Jesus Has Become The Cornerstone | Mark 12:1-17

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 12.

So a couple weeks ago in Mark, we entered what we call Holy Week; which is the week Jesus died and resurrected from the dead. So for about 10 chapters in Mark we’ve been taking a look at Jesus’ three year ministry, and in chapter 11 the narrative slows down significantly. We’re gonna spend the last six entire chapters of Mark on one week.

So a couple weeks ago, Caleb covered Sunday and Monday. And today we’re gonna start Tuesday; three days before Jesus would die. And in the next couple weeks in Mark, we’re gonna see the religious leaders challenge Jesus many times.

And I don’t know about y’all, but I often wonder why the religious leaders, the Jews, back in the day questioned who Jesus was. Jesus preformed many signs, miracles, healings, it says on multiple occasions that He even taught the scriptures with authority. So it’s clear that this guy is significant.

And Jesus in our passage tonight is gonna show us why the they didn’t trust Him. And we’re gonna see that even though these Jews called themselves “religious leaders”, they are doing anything but lead people to God.

So let’s dive into our first few verses. Let me get a volunteer to read verses 1 through 8.

Mark 12:1–8 NLT

1 Then Jesus began teaching them with stories: “A man planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country. 2 At the time of the grape harvest, he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. 3 But the farmers grabbed the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty-handed. 4 The owner then sent another servant, but they insulted him and beat him over the head. 5 The next servant he sent was killed. Others he sent were either beaten or killed, 6 until there was only one left—his son whom he loved dearly. The owner finally sent him, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’ 7 “But the tenant farmers said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ 8 So they grabbed him and murdered him and threw his body out of the vineyard.

1. God sent His Son, and we killed Him (Mark 12:1-8).

So to close out chapter 11, the religious leaders questioned Jesus’ authority. They asked Him, “By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right?”

And here at the start of chapter 12 we see how Jesus responds to the religious leaders questioning His authority.

And He responds by telling a parable.

In this parable we see a man that plants a vineyard. He does all the work to get the land ready to be a vineyard. Builds a wall around it, dug out a pit to press the grape juice, even built a lookout tower for the guards. So the man works hard and gets this land ready to be a vineyard.

Then what he does, instead of working the vineyard himself, he leases the land to some local farmers. So instead of doing the hard work to operate a vineyard himself, he paid others to operate the vineyard, and he just got a cut of the profit.

So time harvest rolls around, and the owner of the vineyard wants his share of the profit. So he sends one of his servants to go collect it for him. And instead of giving the owner his share of the profit, these local farmers decided they wanted to keep all of it for themself. So they beat up the servant and sends him back empty-handed.

The owner obviously still wants his money, so he sends another servant and they do the same to him. He sends another and this servant was actually killed by the tenants. And this process just keeps going and going; some servants were beaten and some were killed until only the owner’s son was left.

And the owner is determined to get his money, and he thinks, “Surely they’ll respect my son.” So he sends his son. But he was wrong. And the men killed his son as well.

And this story is meant to show us what happened in Israel in the Old Testament. Israel, God’s chosen nation, the nation in which He would use to spread His glory to the entire world, rebelled against him.

God is the Owner in this story. And there were many prophets in the Old Testament that God sent to warn the Israelites of their sin. These represent the servants the Owner, God, sent. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi; and those are just the ones that wrote books of the Bible in the Old Testament. I’m sure there were more.

God sent countless messengers to Israel to warn them of their sin. And Israel beat, mocked, and killed them. If you go back and read the prophet books in the Old Testament, you’ll see they were not treated very well. Isaiah and Jeremiah in particular went THROUGH it.

So God sent His Son, Jesus. And in the story, the farmers killed the son of the owner. And unfortunately, Jesus would suffer the same fate.

And I want y’all to take a minute to think about what God must’ve felt in the Old Testament, and with Jesus in the New Testament.

God blessed Israel so far beyond what they deserved. They were sinful every step of the way, yet God blessed them anyway. And they started worshiping other gods. And God still didn’t wipe them out where they stood. He remained with them. He sent prophet after prophet to warn them to turn back to God… and Israel beat, mocked, and killed all these prophets.

And God finally sends His Son. And we killed Him too. And the crazy thing is, God knew all this would happen. And He actually uses the death of His Son to pay for the sins of the very people that killed Him. How crazy is that?

We deserve condemnation. We’re all sinful people. And God didn’t and continues to not just wipe us out where we stand. We deserve it. Yet He offers us salvation.

And we should be thankful for that.

And that brings us to our next point tonight.

2. The Jesus we killed is now the Cornerstone (Mark 12:9-12).

Mark 12:9–12 NLT

9 “What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do?” Jesus asked. “I’ll tell you—he will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others. 10 Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures? ‘The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. 11 This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.’” 12 The religious leaders wanted to arrest Jesus because they realized he was telling the story against them—they were the wicked farmers. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.

So the Jesus we killed is now the cornerstone. And for us to understand what Jesus means here, we need to understand what a cornerstone is.

A cornerstone is a stone usually placed at the corner of a building, in which everything else is built off of. It’s usually the largest stone in a building and it becomes the basis for determining every measurement in the rest of the building.

So Jesus, in dying for our sins and rising from the grave, became our cornerstone. He’s the foundation. He’s the one in which everything else in our life is built from.

But the thing about a cornerstone is if it’s removed from a building, it collapses. And that’s why in Jesus’ response to this story, He says the farmers were killed. Because they rejected cornerstone.

1 Peter 2:7 actually quotes this as well. And Peter goes on to quote this in verse 8 of 1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2:8 NLT

8 “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.

Jesus is the cornerstone. And if you reject the cornerstone, everything is gonna fall.

So my question to y’all is, “Is Jesus your cornerstone?” Have you accepted Him as your cornerstone? Are you building your entire life around Him? Is He the reference by which you base everything in your life on?

3. Give to God what belongs to Him (Mark 12:13-17).

Mark 12:13–17 NLT

13 Later the leaders sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. 14 “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay them, or shouldn’t we?” Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin, and I’ll tell you.” 16 When they handed it to him, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. 17 “Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” His reply completely amazed them.

So here the Pharisees are trying to trap Jesus. So as many of y’all know, at this time the Jews were ruled by the Romans and had to pay taxes to the Romans. And the Jews hated to pay taxes to the Romans because it was a constant reminder that they were the ones ruling over them.

So the Pharisees want to trap Jesus by asking Him if He thinks they should pay taxes to Caesar, the ruler of the Romans. If Jesus says yes, the Jews will hate Him because they hate paying taxes to the Romans. If He says no, He’ll be arrested because He’ll be seen as a revolutionary rebelling against Rome.

And they try to butter Him up when they approach Him. They talk about how honest Jesus is, and He doesn’t play favorites, and He teaches truthfully, then they present Him with the question.

And Jesus knows they’re trying to trap Him. And He calls them out on it. He says, “Why are y’all trying to trap me?”

And then Jesus gives probably the most masterful response He could’ve possibly given. Even non-Christians see this as a masterful response from Jesus. Non-christians even still quote this today. That’s how wise it was.

He says, “Show me a roman coin. Whose picture and title are stamped on the coin?” They respond, “Caesar’s.” Then Jesus drops the bomb, “Well then, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

And it’s clear Jesus just dropped a bomb on these dudes because it says right after that that His reply completely amazed them.

our life belongs to God

illustration

you can’t live life without the cornerstone because your life belongs to God (He both created you and purchased you on the cross)

devote your entire life to God