Mark 12: 1-12
Government Take Over
Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 2 Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. 5 And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. 6 Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. 9 “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. 11 This was the LORD’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” 12 And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.
The Gospels of Matthew and Luke also report this teaching of our Lord, so let’s see what they say.
Matthew 21:33-46 “33 “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 34 Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. 37 Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?” 41 They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. 44 And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” 45 Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. 46 But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.
Luke 20:9-19 “9 Then He began to tell the people this parable: “A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. 10 Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. 13 “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him.’ 14 But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.” And when they heard it they said, “Certainly not!” 17 Then He looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone’? 18 Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” 19 And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people —for they knew He had spoken this parable against them
Wow! This is one of the unique times that you see that all three Gospels are in harmony with each other relative to the information shared. Our Precious Holy Spirit Is adamant that this truth be laid out perfectly even though the writers composed their Gospels many years apart from each other.
This parable parallels the story of the blind man who saw Jesus as the Son of David, had his eyes opened, and took the way of discipleship. In this parable the tenants, who represent the Jerusalem leadership, prove in contrast themselves to be ‘blind’ and are unwilling to acknowledge ‘the son’.
Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.
The owner planted a vineyard, and then in anticipation of its fruitfulness gave it a protective hedge, dug a pit in the rock where the grapes could be trodden to produce the wine, the juice flowing into a specially prepared cavity, and built a tower as a store room and to be used as a useful watchtower so that the vineyard could be well protected against jackals and thieves. Then he let it out to tenants. This detail would remind His hearers of the similar detail in Isaiah 5, where Isaiah demonstrated that the vineyard was Israel, that the owner was God Himself and that its fruit would be ‘wild grapes’, although the grapes are not taken up in this story. We see here that our Lord Jesus places the responsibility of the vineyard on the vinedressers. His concern here was with the behavior of those who oversaw the vineyard, and the crowd was actually on His side.
2 Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. 5 And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.
Our Teacher, The Lord Jesus Christ now built up a picture of the growing animosity and sinfulness of the tenant farmers as servants were sent to collect the owner’s share of the produce, his ‘rent’, and their treatment of them grew worse and worse - ‘beat -- wounded in the head -- handled shamefully -- killed’ - until it became a habit and was carried on almost randomly. No one listening would doubt that the prophets and other such men of God were in mind, including John the Baptist whose fairly recent death would be still well remembered. They too had come to call men to account for what they owed to God, and had been shamefully treated.
Please note the statement - ‘Sent a servant.’ Our Precious Holy Spirit has previously indicated this truth as we read in these books;
Jeremiah 7.25-26 - ‘I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets -- but they made their neck stiff and did worse than their fathers’
2 Chronicles 24.19 - ‘yet He sent prophets to them to bring them again to the Lord’.
There is here then the basic lesson of God’s patience. He did not just send one or two He sent many. He gave the leaders of Israel every opportunity to rethink their position, but all they did as a consequence was to add to their crimes.
6 Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
Now we see here an amazing statement by our Holy Master. Many individuals miss this crucial remark. We see here that our Lord Jesus made His most clear public statement yet that He was the Messiah, and more than the Messiah, and yet He did it in a way that could not be used against Him. He was confirming that He was ‘God’s beloved Son’. For the owner ‘sent his own beloved son’. Our Precious King Jesus was making clear that a greater than the prophets was here, One Who was totally unique and was related to God The Father as no other. He was their last opportunity. The change to ‘son’ would certainly be noted by the members of the Sanhedrin, eager as they were to pin any charge they could on our Lord Jesus.
In the Day of Judgment, when those evil rulers who schemed to kill our Lord, are judged, they will have no claim of ignorance for their crimes. For they were fairly warned by our Great Holy Master, relative to all their conceived plans. Look at how our Lord skillfully lists their thoughts and future actions, ‘They will treat my son with due honor.’ This emphasizes the distinction between the slave-servants and the son. It is inconceivable that they could be so degraded as not to pay due honor to the son, for he is both distinct from the servants and has an authority which is singularly his own. Here is one who is like no other, having a unique relationship with the owner and a right to the vineyard which belongs to him by right of inheritance.
The tenant farmers, instead of treating the son with honor, plotted his death, just as these members of the Sanhedrin present knew in their own hearts that they were doing as they sought to find a way to bring about the death of our Lord Jesus.
Have you ever thought about how these guys could get the inheritance? - ‘And the inheritance will be ours.’ Not by right of inheritance but by possession. There would be no one left to challenge them. They would be able to go on illegally holding it in spite of their rejection of the owner. They did not think he would trouble to come himself, and there were certain land laws that enabled the takeover of land held by tenants undisturbed for a number of years. So in the same way the leaders of the Jews had convinced themselves that once they had got rid of our Holy Lord Jesus they would be able to carry on in their position as religious leaders of the people without interference.
8 So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.
Ominously our Lord Jesus now declared the certainty of His forthcoming death and the ignominious treatment they would plan for Him. He would be killed and His body tossed out of the vineyard. He would be treated like those criminals whose bodies were tossed out of Jerusalem onto the fires of the Valley of Hinnom. This was the bitter fruit that the owner received from his vineyard.
9 “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.
Strictly the meaning here is simply that those responsible for God’s people will be judged and replaced. It is not the vineyard that is to be destroyed but the tenant farmers. Jesus’ point was that it was necessary that these be replaced. God would not leave them still in control.
You know that hatred can really blind you to reality. Remember in the book of Daniel when the evil rulers in Babylon tricked king Darius into signing a law that ultimately would do in Daniel? Let’s say the lions did wind up killing Daniel. Wouldn’t the king then turn on these guys who put together the plot of Daniel’s death? You remember the story. Daniel was saved from the mouths of the lions. So, do you remember what happened to all those guys who planned Daniel’s demise? Not only did the kings order their deaths but because of their evil their wives and kids suffered the consequence of their sinful ways of their fathers.
This was a stark warning to the Jewish authorities. Did they really think that God would stand by and do nothing when they continually rejected His prophets and finally His Son?
Our Lord Jesus then applied the lesson of the parable by an appeal to the Scriptures in typical Rabbinic manner.
10 Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. 11 This was the LORD’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
The quotation is taken from Psalm 118, which was the same Psalm shouted out by the crowds when our Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem, “22 The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. 23 This was the LORD’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.”
Isaiah had pointed out in chapter 49 verse 3, Israel and her rulers had failed in this purpose, so that while originally the Servant of Isaiah was meant to be Israel. He was consolidated into one man, the Suffering Servant who would die for the sins of the people which Isaiah teaches in chapter 50 and 53. Thus the promises made to Israel were the promises to be fulfilled in the Suffering Servant, who had king-like qualities which Isaiah discussed in chapter 52 verse 13. So we now see that our Lord Jesus stood there as the representative of Israel.
Now then we see how our Lord Jesus applied the Psalm specifically to Himself. The stone was probably to be seen as rejected because it did not seem to fit anywhere. But when the time came it was found that it made an ideal cornerstone, or more probably the keystone which completed and held together the building. Thus the stone that was rejected turned out to be the most one important of all. It is clear that Adoni Yeshua, our Lord Jesus Christ Was here referring to Himself, and the implication was Messianic, as the whole previous parable was. For He was pointing out that He was the beloved son and the supreme keystone around which all else was built.
This was all a warning to the Jewish leaders to consider well what they were rejecting. It was unwise for them to reject Him just because they could not see how He fitted in to God’s plan as they saw it. Bit if they did reject Him, let them not doubt that He would yet prove to be the keystone of God’s plan of deliverance. The Son may be killed and cast out, but He would finally become God’s keystone. In the light of His coming death this was a veiled promise of resurrection, the two parables together thus illustrating His previous warnings to His disciples.
12 And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.
Look at the significance of the statement, ‘And they sought to lay hold on him.’ This was precisely what had happened in the parable. There they had laid hold of God’s servants. Here the listening authorities were in two minds. They wanted to arrest Him. Possibly ‘sought’ indicates that they discussed the matter with the leaders of the Temple police and were advised against it at this stage. Possibly the police even came out with this intention, and heard mutterings in the crowds and backed down. So ‘they feared the crowds’. Their fear of the crowds held them back. They would do it at some stage, but not yet.
‘They perceived that He spoke the parable against them.’ They knew exactly what He meant. Thus they had no excuse for their actions. Had their hearts been right they would have responded to Him. But their minds were closed. They did not want Him. His demands were too great, for He actually expected them to do what God wanted. He was an outcast. The problem was that they feared that the crowds also knew what He meant.
‘And they left Him and went away.’ In a sense they were like Satan himself. Defeated they were prepared to leave Him for a while. But they would be back, just as Satan would be. They were just beginning their campaign.
Once the seed of hatred has taken root and developed the only thing that can happen is that it comes to maturity. We all know what that will be. For in due time these evil men will do exactly what our Lord said would happen.
