Free group study handout
Mark 12: Group Study Handout
How to use: read Mark 12 aloud together, then take the questions in order. One page is enough for an evening.
Overview
In the parable of the tenants (vv. 1-12), a man plants a vineyard and rents it to farmers. When he sends servants to collect fruit, they mistreat and kill them.
Key verse
“you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. The second is like this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:30-31 (WEB)
Outline
- Mark 12:1–12 Parable of the Tenants
- Mark 12:13–17 Question about Taxes
- Mark 12:18–27 Sadducees and the Resurrection
- Mark 12:28–34 Greatest Commandments
- Mark 12:35–40 Jesus Questions the Scribes
- Mark 12:41–44 The Widow's Offering
Discussion questions
- In v6, why does the landowner send his beloved son to the farmers?
- What response do the Sadducees receive when they question Jesus in vv. 19-22?
- The question about taxes in vv. 14-15: how does Jesus address the tension between loyalty to God and government?
- Jesus' reply to the scribe in vv. 29-31: how does He connect love for God and neighbor to the law?
- When have you encountered a situation where you had to choose between God’s claim and societal expectations, as in v17?
Go deeper
Passages that echo Mark 12: Matthew 22, Deuteronomy 6, 1 Samuel 15.
Before next time: read Mark 13.