To read this text, CLICK HERE

Mark 12:6-11, “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’?”

Chapter 12 is filled with many different teachings that are quite important to Jesus’ ministry.  We can’t discuss all of them today but I do encourage you to read through the whole chapter if you haven’t done so already. 

Our focus verses for today come from what is called the Parable of the Tenants.  I’m sure most of you have heard it before.  A man plants a vineyard and hires some tenant farmers to tend to it.  Tenant farmers rent the land from the owner and typically pay their “rent” in either money or crops.  In this parable, the landowner is seeking his rent in some of the fruit that was produced.  He sends several servants to go collect the produce from the tenant farmers and each servant is either beaten severely or killed.  Finally, the landowner sends his own son to collect the debt but the wicked tenant farmers kill him as well. 

As with all parables, this has much deeper meaning.  The tenant farmers represent the Jewish leaders and teachers of the law.  God continues to give them chances to respond to his prophets and the prophets are continually rejected. Finally, God sends his own son and he is killed.  At any point, the chief priests and teachers of the law could have turned away from their plot to kill Jesus.  They actually stood there and listened to this parable as Jesus shared it.  Rather than being convicted, they became all the more intent on killing this man who threatened their way of being.

Let’s pray…Almighty God, May we see your hand at work in the world and in our lives.  Open our eyes that we may see things through the lens of Jesus.  More of you, Jesus, and less of me.  Amen.