Mark 12:1-12
The Parable of the Tenants
1 Jesus 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 moved to another place. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
6 “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
7 “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders 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.
Jesus tells this story before His death...He knew that soon the Jews would be seizing Him, then arresting Him, and then killing Him on a cross...
Jesus teaches us in images...He uses parables so we can remember them better...In the parable of the vineyard, the vineyard represents Israel...The people of Israel is God's people...The Israelites are the chosen people, who got to see and know God, early in man's history...Being God's chosen people they had a special reason to believe in God...God was with them, when He brought their ancestors out of Egypt and took them to their Promised Land...The ancestors of the Israeli's were with God for forty years in the desert when they traveled to the Promised Land...
The man who plants the vineyard is God...The servants are the Prophets and His faithful followers...The wicked farmers represent the Jewish officials who do not believe in Him...The Sanhedrin, Pharisees, and the teachers of the law did not believe in Him...They are the farmers...The Landowner's Son is Jesus...
The non-believers kill the servants...Not only do they kill the Owner's servants the kill His Son...They seize His Son, beat Him, and threw Him out of His Father's vineyard...The Jewish officials will wind up killing Jesus, just as His parable tells us they would...Jesus foresaw His death and has explained it in His parable...
Today, there are still people who do not want to do the proper work in His vineyard...Evil is still here...The vineyard has grown, it now covers most of our world, and we still have wicked farmers...Jesus reminds us, and maybe warning us to believe in Him and to follow Him...He wants us to be morally good...He wants us to be good servants in His vineyard...In the end, He wants us to hear from the Owner of the vineyard , well done, good and faithful servant...