New Year: Mark 11-12 for Oct 24

Jesus is not only intimate with the details of the immediate future (Mark 11:3,6) but of the ties between far future and present (12:40).

(Matthew 21:1 - 23:12 and Luke 19:29 - 21:4 are in sequence with Mark 11-12, when we view them "synoptically.")

The parable of the vineyard owner (12:1-11) is heart-wrenching, but has a twist at the end (12:10-11), which makes it a real problem for those who think the church invented the applications of the parables. Here, the inexplicable actions of the vineyard owner are resolved only by 12:10-11. The Lord, about to be "rejected" and killed, "became the chief corner stone," (12:10). The people were often astonished (11:18), but they were also glad to listen (12:37). However, when "the chief priests and the scribes and the elders" (11:27) "understood that He spoke the parable against them (12:12), though they were also often amazed (12:17), they would characteristically just leave (12:12).

However, those he spoke against were not spoken against en masse, as if everything was a generalization against the label "scribe" or "elder" or "priest." For example, one scribe was highly commended (12:34), in a very enigmatic way that defies most systematizers.

The teaching to the disciples is of the highest and most inspirational quality (11:20-25) amidst all this. The Lord's time in Jerusalem was His as Lord of history, as much as any other time. All that the Lord said to the disciples here was for the quality of their ongoing lives (11:20-25; 12:43).