly mistaken." He takes them right to the heart of their Bible. They are people who only believe in the first five books of the Bible the books of Moses. He takes them right to the heart of the book of Moses and he says "You don't even understand that." He says in verse 25 "When the dead rise they'll neither marry nor be given in marriage they'll be like the angels in heaven." Just a little side note on this: when you read this you might be sad about this for our 21st century world which is post 19th century romanticism we often think that this one romantic relationship this one special relationship is everything and it's very much idealized in our world today still. I was at a funeral during the week and one of the things that was said was that the woman who died will now be reunited with her husband who died some 40 50 years beforehand. And I think it's just a little bit of an anti-climax don't you think if that's the highlight? And it's true that for example in the Anglican prayer book it talks about we'll be reunited with our loved ones; that's true but more than that it's to be united with Christ; that's what resurrection is about. I do recall hearing a story a woman talking about both her parents who she decided that their ashes had to not be next to each other because they'd argue which is kind of the flip side of that whole.

But the reason marriage will be absent in heaven is because all relationships will be perfected. To live in that world in that existence it's going to be beyond this world; it's just going to be different again from this world. Can you envision a fetus in utero imagining sunset over the blue mountains or imagining Rachmaninov's piano concerto number two? It's just a different a different world altogether to try and imagine the world of the resurrection. And note here what they are mocking is they're mocking Jesus; they're mocking the word of God even their own word of God Moses and they're mocking something wonderful which is the resurrection. And at every point Jesus is the master of the situation.

So what should you take away from today? Maybe you came to church today and you were thinking to yourself "Life is pretty shaky for me" or maybe you're thinking "Life is messy" or maybe you're thinking life is just super comfortable or what would you collect from this morning? Well I want to say to you that there is a mind behind the universe that is kind that is assured that is in control that is loving and is truly wonderful. Could you trust this mind? Could you trust the person with this mind? Jesus is being attacked in the temple; that's the place where he should be loved and he's being attacked in the temple. This is God's house. Whose house? It's God's house where he should be loved. He's being ambushed from every side; he's being shot at from every direction. Jesus is under extreme threat but you don't get the impression he's just some pawn or some cork being thrown around on the waves of various forces that are bigger than him. He's not at the mercy of these forces; no it's more like he is the force here. He's directing events and when the eventual climax is reached, and it will be reached in the account in just a few days time when he's arrested and he is under trial, the greatest mind and the greatest command of language chooses to say nothing: silent.

They look for a way to arrest him in verse 12; they've decided they're going to kill him. At the end of verse 34 it says this "No one dared ask him any more questions." But the phrase that keeps coming up over and over again is that they were amazed. Literally they marveled at his words; they were amazed they marveled. And so this morning do you think we could do any better than that than just to be amazed and just to marvel?

Let's pray shall we? Gracious God we thank you for the words recorded for us. We thank you for the words of the Lord Jesus. Sometimes we're just so familiar with them and when we see them in hindsight we think of course and yet if we are to think and really understand them as they unfold he really was amazing. And heavenly father we pray that as we think on these next verses and these next sections of Mark's gospel and where they inevitably lead to his death and his resurrection we pray that we might again be faced with how amazing he is. We pray this in Jesus name amen.

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