What will YOU do with Jesus?
Mark 12:1-12
Jesus
frequently used scenes from everyday life to teach in parables. This is an
example of that. It was
common in the ancient world for families to live on and farm land that didn’t
belong to them. They plowed the owner’s land, planted the owner’s seeds, and
picked the owner’s harvest. In return for their hard work, they kept some of
the food they produced and gave the rest to the landowner. God is the Landowner. He created the
universe, it is His. Jesus is indicting the past leaders of Israel for
rejecting the messengers sent by God, and now these leaders, for rejecting the
Son. Of course, that imagery also applies to us all. We don’t own anything;
we just manage a part of God’s creation. We can make the same mistake the
tenants in this parable made. We start imagining we own the vineyard! Truth:
God owns it all! Jesus here uses that imagery.
Context: It is the passion week, and a
series of confrontations in Jerusalem with the Jewish leaders has already
begun.
Literary and Conceptual Background: The parable Jesus tells draws on Isa 5:1-7.
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? [Like the fruitless fig tree!] 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!
God would
judge Israel for it’s unbelief. But take heed. Every human is responsible for their response
to the Son (John 3:35,36). And every Christian is responsible for their
stewardship of the Gospel message (I Cor 4:1,2). Yes, Jesus is talking to and about the spiritually
blind leaders of Israel. They were the ones who were leading the rejection of
the Messiah, rather than embracing Him as the Hope of the nation. But let’s
remember that Mark is writing to the church in Rome. We, like them, are
responsible for our response to Him, and we too are responsible for our
stewardship of what God has entrusted to us. In telling this parable, He is showing
remarkable grace, as He gives the leaders an opportunity to repent. The call is
to believe Him, and to follow Him!
The BIG Idea: *God requires us to be faithful
with the message and the mission He has entrusted to us; those who hear are
responsible for their response to the message.
I. The Master has entrusted the mission to those He calls (12:1).
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...”
Jesus told parables both to illumine truth and to expose unbelief (Mk
4:11,12). This scene shows that understanding the sense of the words
Jesus spoke, getting the meaning of the story, was not to say that it was
necessarily received with faith. The parables clearly called for a
response. In this case the leaders perceived
that He [Jesus] spoke this parable
against them, but they did not receive it with repentance and faith.
Remember when Nathan told David the parable of the rich man who took the poor
man’s beloved lamb, and prepared it for his guests’ dinner? David burned with
anger against the man, but he didn’t understand that he was the man – at
least not until Nathan told him! The difference was, that David was convicted,
and by God’s grace, he came to repentance and faith. He received the message
of the parable. These leaders don’t need anyone to interpret the parable for
them. It may be that their familiarity of Isaiah 5 helped them to put the pieces
together. But they were determined in
their rejection of Jesus, they would not repent, they would not believe.
We have been entrusted with the truth. As we share the message,
some will believe. Still, today, not all will receive the message of His grace.
For our part, *God requires us to be faithful with the message and the mission
He has entrusted to us. Those who hear are responsible for their response to
the message.
II. Israel’s leaders repeatedly rejected the messengers sent by
God (2-5).
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. 5And
he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat,
and some they killed.
The history of Israel was marked by rejection of prophets and deliverers
sent by God. Both Matthew and Luke report the emotional cry of Jesus as He
approached the city on this final pilgrimage,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often
would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under
her wings, and you would not!” (Mt 23:37; cf. Lk 13:34).
As I read this, I thought of Stephen’s
final speech before his persecutors. He made the same point that the nation had
repeated rejected the deliverers and prophets God had sent to them, including
Moses himself. We read in Acts 7:35-39,
"This Moses, whom
they rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?'- this man God sent
as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the
bush. 36 This man led them
out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the
wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the
Israelites, 'God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your
brothers.' 38 This is the one
who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him
at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.
39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in
their hearts they turned to Egypt…
The leaders could not escape their
own history, they could not deny the repeated exposure of the hardness of heart
of their ancestors. You can almost see the crowd nodding in agreement as
Stephen indicts the fathers for their unbelief… until he turns the tables and
says, “You are just like your fathers!”
Then their anger boils over, and they stone him. Jesus tells this parable, and
the leaders, familiar with the language of Isaiah, knowing their own history,
understand. The history is undeniable: the nation had rejected prophets and
judges sent in times past by God. Yet they could not accept that this was the
climax of that pattern! In times past God spoke to the fathers
through the prophets… in these last days, he spoke in the Son (Heb 1:1).
Why then are we surprised when people resist the Gospel message?
It is nothing new! Still, *God requires us to be faithful with the message and
the mission He has entrusted to us, those who hear are responsible for their
response to the message.
III. Jesus prophesies the rejection and murder of the Son (6-8).
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.
The leaders who were challenging Jesus were the core of His audience as He
told this story. They were already
plotting to kill Him. Did it cross their minds, “Wait a minute, how does this
guy know what we are thinking? How does He know our plans?” They “perceived
that He told this parable against them” but they did not deal with what
Jesus’ omniscience revealed about His person! Their blindness to the
truth is exposed by their unwillingness to believe.
How could the rulers have been so blind, so hardened against even
acknowledging the possibility that Jesus might be the One for whom the nation
had so long waited? Psalm 2 opens describing the stubborn resistance of humans
to the authority and sovereignty of God. We read in Psalm 2:1-3,
Why do the nations rage and the
peoples plot in vain? 2 The
kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD and against his anointed, saying, 3 "Let us burst their bonds
apart and cast away their cords from us."
Before we are too hard on the
leaders, let’s remember that the psalmist is describing both the people and the
“nations,” i.e., the gentiles,
resisting the reign of God and His anointed. That continues to be the attitude
of humanity today. Fallen humans are not neutral—they are at enmity with God.
R.C. Sproul said that,
When the Son of God walked the earth,
from the time of His birth until the time of His execution, there was never a
moment when His life was safe among human beings. Our fallen nature is such
that we are not simply indifferent to God, we hate God. God is our mortal
enemy, and fallen humans will stop at nothing in their attempts to throw off
the sovereignty of their Creator. We should not believe that the world is truly
indifferent to God, as it professes to be. If God Himself came to earth today,
and people were given power to destroy Him, He would surely be put to death…
Could it be? Are human hearts that
hardened against God? If you doubt it, think about what happened with Jesus!
Humans are not neutral, open to reason, searching for truth. They stubbornly
resist the idea that God has authority over them. They need a miracle of
grace! *Yes, the Lord requires us to be faithful with the message and the
mission He has entrusted to us, those who hear are responsible for their
response.
IV. He graciously warns the leaders of judgement if they reject Him (9-11).
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'?"
If the actions of the tenants in this parable illustrate the resistance
to the rule of God described in the beginning of Psalm 2, the judgement brought
by the father in the parable reflects the second part of the psalm. We read in Psalm 2:5-11,
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury,
saying, 6 "As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy
hill." 7 I will tell of
the decree: The LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten
you. 8 Ask of me, and I will
make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod
of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." 10 Now therefore, O kings, be
wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling…
Jesus first asks His hearers a
question, “What will the owner of the
vineyard do?” The leaders know the imagery from Isaiah. They perceive that
He is speaking this parable against them. In asking the question He is inviting
them to consider their actions, and to re-consider their plans. Remember
Gamaliel, when the Sanhedrin was taking counsel together against the disciples
he warned, “…keep away from these men and
let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail;
but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be
found opposing God!" (Acts 5:38-39).
Jesus is asking, “Do you really want to risk opposing the Master of the
vineyard?” But even as He asked the question, He already knew the hearts of the
leaders. Yet, still, He shows his patience, giving opportunity for repentance. What
will the Master do?
Without hesitation Jesus offers another line of evidence, quoting from
Psalm 118. This psalm was quoted a few days earlier by the crowd as Jesus
entered the city: “Hosanna! Blessed is He
who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mark 11:9f.; cf. Ps 118:25,26). Now, from just a few verses earlier in the
psalm, Jesus switches from the metaphor of a vineyard, to that of a building,
as He quotes from Psalm 118:22,23, “The
stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD's
doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” Still, the eyes of the leaders are not
opened, seeing they do not see, hearing they do not hear. Do you ever feel that
way when you seek to share the Gospel message? Don’t be discouraged. Paul said
“work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in
you…” *The BIG Idea: God requires us to be faithful with the message and
the mission He has entrusted to us, those who hear are responsible for their
response to the message.
V. The leaders understand, but will not repent and believe (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.
In the preceding dialog about “authority” the fear of the people put the
murderous intentions of the leaders on hold, and it happens again here. Instead
of fearing God, they fear the people. They get the point of Jesus’ parable,
and they understand that He is casting them as among the wicked tenants.
Ironically, they are ready to carry out the same evil against the Son as
predicted in the parable! Their evil
intentions expose them as wicked tenants. Rather than repenting and seeking the
truth about Him, they want to do away with Him. For the moment, they are afraid
of the people, and leave.
There are those who have never heard the gospel message presented in a
way they could understand. And so, we can be encouraged, that as we faithfully
share the message some will receive it with joy, and turn to Christ in
repentance and faith. These leaders, however, understood what Jesus was
saying. And yet rather than receiving Him, they reject Him, and even conspire
together to kill Him! This shows us the depravity of unregenerate humans.
It exposes the stubborn unwillingness of unbelievers to come to the Lord on His
terms. Don’t take it personally when the message is not received! It is not you
they are rejecting. For our part…
What is God saying to me in this passage? *God requires us to be faithful
with the message and the mission He has entrusted to us, those who hear are
responsible for their response to the message.
What would God have me to do in response to this passage?
1) One theme in this story is
the grace and patience of God. As God patiently dealt with Israel in times
past, despite their stiff necks and hard hearts, so He is long-suffering,
patient, toward us. Toward believers, leading, convicting, chastening, molding
us. He is patient too toward the world, giving men time to hear the
message and repent. One unbeliever stood up in a meeting challenged God, if He
was real, to strike him dead in the next ten seconds. When nothing happened, he
scoffed, “How can you believe in God now?” Another man spoke up, “Do you think
you could exhaust the patience of God in only 10 seconds?” While it is still
day, share the Gospel!
2) God is the
Creator and the owner of the universe. He created the first man and placed
him in the garden with a mandate to exercise dominion. He called on Adam to be
a steward of what had been entrusted to him. When Paul wrote to the
Corinthians, he was calling for his readers to embrace that same perspective.
We read in 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, “This is how one should regard us, as
servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of
stewards that they be found trustworthy.” That implies faithfully guarding
the truth, protecting it from error and false teaching. It also speaks to faithfully
sharing the truth, as we have been called to do. God has strategically
placed each of us where we are, and has sovereignly placed a group of people
around us. It is His message and His mission. We are stewards. We have been
entrusted by the Master with a message and a mission. May we be found
faithful! AMEN.
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