Mark 11:27 – 12:12 — 27 And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, 28 and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” 31 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. 33 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
12:1 And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant[a] to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this Scripture:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 11 this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” 12 And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.
Along with Mark 11:18 and 12:12, 11:32 is the third time in a relatively close proximity of verses that these leaders are said to be motivated by fear of man. This is a deadly disease which prevents spiritual discernment. One cannot have clarity pertaining to one’s own condition nor can someone gain insight into God’s Word if the fear or praise of man is ruling one’s heart. Listen to how some of the religious rulers associated themselves with Christ in John 12:42–Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. Think about how this is playing itself out in the Mark context: The Truth is standing right before them and they are not only blind to it, but they think He’s the antithesis of truth! Something similar can happen to us too. We could be listening to a sermon, or reading the Word or being taught by a discipler and, if fear of man is present, we think that what we are reading or hearing is exaggerated or twisted and must be false. The truth is right before us, but our discernment is so wrongly calibrated to doing our own selfish will that we can’t assess it properly! So the all-important question is: Are you more fearful of rebelling against the authority of Christ or more fearful of giving up what is required to submit to the authority of Christ? We need to work hard at having a well-placed fear lest we end up rejecting Christ.