As Jesus’ rebuke was spoken in the hearing of the people, a determined effort was at once made to discredit him in the popular mind.  The question (Mark xii. 13-17) with which the Pharisees and Herodians hoped to ensnare him was most subtle, for the popular feeling was as sensitive to the mark of subserviency which the payment of tribute kept ever before them as the Roman authorities were to the slightest suspicion of revolt against their sway.  In none of his words had Jesus so clearly asserted the simple other-worldliness of his doctrine of the kingdom of God as in his answer to the question about tribute.  For him loyalty to the actual earthly sovereign was quite compatible with loyalty to God, the lower obligation was in fact a summons to be scrupulous also to render to God his due,—­a duty in which this nation was sadly delinquent.  The reply gave no ground for an accusation before the governor; but the popular feeling against Rome was so strong that it is not unlikely that it contributed somewhat to the readiness of the multitude a few days later to prefer Barabbas to Jesus.

183.  A second assault was made by some Sadducees who put to him a crude question about the relations of a seven-times married woman in the resurrection (Mark xii. 18-27).  If this question was asked with the expectation of making Jesus ridiculous in the sight of the people it was a marked failure, for his reply was so simple and straightforward that he won the admiration even of some of the Pharisees.  The most significant feature of it was his argument from God’s reference to himself as God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for in that he taught that the fact of fellowship with God implies that God’s servants share with him a life that death cannot vanquish.  The skill with which Jesus met these two questions interested some of his hearers and showed to his opponents that they must put forward their ablest champions to cope with him.  The next test was more purely academic in character,—­as to what class of commands is greatest in the law (Mark xii. 28-34).  For the pharisaic scholars this was a favorite problem.  For Jesus, however, the question contained no problem, since all the law is summed up in the two commandments of love.  His contemporaries were not without power to see the truth of his generalization, and their champion in this last attack was moved with admiration for the fineness and sufficiency of Jesus’ answer.

184.  All of the assaults served only to show freshly the clearness and profoundness of his thought; his critics were quite discomfited in their effort to entangle him.  They had done with him, but he had still a word for them.  The business of these scribes was the study of the scriptures.  They furnished the people with authoritative statements of truth.  One of the common-places of the current thought was that the Messiah should be David’s son.  Jesus did not deny the truth of this view, yet he showed them how partial their ideas were by