The Rebellious Tenants
TRANSLATION
(1) And Jesus began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, placed a hedge around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a watchtower. He leased it out to tenants and left for another country. (2) At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the produce of the vineyard. (3) But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. (4) Then again he sent another servant to them, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. (5) And he sent another, and they killed him and so with many others, beating some, and killing some. (6) He had still another, a beloved son. He sent him last of all 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 belong to us.’ (8) And they seized and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
(9) “What then will the vineyard owner do? He will surely come and kill those 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 is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?’” (12) Then (Israel’s leaders) sought to arrest him, for they perceived that he had spoken the parable against them. But, fearing the crowd, they left him and went away.
OBSERVATIONS
This segment recounts how Jesus directly addressed the hostility of the Jewish leadership by warning them with a very pointed parable that both identified the source of his authority and condemned them for their usurping the authority that rightly belonged to him. Repetitions made clear the parable’s thrust. Jesus used two words four times, “vineyard” (in vss. 1, 2, & 9) and “tenants” (vss. 1, 2, 7, & 9). Three times he used the strong word “killed” (in vss. 5 & 8) and twice the terms “servant” (vss. 2 & 4) and “son” (vs. 6). Twice Mark described this narrative as a “parable” (vss. 1 & 12). When Jesus finished telling them the story, there was no missing his pointed message.
OUTLINE
I. Jesus set forth the parable of the tenants. (1-9)
II. Jesus explained the meaning of the parable. (10 & 11)
III. The religious leaders responded to what Jesus had told them by seeking to arrest him. (12)
IDEA STATEMENT
Those who rebel against the Father by conspiring against and rejecting the Son will eventually face the Father’s wrath.
APPLICATION
The message of this parable should have reminded Jesus’ hearers of Psalm 2 where the relationship between Yahweh and his Messiah was graphically described as that of a Father and his beloved Son: “I will tell of the decree: the Lord (Yahweh) said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you’” (Ps. 2:7). The admonition found in the closing verse, while directed to all nations, was particularly appropriate for God’s covenant people: “Kiss the Son lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (vs. 12).
The giving of a kiss was not so much a demonstration of affection as it was a display of homage, a pledge of loyalty and submission offered by loyal subjects to a ruler who deserved their obedience. Dr. R. G. Lee, a well known Southern Baptist preacher of the past century, was famous for his memorable sermon title, Payday Someday. That is precisely the warning this parable conveyed to Jesus’ original audience as well as to every generation that has read it in the centuries since. And that payday was not long in coming. Less than forty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Roman armies led by General Titus invaded the Promised Land and utterly destroyed Jerusalem. Herod’s great temple was razed to the ground, and the Jewish populace was scattered to the farthest corners of the earth.