COMMENTARY ON MARK
LESSON NUMBER 127
“ Mark 12:6 Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. 7 But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. 8 And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. 9 What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others. 10 And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: 11 This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?”
(Mark 12:6-11; Matthew 21:37-44; Luke 20:13-18)
WHAT WILL THE LORD OF THE VINEYARD DO?
INTRODUCTION
Jesus is speaking a parable in the Temple, as He walks about with crowds clustered around Him. There are children of the wicked one among the people, and they are the key figures in the Jewish community – chief priests, scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus will not ignore them, knowing they will spearhead His death in a few short days. As is characteristic of Deity, He will expose their deeds, showing the absolute unreasonableness of what they will do – even though they are carrying out the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. In all of this we are being exposed to the Divine nature. Particularly in the death of Christ, which is the subject of this parable, evil men were employed to carry out Divinely determined objectives. In their malicious deed, as Peter put it after Christ’s enthronement, God “fulfilled” the things which He had “showed by the mouth of the holy prophets” (Acts 3:18). And yet, this did not diminish their guilt one iota. Those men were vessels “to dishonor” in God’s greater house – or the arena in which he fulfills His purpose. They were used like Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and others who brought glory to the Lord, yet were not rewarded for doing so. All of this reveals the complexities of God’s dealings with men. When we consider what is happening in the world, we must not view it as fatalistic – as sort of “whatever will be will be.” Or glibly pass off things by saying, “God is going to have His way, no matter what.” That is certainly true, but it is not the whole truth. In the process there are people like those of whom Jesus is now speaking that will end up on the trash-heap of humanity. They were not suitable for holy use, but were rather used for “ignoble purposes.” NIV Except they repent, they will be cast into the lake of fire.
THE OWNER SENT HIS WELL BELOVED SON
“ Mark 12:6 Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. 7 But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. 8 And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.”
In this parable Jesus is revealing how heaven would see the events that were soon to take place. So far as the Jewish leaders were concerned, what they were going to be doing was getting rid of an agitating and disruptive teacher among them. They knew He was a threat to their position. Yet, they felt they were duly appointed leaders, fully supported by the Law, to which they had devoted themselves. However zealously such a view may have been argued, however, it was nothing more than a show of sinful pride. Jesus will reveal the real situation, even though the people themselves were not aware of it. This is because they were in bondage to Satan, who does not share his real purpose with his vassals. His intent was to get rid of the One who had been appointed to bruise his head.
HAVING THEREFORE ONE SON. The picture is of God sending many prophets to His people to alert them to their real condition, and summon them to repentance. If the postulate that men remain free to will and do is true, then surely the action of God Almighty will bring out the remnant of goodness that is imagined to be in men. Because God had dealt with this people for such a long time, and had spoken to them at length about a coming Savior who would be a Son (Isa 9:6), they will surely be prepared to receive and respect the fulfillment of those prophecies. This Son is His “wellbeloved Son,” and will therefore duly represent Him to the people. He will confirm the interest of the Father in the people, and be able to gather any fruits that may be among them.
HE SENT HIM LAST. In keeping with the principle of “the first shall be last,” and “the last first” (Mk 10:31), the best Messenger is sent last, and the lesser messengers were sent first. In this way the condition of the people will be fully confirmed. If they are basically good, with a few flaws, they will hearken to the preliminary messengers, and be fully ready for the final one, giving him reverence.
THEY WILL REVERENCE MY SON. The reverence of the Son presumes an acquaintance with the Father. Jesus Himself said, “That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him” (John 5:23). Men treat the Son of God in direct proportion to their concept of God the Father. If they do not love and obey the Son, it is because they have no respect and honor for God. If they have no regard for the Word of the Son, it is because they have no regard for the Word of God. If they do not take up their cross and follow Christ, it is because they have no prevailing regard for God the Father. There is no exception to this rule. Men WILL reverence the Son if they know who He is and have a reverence for the Father in heaven.
This understanding casts much light on the situation within the modern church. The general disinterest, state of ignorance, and dominating carnality, is owing to a lack of regard for God. People hold the Bible in their hand, yet have no love for its Author. They pretentiously talk to God, yet have no desire for Him to talk to them. They live in His world, yet do not associate it with Him. They are commanded to seek Him, yet do not do so.
This condition is verified by a rejection of the Son – the Son who comes to gather fruit, and to obtain something from the vineyard! Men would readily receive Jesus, I suppose, if He made no demands upon them. But there is no such Christ from heaven. The servants sent before the Son came to collect fruit for the Owner of the vineyard. The Son is doing the same thing. He did not come to simply see what was happening, or to encourage the husbandmen to try and do a better job.
THEY KILLED HIM. There was enough discernment in these wicked husbandmen to make a cursory association of the son with the owner of the vineyard. Yet, because of their miserable lack of acquaintance with the owner himself, they felt this was an opportunity to gain the vineyard for themselves. They also knew, they would have to kill the son in order to do this – and that is precisely what they did.
Historically, when this parable was actually lived out, here is how the leaders of the people reasoned about Jesus. “If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation” (John 11:48). Caiaphas the high priest stepped forward, saying that taking the life of Jesus was the answer. “Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not” (John 11:49-50). That was equivalent to saying that, on the death of Jesus, “the inheritance shall be ours.” In doing this, they did fulfill the purpose of God, yet they brought judgment upon themselves because they were ignorant of God Himself. They failed to consider the effect of their action upon the One who sent the Son into the world.
WHAT SHALL THE LORD OF THE VINEYARD DO?
“ 9 What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.”
For some, who believe that men are the ones directing the affairs of the world, the question is, “What CAN the Lord of the vineyard do?” Such men feel that Divine intervention, if it really ever existed at all, is no longer experienced. They reason like those of Ezekiel’s prophecy when he wrote, “for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not” (Ezek 9:9).
Sin so anaesthetizes the soul that what seems glaringly obvious to faith becomes totally obscured. Men indulge in sin, among other things, because they do not believe God will react to it. This is because sin focuses on the moment – “for a season” (Heb 11:25) – which is considered to be all important at the time. The person who is sinning has absolutely no regard for what the God of heaven thinks about what is being done. Jesus now addresses that delusion – particularly with regard to His own imminent death at the hands of the people to whom He was sent.
WHAT WILL THE LORD OF THE VINEYARD DO? If the vineyard really belongs to the lord of it, you may expect him to do something about the rejection of his son, whom he sent to gather the fruit from it. When, therefore, the husbandmen of this vineyard imagine they will gain it for themselves, they could not possibly be more wrong!
In all of this we do well to consider how God regards those who build religious empires in His name, and heap riches unto themselves. In order to do this, they must “crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame” (Heb 6:5). When their moral wickednesses are made known, the Son of God is subjected “to public disgrace.” NIV They are no different than the husbandmen of this parable. Jesus will affirm that God IS going to do something about it! An example will be made of Jerusalem and its religious leaders.
HE WILL COME AND DESTROY THE HUSBANDMEN. This is not an idle threat. These wicked husbandmen did not volunteer to give the fruit of the vineyard to its owner. He would have been fair with them, and allowed them to have a generous portion for themselves. When the owner sent servants, they came to “receive from the husbandmen OF the fruit of the vineyard,” or “some of the produce” NASB – that is a fair portion of it, not all of it. The husbandmen, however caught the servants, beat them, and sent them away empty; they cast stones at others, wounding them in the head, and sent them away shamefully treated; many others they killed and beat, and stoned. Now, they kill the son of the owner. Their wickedness has been duly confirmed! There is no doubt about their condition.
The owner will not destroy the vineyard, but will rather destroy those who were charged with keeping it for him! In this case, the vineyard did not yield wild grapes, or bitter grapes. It did bring forth a harvest, but the caretakers would not yield it up to the owner, keeping it for themselves.
In Matthew;’s account, he says those who heard Jesus’ question responded, “He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons” (Matt 21:41). As David’s response to Nathan’s parallel, they could see the truth in a likeness, but not in actual life (2 Sam 12:5).
This word was fulfilled by Jesus at the destruction of Jerusalem. It was then that the city was devastated, its leaders killed, and even the Temple laid waste. Jesus warned those who listened to Him about those days, and told them when to flee, and how to pray (Luke 21:20-24) – but He did not warn the leaders. They would be destroyed in the melee.
The ultimate destruction will come when Jesus returns. Then the “wicked” usurper, “the man of sin,” and all those who, like him, plundered the church in the name of religion, will be consumed “with the spirit of His mouth,” and shall be destroyed “with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thess 2:8).
Note, that in this parable, the failure of the father to receive what was His from His own vineyard was directly owing to the wickedness of those who were charged with taking care of the vineyard. That is a most arresting consideration! We ought to be able to associate it with the present condition of Christendom, through which God is not being duly honored.
HE WILL GIVE THE VINEYARD TO OTHERS. “He will give the vineyard to others!” In Matthew, Jesus spelled out this part of the parable: “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt 21:43). That is a prophesy of the “times of the Gentiles.” The Scriptures also indicate that the Gentiles will also prove unfaithful, and the Jews, being put into their own olive tree, will assume the leadership (Rom 11:13-24). In view of this, godly men are provided with another incentive for being faithful. The time will come when – perhaps even in this world, and surely in the world to come – the sheep will be wrested from unfaithful shepherds, and given to faithful ones. This is in fulfillment of Jeremiah 23:4; “And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.” God is faithful to care for His own. He will raise up men and women who have an interest in His vineyard.
THE REJECTED STONE BECOMES THE HEAD OF THE CORNER
“ 10 And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: 11 This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?”
Jesus now switches the comparison from a vineyard to a building. Both parallels are speaking of the people of the Lord. The vineyard accents the fruitage that is yielded to the Lord. The building places the emphasis upon a place in which God Himself can reside.
HAVE YE NOT READ? If God has sent a word to the people, it is their responsibility to know it. If He has moved men to write down His thoughts, men are obligated to become familiar with them. The Lord does not allow men the luxury of saying His word is too difficult to understand, or that they are unable to see its relevance for their lives. The fact that God has spoken makes it relevant, for God never speaks without due regard for the circumstances of humanity. Nor, indeed, does He ever speak in isolation from His own Person and purpose. Those who profess an interest in the Lord, and are not newly born into Christ, yet are fundamentally unacquainted with His Word have not told the truth. I do not know that it would ever go well with a person whom Jesus asked, “Have ye not read?” to reply, “No, I have not.” That is not the kind of answer you want to give to Jesus!
THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED. This is a quotation from Psalm 118:22-23. Peter used this very text when speaking to the religious leaders in the Temple (Acts 4:11). The picture of that of key building under construction. As the building gets under way, there are a number of stones considered for placement in it. The builders might consider some of these stones unsuitable for the building, and therefore reject them.
THE HEAD OF THE CORNER. There is the one stone that is key to the acceptability of the structure: “the head of the corner.” One version reads, “chief cornerstone.” NKJV Ephesians 2:20 categorically says that Jesus is “the chief cornerstone.” Strictly speaking, the “corner” stone is distinguished from the “foundation” stone, as confirmed in Jeremiah 51:26. The foundation provides for the stability and permanence of the structure placed upon it. The corner stone binds the building together, so that it maintains its symmetry as well as its stability. In Jesus, of course, both of these stones are combined as declared in Isaiah 28:16. “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste” (Isa 28:16). Building upon this verse, Peter declares Jesus to be “a chief corner stone, elect, precious,” adding that He is also a “stumblingstone, and a rock of offense” to those who do not believe on Him(1 Pet 2:5-7).
In Jesus, therefore, we have the key Man – the One upon whom the work of the Lord will be founded, and in Whom everything will be held together. God prepared a nation to receive Him, cultured them with the Law and the prophets, and even sent the forerunner, John the Baptist, to prepare the way for Him. The religious “builders,” however, considered Him to be worthless – to be removed from society by violent means, and forever forgotten.
Oh, this kind of assessment has not ceased. There are still professing church leaders who are using other things as a foundation, and attempting to hold the church together with the flawed stones of human tradition and the untempered mortar of carnality.
In spite of all the machinations of men, however, God has made His Son “the Head of the corner,” placing Him in the most strategic position, giving Him the most important work, and depositing all the fulness of Himself in the Son. All of the resources are with Him. All of the judgment is with Him. Everything depends upon Him.
THIS WAS THE LORD’S DOING. The thing that is marvelous is not what men did in rejecting Christ, but what God did in exalting Him. In the interest of pleasing the father, Jesus submitted to the worst men could do, the worst the devil could do, and the worst the combined powers of darkness could do. In addition, He submitted to the curse of God, to being “made sin for us,” and to the ravages of the last enemy, death. He even did this in a weakened state, as everything came to bear upon him when He was “crucified through weakness” (2 Cor 13:4). And now, God has placed Him in the highest position, exalting Him above all, and putting all things under His feet.
Therefore, those who for any reason reject Jesus, have sided with those who were His “murderers.” They have despised Him becoming a curse, and being made sin for us. They have despised his sufferings and His death, and rejected Him in the capacity of the Cornerstone and Foundation Stone. Both Matthew and Luke record Jesus adding that whoever does not fall upon Him as the Stone, will be ground by Him “into powder” (Matt 21:44; Lk 20:18).
IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES. It is marvelous to see that all the powers of earth and hell could not delay the exaltation of Jesus for so much as a single second! Those with faith and understanding submit to Jesus because of who He is, as well as what He has done.