Mark Chapter 12 – Greater Things Above
In the Book of Mark, as well as other gospel books, we see people constantly ask Jesus questions. To eat or not to eat with sinners? (Mark 2:16); to fast or not to fast? (Mark 2:18); to heal or not to heal on the Sabbath day? (Mark 3:2); to wash or not to wash hands? (Mark 7:5); to see or not to see a sign from heaven? (Mark 8:11 and 12); to divorce or not divorce a wife? (Mark 10:2); to pay or not to pay tax? (Mark 12:13). Whether people asked to intentionally test Jesus, or genuinely out of ignorance over a subject matter, they often asked the ‘can-or-cannot’ type of questions.
Yet, in Jesus’ interaction with these people, He constantly directed their attention to greater things above. He was busy healing the sick, performing signs to persuade and convince, expounding on the truth, resolving food shortage, and glorifying God through transfiguration. In chapter 12, beyond the ‘can’s and the ‘cannot’s Jesus highlights four greater things:
- How to live? Through Jesus’ response to the Pharisees and the Herodians, he points out two aspects of our lives: the physical and the spiritual. Money is always a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. We therefore use it wisely and responsibly to fulfill our duties towards God and people. Therefore, Jesus explains it is proper to pay tax and to offer to God. In addition, recorded elsewhere in the Bible, kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord (Proverbs 19:17).
- What is the greatest commandment? To love God and to love others as ourselves. There will always be loopholes in any kind of legal system or in any set of rules or regulations. But when there is love, people will not seek out these loopholes. On the contrary, people will patch up these loopholes and strive to improve for the better. In other words, we don’t ask how not to fail. We want to know how to score.
I am especially intrigued by the second part of Jesus’ commandment. It is a summation of the last six of the ten commandments. In addition to that, do we really know how to love ourselves in the first place? As I grow older, I begin to realise to love ourselves is to rest early, eat on time, avoid deep-fried food, exercise regularly, and spend quality time with loved ones. It is only when I take care of myself, I can and know how to take care of others. How about you?
- God’s thoughts are way higher than ours. So long as we are alive, we have a body. So long as we have a body, we are confined in time and space. Time governs the operation of our everyday life. We have calendars and clocks to help us calibrate the passage of time. There is a time to get up, a time to get ready for school and work, and a time to come home. Within the confine of time, some of us are born earlier and others later. That’s why we have the older and the younger generations before and after us. In addition to time, we are bounded in space. We are therefore always somewhere geographically located on a map, even if we were to be in the outer space.
Because we are always confined in time and space, Jesus challenges our thinking as he had challenged his listeners. If Christ is the son of David, why then did David call Christ the Lord? (Mk 12:35-37). In other words, because God exists outside of time and space, and therefore is not bound by them, Christ is concurrently the Son and the Lord of David. Similarly, marriage only exists between two living individuals, who are bound in time and space. That’s why on the day of resurrection the concept of marriage is void, because time and space do not exist in resurrection (Mk 12: 24-27).
- Through the story of the poor widow, Jesus gives us a clue about how He sees us. While God is the absolute one, He sees human beings in their contexts. The widow and her two small copper coins may be miniscule in comparison to the wealth of the rich. But she gives her one hundred percent. To Jesus her offering is far greater than the rich who offers a small portion out of their vast wealth. Similarly, in our everyday interactions with others, we will also need to think, feel, and see others in their own contexts. It is only then we can appreciate, admire, be awed, and continue to see beauty and virtue in those around us.
Instead of asking Jesus, ‘can or cannot do?’, let’s ask questions that will lead us to the greater things above:
‘What can I do?’
‘How can I do it better?’