Mark 12:1-12 (NIV): He 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 went away on a journey. 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 scripture: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
Then they 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.
It is important to remember the context of this parable. Jesus was only a couple days away from His arrest and execution orchestrated by the same priests, teachers of the law, and elders who had just confronted Him, challenging His right to do the things He was doing. (Mark 11:27-33) And this parable was told directly to those same religious leaders as part of His answer to them. (The chapter break here was not in the original gospel but, like all of the chapter breaks, was added hundreds of years later to make finding Scripture passages easier.)
This parable uses several symbols:
- The vineyard was a traditional symbol for Israel, but here it stands for the larger concept of God’s kingdom. The people of Israel were supposed to be the people of the kingdom, living in God’s blessing, and growing His kingdom by bringing more and more people into it. God had done everything He needed to do to enable them to be successful at this. Just as the vineyard owner in the parable had done everything necessary to make the vineyard safe (building a wall & watchtower) and productive (planting the vines and digging the winepress), so God did all that was necessary to make His people productive as His kingdom, including giving them a land, empowering them to be victorious over all of their enemies, and even providing wealth beyond imagination.
- The servants sent at the harvest time symbolize the prophets that God sent repeatedly to the Israelites, trying to refocus them back to their original mission – to work the harvest of the world, and grow His kingdom. But God’s people quickly lost track of the mission and the vision that all people of the earth would be blessed through them (cf. Genesis 12:3), and instead were living in His kingdom as if it were theirs to possess and control. As God sent His prophets over and over again, they persecuted them, and even killed them.
- Of course, the last messenger that God would send to these people, to try one final time to redirect them was His beloved son, Jesus – the most important, most authoritative messenger of them all. But the leaders of the Jewish people would not tolerate His clear teachings and, even then, were plotting how they might kill Him so that they could regain control of God’s kingdom. Jesus predicted what was already in their hearts: in just a couple of days, these leaders would kill him and (so they thought) throw Him out of the vineyard.
- The judgment of the vineyard owner on the tenants foretold events that would follow over the following 40 years. These same Jewish leaders would see God’s kingdom given to others, both to Jewish believers who came from outside of their approved circle, and even to gentiles, who would start flooding into the kingdom within the next decade. They would see their beloved Jerusalem and temple destroyed by Rome, and many would die in that conflict.
Even though those leaders, God’s tenants, rejected, and even killed God’s beloved Son, Jesus became the capstone of the kingdom through that very death, and through His resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God that followed.
The vital thing has always been the kingdom of God – His rule in the lives of people who love Him wholeheartedly, and who obediently do the work of building His kingdom, saving souls, and expanding His influence throughout the world. And those who stand against God’s kingdom, ultimately end up standing against God Himself.
Father, how often we fall into thinking that the most important thing to You is our worship and praise. But, as You told Your people in Isaiah 1:10-18, worship without obedience, without doing the work of Your kingdom, without producing a harvest for You, is actually detestable to You. Help us, Lord, to keep Your main thing OUR main thing. Help us to be the people of Your kingdom, and to regularly present You with an abundant harvest. Amen.