Mark 12:35-37 - The Wisdom, Mystery, and Person of Christ

The Wisdom, Mystery, and Person of Christ | Mark 12:35-37

In this episode of Proclaiming His Word, we examine Mark 12:35-37, where Jesus turns the tables on the religious leaders with a single profound question. Through this passage, we uncover:

📖 The Wisdom of Christ displayed before the religious elite.
🔍 The Mystery of Christ revealed in the Old Testament.
⚖️ The Humanity and Deity of Christ in His identity as both David’s Son and David’s Lord.

Join us as we marvel at the wisdom of Jesus, the foreshadowing of His coming in the Old Testament, and the glorious truth of His divine and human nature. May this message deepen your faith and stir your heart to worship the true Messiah!

🎙️ Listen now and be encouraged in the Word!

Transcript

83 - Mark 12:35-37 - The Wisdom, Mystery, and Person of Christ

Intro

• If you have your Bibles please turn with me to the Gospel of Mark and find chapter 12.
  • In our verses today our Lord turns the tables on the religious leaders and instead of being questioned He simply asks one question.  
  • Though this question goes unanswered by our Lord it does not mean it is without an answer by us today.
• Our time in the text will yield for us three observations…
  • The Wisdom of Christ before the Religious Elite…
  • The Mystery of Christ in the Old Testament…
  • The Humanity and Deity of Christ in the Answer…
• With that short introduction let us read our verses today and jump right in…

Mark 12:35-37

• Three short verses spoken by our Lord, one of those verses a direct quote from the book of Psalms.
  • Yet in these verses we find three important truths for us today.
• Before we jump into our points it would serve us well if we remind ourselves of the context of these verses…
  • Namely, the interactions that occurred throughout this chapter with the various political and religious leaders of the day…
    • In verses 13-17 we find the first round of pointed questions directed toward Jesus.
      • This coming from the Pharisees and the Heriodians, an unlikely pair and enemies when just considering the individual groups.
      • However, they set aside their differences to take on a common opponent that they saw in Christ.
        • They are a good example of an enemy of my enemy is my friend.
      • Their question intended to trap Jesus failed miserably, and so the next group sets up.
    • In verses 18-27 we find the second question is really a scenario painted by the Sadducees.
      • They are asking Jesus about the Resurrection, something they themselves did not believe in.
      • This scenario blew up in their face as our Lord Jesus Christ provided a proof text for the resurrection found in the book of Exodus.
      • Though they tried to make Jesus look foolish their effort backfired hilariously.
      • So up steps the final group, which turns out to be an individual.
    • In verses 28-34 we find the scribe stepping up with the final question.
      • “Which commandment is the greatest?”, he asked. and our Lord responded by quoting Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19.  
        • Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.  
      • We found that this scribe had good theology and agreed with Christ, yet the exchange revealed that he was near to the kingdom and nothing more.
        • Truly a tragic end of our previous verses.  
      • The passage left us with a warning that we should not be satisfied with just being near but we must strive to be a part of the kingdom of God.
    • With this final questioning our Lord silenced His opponents, they did not dare to ask Him any more questions.
  • Yet with their silence arose the opportunity for our Lord to turn the tables on them and ask them a question.
• Which brings us to our first point today…

The Wisdom of Christ before the Religious Elite - Vs. 35-37

• I love the context of these verses which is why we spent some time reviewing the previous interactions.
  • Jesus has been hit with question after question with the intent to trap Him in His words or cause Him to lose favor with the people.
    • Of course none of those things happen, instead we can look at these interactions and marvel at the wisdom of Christ before these teachers of Israel.
  • We can do very much the same thing in our verses today, as Jesus asks this question their collective silence speaks volumes.
• Consider their background with me for a few moments…
  • These groups that stood before Christ were the collective experts of the day, more than that they were found in the Temple, the central place of worship.
    • After they badger Jesus with questions meant to cause Him to trip up they are then asked a question for which the only response was their united silence.
  • We find this story in all three synoptic Gospels, the only additional information we find is in Matthew’s account, the final verse reads…
    • Matthew 22:46 - “And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.”
  • None were able to stand before His wisdom…
    • He quoted one verse, Psalm 110 verse 1 and asked a simple question in response to that verse.
    • It is just a glimpse into the mind of Christ, it is just a small peak at His wisdom.  
• This though should not be a surprise to us, for we believe what scripture testifies about Him.
  • Like how He is introduced in the Gospel of John…
    • John 1:1-3 - “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
    • John opens up His Gospel testifying of Jesus that He is Creator and Sustainer and He Created in His Divine Wisdom.
  • To say it differently we can look at Creation itself and observe the wisdom of God.
• Let me give you two examples although there are many more…
  • The first example is one of my favorite aspects to consider of Creation and that is the vast complexity of our universe and the fine tuning necessary in order to sustain life.
    • It is quite an amazing thing to study the vastness and complexity of the universe and to see just how fragile life really is.
      • Then, in the same look, to consider how life thrives all around us.
    • Yet we know that even in that thriving we can recognize just how delicate everything hangs in the balance.
    • Consider a couple examples of this…
      • The “Goldilocks Zone”.
        • Coming from the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, remember the porridge…
          • The first one was too hot for her, the second was too cold for her, and the third was “just right”.
        • That is what is meant by the “Goldilock Zone”, the earth is just the right distance away from the sun in order for water to exist in its liquid state. 
          • Which is necessary for life to exist, which means that even a small percentage change in either direction would render our planet uninhabitable.
          • Either boiling our oceans or leaving us a frozen wasteland.
      • Another such example we can observe in our world is oxygen…
        • Our atmosphere contains 21% oxygen.
          • If that number were to drop to 15% we would all suffocate.
          • However, if it went in the other direction up to 25% we would have uncontrollable fires.
      • These two examples are among the dozens that we could dive into to explore just how perfect our world is, which testifies to the wisdom of God.
    • Maybe you do not care much about the broad universe and how delicate life is and how perfect the conditions are for life so let me share my second example.
  • Instead of considering the Laws that govern this Creation let us consider our own bodies.
    • We, as created beings, can observe the wisdom of God in our own bodies.
    • For example, consider with me the eye…
      • Made up of over 2 million working parts, aside from the brain the eye is the most complex part of your body.
      • Think about it…
        • It adjusts automatically for light, depth, and focus all without our conscious effort.
        • The speed at which it makes these adjustments and sends the image to our brain to decipher what we see rivals most supercomputers.
      • Truly considering the eye alone should enable a reasonable person to conclude there must be a Creator.
        • That is just one aspect of our persons… 
    • We could also consider DNA…
      • It has been called the “blueprint of life”, and for good reason.
        • Everything our bodies do, the way we develop…
          • From the color of our hair to fingerprints upon our hands are determined by our unique DNA that is given us at conception.
          • It is one reason that we hold to the sanity of life from the moment of conception.
        • Everything that makes us a unique person is found within that code that is present from the very start.
      • Psalm 139:14 - “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”
  • Quite simply the more we learn about our bodies and this Creation we dwell in the more we can marvel at the wisdom of God.
• What does this have to do with our verses today?
  • Wisdom incarnate was standing before them and displayed this wisdom for us all to see.
  • In the same way we may marvel at the created order of our world and the complexity of our own bodies may we marvel at the wisdom of Christ in these verses today.
• Let us move forward to our second point…

The Mystery of Christ in the Old Testament - Psalm 110

• For this I am going to ask you to turn with me to Psalm 110.
  • As you turn there I want to remind you what Christ said in Luke 24.
  • In Luke 24, after the Resurrection of Jesus we find two disciples traveling along the road.
    • Jesus joins them but conceals His identity, as they walk and talk He begins to teach.
      • We are told that He taught them using the Old Testament.
    • Luke 24:27 - “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
  • Oh what a conversation that would have been, to hear our Lord talk about how He is the perfect fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.
• Though that conversation was not recorded, what we find is that the Apostles very much believed that all of the Old Testament pointed forward to Jesus.
  • It centered on Him, it was about Him, yet they could not see it.
    • I was trying to think of a way to illustrate this, and so I decided to do something out of the box for our Sunday mornings.
    • On the screen you will see a picture, kinda blurry but what is it?
      • LET THEM ANSWER
      • It is flowers, clearly, even though it is blurry it is a picture of blue and yellow flowers.
      • Anyone can see that is exactly what this picture is all about.
    • This is an example of the Old Testament before Christ.
      • Maybe a bit blurry but very clearly flowers, except that is really not what it is about at all.
      • If we were to zoom out and see the whole picture then what would we find?
        • SHOW PICTURE
        • We would find that it is really not about the flowers at all, actually it was about a wedding.
      • Now here is the deal, before Christ the best that anyone could do is see a blurry zoomed in photo of what the Old Testament was really about.
    • Now, however, we are able to see clearly that the entire Old Testament pointed to the One that was to come.
  • It is all centered on Him, every book of the Old Testament is there to testify about Christ.
    • Before Jesus came and made this clear to us it was a glorious mystery, shown even in Psalm 110.
  • Let’s read it together.
• Psalm 110
  • I wanted us to read this to see a couple of things.
    • First, and most importantly in our passage in Mark we learn that David is the author of this Psalm.
      • It was this foundation that led to the question that Jesus asked in our passage today.
        • The conundrum was how could one come from David that was superior to David?
      • It would be out of place for a mere physical son of David to be considered his own Lord.
    • This captures the essence of what we are talking about, there is mystery found in the Old Testament for which Christ is the only solution.
  • We see this further down in this Psalm as well as this kingly figure also exists as a priest after the order of Melchizedek.
    • Melchizedek is found just mentioned once in the Old Testament interacting with Abraham in Genesis 14.
    • So this Psalm tells us that this descendant of David will be greater than David because He was before David and also existed as a priest.
  • I am certain that this Psalm caused the religious leader's head to spin not knowing what to do with what they read.
• Again, their silence on this matter speaks volumes.  
  • However, in just a short time the mystery of Christ in the Old Testament was to be revealed.
  • Today we exist on this side of the cross and have the completed Canon that exposes the mystery of Christ in the Old Testament and the revealed Messiah in the New.
    • Which means we should treasure both the Old and New as a completed work.
    • J.C. Ryle wrote on this point…
      • “Let us beware of undervaluing, or despising the Old Testament. In its place and proportion, the Old Testament is just as valuable as the New. There are probably many rich passages in that part of the Bible, which have never yet been fully explored. There are deep things about Jesus in it, which many walk over like hidden gold mines, and know not the treasures beneath their feet. Let us reverence all the Bible. All is given by inspiration, and all is profitable. One part throws light upon another, and no part can ever be neglected without loss and damage to our souls.”
  • So with those words I urge you, believer, to not neglect the Old Testament for it is the first writings that testify of the Risen Savior.
• Let us turn back to Mark 12 as we step into our final point…

The Humanity and Deity of Christ - Vs. 35-37

• Let us read our verses again and discuss the answer to the question presented by Christ…
  • Vs.. 35-37
• The conundrum of those verses as we have already discussed is how can one come from David but be greater than David?
  • It is here I want to present a theological phrase that is used to describe this answer.
  • It is called the Hypostatic Union.
    • Now if you have never heard of it by name I am certain you have heard of it by definition.
  • It is the phrase used to describe the relationship, the union, between the humanity of Christ and the Deity or Divinity of Christ.  
    • It is the understanding that Jesus was born in a manager but Jesus also created all things.
    • It is seeing Jesus in the Gospels grow tired and hungry while also feeding thousands and calming the storm.
    • It is how He exists as a son of David that is greater than David because He came before Him.
  • Those in our text that are presented with this question missed the One that was standing before them.
    • Not realizing that the answer to the question was the One asking the question in the first place.
• To be fair and to their credit I do not blame them for missing the One before them.
  • How could God who is Spirit and has revealed Himself as such be clothed in flesh?
    • If you will recall, it was Jesus' claim at deity that brought about the charge of blaspheming which was ultimately the reason they crucified Him. 
    • Here He is wisly pointing out the mystery of the Messiah, the Promised One who they were all looking for.
  • In His question He so slightly pulled back the curtain revealing that this Messiah was going to be more than a mere man.  
    • I remind you that they were looking for a political king, a warrior who would overthrow the Romans.
    • They were not looking for One that would free them from their spiritual slavery.
    • They were not expecting a suffering Messiah who would lay down His life for the sake of His people.
  • Even in that we have a paradox, how can One lay down His own life be considered a conqueror?
    • How can death bring about life?
    • How can the cross bring hope?
    • How can God be clothed in humanity?
• If you really ponder these questions you will not find answers that are satisfactory to you.
  • The deeper you dig into the Trinity and the unified nature of Christ the more you will see how little you understand.
  • Which should remind us that God is God and we are not…
    • We can no more understand God and His trinitarian nature than a speck of dust can comprehend the complexity of the universe.
  • However, that does not mean it is not clearly found in the text of scripture…
    • Over and over again we see the humanity of Christ on display and over and over again we see His Divine nature on display as well.
    • We may not know how they are present together and how it all works but to deny it would be to turn from scripture.
  • It is a settled truth that is agreed upon for two millennia, present in the Word and confessed by the Church.
• It is something we should behold, marvel at, reflect upon, and be thankful for.

Closing

• Lastly, as we prepare to close out our time together this morning…
  • I want to share that though you will never comprehend completely the nature of Christ it is not a requirement for your salvation.
  • Christ did not die for you to better understand His hypostatic nature, He died in your place to pay the debt you owe before a Righteous God.
  • Therefore take heard and obey what has been commanded us by the first preaching of the Gospel…
    • Repent of your sins and place your faith in the Savior to be saved.
• Though His opponents were silenced in our verses today my prayer is that you will not be silent but you will instead confess Him as Lord and God.
  • Let’s pray.