Mark 12:35-14:11

The Voice

³⁵Later Jesus was teaching in the temple.

Jesus: Why do the scribes say that the Anointed One is the son of David? ³⁶In the psalms, David himself was led by the Holy Spirit to sing,

    The Master said to my master,
        “Sit at My right hand,
        in the place of power and honor,
    And I will gather Your enemies together,
        lead them in on hands and knees,
        and You will rest Your feet on their backs.”^[a]

³⁷If David calls Him “Master,” how can He be his son?

The crowd listened to Him with delight.

Jesus: ³⁸Watch out for the scribes who act so religious—who like to be seen in pious clothes and to be spoken to respectfully in the marketplace, ³⁹who take the best seats in the synagogues and the place of honor at every dinner, ⁴⁰who spend widows’ inheritances and pray long prayers to impress others. These are the kind of people who will be condemned above all others.

⁴¹Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, where people came to bring their offerings, and He watched as they came and went. Many rich people threw in large sums of money, ⁴²but a poor widow came and put in only two small coins^[b] worth only a fraction of a cent.^[c]

Jesus (calling His disciples together): ⁴³Truly this widow has given a greater gift than any other contribution. ⁴⁴All the others gave a little out of their great abundance, but this poor woman has given God everything she has.

13 As Jesus left the temple later that day, one of the disciples noticed the grandeur of Herod’s temple.

Disciple: Teacher, I can’t believe the size of these stones! Look at these magnificent buildings!

Jesus: ²Look closely at these magnificent buildings. Someday there won’t be one of these great stones left on another. Everything will be thrown down.

³They took a seat on the Mount of Olives, across the valley from the temple; and Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Jesus to explain His statement to them privately.

Peter, James, John, and Andrew: ⁴Don’t keep us in the dark. When will the temple be destroyed? What sign will let us know that it’s about to happen?

Jesus: ⁵Take care that no one deceives you. ⁶Many will come claiming to be Mine, saying, “I am the One,” and they will fool lots of people. ⁷You will hear of wars, or that war is coming, but don’t lose heart. These things will have to happen, although it won’t mean the end yet. ⁸Tribe will rise up against tribe, nation against nation, and there will be earthquakes in place after place and famines. These are a prelude to “labor pains” that precede the temple’s fall.

⁹Be careful, because you will be delivered to trial and beaten in the places of worship. Kings and governors will stand in judgment over you as you speak in My name. ¹⁰The good news of the coming kingdom of God must be delivered first in every land and every language. ¹¹When people bring you up on charges and it is your time to defend yourself, don’t worry about what message you’ll deliver. Whatever comes to your mind, speak it, because the Holy Spirit will inspire it.

¹²But it will get worse. Brothers will betray each other to death, and fathers will betray their children. Children will turn against their parents and cause them to be executed. ¹³Everyone will hate you because of your allegiance to Me. But if you’re faithful until the end, you will be rescued.

¹⁴You will see that which desecrates our most holy place^[d] [described by Daniel the prophet]^[e] out of place.

Let the one who reads and hears understand.

Jesus: On the day you see it, whoever is in Judea should flee for the mountains. ¹⁵The person on the rooftop shouldn’t reenter the house to get anything, ¹⁶and the person working in the field shouldn’t turn back to grab his coat. ¹⁷It will be horrible for women who are pregnant or who are nursing their children when those days come. ¹⁸And pray that you don’t have to run for your lives in the winter. ¹⁹When those days come, there will be suffering like nobody has seen from the beginning of the world that God created until now, and it never will be like this again. ²⁰And if the Lord didn’t shorten those days for the sake of the ones He has chosen, then nobody would survive them.

²¹If anyone tells you in those days, “Look, there is the Anointed One!” or “Hey, that must be Him!” don’t believe them. ²²False liberators and prophets will pop up like weeds, and they will work signs and perform miracles that would entice even God’s chosen people, if that were possible. ²³So be alert, and remember how I have warned you.

^24-25As Isaiah said in the days after that great suffering,

    The sun will refuse to shine,
        and the moon will hold back its light.
    The stars in heaven will fall,
        and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.^[f]

²⁶Then you will see (as Daniel predicted) “the Son of Man coming in the clouds,”^[g] clothed in power and majesty. ²⁷And He will send out His heavenly messengers and gather together to Himself those He has chosen from the four corners of the world, from every direction and every land.

The disciples can’t help but notice that something is in the air during this week between His entry into Jerusalem and His crucifixion. Surely the moment when Jesus is to reveal Himself as the Anointed can’t be far off. By repeatedly calling Himself the Son of Man, Jesus has told people His kingdom will be divinely instituted like the one described in Daniel 7. They are also thinking of promises about the coming Anointed One. But for Jesus, everything now is connected to His imminent death and resurrection. Even as He predicts the temple’s fall—an event that will occur about 40 years later—and speaks of His second coming, He is still thinking about His death. After all, resurrection can’t happen without death. And the old world must die before the world is made new.

Jesus: ²⁸Learn this lesson from the fig tree: When its branch is new and tender and begins to put forth leaves, you know that summer must be near. ²⁹In the same way, when you see and hear the things I’ve described to you taking place, you’ll know the time is drawing near. ³⁰It’s true—this generation will not pass away before all these things have happened. ³¹Heaven and earth may pass away, but these words of Mine will never pass away.

³²Take heed: no one knows the day or hour when the end is coming. The messengers in heaven don’t know, nor does the Son. Only the Father knows.

³³So be alert. Watch for it [and pray,]^[h] for you never know when that time might approach.

³⁴This situation is like a man who went on a journey; when he departed, he left his servants in charge of the house. Each of them had his own job to do; and the man left the porter to stand at the door, watching. ³⁵So stay awake, because no one knows when the master of the house is coming back. It could be in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning. ³⁶Stay awake; be alert so that when he suddenly returns, the master won’t find you sleeping.

³⁷The teaching I am giving the four of you now is for everyone who will follow Me: stay awake, and keep your eyes open.

Later Christians will try to use this chapter to predict exactly when Jesus will come and how the world will end. But to do that is to do exactly the opposite of what Jesus intends as He speaks these words. He makes it very clear that He doesn’t want anyone to use this description of signs to predict an exact time and date for His coming; even He Himself doesn’t know that time and date, and no one else needs to know either. Instead, the purpose is to warn them to stay ready and alert.

14 The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were two days away. The Jewish leaders—the chief priests and the scribes—gathered to discuss how they might secretly arrest Jesus and kill Him.

Jewish Leaders: ²We can’t do it during the festivals. It might create an uproar.

³While Jesus was eating dinner in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came into the house carrying an alabaster flask filled with a precious, sweet-smelling ointment made from spikenard. She came to Jesus, broke the jar, and gently poured out the perfume onto His head.

⁴Some of those around the table were troubled by this and grumbled to each other.

Dinner Guests: Why did she waste this precious ointment? ⁵We could have sold this ointment for almost a year’s wages,^[i] and the money could have gone to the poor!

Their private concerns turned to public criticism against her.

Jesus: ⁶Leave her alone. Why are you attacking her? She has done a good thing. ⁷The poor will always be with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you want. But I won’t always be with you. ⁸She has done what she could for Me—she has come to anoint My body and prepare it for burial. ⁹Believe Me when I tell you that this act of hers will be told in her honor as long as there are people who tell the good news.

The disciples can’t see any value in pouring so much perfume on Jesus. It is obviously a waste. The woman is demonstrating her love for Him with an abandon and an emotional commitment that few people have ever shown, and He appreciates her love and her faith. To Him, it is more than a gesture; it is a practical preparation for His imminent death and burial. No one else there can see what use her action is; but to Jesus, it is incredibly precious—so much so that He promises to make sure her action is never forgotten.

¹⁰It was after this that Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to meet the chief priests with the intention of betraying Jesus to them. ¹¹When they heard what he proposed, they were delighted and promised him money. So from that time on, Judas thought and waited and sought an opportunity to betray Jesus.