Stroll through Scripture for Sunday March 3, 2024

Based on Mark 12:1–17

This week’s reading is full of direct conflict between Jesus and his detractors. Jesus confronts the people who oppose him head on. He doesn’t sugar coat it for them. He doesn’t make excuses for their behavior either. This is a confrontational set of verses. And it should teach us a few things. First, Jesus wasn’t interested in just being some kind of nice guy who avoids conflict. He faces it when he needs to. He doesn’t try to avoid it just because it’s uncomfortable.

In the first section, Jesus tells a parable about the wicked tenants, which is really about the long line of religious people who have tried to highjack God’s way of doing things. There’s a long history of God sending prophets to Israel, only to have them be killed by the religious people. Let’s be clear about what this is really about. There are some who have used religion for their own purposes. There are some who use religion because it offers an opportunity to give a person a sense of control and power. There are some who use religion as a means to exert that control over others in what they do, how they think, and how they use their resources. The Temple was no exception to this in Jesus time. The religious authorities worked with the Roman authorities in order to maintain their titles and positions and benefits, all at the expense of the people. When religious institutions cozy up to the state authorities, history has shown that it doesn’t work out well for the people. In those cases, religion becomes abusive…