Mark 12:1-17
The rulers of the people are forced to recognize themselves in the moving parable of the wicked husbandmen. Notice how (in Mark only) the last person sent by the Master is described — "Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved" (v. 6). This phrase reminds us of the word of the LORD to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son . . . whom thou lovest" (Genesis 22:2), and expresses in a touching manner the affection of the Father for His Well-beloved Son whom He has sacrificed for us!
Thus unmasked, the Pharisees and the Herodians try to get their own back. With hypocritical compliments, but unwittingly bearing testimony to the Lord Jesus ("Thou art true" . . . "Thou teachest the way of God in truth" (v. 14)), they try to catch Him unawares with a very subtle question. If He answered "Yes," it would disqualify Him as the Messiah; if He answered, "No," He would be condemned by the Romans. He answers them in the one way they do not expect, addressing Himself to their conscience. What divine and wonderful wisdom! Yet how much the Saviour, in whom all was truth and love, suffered from this insincerity, this wickedness, yes, from this constant "contradiction of sinners against himself" (Hebrews 12:3; see also Ezekiel 13:22).