Mark 12:13 “And they sent unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.”
The persistence of some people in their sin is truly amazing! Even though directly confronted by Jesus through His most recent parable, told of their sinful heart condition and actions, these men went right out and began to seek for other ways to undermine and hinder the work of Christ! Truly this verse is a powerful picture of the nature of a hardened heart!
The religious leaders were given such a clear parabolic rebuke from the Lord. They were confronted in such a way that earlier verses say that they knew that He had spoken this parable against them. And yet this rebuke was not sufficient to break through the hardness of heart that held these men captive. When a heart is truly bound by sin the power of that deception is a powerful stronghold. These men were given opportunity to repent but instead were on the opposite side of the grace of God!
In considering this reality there are two things that seem to speak loudly from this sad reality. First it is clear that though these men were, in God’s mercy, given a strong rebuke and opportunity to repent, their rejection of this opportunity now positioned them as God’s adversaries and the tools through which He would fulfill His purpose. Just as in the case of Moses where Pharaoh’s rejection of the signs sent to him positioned Him as a tool through which God would reveal His wrath, so the resistance of these religious rulers set them up to be the vessels through which Christ would be sent to the cross. This great act of betrayal on their part became the setting for their own judgment and for the fulfillment of God’s greatest purpose! We must learn to look through the lens of heaven when interpreting the conflict and opposition that we face as we walk out our callings. The very same act that on one hand God uses to train us and to fulfill His purpose concerning us, at many times becomes the setting through which God’s divine justice is set in motion in regard to His dealings with both His enemies and the lost that He is reaching out towards.
The second reality that calls to us through this passage is the power of a wrong heart. At first glance the reactions of these men may seem rooted in a misguided loyalty to the things of God. There is however a deeper reality at work behind the motives that hold these men’s hearts. John 11:47-48 reveals through their own words the true motives of their anger and resistance towards Christ. "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." Indeed there is no noble but misdirected commitment to God at work in the actions of these men. The true condition of their heart is centered upon their commitment to preserve what they would lose personally if Christ continues to inspire faith in the multitudes. Instead of possessing the heart of John whose reaction to Christ’s growing influence was, “He must increase. I must decrease,” there was only possessiveness instead of surrender to God’s purpose. “Lord give us the heart of your servant John!”
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