The Rejection of Christ and the Judgment of God

On January 18th, 2009 Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual Episcopal priest was asked to open Barack Obama’s inauguration with a prayer. He began his prayer: “O god of our many understandings.”

L.R. Mongeu, contributor for the Oregonian encapsulated the religious outlook of many americans when she wrote, “God, Allah, Yahweh, the Creator, the One the Energies, goes by as many names in this country as ever...I do believe that God is in everyone, though by what name he resides there seems to me to be up to the person in question.” She defended them by saying that for her generation, believing such things is “simply considered good manners.”

What’s interesting to me about that statement is that she’s not so concerned about what is true, but rather she’s concerned about what she considers “good manners.” Truth, to her, is not as important as tolerance.

But what is God really like? Even an atheist, who doesn’t believe in any God, recognizes that the claims of Christianity, Islam, Mormonism, and Buddhism are fundamentally incompatible. And there are many people who claim to love Jesus, and say that he simply taught us not to judge one another, and to show love to everyone.

The question, “What is God really like?” is the most important question you can ever ask. So I ask you: “What do you think God is really like?” And a second question, “How did you come to hold your ideas about God?”

Now we are gathered here this morning because we believe that the Scriptures reveal God to us, and that Jesus Christ taught the truth about the nature of God.

Turn to Mark 12. Let me give you the background real quick. This is the last week of Jesus’ life. On Sunday, he came into the triumphant praise of the crowds, hailing him as the Son of David. Monday he cursed the fig tree and cleared the temple as an act of judgment on Israel’s hypocrisy. On Tuesday, he taught about faith, prayer, and forgiveness, and then entered the temple to teach some more, before being confronted by the authorities: the chief priests, scribes, and elders. They wanted to embarrass him, and he embarrassed them. They wanted to trap him and discredit his ministry, he asked them a question that proved his own authority and discredited theirs. And our section in Mark 12 is a continuation of that conversation, except now Verse 1 says “Jesus began to speak to them in parables.” Speaking to them in parables is a powerful form of teaching. The story is the bait, the increasing tension in the plot is the lure, and the question at the end is the hook they get caught on.

Now, just remember, Jesus is on the biggest stage in Israel. He’s in Jerusalem. It’s Passover Week. He’s in the temple courtyards. He’s having a showdown with the elites. All eyes are on him. No one wants to miss this. And he will not disappoint.

Let’s Read Mark 12:1-12.

Here’s the big idea of what Jesus wants to say to them is this: The rejection of God’s Son results in the coming of God’s Judgment. Not all religions are true. God does not tolerate all lifestyles. God has revealed that salvation is through his Son, Jesus, and those who reject God’s Son will face God’s judgment. This is what Jesus taught.

Let’s divide the parable into three sections: God’s Vineyard, Israel’s Rejection, God’s Judgment.

First, God’s Vineyard.

Look back at verse 1: “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower.” The story begins quaintly. We meet a hardworking man who invests time, sweat, and finances toward building a fully-functioning vineyard. To anyone who had traveled through Israel, they would have seen these things. They were common.

But perhaps what would have grabbed the attention of the scribes and elders chief priests would be the familiarity of what he was saying. The beginning of his parable is almost a direct quote of Isaiah 5:1-2. Isaiah 5 reads, “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 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.” They’re nearly identical. And in Isaiah, it goes on to say, “and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” In other words, the guy builds a vineyard but it only produces worthless fruit. And in Isaiah 5, God is the vineyard builder, and Israel is the vineyard, and God is pronouncing judgment upon Israel because of its sin and disobedience. Israel was often compared to a vineyard in the Old Testament. Scribes knew this.

The creation and cultivation of the vineyard is a metaphor for God’s calling and establishment of his special people, Israel. Remember, the Old Testament is about God revealing himself to Israel so that Israel would reveal God to the rest of the world. God called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God rescued Israel out of Egypt. God made Israel his own holy people. God gave Israel laws that reflected his own holy character. God made promises to Israel, protected Israel, and built up Israel. Israel was God’s vineyard - he planted her, cultivated her, built her, protected her.

Now it says that the vineyard owner “leased it to tenants and went into another country.” This too was a common practice in Israel. You buy the land, you prepare it, you hire farmers to care for it, and their compensation is a share of your harvest.

What this means is that God decided to mediate his rule through human leaders. God has always done this. He rules the world, gives it to Adam and Eve to rule on his behalf. He created Israel, but he appointed leaders to rule Israel on his behalf. That’s who the tenants are. They are Israel’s leaders. They are charged to care for the vineyard on God’s behalf.

Verse 2: “When the season came he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.” The time of harvest comes, and the owner expects a fruitful vineyard.

God expects fruitfulness from his people. God has always called his people to be distinct. He said in Leviticus 11:44 “Be holy, for I am holy.” And the analogy often used is the analogy of fruitfulness. Their holiness was to start inwardly (in the heart) and move outwardly in their lives. They were to have holy words, holy attitudes, holy relationships, holy aspirations, holy worship, holy obedience. And the outward expression of their holiness is fruit.

The idea is that God gives and gives and gives. He sets his people apart from the world. He calls them unto himself. He gives them blessing upon blessing. He plants and cultivates them. And he does this so that they would bear good fruit.

This is what he did with Israel, and this is what he does for all his people. He calls us unto himself. He plants us into Christ. He blesses us in innumerable ways. He gives us so much. And all that we have, and all that we are, we are stewards. We, like Israel, are owners of nothing but stewards of everything. It’s all God’s, entrusted to us, and we are to use all we have for him.

I wonder, do you acknowledge that everything you have is from God? Your abilities? Your wealth? Your relationships? Your home? God plants, cultivates, and blesses his people. And do you recognize that he expects all of what he’s given you to bear fruit for his glory?

Do you use your abilities to glorify God? Do you use your wealth for God’s purposes? Do you use your home to bear much fruit?

Christian, think of how much God has given you. He has withheld no good thing! He has lavished you with grace and kindness. He has given you every spiritual blessing. Why? That we might declare his excellencies!

And if you’re not a Christian, how much credit can you take for the life you’ve built? Did you choose which family you were born into? Which parents raised you? Which country? Can’t you see that so much of what you have now has come to you not because of your wit and wisdom, but because of forces outside your control? Don’t you recognize that God is the giver of all good gifts? Have you recognized him in your life?

God is the vineyard owner, Israel was the vineyard, and God blessed Israel and expected Israel to bear much fruit for his glory.

Second, Israel’s Rejection

So in verse 2, the owner sends a servant to receive the owner’s share of the harvest. But look how the servant is treated: Verse 3: “And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty- handed.” This would be a scandal in today’s world; this was an unheard of outrage in the first century. The second servant is sent; they strike him on the head and treat him shamefully. The third servant is killed. And then at the end of verse 5, he summarizes the following: “and so with many others: some they beat, some they killed.” This is more than just 3 servants they abused. This was a constant pattern. Everyone the owner sent was treated shamefully.

In Greek it’s doulos (slave), but the Hebrew equivalent would be ebed, which was the formal way of speaking about a prophet. Prophets were called ebeds of Yahweh; servants of the Lord.

Again, the men Jesus was talking to would have known this. God is the vineyard owner, Israel is the vineyard, the tenants are the leaders of Israel, and God is sending prophets to Israel. And each prophet that is sent is abused in some way.

Think of some Old Testament history. Zechariah son of Jehoida, who was stoned (2 Chron. 24:20–22); Uriah died by the sword (Jer. 26:20). Jeremiah was beaten and put in stocks (Jer. 20:2). Amos was forced to flee for his life (Amos 7), Micaiah got slugged in the face (1 Kings 22:24). Tradition holds that Isaiah was sawn in half with a wooden saw. And we know what happened to John the Baptist - who was also a prophet: he was beheaded.

The parable is a condensed version of Israel’s history. God had sent prophet after prophet and the overwhelming response was hatred and animosity. In fact, at the very end of 2 Chronicles, 36:15-16, we read, “The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no remedy.”

I want to point out a couple things this reveals about God. First, consider how active God is. God is the ultimate outreacher, the ultimate sender, the ultimate evangelist. He sends his prophets to call wayward Israel back to himself. He didn’t send one prophet. He didn’t send two. It wasn’t a small handful. There were hundreds of prophets, throughout all the centuries, sent from God, with God’s message, calling his people to himself.

Do you know why God is an outreaching God? God reaches out to us because we could never - and would never - reach out to him. As Augustine described it, all humanity, because of sin, is “curved inward upon itself.” We want all things for ourselves, our comforts, our pleasures, our glory. Scripture puts it this way: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8).

We Christians are not here this morning worshipping Jesus because we figured it out; like salvation is some sort of puzzle only the elite can solve. We’re here worshipping Jesus because we were lost, hopeless, dead, deceived - and God, in his grace, came to us through the preaching of the gospel.

Christian, aren’t you God that God comes? That God moves? That God reaches out? That God speaks? That God announces? That God invites? That God warns?

If you’re not a Christian yet: Good news! You, yes you, are being called to salvation!

But also notice this about God: how patient. The owner of the vineyard could have been outraged by the treatment of the first servant, and then immediately responded with judgment. He did not. He sent another. And another. And another. Over hundreds of years, God continued sending prophets to his people, patiently delaying their judgment.

Have you read the Old Testament? There are generations upon generations of sin! These people who were called by God and blessed by God seem to simply hate God. And God doesn’t stop sending prophet after prophet after prophet!

Church, I wonder how often you think of God’s patience. In 1 Timothy, Paul attributes his own salvation to Jesus Christ’s “perfect patience.” Are you patient? The word means “tranquil while awaiting an outcome, being able to bear up while provoked.” So often we can be so quick to anger with others, so immediately snappy or grumpy. We’re not patient.

But God was calm, patient, gentle, longsuffering - over hundreds of years - as he sent his prophets to belligerent people.

Christian, think of your life before you were saved. How patient was God with you? What if God wasn’t patient? What if he took your initial refusal as a final refusal, and let you go? His patience is perfect. And think of your life since you trusted the Lord. How patient has God been with us slow learners? Are you thankful for God’s patience?

Now look at verse 6: “He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.” This is the most outrageous of all. The owner has one “beloved” son. The idea of beloved also has the connotation of being utterly unique, different from the rest. Also, it has the idea of finality. This is the last one. There’s one more. No more are coming after this one.

From a human perspective, this seems like a foolish move for the vineyard owner. They killed all your servants, what do you think they’ll do with your son? Of course, Jesus is referring to God sending his own Son to his people.

But these tenants are so greedy they want the vineyard and its profits for themselves, so they kill the son. And it says they “threw him out of the vineyard” - no burial, which would have been not only a shameful way to treat the son but a shameful way to treat the owner. This is a brutal ending, gory even, and I bet in the temple courts you could hear a pin drop.

They know God is the vineyard owner. They know Israel is the vineyard and Israel’s leaders are the tenants. They know the servants are the prophets. But do they know who the Son is?

I think they know he’s talking about himself as the son. Remember the context of the whole book. From the very beginning, Jesus has been identified as the son of God. Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” At his baptism, “This is my beloved son.” At his transfiguration, “this is my beloved son.” They knew his claims. One of the biggest problems the religious leaders had with Jesus was that he claimed to speak for God, act for God, and even be equal with God. In this parable, Jesus is most certainly identifying himself as the beloved, unique son of God. He is not merely a servant of God, he is the Son of God; he is not merely a prophet, he is the Messiah.

And if he’s the son in the parable, the leaders had to ask themselves a hard question: who are they? It became clear to them: They’re the wicked tenants. In fact, peek down at verse 12 “they perceived that he had told the parable against them.” They knew he was speaking about them.

Third, God’s Judgment. Verse 9: What will the owner of the vineyard do?” Another masterful question by Jesus, increasing their understanding.

In Matthew, people from the crowds shout that the owner will “put those wretches to a miserable death!” Mark shows Jesus’ answer to his question: “He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.’”

He promises judgment, and quotes Psalm 118:22-23. Why did he quote that part of the psalm? Essentially, the psalmist envisioned builders building, and they come across a stone that they do not find useful, and they reject it. It doesn’t fit what they think they need. But that stone has become the cornerstone.

The idea of cornerstone could mean either one of two things: either it means the foundation stone upon which everything else is built, or it means the capstone, which supports and upholds everything together. Whichever the case, the idea is that it is the most important stone.

In other words, what he’s quoting summarizes the point of his parable: in rejecting the beloved son, you are rejecting the Messiah. And that, as we will see, means judgment. The rejection of God’s Son results in the coming of God’s judgment.

Earlier I asked the question, “What is God really like?” And a second question, “How did you come to hold your ideas about God?” You really need to answer these questions.

Some people convince themselves that God will not judge anyone, except maybe the absolute worst of the world. They think meek and mild Jesus would never suggest such a thing. No. Jesus is clear: God will judge all. And here, Jesus is making it clear that God’s judgment will fall upon a group of people who think themselves to be very good people.

Look again at verse 9: “He will come.” God himself will enter into judgment with those who’ve rejected his son. The mountains will melt at his coming, the earth will tremble at his judgments, and no man or woman can face his blazing holiness.

“And destroy.” God’s judgment will come in the form of eternal destruction. Always destroyed but never annihilated. Forever suffering the torments of hell. If Jesus was not loving, he’d never mention hell. Since Jesus is loving, he warns.

Think of this: God has been so kind to you. He’s given you sunrises and sunsets, innumerable blessings you could never have grasped yourself. He has been active in giving you his message. Bibles are printed everyone. You have them in your house. You could take one before you leave today. And you’re listening to a sermon. God has been active to ensure you hear his word this morning.

And he sent his son to die to make salvation possible for you. In the remaining chapters of Mark, Jesus will go to the cross to die, to bear God’s wrath in the place of sinners, so that those who trust him will not have to face the judgment.

And how patient has he been with you! Another day, another chance, another opportunity to respond to him! Even now, he invites you: “Come!” He pleads with you: “Turn!” He warns you, “Flee the wrath to come!” He urges you, “Believe the gospel!”

I wonder if any of you are like the wicked tenants. God has given you everything you have. God has continued to send you his word. God has been immeasurably patient. God has swung open wide the gates of heaven through the death, burial, and resurrection of his Son. God has been calling you, “Come, come, come!”

Would you reject him? Friend, if you go to hell, it will not be because you were not warned.

Notice, the Son was the final messenger. After that, it’s judgment. And there will come a time that you will no longer be able to reject the gospel, because your condemnation is complete. The good news is for you. Salvation is free. Believe it today.

You see, look back at the text. Verse 9: Who does God give the vineyard to? It says “others.” That’s all it says. Israel’s rejection meant their judgment, which in one sense happened in 70 AD when the Romans decimated them. But that judgment was only a preview of the final, ultimate judgment of God. But who gets the “vineyard” The others are those who receive the Son. Those who don’t reject him. Those who repent and believe in the gospel.

Let’s start at the end, which I think is where we see it all tied together. Verse 10: “Have you not read, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.’”

Jesus questions the leaders’ understanding of the Old Testament. Haven’t you read? Which is ironic because they - especially the scribes - built their career upon reading and understanding the Scriptures. And Jesus quotes Psalm 118:22-23.

Why did he quote that part of the psalm? Essentially, the psalmist envisioned builders building, and they come across a stone that they do not find useful, and they reject it. It doesn’t fit what they think they need. But that stone has become the cornerstone.

The idea of cornerstone could mean either one of two things, but the essential meaning is the same. Either it means the foundation stone upon which everything else is built, or it means the capstone, which supports and upholds everything together. Whichever the case, the idea is that it is the most important stone in the entire building.

In other words, what he’s quoting summarizes the point of his parable: in rejecting the beloved son, you are rejecting the Messiah. And that, as we will see, means judgment. The rejection of God’s Son results in the coming of God’s judgment.

I think a thinking atheist would recognize how logically absurd her statements are. Isn’t it true that if there is a God, who exists outside our imaginations, in reality, as real as a mountain or a tree, that both Islam and Christianity and Mormonism and New-Age Paganism cannot all be right?

Many people have accepted some kind of pluralism. Basically, God (or some higher power) wants us to be moral, we should all be happy and whole, and God is there to help. Somehow, Jesus dying on the cross fits in there, but it’s usually not understood or unpacked. Most religions teach basically this, and we’re all basically right.

Now what we’re doing this morning is studying the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. In the New Testament we have four accounts, four miniature biographies about the ministry and teachings of Jesus. The one we’ve been studying is the Gospel of Mark. We know that Mark, a close friend of the apostles, wrote down Peter’s memories.

As Christians, we have come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and so if we want to know the truth nature of God,

Sociologist Christian Smith studied the beliefs of “Christian” teenagers in our country and concluded that their beliefs were actually not Christian at all, even though they referred to themselves as Christians. Instead, they believed what he called “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”

Here’s what it is: 1) A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth. 2) God wants people to be good, nice, fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions, 3) The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself, 4) God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem, and 5) Good people go to heaven when they die.

People who believe this are just like Christians, except they disagree on the nature of God, the nature of salvation, the nature of Jesus, the nature of humanity, the nature of sin, wrath, judgment, death, heaven, and hell. In other words, people who believe these things are not actually Christians at all.