The Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Mark 12:1-12) | 8/25/19

Mark 12:1-12 8/25/19 | Will DuVal

This morning, we continue our study together as a church through the Gospel of Mark, and we find ourselves in part 3 of a 3-week miniseries on Jesus’ PARABLES. A parable is “a simple story, often a metaphor or SIMILE, a comparison using “like” or “as”, between two similar things – the kingdom of God is LIKE a pearl, a coin, a mustard seed – that illustrates a spiritual lesson”. Jesus’ parables are “earthly stories with heavenly meanings”. The Synoptic Gospels – Matt, Mark, Luke together – record 35 parables total, but Mark only includes 5. 

And we began two weeks ago with the parable of the “4 Soils” from Mark ch.4, and Jesus’ exhortation to mind not only the soil of our OWN hearts, to ensure that the seed of God’s word finds fertile ground in our souls to take root, but moreover that we would grow into fruit-BEARING trees in our own right, who are faithful to reproduce the good news of Christ into OTHERS’ as well, through our evangelism and discipleship.   

Then LAST Sunday I stuck Cordell with THREE parables to unpack – the parables of the lamp, the harvest, and the mustard seed – ALL of which, again, attested to Jesus’ heart for evangelism, for SHARING and spreading this good news of the Kingdom of God: the active and living reign and rule of God our Sovereign savior and KING, is now “in our midst”; the Kingdom of God “has come near”, Jesus says in Mark 1:15; it is “at hand”, “upon you”, “right under your NOSES”; because I , JESUS, am your long-awaited King. But people need to KNOW about it; they need to HEAR the good news that I can save them from their sins and offer them NEW life, eternal life and reconciliation with God the Father; they need to be given the opportunity to repent and turn to ME for salvation. So Jesus tells these parables about letting your lamp – your faith, your witness, your light – shine before others, don’t hide it under a basket. 

He tells the parable of the harvest, where we believers are simply called to faithfully scatter the seed of the gospel, and then trust God to give the growth; we can even go take a nap, Mark 4:27, and wake to discover the seed has sprouted and “we know not how”, because God DOES give the growth; It’s in the very NATURE of good seed to GROW, and the gospel is the BEST seed of all! God DESIRES that none should perish but that ALL should reach repentance; He desires to build for HIMSELF a Kingdom, a people of every nation, tribe and tongue, who exist for HIS glory, and it is in the very NATURE of His Kingdom to spread, but we have to be faithful to sow. “How will they believe in him of whom they have never heard?[” So we must tell others this good news. And trust God to work it into the soil of their hearts. 

And lastly, the parable of the mustard seed, that teaches us not to get discouraged when we don’t see instantaneous results. Because the moment it’s SOWN, a mustard seed is TINY. But MAN, when it BLOSSOMS...! And sometimes I wonder how much of our FAILURE to evangelize is due to how results-based the church has become in 21st c. America. Let’s be honest: it can be easy to get discouraged when you share your faith with someone and you’re met with nothing but rejection. If our evangelism is ultimately motivated by RESULTS, then we will EITHER get discouraged and stop sharing Christ altogether, OR we’ll become one of those churches that genetically modifies the seed of the gospel so that it sprouts easier. The “gospel” becomes all about what Jesus can do for YOU, how he can help you live your best life now, because THAT kind of seed takes root much more quickly in peoples’ hearts, we get instantaneous results; like those “fastest growing churches in America” featured in the magazines we get sent at the church office: “Oasis Church celebrates 387 baptisms in one Sunday!” We might contrast that approach with the one taken by George Whitefield, the famous evangelist and leader of the First Great Awakening in the mid-18th c., who, when he was asked after his revival sermons and altar calls where hundreds... THOUSANDS would come forward: “Brother Whitefield, how many souls were saved this evening? How many pledge cards?”, would reply, “I guess we’ll wait a few years and find out.” Like Whitefield, the aim of OUR evangelism isn’t merely sprouting seeds, but ultimately, fruit-bearing trees. So we don’t cheapen and pervert the gospel to make it easier for people to accept so we can pad our baptism stats and fill our church coffers, but neither do we DESPAIR when we don’t see instantaneous results. Because ours is a mustard seed kind of faith. 

And ALL of that leads us to our fifth and FINAL parable for this morning from Mark ch.12, vv1-12. And this one is somewhat unique. This parable is NOT about evangelism.  It’s the only parable in Mark found OUTSIDE of ch.4. It’s probably the most PG-13 of all the parables, and I’m aware and EXCITED that we have the kids joining us this morning for family Sunday – woot woot! – but guess what kids: the Bible is not a G-rated book. Noah’s ark is not a story about cute animals on a boat. And Jesus of Nazareth wasn’t the smiling, Caucasian hippy who’s always holding a lamb and surrounded by children that he’s often portrayed to be. So kids: if you’re like I was when I was your age, and you wanna know the REAL story, the REAL Jesus, not just the “edited for kids” version, I hope you’ll pay attention this morning. Otherwise, I know Ally’s got some cool new kids bags for you that I know I’m competing against for your attention...  

Most significantly, this is one of the only parables that isn’t intended to convey a general spiritual truth for all who have ears to hear, but rather, this parable has a very SPECIFIC audience, and a very SPECIFIC purpose. So let’s read it, and I invite you to stand with me as you’re able in respect for the reading of God’s word...

from MARK 12:1-12

“And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant[a] to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this Scripture:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;[b]
11 this was the Lord's doing,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

12 And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.” This is the word of the Lord... 

Now, before we can determine what this parable means for US... TODAY, and begin to apply it to our OWN lives, we need to first decipher what it meant to THEM... back THEN. Jesus’ original 1st c. audience. And to do THAT, Cordell reminded us last week of that all-important interpretive principle that we must always keep in mind when studying Scripture, that our forerunners in the faith and founders of the Reformation called Sola Scriptura, or “Scripture alone” – that because Scripture is set apart as our only final, authoritative source of truth, that when we INTERPRET it, we must start by letting Scripture interpret Scripture. If we have questions about one passage in the Bible, we turn to other passages for help, because, as Jesus himself said, “The Scriptures cannot be broken”; they are our infallible, unfailing guide. So, employing that principle here, I want to point us to three passages in particular, to help us interpret this parable. 

The first is actually v12 of the passage itself. Mark informs us “they were seeking to arrest him [Jesus]... for they perceived that he had told the parable against them.” So right there we get both the AUDIENCE as well as the PURPOSE for this parable. Jesus’ purpose is to convict and condemn those he is addressing. So who IS he talking to, specifically? We turn back to ch.11, and we hear in v27 – that Jesus and his disciples “(They) came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him...” and they begin to question his authority. THAT is the context for our parable in ch.12. THAT is the group “seeking to arrest him”. THEY are who Jesus “told this parable AGAINST.” THEY are the wicked tenants. These chief priests, scribes, and elders. Okay, what about the REST of the parable – the owner, the vineyard, the servants...? 

Let’s turn to our second interpretive passage: Isaiah 5. Where the prophet Isaiah, 7 ½ centuries before Jesus, speaks out against the injustices and the SIN he observes in Jerusalem, and warns the people of their impending JUDGMENT by God at the hands of the invading Babylonians if they will not repent. Here’s the metaphor Isaiah uses; see if it sounds familiar; He says:

“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...

7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
    are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
    but behold, bloodshed;[b]
for righteousness,
    but behold, an outcry!”

So we discover here, and all THROUGHOUT the OT prophets – Jeremiah 12:10, Ezekiel 19:10 – that the VINEYARD is a common metaphor, v.7, for the “house of Israel, the men of Judah”, God’s chosen people. GOD is the owner of the vineyard. And Israel was ONCE his “pleasant planting”. But God’s people were PLANTED for a purpose – v2, “to yield grapes”. What are the grapes? v7: “he looked for justice... for righteousness”. But instead they produced WILD grapes – INJUSTICE, bloodshed, sin. 

This metaphor from Isaiah 5 would have been VERY familiar to the well-educated Jewish leaders Jesus is addressing. They would have ALSO known the historical fates of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the REST of the prophets. John MacArthur writes: “The second-century Christian apologist Justin Martyr reports that Isaiah was sawn in half with a wooden saw ( Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew , chap. 120; cf. Heb. 11:37). Jeremiah was constantly mistreated, falsely accused of treason (Jer. 37:13–16), thrown into a pit (Jer. 38:9), and, according to tradition, stoned to death by the Jews. Ezekiel faced similar hatred and hostility (cf. Ezek. 2:6); Amos was forced to flee for his life (Amos 7:10–13); Zechariah was rejected (Zech. 11:12); and Micaiah was struck in the face (1 Kings 22:24).” (MacArthur, Mark, 837) 

So the meaning of this parable is CRYSTAL clear to the priests and scribes: Jesus is saying that GOD is the vineyard owner, ISRAEL, his people, are the vineyard, THEY, the RELIGIOUS LEADERS are the wicked tenants, who were entrusted with taking CARE of God’s people, but have instead led them ASTRAY, and the PROPHETS were the servants God sent to appeal to the tenants, only to be persecuted and ignored. Lastly, they know exactly who JESUS is claiming to be here, God’s “beloved son” of v. 6, who they will soon MURDER; indeed, this is the very charge for which they will have him sentenced and crucified just 2 chapters later in Mark (14:61-64): “the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am”... And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? 64 You have heard his blasphemy.” 

The final explanatory passage we need to examine is Acts 4:8-12, and Peter’s commentary on v.10 of our passage in Mark. Jesus SHIFTS metaphors in v.10 from a vineyard and wicked tenants to a cornerstone and rejecting builders. And he is directly quoting Psalm 118 here. Peter explains this metaphor in Acts 4, to the SAME JEWISH LEADERS who put Jesus to death, Annas and Caiaphas, those same high priests arrest Peter and John for healing a paralytic in Jesus’ name, and at PETER’S OWN trial for blasphemy, he exclaims: “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.11 This Jesus[a] is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.[b] 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men[c] by which we must be saved.”” 

See, parables are kind of like JOKES; they lose some of their bite if you have to explain them. So in Mark 12, Jesus tells the parable... and just mic drops the priests, but Peter just can’t help himself – y’all know Peter: the guy who at Jesus’ Transfiguration, the most super-natural, awe-inspiring, dumb-founding moment in all of Jesus’ earthly ministry, just can’t help himself, so he interrupts and blurts out – “Hey Jesus, want us to build some TENTS?” So in Acts 4, Peter, never one for subtlety, just HAS to explain the punchline to the parable – JESUS was God’s beloved son, the cornerstone, the foundational ROCK on which God’s church is built. Actually, in 1 Peter, ch.2 – Peter describes the church in metaphorical terms as God’s TEMPLE, we, all believers, are “living stones” making up this TEMPLE, and its CORNERSTONE, its CENTERPIECE, the FOUNDATION around which the whole thing is built... is JESUS. Whom YOU - Annas, Caiaphas - YOU crucified Him. Can you imagine preaching THAT sermon?! I told you: Peter is not one for subtleties. Which eventually gets HIM crucified too. 

But I want to spend the rest of our time this morning on this question: What does ANY of this have to do with US today? The interpretation of this parable is pretty straight-forward, but discerning its meaning and its relevancy for US, what are you and I supposed to glean from this passage – is a bit trickier. I GET it – Jesus is convicting and condemning these religious leaders; now what am I, 2,000 years LATER, supposed to DO with this parable? 

I think the key to you and I appreciating the meaning and relevancy of this text today is v.7: “But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’”. Friends: THAT’S what this parable is really about. THAT’S why they really killed Jesus. This is big misconception in the church today. We attribute all sorts of other motives to the religious leaders who killed Jesus. 

We’ve been taught to think: well, they were sticklers for the Law, and Jesus violated their Law, he did things like heal on the Sabbath, so they killed Him... Nope. Did you know that the widely accepted oral interpretation of the Jewish law as expressed in the Mishnah and the Talmuds of the first century ALLOWED for exemptions to those Sabbath restrictions on work, when a person’s health and well-being was at risk. So all that stuff about the Jewish leaders confronting Jesus for breaking the Law – that wasn’t REALLY about his breaking the Law; according to their own INTERPRETATION of the Law, He had actually done the right thing in prioritizing people over the Law. The fact of the matter was: THEY just didn’t like being shown up! THEY didn’t mind healing on the Sabbath, per se; they didn’t like that JESUS was the one doing the healing, not THEM! It undermined THEIR power, THEIR authority. 

We’ve been taught to think: well, they were expecting a different kind of Messiah, a political Messiah who would come in physical power to overthrow Rome, so they just didn’t recognize Jesus... again; there may be SOME truth in that, but remember: these guys were EXPERT students of the Law. They knew better than ANYONE all 68 OT prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. The problem wasn’t that they didn’t recognize Him; the problem was they DID recognize Him, and they HATED him for it! Re-read verse 7 of our parable: “They said to one another, ‘This is the heir.” They know EXACTLY who Jesus is, and they HATE Him for it!  

So why’d they kill Him? So “the inheritance will be ours”. They killed Jesus not primarily because He was a Law-breaker, not primarily because he defied their Messianic expectations; NO – they killed Jesus because He THREATENED their power. He THREATENED their power. This parable is ALL about POWER: how dangerous it is, because of our sinful tendency to ABUSE it. 

A man planted a vineyard – He’s in charge. He’s the owner, with all rightful authority over the vineyard; he puts in ALL the front-end work himself. But then he leases it OUT to other tenants; he generously employs and shares some of his power and oversight with THEM. But when the season for grapes arrives, and he sends to collect his share of the profits, and it REMINDS the tenants that they’re not actually ULTIMATELY in charge here, so how do they react? They are greedy, and power-hungry. They LIKE being in charge, and they HATE the notion of being accountable to someone ELSE’S ownership. SO much so, that when the owner sends his own SON – surely they will RESPECT my Son, HE will remind them who this vineyard REALLY belongs to, and that I’m a GOOD owner, a KIND master – the wicked tenants instead see this as the best opportunity of all: “Come, let us kill him, and his inheritance will be ours.’” 

Jesus posed a direct threat to the POWER that these Jewish religious leaders of his day had so come to enjoy. In the SAME way that the OT prophets centuries EARLIER had posed a threat to their forefathers, the ancient Israelite leaders. Jesus confronts them in Matthew 23 and says, ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.” If you THINK you’re not the problem, that means... you’re the problem! You’re the same old greedy, power-hungry religious leaders that murdered Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the rest, you just happen to have been born in a different generation. There’s nothing new under the sun! 

And friends, the same is STILL true, for you and me, today. There’s STILL nothing new under the sun. And it’s STILL true that if you think you’re not the problem, that this parable ISN’T about you, that MEANS you ARE the problem! If we think this is just a JEWISH problem, like maybe that’s the common denominator here – paranoid Jewish leaders in the OT killing prophets to try and hold on to their power, these Jewish leader of the NT killing Jesus because he threatens their power atop the religious hierarchy of 1st c. Judaism – if we think it’s just a JEWISH problem, if we think it’s just a religious LEADERSHIP problem – like yeah, I can see how this has played out in Christianity’s history as well, the same holds true for the CHURCH’S leaders too – think back to ALL the corruption of the medieval church that necessitated the Protestant Reformation: the selling of indulgences to “buy loved ones out of Purgatory”, i.e., build all those big, beautiful cathedrals all over Europe; you had bishops selling positions in the church, literally auctioning off the priesthood; the entire medieval MASS service was designed so that people WOULDN’T understand what the heck was going on; they left the Bible untranslated in the obsolete Latin language lest the common folk read for themselves and understand what the heck was going on. Keeping people in the dark is a great way to consolidate and keep power. But lest you think this is a Jewish problem, or a Roman CATHOLIC problem – just listen to the sexual abuse report coming out of the Southern Baptist church today... 

Friends – this is not a JEWISH problem, it’s not a Catholic problem, it’s not a leadership problem, this is a HUMAN problem. The desire to be god for ourselves, and the impulse to KILL anything that threatens our OWN lordship and control and power – we’ve got a word for that in Christianity: it’s called SIN, and it’s a HUMAN problem. THE human problem. This parable isn’t just intended for some 1st c. Jewish leaders, friends, it’s for YOU. It’s for ME. In what ways does Jesus pose a threat to YOUR power? To YOUR control, over your own life?

Hear the good news this morning, friends: You are a sinner. You are a rebel against the ONLY true, Sovereign God with ALL power and ALL authority and ALL dominion over the universe that HE created, the vineyard that HE planted, you are HIS “pleasant planting”, Isaiah 43:7 – you were created BY Him, for HIS glory. But instead of bearing good grapes, and fulfilling your PURPOSE of bringing Him glory with the life He so generously gave you, in your sin and your rejection of His LOVING lordship over your life, you have brought forth wild, SOUR grapes – ALL have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God – and according to Scripture, that sin, YOUR sin, means you rightfully deserve death and Hell and eternal separation from God – the wages of your sin is DEATH. 

BUT... BUT... the free GIFT of God is eternal LIFE, in Christ Jesus our LORD. God sent not just some hired servants, not just some prophets to warn you about your sin and its consequences, NO - He sent his only SON, his beloved Son, not just to warn you, but to PAY for, to ATONE for, to DIE FOR you and your sin, to trade His righteousness for your unrighteousness. And to make peace between a holy, perfect God and a broken, wretched sinner like you. Because... He... LOVES you. God SO loved the world... so loved YOU... that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should NOT perish, but have eternal life.

Will you receive it this morning? Will you surrender your power and your control over your life, and receive HIM this morning? Receive Jesus, as your King. He is a worthy, Good, Kind, Loving King. And if your hope is built on ANYTHING less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness, friends, you are building on sinking sand. Christ ALONE, is Cornerstone. Will you build your life around HIM, or like these religious leaders, will you let your desire to maintain your OWN power and control, cause you to reject Him?

Let’s pray.