Mark 12:1-12 The Vineyard
Hear the word of the Lord from Psalm 118…
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! 2 Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” 3 Let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” 4 Let those who fear the Lord say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” 5 Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. 6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? 7 The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. 8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. 9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. 10 All nations surrounded me; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! 11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! 12 They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! 13 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me. 14 The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. 15 Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, 16 the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!” 17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. 18 The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. 20 This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. 22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 23 This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25 [Hosanna] Save us, we pray, O Lord! [Hosanna] O Lord, we pray, give us success! 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. 27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! 28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. 29 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
Let’s pray.
We are returning to the Gospel of Mark with chapter 12, verses 1-12, page 848 in the pew Bibles.
We are picking up the second half of a conversation between Jesus and the Jewish leaders in the Temple courts on Tuesday of Holy Week. I read Psalm 118 because we are seeing the events described there play out right before us in the life of Jesus during our study of Mark’s record of Holy Week.
You’ll remember from last week that Jesus had been questioned by the Sanhedrin about where He got the authority to do and say the things He did, and He responded to their question with a question about the authority of John the Baptist, where he got his authority from. They refused to answer Jesus because they didn’t like the answer so Jesus also refused to answer them although everybody knew everybody else’s answers.
And so here is the continuation of Jesus’ response to the Sanhedrin’s refusal to answer His question:
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 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.
Here we have another of a million examples of why it is so important to consider the original author and the original audience of any given text in Scripture. It can never mean what it never meant and if we don’t understand what it meant then, we will struggle to understand what it means now.
Who was Jesus speaking to? To whom did he address this parable, to the crowds or to the chief priests and the scribes and the elders?
That’s very important because we can’t make sense of the parable unless we understand who it was about and to whom it was addressed.
This group of Jewish leaders knew exactly what Jesus was talking about and who was who in His parable. Not because they were so astute but because they knew their Bible, they knew the Old Testament. It is easy to think that Jesus just made up this parable out of nowhere and applied it to them but that would rob it of its force to these men.
Jesus didn’t just make this story up, He is building upon the words of the prophet Isaiah, in chapter five, verses 1-7.
Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? 5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
Now with that understanding Jesus’ parable becomes a little more clear.
This group of Jewish leaders, men responsible for the spiritual well-being of the nation of Israel, had proved that they were not at all concerned about the spiritual welfare of the people of God, God’s vineyard, they were only concerned with their own self-interest by refusing to tell the truth when Jesus asked them if John’s baptism was from God or from man. So there’s Jesus’ motivation for telling this parable against them.
So let’s break apart the pieces of the parable.
What is the vineyard? God’s people
Who is the owner, the builder of the vineyard? God
Who were the tenants? The Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin
Who were the servants? The prophets
Who was the son? Jesus
Who are the others that the owner will give the vineyard to? Everyone who has faith in Jesus, Jews and Gentiles, the Church
The Jewish leaders did exactly what the tenants did over the course of the history of Israel, they persecuted and killed the prophets, those servants sent to the people to warn them, to call them to repentance, to call them back to faithfulness to God, to seek the fruit of the vineyard.
And now, these leaders were seeking to do the same to Jesus, God’s beloved Son, as those tenants did to the owner’s son, to kill Him.
The tenants of that vineyard knew that the beloved son was the heir just as the Sanhedrin knew that Jesus was Messiah. The tenants killed the son so that they could keep the vineyard for themselves and things could go back to the way they were, they way they liked it. The Sanhedrin did the same. They wanted to silence Jesus, to get rid of Him. They wanted Jesus dead so that things could go back to the way they were, they way they liked it. They were in control of the people, they were the ones that the people looked to and listened to, they were the ones in charge.
Three days after this little talk, they would succeed… Or so they thought.
After Jesus told them this parable He asked them another question.
Quoting again psalm 118, “Have you not read this Scripture: “’The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
These Jewish leaders were supposed to be the builders, building a living temple made of people, but they rejected Jesus, the stone that became the cornerstone of the Church.
Peter would pick up on this idea again in his first letter, in 1 Peter 2:4-12.
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
So what’s our take away?
First, Jesus told this parable against the Jewish leaders that day, exposing their self-interest and lack of faith and faithfulness to their calling.
Our take away from that? Don’t be like them.
Jesus exposed their sin and they rejected Him for it. They wanted to arrest and kill Him just like the leaders of the past did to the rest of the prophets. When our sin gets exposed we need to do what they should have done and repent. Jesus knew their sin then and He knows ours now. It’s all exposed before Him so repent of it, turn away from it, reject it, receive His forgiveness and follow the way of Christ.
Our second take away is not from the original, unfaithful and wicked tenants, but from the new tenants that the Father will give His vineyard to.
The vineyard has always represented His people and it still does now.
We are God’s vineyard, and we each have been given stewardship within that vineyard, stewardship of ourselves, of our gifts and abilities, and maybe even stewardship of others, our families or groups within the church family.
We must be faithful to the Owner and Builder of the vineyard built on the Cornerstone of Jesus Christ and faithfully submit to Him all the fruit that we bear.
9 …you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Amen.
