Mark 12
The Jerusalem controversy sequence reaches its climax in a series of confrontations that expose the religious establishment's failure while revealing Jesus as the fulfillment of everything the temple represented. The wicked tenants parable is transparent: the vineyard of Isaiah 5 is Israel, the servants are the prophets, the son is Jesus, and the tenants are the leaders who know the heir and kill him anyway — the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The tribute-to-Caesar question (designed to trap Jesus between Roman loyalty and Jewish nationalism) receives the most brilliant answer in the controversy sequence: give to Caesar what is Caesar's (what bears his image belongs to him) and to God what is God's (what bears God's image — human beings — belongs to God). The Sadducees' resurrection question is answered by correcting both their knowledge of Scripture and their knowledge of God's power: in the resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels, and God's present-tense self-identification as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob proves the resurrection — he is God of the living, not the dead. The greatest commandment double answer (love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; love your neighbor as yourself — on these two hang all the law and the prophets) receives the scribe's genuine agreement and the commendation that he is not far from the kingdom of God. The Psalm 110 question about how the Messiah can be both David's son and David's Lord silences the establishment for the last time. The widow's two coins close the chapter: she gave out of her poverty — all she had to live on — while the teachers of the law who devour widows' houses make lengthy prayers.