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The Big Story

July 4, 2021 Speaker: Brian Wilbur Series: The Gospel of Mark

Topic: The Kingdom of God Passage: Mark 12:1–12

THE BIG STORY

An Exposition of Mark 12:1-12

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: July 4, 2021

Series: Mark: Knowing and Following God’s Son

Note: Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

INTRODUCTION

Good morning everyone. I invite you to turn to Mark 12. I'd like to read the first 12 verses as we continue along through Mark's Gospel.

Just one note before I read. You'll notice that Mark 12:1 begins, “And he [referring to Jesus] began to speak to them”. The word “them” carries over from the end of Chapter 11, which we looked at last week, where Jesus was speaking with the religious leaders. If you look at Mark 11:27, notice that Jesus was speaking to “the chief priests and the scribes and the elders”. They had come to him with a question. And he refused to answer their question because they refused to answer his question, because they weren't dealing honestly and truthfully with him. And that's where we left off at the end of Chapter 11. Now, at the beginning of Chapter 12, they are still interacting in the temple and that’s where we pick things up.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

God's Word says:

1 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.When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 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. 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;
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. (Mark 12:1-12)

This is God's holy Word and it is for our good. Let's pray.

Father, your Word is alive with great power to transform our lives. Father, we pray that the Holy Spirit would be the One shedding light on the truth of this passage this morning, and working in our hearts to draw us near to you, to help us to have the mind of Christ, to know you better, and to walk in your ways. Father, give us eyes that we might see. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

A WALK THROUGH THE PARABLE 

So Jesus refuses to give a plain answer to the religious leaders because they're not dealing honestly with him, but now he tells them a parable. We encountered parables back in Chapter 4. Remember: a parable is an illustration. It might be one or two verses, or it might be several verses like we see here. It is a metaphor, a story, an illustration that pertains to everyday life. Jesus tells that story or he gives that metaphor in order for it to be a window into the truth of God's kingdom. So what we see going on in the story within this parable shows us what God's kingdom is like, shows us the way that God deals with his people.

The first thing I want to do is just quickly walk through the story itself. And when Jesus tells us a parable like this, what he wants us to do is to come into the parable and understand what is going on there, and then to see through the various windows of the parable into the reality of God's dealings with his people.

We can walk through the story in eight simple steps.

First – in verse 1 – a man planted a vineyard and he equipped it. He did so with the expectation that it would produce fruit. This man is an entrepreneur. He wants to turn a profit from this vineyard and he expects it to produce fruit, to produce grapes, to produce wine and perhaps other products. He intends to have a profit.

Second – also in verse 1 – the vineyard owner leased the vineyard to tenant farmers. The vineyard owner himself was not going to be present and hands-on. He entrusted the management of the vineyard to these tenant farmers, and they were the ones who would be responsible for overseeing the health and growth and productivity of the vineyard.

Third – spanning verses 2-5 – the vineyard owner repeatedly sent servants to the tenant farmers in order to collect some of the fruit. He intended to have rent and profit from the tenants’ use of the vineyard. And so, they came to collect that fruit, that produce, that profit. But…

Fourth – still dealing with verses 2-5 – the tenant farmers repeatedly dishonored the vineyard owner by treating his servants shamefully. They treated these servants shamefully – beating them, striking them, killing them, never yielding up fruit to the owner, always keeping it for themselves, and sending the servants away either empty-handed or leaving them dead.

Fifth – in verse 6 – the vineyard owner decides that there is one more person he can send – not a servant, but his beloved son who would share in the father's legal right to ownership of the vineyard. The vineyard owner thought, ‘They will respect my son.’ (v. 6) And so, he sends his son to the vineyard in order to collect fruit and make things right. But…

Sixth – in verses 7-8 – the tenant farmers will have nothing to do with the son. They see him as a threat. They envied his position as the heir and rightful owner of the vineyard, and so they kill him and expel him from the vineyard. More than one commentator drew attention to the fact that killing him and throwing him out of the vineyard – instead of giving him a proper burial – was itself an act of great shaming.

Now notice: everything that has happened up until now in the parable is presented as having already happened. Everything from verses 1-8, within the framework of the parable, already happened. And now Jesus turns the time frame to the future. And the big question is, What is going to happen to those wicked tenant farmers? Jesus asks the question in verse 9: “What will the owner of the vineyard do?” The vineyard owner will do two things, which brings us to the final two points.

So seventh – in verse 9 – the vineyard owner is going to come and he is going to deal justly with those tenant farmers and he is going to destroy them.

And then eighth – also in verse 9 – the vineyard owner is going to transfer stewardship of his vineyard away from those tenant farmers and he is going to give it to others. And as the Gospel of Matthew tells us in its recounting of this parable, the vineyard owner is going to give it to others who will in fact, produce the fruit that the vineyard owner desires (Matthew 21:41, 43).

So that is the story that Jesus tells in the parable. And that story is a window into God's dealing with his people.

DON’T PRESS EVERY DETAIL

Now you have to remember when you interact with a parable like this, be careful about the temptation to press every single detail. That's not the way parables work. If you're reading Paul's letter to the Romans, then yes – press every detail, because there is tight argumentation going on and careful reasoning going on. But a parable is a picture. What we have to do is understand the big picture and the main point. That's how you read parables. So don't overdo all of the individual details and try to find a correlation to God's kingdom in every single detail. You’ll get into trouble if you do that.

THE BIG STORY OF GOD’S DEALING WITH HIS PEOPLE

Remarkably, in this brief parable, Jesus is actually telling the history of God's dealing with Israel from the calling of Abraham at the end of Chapter 11 and the beginning of Chapter 12 in the Book of Genesis, all the way through the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and the Book of Acts. This is remarkable! Jesus is telling the history of God's dealing with Israel from roughly 2000 BC until 70 AD and beyond. What does it tell us? What do we see when we look through the windows of this parable?

God Planted a Vineyard

Well, to begin with, God planted a vineyard. If you read Isaiah 5 – Jesus' parable of the vineyard is basically a reworking of the parable of the vineyard in Isaiah 5 – the vineyard represents Israel. God established the nation of Israel and he equipped it with the full expectation of it producing fruit. But first I want to back up a little so that you get the bigger story.

When God created heaven and earth, he planted a garden: the Garden of Eden. And there he put the first man and the first woman, and they received their commission. Their commission was to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The idea is that human beings are God's image-bearers. We are called to reflect and convey the glory of God and the character of God and the reign of God wherever we go. God's will is for the earth to be full of his glory. And one of the chief ways that his glory is spread throughout the earth is through faithful image-bearers who are faithfully reflecting the character of God. Well, two people isn't enough to fill the earth with the reflection of God's character and glory, so be fruitful and multiply! Multiply and go forth from this garden. It has been well said that that the commission upon Adam and Eve was to take the beauty and splendor and glory of Eden and to go global with it, thus making the whole earth like Eden. (See Genesis 1-2.)

But of course, Adam and Eve turned away from the Lord and God brought his judgment into the world, and so death came onto the scene (see Genesis 3). Now every generation of human beings has had to live under the law of sin and death and corruption and decay since Genesis 3. But as you move from Genesis 3 to Genesis 11-12, God decided: I'm going to plant another garden. I'm going to planet a vineyard in the midst of this fallen and corrupt creation. I'm going to create a people. He told Abram to leave his people and his nation and to follow him to a land that he would show him. He promised that he would make of Abram – we know him better as Abraham, same guy) – he would make of Abraham a great nation and through Abraham every family on the face of the earth would know the blessing of God (Genesis 12:1-3). This was God's plan: to work through Abraham and his son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons, who became the building blocks of the nation of Israel. And God is going to work through this nation to make his glory known all over the face of the earth. That was the fruit that God was looking for.

There is a beautiful set of verses in the book of Deuteronomy that I want to read to you. This pictures the fruit that God expected to derive from his vineyard:

“And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you…. See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-8)

God wanted his people to image forth and display what it meant to be in a relationship with him. They had God's instruction. But what would set them apart wasn't the mere fact of having his instruction, but that they would embody it, obey it, put it into practice. And through that, God's wisdom and glory would be displayed to the nations. And furthermore, God himself was near his people whenever they called upon him. That was the fruit that God was expecting.

God Entrusted the Care of His People to Leadership

Now moving on to the next part of the parable, the next window to look through is that we realize that God entrusted the administration and care of his people to leadership. Now in reality, if you read through the Ten Commandments, if you read through the book of Deuteronomy and other parts of the Old Testament, we realize that in reality God entrusted the care of the nation to every member of the nation. They all had a responsibility to pursue righteousness and to see to it that the nation stayed on track. But nevertheless, Jesus is drawing attention to a particular aspect of this in the parable. He is telling this parable to the religious leaders because leadership always bears a special responsibility to teach and to set an example and to influence in God-pleasing ways. And so, God entrusted the care and the administration of the nation to various kinds of leaders: kings, priests, elders, judges. They all had a special responsibility to reflect the character of God in the way that they lived and in the way that they ruled. One example of the importance of leadership is found in Malachi 2, where Scripture says: “For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction.” (Malachi 2:7-8)

God Sent His Servants the Prophets

And so, even though God expected his vineyard to produce fruit, time and

time and time again they turned away, they stumbled, they did not produce the fruit that God desired. And so, what did he do? He raised up prophets. Prophets were outside of the formal, institutional leadership structure of the nation. God would raise up prophets and send them to the people and to their leaders and call them to repentance and remind them of God's redemption and remind them of God's instruction and call them to obedience. He didn't send one prophet. He didn't send two. He didn't send three. He sent prophet after prophet after prophet. That's what Jesus is talking about here with the repeated sending of the servants to the vineyard – that represents God continually sending his prophets to the people.

Let me call your attention to a couple of passages in the Old Testament. First, it is written in Jeremiah 7:

“But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.” (Jeremiah 7:23-26)

Second, turn to 2 Chronicles 36. Remember once again, in a remarkable way, Jesus is summarizing such a large period of history in just this short little story that he tells in Mark 12. And 2 Chronicles 36 helps us to understand what is going on. As we come to verse 11, we must understand that this is near the end of the line for Judah. They are about to be judged through the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Scripture says,

“Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the LORD. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel. All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations.” (2 Chronicles 36:11-14)

Do you see? They were supposed to bear a witness to the nations, but instead they became like the nations.

The passage continues,

“And they polluted the house of the LORD that he had made holy in Jerusalem. 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. 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.” (2 Chronicles 36:14-16)

Just a little parenthetical comment, but an important parenthetical comment: whenever God is bringing his Word to you, it is an act of compassion. It was in compassion that God kept sending his servants the prophets to the people, that they might hear and believe and be restored. And this morning, as you have the opportunity to hear the Scriptures unfolded, God is loving you. You may or may not feel like you're being loved right now, but in truth you are being loved this morning as God wants to instruct you and transform you and draw you near to him through his Word.

God Sent His Beloved Son

Finally, fast forward from the judgment of Babylon to the first century. Now, in the fullness of time, God sends forth who? His beloved Son. The beloved son of the vineyard owner in the parable points to the beloved Son that we have encountered twice before in the Gospel of Mark. In Mark 1, when Jesus was baptized, the Father spoke to him from heaven: “You are my beloved Son” (Mark 1:11). And then in Mark 9, on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father spoke about Jesus to Peter, James, and John: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” (Mark 9:7) Jesus is the beloved Son of God, and God sent him to the nation in order to call the nation to repentance.

The Religious Leaders Reject God’s Son

I mentioned a couple weeks ago how this parable is the capstone of the section of Scripture that begins at the beginning of Mark 11. Mark 11:1–12:12 all hangs together. And last week – do you remember? – Jesus refused to tell the religious leaders where his authority came from (Mark 11:27-33). But now, suddenly and metaphorically within the parable itself, he is answering their question. Where did his authority come from? From the Father. The beloved Son gets his authority to go to the vineyard from the vineyard owner, who is his Father. And what did Jesus do in chapter 11? He came to his Father's house, the temple, and he turned over the money tables, and he confronted the people and the leaders. Who gave him that authority? The Father. It was his Father's house. And Jesus was always acting out of the authority that had been given to him by God the Father. And remarkably, what happens is that the religious leadership proves to be just as bankrupt, just as foolish, and just as wicked as all those earlier generations of Israelites that we read about from the Old Testament. And they rejected the Son.

Jesus, operating under the authority of his Father, went into the temple. Remember what happened? In the parable, he goes into the vineyard to inspect it and to collect the fruit and to make it right. What happened back in Chapter 11? He goes to inspect the temple. He goes to inspect the fig tree, which symbolizes the temple. The fig tree ought to have been fruitful, but it was not fruitful, so he pronounces judgment on it. He goes into the temple and it was not bearing fruit. It was not bearing the fruit of worship and the fruit of prayer and the fruit of love and the fruit of God-honoring hospitality to the nations. Instead it was corrupt and wicked. Therefore Jesus pronounced a judgment upon it.

And what happened there in the temple in Mark 11:18? “And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him” (Mark 11:18). Those are the tenant farmers in the parable. He has come to pronounce judgment upon them. His presence represents to them the fact that they have been unfaithful. They should have repented and received his gracious salvation, but instead they saw him as a threat and, therefore they concluded that they had to get rid of him. And that, of course, is just about to happen, right? Jesus is just a few days away from being crucified by the Romans, because these religious leaders condemned him as worthy of death and handed him over to the Romans in order to be crucified.

Judgment and Transfer

And what is God the Father going to do about it? This is what we come to in verse 9. “What will the owner of the vineyard do?” “He will come and” – first of all – “destroy the tenants” (v. 9). Judgment is coming on the leadership of Israel. The administration and stewardship of God's kingdom is being taken away from them because they were unfaithful. And because they were unfruitful, now the administration of God's kingdom is being transferred to others. “He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to other?” (v. 9, italics added) Who are the others?

Well, we learned about this in Chapter 11, right? The physical temple was supposed to be “a house of prayer for all the nations” (Mark 11:17), but it had been corrupted and it was not fulfilling that purpose. Where does Jesus locate the place of faithful and fruitful prayer in Chapter 11? In his disciples. According to Mark 11:24-25, Jesus’ disciples are now God’s house of prayer. Thus the administration and care of God's kingdom is being transferred to those who trust and love the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Rejected Stone Becomes the Risen Cornerstone

Now that takes us through the end of the parable, but there is something else that is really important to understand. The parable concludes at verse 9, but verses 10-11 give us some very important teaching about the destiny of the beloved Son? Within the parable, he is just killed and expelled from the vineyard. But is that really the end of the beloved Son? No! Jesus says in verse 10, “Have you not read this Scripture? ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’”. The tenant farmers – the religious leaders – are here likened to builders. They've got this building project going on. The problem is, it's not God's building project. They're building their own little empire for themselves and for their own glory, and they rejected God’s Son. The stone of verse 10 is the beloved Son who was killed in the parable. The beloved son is the rejected stone. But God did something amazing. He took that despised and rejected stone, and he made that stone “the cornerstone”. The word translated ‘cornerstone’ literally means ‘head of the corner’. Some people debate whether this is the foundation stone at the base of the building or the capstone at the top of the building. And that's a really good question. But I really like the words of R. T. France, who says this: “Our ignorance of Hebrew architectural terminology at this point does not, however, affect the sense of the quotation: the one rejected has become the most important of all.”[1] That’s the point. “[The] one rejected has become the most important of all.” Verse 11 then says: “this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes”. The term ‘Lord’ often refers to Jesus, but here ‘Lord’ refers to the Father. This was the Father's doing. He raised his Son from the dead. He vindicated his Son who had been rejected. He brings life out of death. He brings his kingdom to fruition through the murder of his Son, because we know from back in Mark 10 that Jesus came in order “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

We should stand in awe of the Father's work. But these religious leaders were not standing in awe of the Father's work. When you hear a parable, and when you find yourself in that parable, you should respond to God in faith and repentance. But what do these religious leaders do? They see themselves in the parable, but as we learn in verse 12, they just get angry. And they are all the more determined to put Jesus to death. And they are plotting and they are biding their time. They are waiting for the right moment, and that moment will soon come.

GOSPEL OR ANTI-GOSPEL?

I want to close with this. This is a very fitting reflection from this passage. It also helps us prepare for the Lord's Supper, which we are about to partake in. I want to ask you a question. Are you believing the true gospel? Or are you believing the anti-gospel?

The anti-gospel is right here, clearly stated, in verse 7. Look at it. I'll read it and then I will summarize it in my own words. It says, “But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’” (v. 7) That is the anti-gospel. The anti-gospel is this message:Secure your own inheritance, your own blessing, your own wealth, your own security, your own future blessedness by not believing in the goodness of the beloved Son and by taking matters into your own scheming hands. That is the anti-gospel. Secure your own future blessedness by disbelieving in God's Son and by taking matters into your own hands. The world has been running on that lie since Genesis 3. Satan told Eve that the Living God and his Word stands in the way of true blessedness. God is standing in the way. God’s Word is standing in the way. Do you want to be blessed and become like God? Then eat the fruit that he has forbidden. America is running on this lie. What a heritage we have. It is not a perfect heritage, but it is undeniable that the Judeo-Christian worldview exercised a significant influence at the founding of our nation. But for the last several decades, our society sees the living God and true Christianity and biblical truth and biblical morality as something that stands in the way of true blessedness. ‘Oh, we could be free and liberated and come of age if we would only rid ourselves of the living God and his beloved Son.’ Some of your adult children are running on this lie. Maybe some of you are running on this lie. The lie is that the beloved son is a hindrance or a threat to your true blessedness. And so we have got to get rid of him or ignore him or erase him from our memory. That is the anti-gospel that the world runs on.

Do you believe that Jesus is a hindrance or threat to your true blessedness? Or do you believe that he is the way to it? It's that simple. Yes, it's that simple.

Let me tell you the true gospel. Let me take verse 7, rework it, and tell you the true gospel. Jesus is the heir. This is true. But he did not come to steal and kill and destroy. He did not come to hold a tight fist around his inheritance. He did not come to keep the bounty of God's kingdom all to himself. He did not come “to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45). He did not come to kill, but to be killed. He did not come to extract payment, but to make payment. He did not come to protect his own outward comfort, but to lay down his life for vineyard-corrupting sinners. And by his death and resurrection, he came to freely share the entirety of his inheritance with everyone who believes in him, with everyone who lays down the arms of their resistance, with everyone who leaves behind the foolishness of the anti-gospel, with everyone who trusts the goodness and generosity of the beloved Son.

Let me tell you a remarkable thing. The religious leaders wanted to protect what they had. They were exasperated by Jesus’ popularity. And they said in John 11: “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” (John 11:47-48) They thought that in order to preserve what they had, they had to get rid of the Son. That is the anti-gospel. In truth, however, they would have kept their place – in the truest sense – if they had embraced the Son.

Jesus came to his vineyard. And there was no fruit, no produce, no faithfulness. And he said, ‘I'll provide the meal. This is my body broken for you. Take and eat. This is my blood of the covenant shed for you. Take and drink. Come, you who are thirsty; and come, you who are hungry; come, and eat and drink, at no cost to you. And you will inherit everything with me because everything I have is yours.’ Isn't it remarkable that the Bible tells Christian believers that they are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus? “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:16-17)

Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father” – or enters into true blessedness – “except through [him].” (John 14:6)

Let us pray.

Father, I thank you for the big story of the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ made himself nothing in order that we would be redeemed. The one who is rich became poor for our sake, so that we – through his poverty – might become rich. Father, I pray that you would impress the riches of the gospel upon our hearts, transform our lives, and build us up into what you are doing, so that we would be fruitful people who are reflecting the character and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name I pray, amen.

 

ENDNOTES

[1] France, R. T. The Gospel of Mark (The New International Greek Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002: p. 463.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

France, R. T. The Gospel of Mark (The New International Greek Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark (The New International Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Mark (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Vol. 2). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017.

James W. Voelz, Mark 8:27–16:20 (Concordia Commentary). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2019.

Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001.

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