The Fate of the Wicked Tenants

Mark 12:1–12 NIV

Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed. “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.

The Counterattack

1. A Parable Unlike the Others

a. Earlier in Mark we see the typical teaching parables from Jesus, where they often need to be explained for everyone to understand what Jesus is saying.

b. In this parable it is obvious who Jesus is talking about, and what it is directed at. The religious authorities understood the main point.

c. This parable follows the theme's found earlier with Jesus clearing the Temple, and cursing the fig tree.

d. However in this parable Jesus builds it from elements of Isaiah 5:1-7.

Isaiah 5:1–7 NIV

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

2. Isaiah's Parable

a. It is common in scripture for the vineyard to be used as imagery for Israel.

b. In Isaiah's parable the owner of the vineyard is the Lord and the Vineyard is the house of Israel, the people of Judah.

c. The good grapes the Lord wanted were justice and righteousness, The bad fruit he got was bloodshed and cries of distress.

d. The destruction of the vineyard referred to the coming destruction of Judah.

e. Isaiah called upon the men of Judah to make a judgment about the fate of the vineyard and then told them they had to judge themselves.

f. Jesus clearly used elements of this parable, but he altered it significantly so that it became a different story.

3. Jesus' Parable of the Vineyard

Verse 1

a. The wall, winepress, and watchtower reflect Isaiah's story. In Isaiah's they represent God's loving care for his people. In Jesus' parable they just add local colour to the story.

b. Jesus leaves Isaiah's story when the owner leaves for another country and rents the vineyard to tenants.

c. This arrangement was common in first century Palestine. Wealth land owners would often lease their land to tenants in a share-cropping arrangement by which the owner would receive a share of the crop as payment for the land.

d. The owner represents God and, unlike the Isaiah parable, the vineyard itself takes a back seat to the tenants, who represent the religious authorities. In Jesus' story it is not as important what the vineyard and the fruit represent.

Verse 2-5

e. It is, however, important to observe that the servants sent by the owner represent the prophets from the past.

f. Jesus parable makes the same point made by Stephen in Acts 7:51-52.

Acts 7:51–52 NIV

“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—

Verse 6-8

g. Jesus is identifying himself as the beloved son of the owner of the vineyard, this clearly links him as uniquely related to God.

h. The motivation Jesus portrays for the religious authorities is a selfish desire to keep control of the vineyard (Israel or the church) for themselves.

Verse 9

i. By using a question Jesus calls on the religious leaders to judge themselves. Then he answers his own question. Of course the owner (God) will destroy the tenants (The religious authorities) and give the vineyard (his people) to others (the coming leaders of the church).

Verse 10-11

j. Jesus appealed to Psalm 118:22-23 to underscore his main point. The builders (the tenants, religious leaders) would reject the stone intended for the capstone (The son, Jesus), but that same stone would nonetheless become the capstone (the overthrow of the tenants).

Verse 12

k. The religious leaders knew that Jesus was talking about them and their leadership. They had rejected the things from God and made religion all about themselves. But they were afraid to do anything because of the crowd.

The leaders had made worshiping God all about themselves, they had rejected all the warnings of the prophets and were plotting to reject the son. They made the Temple all about them and their greed. They had made their religion simply about the flesh.

But Why? Why would this happen? They knew the scriptures, they understood their religion.

We can fall into this trap in the church today as well, we can make the church about our gain. We can try and control the church for ourselves, it's actually very common. We even ignore those who have been empowered by God with His message, and keep the church for ourselves.

But why? Shouldn't we know better?

Paul Helps Us Understand, And Gives Us the Answer

Romans 7:15–18 NIV

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

1. Paul Understands Human Motive

a. Paul sees that our motives are usually selfish, by nature. They we struggle as human beings with our desire to do good, but original sin causing us to make it selfish.

b. But Paul also sees the solution.

Romans 8:1–5 NIV

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

2. Life Through the Spirit

a. The answer is Jesus Christ and living life by His Spirit. This means we submit ourselves to the authority of Jesus and live by the nudging of His Spirit.

b. It means the vineyard (the church), must produce a crop

c. The way it does that is through Spirit led people. Yet it seems that those who know Jesus still fall into the trap of selfishness. Paul answers this question as well.

Romans 8:9–10 NIV

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

d. Either the Spirit is not in you, meaning you have not truly recognized you are a sinner and need saving.

e. You struggle submitting yourself to the Spirit, and listening to His voice because you still want control over your life.

f. Living life by the Spirit, letting God's Spirit run the church means we repent of our sins daily, and submit to the authority of Jesus the King. We give our whole self to Jesus and let His Spirit guard our hearts and minds.

g. This is the freedom Paul is talking about.

h. You see Jesus changes our hearts, we are made new. That sin filled selfish heart is no longer present in us when we submit our lives to Christ fully.