The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
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Mark 12:1-12
Mark 12:1-12
Chapter 12 is a continuation of the conversation Jesus was having with the Sanhedrin in chapter 11. And it says that He began speaking to them in parables.
It has been said a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning and Jesus told roughly 40 of them in the NT.
But why did Jesus speak in Parables?
Was he trying deliberately to be obtuse? Often people would be left wondering at the meaning of his parables, and he would explain the meaning only to His disciples in private. So why veil what you’re trying to say so that not everyone understands it plainly?
10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
“ ‘ “You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Hearing, understanding and obeying God’s word isn’t something that comes naturally, then.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
We must be given ears to hear and eyes that see by God’s Spirit. It’s all of God’s grace!
Of all the parables that Jesus told, this parable is one that the Jewish leaders had little difficulty in understanding as we read in verse 12 - they perceived that the parable had been about them and they were angry.
The Parable itself
This was a very common practice in Israel at Jesus’s time. The whole land was dotted with vineyards - the owners of the vineyards would often hire tenant farmers in to tend their vineyard for them.
The owner
Jesus says that this particular vineyard had an owner, and that this man didn’t only own the vineyard but he was the one who planted it in the first place.
He had selected the land on which to plant His vines, He had ploughed the land, cleared all the weeds and then planted his vines in nice orderley lines.
The vineyard
The owner of the vineyard also built a fence around the vineyard, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a tower.
The fence was there to seperate the vinyard from the land around it and to protect it from grazing animals, from pests and from people who might want to come and steal the fruit for themselves.
The pit was where the grapes were crushed to produce the wine. This vineyard was to be productive - it was going to produce wine. Vineyards in Israel at that time would produce various vintages of wine, the cheaper younger wine to be drunk by servants and the high quality wine would go to market and sold to the highest bidder.
The tower was a watch tower, so that the tenant farmers could look over the whole vineyard to ensure it was kept secure.
The owner left these γεωργόi (actually the origin of the name George) in charge of the vineyard while he was away.
From γῆ (G1093) land and the base of ἔργον (G2041) worker
Their job description was in their title - they were tenant land workers, they were charged with taking care of the land, tending the vine, nourishing it and harvesting the fruit. They were not given authority to decide whether or not to harvest the fruit, nor were they able to decide to plant new vines, or to move the fence or the watchtower.
And they would be judged on their performance of this role. If the land workers actually don’t work the land and don’t harvest the fruit are they really land workers? Should they be trusted to look after other vineyards?
Just as this is true of the tenant farmers, it is also true of Christian ministers. We call Church leaders Pastors - which comes from the Greek word Poimen for Shepherd. And Pastors are like the tenant farmers, their job is to shepherd the flock of God. The flock doesn’t belong to them, they don’t have the authority to do what they like with the sheep, the sheep belong to God.
A false shepherd, just like these wicked tenants is never satisfied with just being a hired shepherd, they have ideas above their station, they behave like the flock belongs to them, they take more authority than is given to them by God. They treat the sheep however they want and hate to be held accountable. Should a Poimen who doesn’t actually shepherd God’s flock faithfully be trusted by the sheep? The title of Pastor, doesn’t necessarily a Shepherd make.
When the time came - the owner sent a servant of his to go and collect some of the fruit from his vineyard, but rather than welcome the servant, they took him, beat him and sent him away without any of the produce!
The owner sends another servant - this one they treated shamefullt and then struck him on the head!
The owner sends another servant - and this one the tenants killed!
And this went on and on for some time, some of the servants were beaten and others killed.
There is no truth so little realized and believed as the “desperate wickedness” of the human heart. - JC Ryle
And yet after all this, the owner, having already suffered so much loss, has just one more to send to the tenants - a son, a beloved son. He sends this son to the tenants, thinking - they will respect my son. After all - his only son had the legal rights to the vineyard!
But the tenants see the son and say to one another - here comes the heir - let’s kill him and the inheritances will be ours!
And so they take the owers beloved son, they kill him and throw him outside of the vineyard!
And Jesus says:
9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
Why do the Sanhedrin get so angry at this parable?
Because they knew exactly what Jesus was talking+about, because they were familiar with a very similar story in the book of Isaiah.
1 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.
The vineyard prophecy in Isaiah 5 was a prophetic warning of judgement for the nation of Israel. The sanhedrin would have understood the undertones of judgement in Jesus’s parable.
The image of the vine or vineyard in the old testament is synonymous with Israel - God’s chosen people, His covenant people.
Jesus was giving them a potted history of God’s relationship with Israel.
God had chosen Abraham out of all the people on the planet and made a covenant with Him and made promises to Him and His children, to multiply them, to bless them and to plant them in their own land. After 430 years God brought them out of Egypt and planted them in the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. He displaced and drove out all the other nations in the land, and hemmed them in with the Jordan on one side and the sea on the other. He gave them the law, the priesthood and the prophets as a watchtower over them.
God’s people were given many privileges and blessings that other nations weren’t given, they were given an unfair advantage. And yet still they rebelled.
10 His watchmen are blind;
they are all without knowledge;
they are all silent dogs;
they cannot bark,
dreaming, lying down,
loving to slumber.
11 The dogs have a mighty appetite;
they never have enough.
But they are shepherds who have no understanding;
they have all turned to their own way,
each to his own gain, one and all.
12 “Come,” they say, “let me get wine;
let us fill ourselves with strong drink;
and tomorrow will be like this day,
great beyond measure.”
God came looking for good grapes on His vine and instead found stinking, rancid ones - instead of pure worship, he found idolatry. In place of holiness, he found debauchery. Instead of integrity He found corruption. And this after He had sent prophet after prophet after prophet, to call His people back to obedience, but the people had chosen to go their own way. And so He promises to destroy the vineyard - and of course this is what happened when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took the Judeans back to Babylon.
The Sanhedrin knew who they were in this story - they were the wicked tenant farmers, the descendents of those who had killed God’s servants the prophets. They had behaved like the vineyard was their own, greedily hoarding it’s produce for themselves and rejecting God’s oversight. This is always the hallmark of a false teacher!
And despite all of this - God in His mercy, in His love, was now sending them one final messenger - His only son, His beloved son.
21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
Mark the patience and long suffering of God.
But of course, Jesus prophesies that they won’t even accept even God’s own Son - they will take him and kill Him outside of the city walls.
And for that - these false shepherds are to be destroyed. The difference between Isaiah 5 and Mark 12 is that in Mark it’s not the vineyard that is destroyed, but the tenant farmers.
When the Romans took Jerusalem in AD 70, they didn’t just destroy the city, they effectively destroyed the Jewish religion. They wiped out the temple so that no sacrifices could take place, they destroyed all the genealogies, so that no priesthood could ever be chosen.
So did God fail? Were his purposes thwarted
What the wicked tenant farmers meant for evil, God meant for good. The result of their rebellion was that God, the Vinedresser, rooted out the false shepherds of Israel and grafted others into His vineyard - the gentiles!
God still has His vineyard today - In John 15 Jesus calls the Father ὁ γεωργός - The true Vinedresser!
11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree,
And so God’s vineyard has not been destroyed - His purpose hasn’t been thwarted, He still has one vine, one church, one covenant people in Christ made up of both Jew and Gentile.
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’?”
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.
God, in His sovereignty, through what these wicked tenants did in killing His only beloved son, has made a way for you and I to become part of His covenant family. Though we were far off we have now been brought near by the blood of Jesus! Through faith in His beloved son today we enter into all the covenant promises of God to His people.