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Mark 11:27-12:44
 
! Introduction
Have you ever been called religious?
Is that a good thing or not?
One of the options on Facebook is to declare your religious views and one of my Facebook friends responded to that option by writing, “I’m not into religion, I’m into grace.”
On the website “Yahoo Answers” the question was asked, “What is the difference between being religious and being spiritual?”
One answer which someone gave was, “A religious man goes to church and daydreams of fishing, a spiritual man goes fishing and day dreams of God.
Religion comes from a church and a structured belief, spirituality comes from within.”
By these responses it seems that being religious is not a good thing.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons for an apparent decline in church attendance.
In a December 2007 article on the Canadian Christian web site Jim Coggins writes the following: “The first systematic survey, a Gallup poll, placed weekly church attendance at 60 percent in 1945.
Some surveys place the figure even higher in the 1950s, approaching 70 percent.
However, in Bibby's words, weekly attendance dropped "to just over 30 percent in 1975 and to around 20 percent by 2000."
Does Jesus want us to be religious?
The Jewish religious leaders were very religious.
They had developed a culture of religiosity, but when Jesus, God’s Son, came into the world, they ran into serious conflicts with Him.
In fact these conflicts were so serious that they led to the death of Jesus.
This morning we want to examine Mark 11:27-12:44 which is a record of some of the conflicts Jesus had with the Jewish leaders.
As we do, we will come to understand the difference between being religious and having a relationship with God.
We will also be able to examine ourselves to see if we are religious or if we have a relationship with God.
!
I.                   The Rejected Stone
In Mark 11:15-18, we read the story of Jesus cleansing the temple.
This made the Jewish religious leaders so angry that they plotted to kill him.
When Jesus came into Jerusalem again the chief priests were ready for him and were looking for a way to discredit him and so they asked Him, “By what authority are you doing these things?” and “who gave you authority?”
They asked these questions because Jesus had demonstrated authority in his statements regulating Sabbath observance, in his teaching, over illness, over demons and in many other ways.
It is possible that they may have had all of these things in mind, but certainly the authority he demonstrated in cleansing the temple was fresh in their minds.
Jesus turned the question back on them and asked them about their view of John the Baptist, specifically whether they believed him to be from heaven or not.
They did not believe he was from heaven, but they refused to say so because they were afraid of the people who did believe that John was from God.
Their refusal to answer and the discussion they had in arriving at their answer reveals a lot about them.
They were in charge of a well organized religious system.
That system, evidently, did not include a relationship with God that allowed them to recognize God’s presence.
Their primary goal in life was to maintain their position in the religious system.
Although Jesus did not answer their question, His answer is implicit in the story and revealed in the rest of Mark.
He was from God and that was the source of His authority.
Even though they were religious, their response to Him shows that they did not know God.
Jesus exposed their rejection of God in the parable which follows beginning in Mark 12.
The parable is about a landowner who established all that was needed to grow grapes and make wine.
Then he leased the vineyard and winery to a management group and left.
When the time came for him to collect his portion of the proceeds from the farm he sent a servant to retrieve the return on his investment.
The management group violently refused to give the servant the proceeds and as the owner sent more servants they were so violent in their refusal that they even killed some of them.
Finally the owner decided to send his son whom they also killed.
They may have assumed that the owner had died, since he sent his son.
Consequently they thought that by killing the son they would inherit the farm.
The use of the phrase “beloved son” reminds us of the times when Jesus has spoken about His relationship to His father and we understand that the parable is talking about Jesus.
In the end of the parable Jesus invited the Jewish religious leaders to realize that they stood under God’s judgment because of their rejection of Him.
Jesus quoted Psalm 118:22, 23 to reveal their hearts.
They were very religious, but they had rejected God.
This rejection of God by the Jewish religious leaders is highlighted again in Mark 12:35-40 where Jesus pointed to Scripture to show who He was - the Son of David who is also the Lord of all - and warned the people not to follow the hypocritical religiosity of the Jewish leaders.
As we examine our own world, we need to think carefully and critically about what is written here.
Are we open to God or are we trying to maintain a religious system?
In the process of being the church what would happen if God showed up?
Would we be open to what He would want to do in our church?
Is our personal life merely a well structured religious system or do we have a relationship with God that allows us to recognize Him and know Him?
!
II.
When Jesus is the Keystone
Jesus gets to the heart of the matter in Mark 12:10 when He says, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.”
A capstone or keystone is the final stone which is put in an arch.
If it is not there, the whole arch will fall down.
If it is there, it holds the whole thing together.
The religious leaders had rejected Jesus, but God’s kingdom is all about Him.
In the following stories in this chapter we see one conflict after another in which these religious people rejected Jesus.
As Jesus responded to their challenges, we learn from their negative examples what it means to live with Jesus as the keystone, with our lives truly centered upon Him.
!! A.                 Give to God what is God’s
The first challenge comes to Jesus from two groups of leaders who never got along, but came together in their opposition to Jesus.
They represent the religious leaders and the political leaders and they came to place Jesus on the horns of a religious~/political dilemma.
They asked Jesus “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?”
The tax they had in mind was a particular tax which was required of every person and indicated allegiance to Rome as the occupying force in their land, the Promised Land.
The other problem was that the coin required to pay this tax had an image of Caesar on it, which violated the second commandment.
If Jesus answered that it was lawful, the Pharisees would accuse him of being unfaithful and they would put him in disfavor with many of the people and so discredit him.
On the other hand, the Herodians were supporters of Rome and if Jesus said that it was not lawful to pay this tax, they would have had him arrested as one who was trying to provoke rebellion.
The answer Jesus gave was brilliant, avoiding the trap all together.
He said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
In giving this answer, we have the first perspective on what it means not to be religious, but to truly follow God.
Jesus’ words invite us to ask, “What does it mean to “give to God what is God’s?”
Since the image on the coin was that of Caesar, giving the coin to Caesar was giving to Caesar what was his.
But even more powerful is the recognition that the image which is stamped on every human being is the divine image.
Genesis 1:27 says, “…God created man in his own image.”
Therefore giving to God what is God’s means giving ourselves to God.
To give to God what is God’s begins with settling the ownership issue.
To whom do we belong?
Are we ruled by our whims and wishes or are we ruled by God.
I like the way Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (NIV), “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your body.”
We personally answer the ownership question when we ask Jesus to come into our life.
At that point, we accept the sacrifice He made on the cross and turn over the management of our life to Him.
We continue to answer the ownership question when we acknowledge that Jesus is the Lord of our life.
1 Peter 3:15 says, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.”
That means that every day our life’s purpose is to follow Jesus.
!! B.                 Know the Word of God and the Power of God
The next section introduces an interesting logical puzzle.
It is presented by the Sadducees, who were very religious recognizing only Genesis to Deuteronomy as God’s Word.
Since they did not find the concept of resurrection in these books of the Bible, they rejected it.
Their logical dilemma revolved around something called Levirate marriage.
Because the Promised Land was passed on within the family, it was very important that each family have an heir.
If a man died without an heir, it was the responsibility of the man’s brother to provide an heir with the man’s wife so that the family line would be continued.
This group of Sadducees dug up the most extreme example of Levirate marriage they could find.
Whether this actually happened or not we don’t know, but it was a logical possibility and so they raised it.
A man died without offspring and his brother was faithful to the law and took his wife in order to raise up an heir.
This man also died without offspring and so the next brother married the woman.
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