Mark 11:27-12:12
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By whose authority? (a lying question)
By whose authority? (a lying question)
What’s going on this week?
It’s the most important week in history right along with the week of creation.
But the scary part of this week is that instead of the Word of God creating,
He is de-creating.
Jesus is here to bring apostate Israel to a halt.
Te temple cleansing that he started the day after Palm Sunday, he will continue on throughout the week.
He is going to challenge their views of authority,
of the nature of obedience to God and the state,
He is going to highlight their fake worship,
and he is going to prophecy about the destruction of this temple.
They try to trap them and he immediately waxes the question away.
Issue of John’s authority.
We don’t know.
The lying that the Pharisees engage in is like the lying a child does while they are holding a cookie in their fist. It’s so obvious.
Or a toddler soiling themselves.
Mark: An Introduction and Commentary ii. By What Authority? (11:27–33)
The question of Jesus to them was not a trap; it was yet another opportunity for them to realize and confess their blindness, and to ask for sight. Theirs was the unforgivable sin, that constant wilful opposition and blindness that is the sin against the Holy Spirit (3:29). If it is true that there is a way to hell from the gates of heaven, as Bunyan has it, then it is equally true that there is a way to heaven from the gates of hell: yet here were those who contemptuously refused to take it.
“Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
A parable response
A parable response
Earnest
Fool
Scoffer
Jesus is now speaking to fools and scoffers so his message will be concealed.
At this point he’s still talking to them. That’s good. But soon, he will be done speaking.
When Jesus is still talking to you He’s still beckoning for your repentance and obedience.
The Word of God is always a gift,
and even in their heightened state of self deception and rebellion, Jesus is still gifting them with His word. He has not abandoned them.
This immediately rings true for us today.
Even when YOU are in a heightened state of self deception and rebellion,
He has not stopped speaking to you.
Listen for His voice.
The Word of God does not return void.
It always produces something.
Salvation, or judgement.
The difference between the two is faith.
So Jesus is offering them (and us) His word, and they have a choice to make now.
Will we place our faith in this man who’s authority comes from God, or not.
If they say no, it will mean judgement,
and that is the meaning of the parable he tells them.
The first thing we should know about this parable is he is literally quoting Isaiah to them in the opening lines:
1 I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one’s vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes. 3 So now, residents of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could I have done for My vineyard than I did? Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes? 5 Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland. It will not be pruned or weeded; thorns and briers will grow up. I will also give orders to the clouds that rain should not fall on it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, the plant He delighted in. He looked for justice but saw injustice, for righteousness, but heard cries of wretchedness.
They know two things immediately.
They know this parable is about Israel, and they know it’s about judgement.
Telos of Israel question again
What is Israel for?
The blessing of the nations.
To gather in the rest of the nations.
That’s the fruit the master is looking for.
People.
In particular, people who were formally not his people.
What do you do with something that doesn’t act in accordance with it’s Telos.
What would you do with a telephone that everytime you tried to use it it burned your hand.
You would throw it away.
What would you with a microphone, if everytime you spoke into it it twisted your words into lies?
You would throw it away.
You see it’s not just that Israel isn’t being who God made them to be,
it’s that they have taken the good gifts that God has given them and actually used them for evil.
And so all throughout the scriptures God is sending them prophets.
The message of the prophets, when you take all of it together could be summed up this way:
TURN BACK TO WHAT GOD GAVE YOU
RENEW YOUR COVENANT WITH GOD
Why is this so important?
Yesterday at Day of Silence.
James Jordan covenant bonds analogy.
If you’re not in covenant with God anymore than even the good gifts you have been given start to become worthless.
So how does the rest of this parable play out?
The same way history had up to that point.
Every time the master sends someone they reject him.
And their actions get more and more severe.
First they just beat the first guy up.
Second guy, they knock him out and abuse him disgracefully.
Third guy, they kill him.
And the Master keeps sending servants,
over and over.
Sometimes they beat them up, sometimes they kill him.
If you reject the messenger of the master who are you really rejecting?
The messenger or the master?
The Master.
The sad part about this, is that for the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders,
they are not moved by the story of the servants being killed because they would actually agree that the way Israel has treated her prophets was bad.
Mark: An Introduction and Commentary iii. The Wicked Tenant Farmers (12:1–12)
Every generation can always see the spiritual blindness of its forebears, but never its own.
This is true today. Jonathan Edwards example Slavery/Abortion
But it’s the age old self-deception to say
“we’re better than our ancestors, we’re smarter now.”
But they’re not.
So is it any surprise that when the master sends His son,
the heir to the vineyard itself,
what will they do?
Does it make any difference that it’s the son to them?
Absolutely not.
They’ve been rejecting the master all along.
6 He had one more, a beloved son. Last of all he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenant farmers said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours!’ 8 And they seized and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
The next part of the parable makes me shudder.
Jesus asks,
“Therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do?”
I imagine that it this point He doesn’t immediately give the answer.
There was probably an uncomfortably long silence as He looks them in the eyes.
And then he answers,
“He will come and destroy the farmers and give the vineyard to others.”
Who gets the vineyard?
Faithful people.
Replacement Theology?
Does this exclude Jews?
Absolutely not.
The Jewish people have a privileged position of never losing covenant with God at all.
Jesus is alluding to the new thing He is building when he then quotes Psalm 118 to them, the same Psalm people were quoting as they shouted Hosanna a couple days before.
10 Haven’t you read this Scripture: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 11 This came from the Lord and is wonderful in our eyes?”
Jesus is going to build His church, which will now and forever be the Temple.
We’ll talk more in a couple week about this, but within one generation this Temple they are standing in will be pulled apart brick by brick, marking a finality to the end of the Old Covenant age.
And while this temple is pulled apart brick by brick, what is being built up brick by brick?
The church!
5 you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
And here is where I want to pivot towards application for the church.
If we do not apply this message to ourselves than we fall into the same trap as these folks we’ve read about, thinking that we can do no wrong.
The point of this passage is highlighting the apostasy of God’s people, but it should make us quake with a holy fear lest we become apostates ourselves.
Paul lays out the condition of things in Romans 9
30 What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing the law for righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. 32 Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: Look! I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, yet the one who believes on Him will not be put to shame.
But then a couple chapters later he issues a strong warning.
17 Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, 18 do not brag that you are better than those branches. But if you do brag—you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True enough; they were broken off by unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either. 22 Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness toward you—if you remain in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from your native wild olive and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these—the natural branches—be grafted into their own olive tree? 25 So that you will not be conceited, brothers, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery: A partial hardening has come to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
So how do we reflect on the sin of God’s people in a way that protects us from sin?
Killing Jesus because you don’t want Him is a symptom of the sickness that comes from wanting all of God’s good gifts for yourself.
This should cause us to look inside ourselves.
Is your course of action all about you?
Do you see the freedom do spend your time however you want as something you need to protect?
Have you been deceived that the money that God has asked you to manage is actually your money and not His?
Have you stopped having children simply because your life would be easier with less?
Is your life utterly unavailable for blessing others with your time and presence?
These are symptoms of the sickness of taking God’s good gifts to you and making them all about yourself.
It’s what Israel did.
Look how in Jesus’ parable He highlights ALL the things the master did for them.
HE planted the vineyard, not the workers.
HE built a fence around it. Not them.
HE dug the trough for the winepress, not them.
HE built a watchtower for their protection, not them.
HE protected them, not themselves.
HE did everything.
All they had to do was harvest for Him.
God called Israel out of nothing. Not them.
God rescued them from Egypt, not them.
God guided them in the wilderness, not them.
God gave them the law for their protection and blessing, not them.
God dwelled among them so that all they had to do was obey Him which would be as easy as picking grapes off the vine and pressing them.
It’s not slave labor, it’s just good honest work.
God set them up with everything.
And when the going got tough he sent them prophets to remind them and what did they do?
What prophets has God sent you?
I don’t mean prophets in the OT sense,
but what are the ways that God has been trying to get your attention?
That’s the Holy Spirit.
Don’t play dumb with God.
Don’t pretend and lie to yourself that He has not spoken clearly in your life.
Mark: An Introduction and Commentary iii. The Wicked Tenant Farmers (12:1–12)
We reject the claims of Christ not because we misunderstand them, but because we understand them only too well, in spite of all our protestations to the contrary.
If Israel was given many gifts, you have been given more.
When we read the stories of ancient Israel of how God led them by fire and night and cloud by day,
of how he dwelled visibly in their midst,
of how they had a big system of law for how to worship God,
we often think, they had it easier.
If I could just have that I would follow God.
No you wouldn’t.
You would not.
You would rebel against Him just like they did.
This is the same response I have to people who are pretending to be atheists and say,
If God would just write something in the sky then I would believe in Him.
The answer to that is, He did better than that!
For starters He didn’t just write something in the sky like any idiot with a skywriting plane could do.
He wrote the stars into the sky.
He gave you the moon to look at by night, and the sun to warm your body by day.
And if that wasn’t enough for you to trust Him,
He has given you the totality of His word.
He didn’t write something in the sky that fades with time,
He wrote it down eternally in a book.
And if that isn’t enough for you to trust Him He literally walked among us in the middle of history.
You must wrestle with the historical FACT of Jesus and the resurrection
I repeat, don’t pretend and lie to yourself that He has not spoken clearly in your life.
We live in an age where God has planted a rich vineyard for you to live in.
It’s called the church.
IT’s called the kingdom of God.
And just like for Israel, He’s given you everything.
He’s given you himself by His Spirit.
He’s given you His Word as your guide and for food,
He’s given you elders to shepherd you and deacons to serve you,
He’s given you brothers and sisters and grandparents and children in the faith.
He’s given you a King who is reigning all creation now!
You’ve been given the inheritance!
That’s the irony of this parable!
They killed the Son because they wanted the inheritance but the inheritance was going to be there’s if they just trusted the Master!
You’ve received it!
Don’t be prideful.
Don’t fall asleep.
You’ve been granted the treasure of all treasures and everything necessary to protect it.
Place your faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, your only hope in life and death.
Our Master is terribly dangerous, but it is not His wish for us to die.
Not safe, but good.
Safe for his children, not safe for his enemies.
There are not multiple ways to the kingdom of heaven.
You’re dead in the water without Jesus.
Trust Him.
He is here for your good, not to hurt you.
Don’t stop listening to His voice while He is still speaking to you.