Mark 12:1-12, Jesus Claims to be the Messiah

In Mark’s Gospel chapter 12 records the conversations Jesus had with the religious leadership during Passion Week.  Every one of them was contentious.  How different this was than the conversations Jesus had with them when He was 12 years of age when “all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers” (Lk. 2:47).

At the Synagogue at Machpelah, the Cave of the Patriarchs, 3 Jewish men doing what you do at the Synagogue: discuss.  It reminded me of Jesus "sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions" when He was 12 years old. (Lk. 2:46).

In Mark 12 there are a couple of conversations, each initiated by Jesus, in which He very strongly stakes the claim to be Messiah.  At the end of the chapter is His statement about David calling Him “Lord” (12:35-37).  That claim is very obvious and could not be rebutted by the teachers.  The people “heard Him gladly.”

The other one is the parable in 12:1-12.  Comparing 12:12 with Matt. 21:45-46 it is the leadership that understands that Jesus spoke this parable against them.  Matthew says that the people held Jesus to be a prophet and that was why the leaders would not arrest Him on the spot.

Just what did the leaders understand?  They understood clearly that Jesus was taking a profound Messianic reference (Ps. 118:22-23 quoted in Mk. 12:10-11) and applying it to Himself.  How do we know the leaders understood this?  Because we know that what the leadership does is study the Rabbi’s.  And we know that every Rabbi understood Ps. 118, one of the great Hillel Psalms, to be Messianic.

Let me share a web page with you that I came across in seeking to answer the question, “Did the Rabbi’s acknowledge Ps. 118:22-23 as Messianic?”  It may be a somewhat strange site, or it may just be a little creative, as the question of the site is, “What are the odds Jesus is the Son of God?”  But if you are looking for footnotes, he has them.  So here is the link.

Psalms 118 – Messiah Characteristics Consensus | The Odds

What we have, of course, is Jesus bringing up the main “Messianic problem” for Jews: how can Messiah be both glorious and suffering death?  Peter referred to this (1 Pt. 1:10-11).  Jewish Rabbis struggle with this and the only answer is one that doesn’t make sense, that there will be two Messiahs.  Read the great prophesies in the OT: Ps. 22 and 118, Isaiah 53 and so forth.  There is no inkling of two Messiahs.  All three of those I mentioned speak of His death and then being blessed after His death.  It’s the same person, not a second person.  Only Jesus, who truly dies and is then resurrected, satisfies this conundrum. 

So on the day Jesus spoke this parable, while the crowd may not have caught it, the leaders who studied the Rabbi’s did understand exactly what Jesus was saying about Himself.  And here is an interesting thing one of those people we mentioned in our previous post shared with us: today in Israel, in the Synagogues, no one is studying the Old Testament!  They are all studying the Rabbi’s, according what is written in the Midrash (commentary on the Torah) and the Talmud (compilation of Rabbinical teaching).  That same person who told us this is doing the right thing: he is engaging people in the study of the Bible!