Mark 12King James Version
The parable of the wicked husbandmen. The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner. The Pharisees ask about taxes: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. The Sadducees ask about the resurrection. A scribe asks the first commandment. Jesus answers: Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. The widow puts in two mites, all that she had, and Jesus says she has cast in more than all the rich.
Jesus tells the parable of the wicked tenants: the vineyard owner's servants are beaten, his son is killed. The leaders know it is about them. Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees take turns trying to trap him: taxes to Caesar, resurrection, the greatest commandment. Each attempt fails. Jesus silences them and turns it around, asking how David's son can also be David's Lord. He warns against the scribes. A widow puts two coins in the temple treasury.
While religious leaders debate traps, a widow with two coins demonstrates more genuine devotion than everyone watching her, and Jesus notices.
44: "For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living." The measurement Jesus uses is not amount given, but proportion of self kept back.
The temple treasury sat in the Court of Women, the second court, accessible to both Jewish men and women. Thirteen trumpet-shaped receptacles lined the walls, designated for specific offerings. The trumpets amplified the sound of coins. Large gifts were audible. The widow's two lepta, the smallest coins in circulation, would have made almost no sound.
Chief priests, scribes, and elders who hear the tenants parable; Pharisees and Herodians with the tax coin; Sadducees with the resurrection puzzle; a scribe who sincerely asks about the greatest commandment and is told he is close; the crowd; scribes warned against their pride; a poor widow.
The greatest commandment exchange is one of the most referenced passages in the New Testament. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19, joining love of God and love of neighbor into a single inseparable command. The scribe who responds well is the only one in the chapter who hears Jesus with any openness. The widow at the end is the chapter's unannounced verdict on all the religious debate.
For when you feel like what you have to give is embarrassingly small. The widow did not apologize for two coins. She gave them anyway. Jesus sat down across from the treasury specifically to watch.
1And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.
2And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.
3And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.
4And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled.
5And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some.
6Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.
7But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.
8And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.
9What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.
10And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner:
11This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
12And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.
13And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.
14And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?
15Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.
16And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's.
17And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him.
18Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying,
19Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
20Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.
21And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise.
22And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also.
23In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.
24And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?
25For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
26And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
27He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.
28And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?
29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
32And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:
33And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
34And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.
35And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?
36For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
37David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly.
38And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces,
39And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts:
40Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.
41And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.
42And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
43And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:
44For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.