Mark - Lesson 17...Continued from page 4

DAY FIVE:  Jesus Questions and Observes

Please carefully read Mark 12:35–44 and answer the following questions.

1.  Now it was Jesus’ turn to do some questioning and observation.  What interesting thing did Jesus ask the religious leaders regarding their views of the Messiah? (vv. 35–38)

SIDELIGHT: The Son of David

What Jesus did here was not to deny He was the Son of David prophesied, but to challenge their thinking about what the Messiah would do when He came.[xii]  That the Messiah would be the Son of David was a standard Jewish belief firmly based on Old Testament Scriptures (2 Samuel 7:8–16; Psalm 89:3–4; Isaiah 9:2–7; 11:1–9; Jeremiah 23:5, 6; 30:9; 33:15–17, 22; Ezekiel 34:23, 24; 37:24; Hosea 3:5; Amos 9:11). Jesus pointed out that it is equally true that the Messiah is David’s Lord. The religious leaders’ view was correct but incomplete, because the common Jewish view was that the Messiah was to be a warrior-king like David. They had limited the Scriptures by narrow nationalistic hopes. The One who would reign in God’s kingdom was David’s “Lord,” not just his descendant, so He would be greater than David. Mark might have intended for us to connect this verse with verse 29.  Jewish interpreters often linked verses with a key word; here it was that there was only one Lord: God. If so, Mark was making a claim for Jesus’ deity. Jesus wasn’t denying He was David’s descendant or the Messiah.  This strongly implies that the Messiah is both Son of God (David’s Lord) and Son of Man (David’s Son). He will restore the future Davidic kingdom on earth.

2.  It is interesting that Mark records that the common people heard Him gladly.  As John Phillips well said, “they were doubtless glad to have the religious leaders put in their place!”[xiii]  What strong words did Jesus have to say about the corrupt among the religious leaders? (vv. 38–40)

3.  Jesus decided to go over to the treasury and observe those putting in their contributions.  What was Jesus really looking for in their giving, and what did He discover? (v. 41, 42)  What did He say in praise of this? (vv. 43, 44)

4.  Warren Wiersbe helps us understand the scene Jesus was observing:

There were thirteen trumpet-shaped chests around the walls of the court of the women, and here the people dropped in their offerings. The rich made a big production out of their giving (see Matt. 6:1–4), but Jesus rejected them and their gifts. It is not the portion but the proportion that is important: the rich gave out of their abundance, but the poor widow gave all that she had. For the rich, their gifts were a small contribution, but for the widow, her gift was true consecration of her whole life.[xiv]

The widow’s mite has become a common saying.  The mite (of which Mark is of little help to modern day readers by saying two of these make a quadrans) comes from the Greek word leptos, meaning peeled, husked, thin or fine. It is used here of a very small, thin coin. Two lepta were worth 1/64 of a Roman denarius, a laborer’s day’s wage. Mark stated their value in terms of Roman coinage for his Roman readers. The word mite is a contraction of minute, from the Latin minutum, the translation of lepton, the very smallest copper coin.[xv]  Jesus looked at how these gave?not how much, but rather at their heart attitude.  What did Paul later say about giving of our finances that reinforces this?
(2 Corinthians 9:6–9)

Scripture Memory:  Can you write out this week’s passage by memory here below?  Give it a try, and keep reviewing the passage several times throughout the day.

Mark 12:29–31a: