GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:13
Strange Bedfellows
There is an aphorism that politics makes strange for bedfellows. In St. Mark’s Gospel, religion also made strange bedfellows. Mark wrote, “And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and of the Herodians in order that they might trap him by what he said.” (Mark 12:13) The Pharisees were a liturgically ultra-fundamentalist sect, while the Herodians were Jews who compromised and cooperated with the Roman overlords. Matthew said that the Pharisees plotted this maneuver (Matthew 22:15). Ordinarily, these two groups would have nothing to do with one another, but in this instance, they set aside their differences to trap Jesus in his words and harm him.
There’s something admirable about people who put aside their differences to accomplish something noble and beneficial, sometimes even at the peril of their own reputation or lives. On the other hand, it’s repulsive to see individuals put aside their differences to reach for an unworthy or harmful goal, as in Mark’s account.
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