Mark 11:27 Commentary and Bible Study

Here and in the following sections, the Lord faces a number of hostile questions, and he gives fascinating answers to them. There is perhaps a tendency to think that the answers were merely tactical, and were framed to silence the questioners. The questions were designed to secure answers which possibly would give his enemies grounds to immediately charge him with blasphemy. He was not willing to give that opportunity to them, because it was not yet his time. This is the last week of his life. These questions were asked on the Tuesday of what is called Passion week, leading to his crucifixion, but it would take place exactly in accordance with the divine plan; he would keep scrupulously to that. Shortly he will allow himself to be arrested, humiliated, tried, and slain, but not on Tuesday, or on Wednesday – there were things to do. Not until towards the end of the week would he permit this. There was further instruction to give to the disciples; there was more to be said. So he will not give them a direct opportunity to charge him with blasphemy at this time. Nevertheless, his answers to their questions are not simply to be seen as remarkable, brilliant tactics to silence them. They were that, certainly, but they are actually very relevant answers to each question.On the Monday he had entered the Temple and cast for the second time out the traders, the money changers. Now on the Tuesday he walks in the temple, as it is his Father's house, and for the time being it is clear. Matthew says in the parallel passage that he was teaching, and Luke goes further - he was not only teaching, but he was preaching the gospel. He was giving addresses about repentance and remission of sin. Here in Mark's Gospel we find him walking, but there is no inconsistency; all these apparent minor differences are very easy to explain. The speakers, the teachers, walked around while teaching: that was common enough. Three and a half centuries earlier there was Aristotle, and as he taught in that garden of his in Athens, the Lyceum, where he would walk around and the people would follow him. His disciples were called Peripatetics because they were always taught, while moving. Perhaps the temple was so crowded that he would move about in order to address different portions of the crowd. ‘And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple,’ – on this Tuesday morning – ‘there come to him the chief priests and the scribes, and the elders.’ What a collection! The scribes were Pharisees, the experts in the law. Very likely Caiaphas and Annas, who were responsible for his trial and execution, were there, and they challenge him. Some people think it was the whole Sanhedrin Council of seventy who were assembled. Perhaps it was only a selection of them, but it does sound as though it could be the whole lot of them who come to accost him.