Mark 12:1-27

Jesus told a parable of a land owner who rented his vineyard out to some vine-growers. When harvest time came about, he sent one of his servants to collect from the harvest. The vine-growers beat him and sent him away. The land owner sent more servants, and each one was beaten and/or killed. He finally sent his son thinking the vine-growers would respect him, but they killed him as well. Jesus said the reaction of the land owner would be to destroy the vine-growers and give the land to others. This parable showed how the nation of Israel had treated God's prophets and now His Son. They had rejected (sometimes violently) the messengers God had sent. Now here was God's own Son and they were about to kill Him. Jesus told them that even though they were going to reject Him, God had plans to use Him as the cornerstone of a new church.


A group of Pharisees and Herodians (followers of Herod) came to Jesus hoping to trap him with a question. They wanted Jesus to tell them if it was lawful (under God's law) to pay a poll-tax to Caesar. Jesus showed them that it was Caesar's picture on the coin used to pay the tax and told them to "render to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's." We have both a civil duty to obey the laws of whatever country we find ourselves living in as well as a duty to obey God. There is nothing in the Bible to suggest that we can ignore our responsibility to earthly government.


A group of Sadducees also came to try to trap Jesus in a question. They wanted to know who a woman's husband would be in heaven if she were married to seven different men on earth. Jesus told them there was no marriage in heaven, but since the Sadducees didn't even believe in the resurrection in the first place, Jesus addressed this as well by telling them that when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, He identified Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Since these three had all been dead for some time, and God is not the God of the dead, they must have been living at the time God said that (via resurrection). The resurrection is the day we all look forward to. One day, we will each be raised up to face eternity. Whether we spend eternity with God or separated from Him depends on the decision we make to follow Jesus or not.