God will take back what is His
This is Tuesday morning of Jesus’ last week on earth. As you know, Jesus enters Jerusalem on a Sunday. He goes into the temple on Monday afternoon and drives out all the people there. Nothing happens that night of course. The next day the religious leaders come and confront Jesus. So that’s the context in which Jesus tells this parable.
God will take back what is His
The meaning of the parable is simple – God will take back what is His. Let’s look at it together from the top.
Mark 12:1 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.
The symbolism would be obvious to anyone hearing this back then. The man is God and the vineyard is his kingdom Israel. Notice how the man is the one who planted it, built the fence, dug the pit, built the tower. All the work has been done beforehand. All the tenants had to do was look after it. Who are the tenants? Well look what happens.
2 When the season came, he sent a servant 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.
You know what this is? This is kind of like a series recap of the Old Testament. Again and again God sends prophets to Israel. And some they beat, some they killed. It’s the history of Israel. If you were one of the apostles, you can already guess where this is going. Jesus is about to call out the Pharisees and the religious leaders. That’s what you would expect.
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.
It’s at this point where you would be completely confused. It’s very easy for us to see the son as Jesus. But for anyone there listening to Jesus, it’s not clear. Is Jesus still talking about Israel now? Who is this son? It’s not obvious at all. In fact, the parable would make more sense if you go from verse 5 to 9.
5 And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. [skip v.6-8] 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
That still makes sense right? God will take back what is His. The tenants refused to give the owner what is his, which is a picture of the Pharisees refusing to honor God. You could go from v5 to v9. So what is the point of verse 6? I think this is so important because if you don’t understand this the parable won’t apply to you. But if you get it, the parable will become the best thing ever for you.
No more second chances
This parable tells us what the tipping point is. The owner of the vineyard is incredibly merciful and patient despite how the tenants treated the servants. And because the owner is so patient, the tenants think they can get away with more and more. First they beat the servant. Then they treated him shamefully. Then they killed him. Did you notice the progression? When the owner doesn’t retaliate they get more and more bold. At some point you’ll start to wonder how many servants does this owner have! Until the son comes. That’s the tipping point! You can kill his servants and God will still show mercy. Mistreat His Son, God will take back what is His.
That’s the lesson for us. Even though none of us are Jewish, or a jewish religious leader, the parable is equally relevant. Why should any of us care if God takes back what is His? Do you have anything in your pocket that belongs to Him? No? You’re good. But don’t you see what has happened with the coming of Jesus? The fact that you’re sitting here reading about Jesus and listening means the Son has come to you. Now that Jesus has come, there ain’t no more second chances after this. If we don’t respect Jesus, which is what the owner in the parable says, they will respect my son, if we don’t respect Jesus, God will take back what is his.
In a way, we are all tenants as well. Because the question for us is how will we treat the son? That’s why this parable is so relevant to us.
Look at verse 10.
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’?”
Every time the tenants think they are one-upping the owner, they are actually doing what he wanted them to do. Every time the Pharisees and Jewish leaders confront Jesus and plot behind his back, they are actually doing what God wanted. There’s never been a contest. This is not a fight at all.
The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing. Listen to what Peter says in Acts 2.
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Another way to think about it is like this – God never reacts. Sometimes we start to think of God as something like us, just bigger. Humans can be powerful but God is all powerful. We can know a lot of things and invent wikipedia, but God is all knowing, We can get on a plane and go anywhere on this planet, but God is present everywhere all the time. But this parable tells us God is more than that.
Think about this. What if you found out the owner in that parable knew beforehand what was going to happen? Servant after servant killed, and even his Son. You’d think he’s crazy. But that’s what God did. He sent His Son Jesus to be killed by wicked tenants. And the stone they rejected, God has made the most important one of all.
The whole time it seems Gods plan is falling apart, it’s actually coming together! Jesus dying was not Gods defeat. It’s the Lords doing!
And it was all for us. If this isn’t marvellous in your eyes, nothing will ever be.