“‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet.”
Mark 12:36
Main Readings: Isaiah 11 & Mark 12
Supporting Readings: Psalm 110 & 1 Corinthians 15
Does the authority of a ruler free people or force people? Does the rule of a governor empower people or embitter people?
The answer to that kind of question depends on two things. It depends on the nature of the governor. And it depends on the heart of subject.
You could have a great governor, but if the people hate them, they will always feel constrained. And you could have a willing subject, but if the king is deviant, they will always feel forced.
What we long for is a king worthy of our honour and hearts that are enthusiastic to follow. And if you have both, rather than one or the other, you will have people who are free and empowered in all the rightways.
But we live in a sinful world where the ideas of human monarchs governing well in concert with heart-devoted subjects is the stuff of myths and fairytales.
But the bible - which is no book of myths and fairytales - shows us how this ideal can really exist.
And that’s what we’ve got before us this morning. A real story of a perfect king and of devoted subjects and how they are freed to do amazing things.
The reason this is not a fairytale is that the king is not a fallen human-being - he the God-king; and his name is Jesus.
So, what I want you to take away this morning is that Jesus is enthroned right now. That you, if you have come to depend on him by faith, are united to him. And the result of his perfect kingship and your union with him means you can be free to do radical and amazing things in his name, before you depart this world and go to be with him forever. That’s where we’re going this morning in this passage in Mark’s gospel.
I said a few weeks ago, how temple-oriented we would be until the end of chapter 13, and here in verse 35 of chapter 12, Mark reminds us, again, that Jesus was in the ‘temple courts’.
Remember we said that Jesus is calling an end to the old covenant - imminently, by his cross-work, and that he’s about to make a newcovenant in his own blood.
That means the old-order temple is coming to a close - we’re going to hear all about that in chapter 13 - and Jesus is re-centring everything the temple represented, in himself. The old is giving way to the new. The physical is giving way to the spiritual - in Christ Jesus.
So now, in this passage, for Jesus it’s the time to say - ‘I am the Messiah the Old Testament scriptures pointed to. I am the appointed deliverer. I will set God’s people free, and I will crush all their enemies’. This is the next installment of Jesus’ revelation of himself.
Now Jesus didn’t say a lot of things as plainly as you might have expected, and this is one of those occasions. So, let’s look carefully and see how he’s testifying to his Messiahship here.
Jesus, teaching the crowds, says to them, ‘why do the teachers of the law say the Messiah is the son of David?’ So straight away you can see that Jesus has Messiahship in view here. ‘Why do they say the Messiahwill be the son of David?’
Let’s see if we can answer that question. Were the teachers mistakenor did they have a good reason to say the Messiah would be the son of David? And it turns out they had good reason.
Isaiah 11 that Grace brought us this morning, promises a shoot coming up out of the stump of Jesse. And by Jesse what is meant is David because Jesse was David’s father.
This shoot in Isaiah 11 brings in justice and righteousness, the people flourish under his rule, and the enemies of Israel are utterly defeated. The language of the whole chapter is just incredibly hopeful.
The shoot of Isaiah 11 is the messiah - so that’s one massive Old Testament text that made the teachers of the law think the Messiah would be a son of David - in the line of David.
Jeremiah 23:5-6 does the same thing. As does Ezekiel 34:23-24. And there are others. These texts demand that the Messiah be from the line of David. So, the teachers weren’t mistaken. They read the texts, and they interpreted rightly - on this occasion.
So that begs the question, why does Jesus ask this? He knew the scriptures too - it’s not like these passages had escaped his attention. So why the question?
Jesus continues (v.36): ‘David himself’ - so now he’s invoking something David said himself. ‘speaking by the Holy Spirit’ – and that raises the stakes. This isn’t something David said purely of his own accord, he was led by the Spirit to say it. ‘The LORD said to my Lord: sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet’.
And the question from Jesus is ‘David himself calls him [Jesus means the Messiah] “Lord”. How then can he be his son?’
Right, let’s try to understand what Jesus is driving at here and then the purpose behind it, because I’m convinced that the conclusion he intends his audience, and us, to arrive at based on this teaching informs how we are meant to take the rest of this chapter. So, we’ve got to get this right. I’ve got some observations.
First observation - this quote from David is taken from Psalm 110, verse 1. And, if you read that Psalm through you will see that it is unmistakably messianic. I think I may be right in saying that it is the most frequently quoted Old Testament passage in all the New Testament – which tells you it’s pregnant with meaning.
The whole Psalm from beginning to end references one person. A person who will rule in the midst of enemies; who is a priest in the kingly order of Melchizedek; and who judges nations, and crushesrulers. It has all the messianic flavour of Isaiah 11, and more.
Second observation - Jesus seems to expect the teachers of the law to be able to say something more than that the Messiah will be the son of David.
Because in Psalm 110 David himself refers to the Messiah as his ‘Lord’ - that means his master. David did not use that term for his sons. He was their Lord, not the other way around.
Third observation - Jesus expected the teachers of the law to put Isaiah 11 together with Psalm 110 and draw the conclusion: the Messiah will be both the son of David and the Lord of David! That’s massive!
David says in the Psalm, ‘the LORD [that is God] said [past tense] to my Lord [the Messiah]’. And then he goes on to say everything else about the Messiah in the Psalm in the future tense. It’s all about what he willdo.
So, the Messiah is not only son and Lord of David, which is wild all by itself, but he is both before and after David. And as far as Jesus is concerned, these things should have dawned on the teachers of the law.
So, what is Jesus driving at? I think he’s saying, literally, ‘who in the world is like this Messiah figure?’ What kind of person could possibly be born in the line of David and predate David? And he wants us to conclude this one thing: Messiah must be divine - he must be God. God, come in the flesh (son of David)!
And when you remember everything else Jesus had done up to this point: miracles that looked like what Isaiah pointed to in Isaiah 35; temple cleansing that was reminiscent of the temple ownership of Malachi 3; and the triumphal entry that looked like the fulfilment of Zechariah 9 - amongst others - then Jesus wants us, and them, to be in no doubt - the Messiah is divine and the Messiah is Jesus!
That’s the point of this teaching that Jesus is giving. He’s proving who he is.
Psalm 110 verse 1 reads like this then: God said to Jesus: ‘sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet’.
Now it’s not as if Jesus hasn’t always been at the right hand of God. He’s God’s Son, where else would he be? Philippians (which we are fast becoming familiar with) encourages us to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ‘who, being in very nature God, did not consider equalitywith God something to be used to his own advantage; rather he made himself nothing’. There’s no doubt: Jesus has always been equal with God.
But, in his role as Messiah, as Philippians also says, he made himself nothing. That means he descended into the lower earthly regions. And, as we know, whilst he was here, he died. And by his death, he made atonement for the sins of his people. And then he was raised to life and he ascended into the heavenly realms.
The seat he has taken in the heavenly realms is the seat at the right hand of God the Father. That position is the position of absoluteauthority and of absolute kingship. Peter says, ‘Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand - with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him’.
So, Psalm 110, verse 1 is telling us, that Jesus will reign from his seat, next to the Heavenly Father, for a fixed and determinate period. Namely until all Jesus’ enemies are put under his feet - which is the same moment 1 Corinthians 15 anticipates when it says, ‘Just as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed [here are the enemies] all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet” [it’s Psalm 110, verse 1]’.
Jesus is therefore teaching - very clearly, I think - that he is the divine Messiah. The teachers of the law had missed the divine attributes of Jesus and therefore they were missing the Messiah.
And he’s teaching that he is going to ascend to the right hand of God and that will be where he reigns from.
And that, his reign will have a purpose which is, the conquering of all his enemies and then he will hand the kingdom over to his Father.
I think this is clear from what he is saying here in Mark 12.
It’s hard to comprehend how strange a thing for his listeners that would have been. They all expected the Messiah to come and defeat their enemies and reign from Jerusalem. But now they’re hearing him say that the Messiah’s reign will look totally different to that.
But it’s an impactful thing for us to hear also, because it means something immense for us who are united to Christ. And that’s what I want us to see next.
Before we go there though, I want to draw out this application. The teachers of law did not teach about the Messiah in accordance with the whole truth - they got part of it but not all of it. And that was because of one of two possibilities. One, they didn’t read carefully enough. Or, two, they didn’t read submissively enough.
We’re not told which it was, but I think there’s a lesson from eithermistake for us, with respect to how we engage with God’s Word.
And that is to say, the bible is God’s Word! It’s not any old book. Godhas spoken! Every word is meaningful and precious. And the obligation is on us to read it carefully - by which I mean both regularly and precisely; not infrequently and sloppily.
And the obligation is on us to read it by faith - which means, believingwhat it says; not being selective with it.
There’s no place for picking and choosing from God’s word. Rather, by faith, we take the Word, comprehend it’s meaning and embrace its teaching for our lives.
I’m not persuaded that all Christians have been taught to treat the bible carefully and faithfully, so I think we need to take that cue from Jesus here and make that our approach to God’s Word – careful and faithful.
But that’s not the main thing. The main thing is how the reality that Jesus - the perfect Messiah - is ascended and reigning, impacts our lives now.
How, if we have hearts for him, his reigning frees us to live lives that are radically different.
The sense in which Jesus is Messiah is not at all what the people of his day expected. He is in fact Messiah-ruler of a spiritual realm not a physical one. And he is Messiah-deliverer of spiritual people not a physical people.
Not that he is this for all people. He is only this for his chosen people - the people he redeemed by his blood on the cross.
They are the people who he has sent his Spirit forth into and in whose hearts, and by which Spirit, he reigns. Romans 8 puts it like this: ‘the mind governed [that is ‘reigned over’] by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace’.
So now Mark gives us two short accounts in verses 38 to 40 and then verses 41-45 which are contrasting. And by them he shows us the difference that the rule and reign of Christ can and should have in the life of one of his subjects.
We know that Jesus is speaking with the authority that is really his and that he is testifying to that authority by identifying as the divine Messiah.
Which is why in verses 38 - 40 he is forthright about the teachers of law. He tells the people to ‘watch out for them’, and then paints them in a very negative light, and then at last pronounces judgement on them saying ‘they will be most severely punished’. So, Jesus sits in judgement on the teachers in those verses.
But he also sits in judgment in verses 41 to 45. From Mark’s description, he sits down in the very position where he can see the offering box so that he can have the perfect vantage point to judge how the people give.
And then having observed, he delivers his verdict.
So, Jesus is at liberty to do this. He can judge people. Principally because he is come with authority. All judgment, John records Jesus saying, has been placed in his hands.
In verse 36, God says to him ‘sit at my right hand’ to reign and in verse 41, Jesus takes a seat to judge. That’s not an insignificant connection.
And, as if to deepen the connection, the teachers of the law are interested in seats of their own, aren’t they? Jesus says of them, ‘they like…to have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at the banquets’.
They have no regard for the seat of God but are puffed up with their own self-importance so that they are interested only in their own seats - the seats that confer honour on them.
I said last time, beware the draw of approval ratings, and that’s what these teachers are all about. Their robes, their company, their seats, their prayers even, are all about approval ratings.
In fact, they are slaves to what others think of them. And in the process, having lost all connection with God, they ‘devour widows houses’ - which means they take from widows the one earthly hope they have left. And Jesus’ verdict is, their punishment will be their end.
And with that word on widows, Mark introduces a widow - a ‘poor’widow. Maybe a widow who had been treated exactly as Jesus had sketched out in verse 40 by the teachers of the law.
Jesus watches her closely. She walks up to the offering box, and he observes her deposit in the box two small copper coins - worth virtually nothing!
What she puts in, pales into insignificance next to the amounts the rich people were putting in, and yet Jesus makes a surprising judgement about her offering.
Calling his disciples over, he says that the widow gave more than the others.
The reason is, that the others all gave out of their riches, but the widow gave out of her poverty (v.44). In other words, she put in everything – Jesus says, she put in ‘all she had to live on’.
I think we need to let this sink in because the words can pass through our minds but fail to land on our hearts if we’re not careful. This poor widowed woman gave ALL she had to live on!
I would like you think what that would feel like. Imagine coming to church and writing a cheque that represented every last penny you had in your bank account. That is the modern equivalent of what this woman did.
Imagine walking out through those doors penniless - destitute; not even able to buy a bottle of water, or a loaf of bread, or a bed for the night.
It isn’t difficult to work out why Jesus reckons that this woman gave more than the rest. It’s not about measuring the amount. If you do that, the others win hands-down.
This woman gave more because the little that she gave meant more to her than the much the others gave. The others could have given twice what they gave, and their lives would have looked no different.
So, the question is, what induced this woman to give everything she had to live on? And why didn’t the others do the same?
And the answer is in what they all value. Or more precisely, in the case of the widow, who she values. No one cares about what she puts in the box. No one notices it. She’s not important in any way. And so she’s not doing this for strokes - who would she get strokes from?
She’s doing it for one reason: out of a deep and profound love for God.
This is the temple; this is where God dwells. And God is worth to her more than her life. That’s what is going on here. To her, God’s love is better than life (Psalm 63).
You ask yourself what could motivate a person’s soul like this? And the answer is the Lordship of God. And since Jesus - the divine Messiah - is observing all this, the Lordship of God is the Lordship of Jesus.
Doesn’t she have any regard for her life?
The reign of Jesus in her heart is so real that she has been freed from the love of life to find her ultimate satisfaction not in bread, and water, and a bed, but in God.
If she dies, she dies - isn’t that what Esther said? God has gripped her life, so that he is her greatest delight. And that delight is powerful enough to compel her to give her all to him.
Mark’s purpose here isn’t to tell us we should be giving to the church - he’ll let Paul do that in 2 Corinthians 9. What Mark has in mind is to demonstrate to us what the reign of Jesus creates in a person.
The money is an example - it’s a good one because nothing on earth grips our hearts quite like money - but then look at the teachers for the law in verses 38 - 40, they’re gripped by the love of popularity.
We’re all gripped by something. The question is what really grips us? For the teachers of the law, what gripped them, Jesus says, is going to have eternal consequences.
Jesus’ kingship though frees us to be gripped by him alone. And when we’re gripped by him like that, we’re free to make all kinds of radical choices that delight our souls and bring glory to him and that look very different to the world we live – like her offering looked different!
I was texting Sharon Sweeting this week. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me telling you. As most of you know Steve has started his chemotherapy and it’s very tough.
But, with this text in mind, I am so encouraged for him - Jesus is enthroned right now. All Jesus’ enemies, even death, are being - and finally will be - put under his feet.
We are his people - Steve belongs to Jesus. Steve, and we, are unitedwith Christ by virtue of his death for us.
And so, Christ’s enemies are our enemies. As he puts his enemies under his feet, he puts our enemies under our feet too. And so, we attain to the resurrection of the dead and so we reign also. That’s the kind of kingship that frees us to live through cancer and chemo with hope.
Paul says, ‘Here is a trustworthy saying, if we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure with him, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot disown himself’.
Jesus is the true Messiah who has taken his throne and begun to reign. And we are his happy subjects who are gripped by his reign in our lives.
And the more we see that and live in the light of that by faith – what I mean by faith is trusting that he is really reigning and standing on his promises which are true and steadfast because he is reigning - then the freer we will be to do amazing things to maximise our joy in him, and to glorify his great name in this world!