About this sermon
In the parable of the vineyard, God sends servant after servant to collect his fruit, and the tenants beat and kill them, and finally they kill the owner’s beloved son. The parable exposes the murderous intent of the religious leaders who reject Jesus. God takes the vineyard from them and gives it to others, a church gathered from Jews and Gentiles. The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and the church must build its life on Christ and his gospel.
Sermon transcript
First of all, let’s sing together, 173, Almighty God, your word is cast. We’ll sing the first stanza of 173. Almighty God, your word is cast like sea into the ground. Amen. Please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. My sermon text today, as we continue to work our way through the gospel of Mark, my sermon text is Mark chapter 12, verses 1 through 12. Mark 12, 1 through 12. This is the word of God, hear it with reverence and awe. Remember the context here, Jesus is in Jerusalem and this is Passion Week. And he began to speak to them in parables. A man planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey.
At the harvest time, he sent a slave to the vine growers in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine growers. They took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another slave and they wounded him in the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another and that one they killed, and so with many others, beating some and killing others. He had one more to send, a beloved son. He sent him last of all to them, saying, They will respect my son. But those vine growers said to one another, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. 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 vine growers and will give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read this scripture? the stone which the builders rejected. This became the chief cornerstone. This came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes. And they were seeking to seize him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that he spoke the parable against them. And so they left him and went away. Dear friends, the grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the God’s blessing upon the preaching. of his word. Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you, O God, that you have made us your vineyard. We thank you, Lord God, that Christ is our vine dresser. Ultimately, we thank you that we can rest in him to prune us, to make fruit, to cause fruit to be born by us.
We ask that by your spirit you would bear spiritual fruit in our lives as we consider this portion of your holy word. We ask Lord that you would grant unto me your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and proclaim your word faithfully. And we pray that we might be faithful listeners and hearers that we might not only be hearers of the word, but also doers of the word. We pray all of these things, heavenly father, in Jesus name and all of God’s people said, amen. Maybe seated. titled my sermon this morning is Unfaithful Vine Growers in the Lord’s Vineyard. And if the children are wanting some words to listen for, I’d encourage you to listen for three words in particular, the word parable, cornerstone, and repentance. Well, dear ones, this parable of the Lord Jesus, which Mark records in our passage for today, It’s kind of a shocking parable.
In fact, it is both a confrontational and a provocative parable. Who is Jesus or to whom is Jesus addressing this parable? Well, in the flow of Mark’s narrative, it is reasonable to assume that our Lord Jesus addresses this parable to the same folks that he was speaking to in the previous context, namely the chief priests and the scribes, and the elders, referred to back in chapter 11, verse 27. In other words, the Lord Jesus addresses this parable to the religious authorities and representatives of the Jewish ruling council, or Sanhedrin, the folks who had confronted Jesus in the temple, demanding to know by what authority he was conducting his ministry, especially demanding to know the authority by which he conducted the actions that we read of in chapter 11, such as our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, which was a symbol, a symbolic and open claim to be the Messiah, as well as our Lord’s cleansing of the temple by which he challenged, through that action, the authority of the high priest who oversaw what the business that went on in the temple.
Jesus probably told this parable during the so-called Passion Week. Passion Week refers to the week leading up to our Lord’s crucifixion, and scholars estimate that this parable was probably told on Tuesday of Passion Week. Christ was going to be crucified on Friday, so this parable is told on Tuesday. This parable anticipates a further heightening of a crisis of conflict between Jesus and the Jewish religious authorities who were hostile toward him. A conflict that, of course, will culminate in our Lord’s crucifixion. In fact, by telling this parable of judgment to these religious authorities, and that’s what this parable is, it is a parable by which Christ is declaring God’s judgment against these religious authorities. By doing this, there’s a real sense in which our Lord Jesus actually adds fuel to the fires of animosity that the Jewish leaders harbored against him and provoked them to further anger.
For in this parable, Jesus confronts them with their hard-hearted rejection of him as the Messiah and Son of God, and he predicts their judgment and rejection of God. After all, as verse 12 makes clear, they understood that he spoke this parable against them. Now, Mark describes this saying as one of the parables. He began to speak to them in parables, but scholars debate whether this is actually, technically speaking, a parable. See, most of our Lord’s parables had one main lesson, and the various details of our Lord’s parables usually did not have any kind of separate significance, but that’s not the case in this particular parable. In this parable, the various figures of the parable, the various people and realities described in this parable, such as the vineyard, the owner of the vineyard, the vine growers or tenants, and the servants, and the owner’s beloved son, all of these figures stand for something or for someone.
I think William Barclay is probably correct when he says that this parable is best viewed as a parable-allegory hybrid. a cross between an allegory and a parable. But we’ll let the scholars debate about how we are to technically view this particular item, this particular story that Jesus tells. Again, Mark describes it as, generally speaking, as a parable. But what is the original setting of this parable? And is this a parable, a story that Jesus tells that would resonate with the original audience to whom he addressed it? Well, again, to quote William Barclay on the setting, the historical setting of this parable, he writes, the story itself is of what might well happen in Palestine in the time of Jesus. The country had much labor unrest and many absentee landlords. The owner of such a vineyard might be a Jew who had sought a more comfortable land than Palestine, or he might be a Roman who regarded the vineyard as an investment for his money.
If the owner followed the law, meaning the old covenant law, the first time for collecting the rental would be five years after the planting of the vineyard, and he refers us back to Leviticus 19, 23 to 25. In such a case, the rental was paid in kind. It might be a fixed and agreed percentage of the crop, or it might be a stated amount, irrespective of what the crop came to. The story is by no means improbable, and tells of the kind of thing which did actually happen. So, what Jesus says in this parable is something that they could resonate with, something that was true to life in the land of Palestine at that time. Although, the only thing that is humanly improbable in this parable is the owner’s repeated grace in giving the tenants, the vine growers, multiple additional opportunities to do the right thing by continuing to send additional servants and eventually sending his own beloved son.
And that, my friends, is a powerful picture of God’s incredible patience and long-suffering and forbearance, even toward hardened, rebellious sinners. Now, with all this in mind, let’s dive in to this parable, this story that the Lord Jesus tells. Let’s consider, first of all, from the first eight verses, consider how this parable depicts the unfaithfulness of Israel’s leaders throughout the history of God’s people. What we have in this parable is a picture of the unfaithfulness of Israel’s leaders throughout the history of God’s people. See, friends, this passage is a wonderful recounting and summary, if you will, of Israel’s covenant history in parabolic form. Remember the story of the Old Testament. It’s kind of encapsulated here in this parable that the Lord Jesus tells. Remember the story of Israel, right? God had made a covenant with Abraham and confirmed that covenant with Isaac and Jacob and raised up the patriarchs, but the patriarchs end up in Egypt.
The patriarchs and their descendants end up in Egypt through Joseph and so forth. But then they become slaves in Egypt and they cry out to the Lord for deliverance. And what does God do? He raises up Moses and he redeems his people from their slavery in Egypt by a supernatural mighty signs, by mighty signs and wonders. And he brings them through the Red Sea on dry land. He brings them to the foot of Mount Sinai where he gives them his Torah, his law, his covenant instruction. And then, eventually, there’s a 40-year gap because of Israel’s unfaithfulness. But eventually, he brings them into the promised land. They conquer the promised land. And God plants his vine, Israel, in his vineyard, the promised land. And he expects spiritual fruit from them, the fruit of covenant obedience. But if you read the history of Israel in the Old Testament, what do we often read of?
We often read of idolatry, covenant breaking. What does God do? His people go astray. They go after the gods of the nations. They abandoned Yahweh, their God, their redeeming God, who had rescued them and made covenant with them. They abandoned the Lord. What does God do? Does he automatically abandon them? No. He raises up his servants, the prophets, and he sends to them prophets who call them to repentance for their sin and call them back to faith and covenant obedience. And there are times, there are periods in Israel’s history where there is a national and spiritual renewal, an awakening, if you will, a return, a reformation of God’s people, such as under Hezekiah and Josiah and so forth. But most of Israel’s history is a history of God sending multiple prophets time and time again, sending his servants, the prophets to them.
And some of the prophets they beat some of the prophets they mistreat, they kill and so forth. But then eventually God sends his son, his beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what do they do to Jesus? Well, we will see that they will soon crucify their own Messiah. We have this covenant history encapsulated and summarized by our Lord Jesus. Again, in this passage, in this parable, where again, we have a summary and recounting of Israel’s history, covenant history in parabolic form. And what does it say in verse one? It says he began to speak to them. In other words, to the chief priests, to the scribes, to the elders of the people, these representatives of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. He speaks to them and he speaks to them using words that they would be familiar with because they would be familiar with Isaiah chapter five, which I read to you earlier in the service.
A man planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower. Does that sound familiar? It should because he’s referring there to Isaiah chapter five. He’s drawing Jesus is here drawing from the imagery of Isaiah 5, 1 through 7, and he rented it out to vine growers or tenants, as it’s translated in some of your translations, and he went on a journey. Who is the owner of this vineyard? Well, the owner of the vineyard obviously represents God. The vineyard planted by the Lord is the covenant nation of Israel, the nation which Yahweh had redeemed from slavery in Egypt. and had planted as a vine in the promised land. The vine growers or tenants represent the religious leaders, such as the chief priests, the scribes and the elders, religious leaders who were responsible and called by God to nurture and care for and shepherd the Lord’s people, his vineyard.
But then we read this in verses two through five. At the harvest time, he sent a slave or a servant to the vine growers in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine growers. Again, this is what an absentee landlord at that particular time would do when his rent was due, if you will, for renting it out to the vine growers. He would send a servant to get to collect some of the fruits of the vineyard. And it goes on to say, he does this, but what did they do? What did the vine growers do, the tenants do? Verse 3, they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Now, in reality, if that happened, in reality, what would the owner do? The owner would not put up with it, you know.
The owner would automatically go and deal with those tenants right away. But because this is a picture of God’s patient dealing with his people, What does it say in the parable here? Verse four, again, he sent them another slave. I wouldn’t have wanted to be one of those slaves, especially seeing my fellow slaves coming back all beaten, bloodied and bruised. I wouldn’t want to go. But anyways, the parable, he sent them another slave. And what did they do to him? They wounded him in the head and treated him shamefully. And so what does the owner do? He says, does he say that’s it? I’m through with these vine growers, these tenants. I’m going to pour out my wrath upon them, I’m going to deal with them. No, it says verse five, he sent another and that when they killed.
But does he stop at that point, sending them servants? No. Says so, with many others beating some and killing others, you see how this how this summarizes the covenant history of Israel. The people of God, time and time and time and time again, had been unfaithful to the Lord, and he persistently sent to them his servants, the prophets, to call the people to repentance, to call the people back to the Lord. Occasionally, there was a return to the Lord. There was always a faithful remnant, a godly remnant, among the people of God in Old Testament times. God, in his electing grace, always preserved for himself a godly remnants, but nevertheless, on the whole, the nation over and over and over again rejected the prophets whom the Lord had raised up and sent unto them. And so, but God keeps sending them prophets over and over and over again.
And finally, verse six, he had one more to send. This one more is a described as a beloved Son, who does that represent? Children, who does the beloved son represent? That represents Jesus. Jesus is the beloved son of God. God being the owner of the vineyard, the people of God, the church, the beloved son of the owner again represents Christ. And the language of this verse, by the way, may indicate that the son in this parable is an only son. Imagine this owner of the vineyard. He has sent multiple servants, most of them coming back bloodied or bruised, some of them killed. But then he sends his beloved son. Now, humanly speaking, that would be crazy. But God is a God of radical grace, so he sends his beloved son, his only son. And what are the vine dressers do?
Verses seven and eight. With those vine growers, said to one another, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours. Jesus here in this saying, he’s putting his finger on the motivation of these chief priests, these scribes. They wanted Jesus to be gone. They wanted to be rid of him. He threatened their power. He threatened their influence over the people. He confronted them with their sin and self-righteousness, and they would have nothing of it. They wanted to kill him, and Jesus, in parabolic form, confronts them with their murderous intention here. This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him. And what do they think is going to happen? The inheritance will be ours. And so what do they do? They took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard as Jesus was crucified outside the city of Jerusalem and rejected and despised.
The vine dressers or tenants in this parable kill the owner’s son in a vain attempt to gain possession of the vineyard. Now, as Dr. Walter Wessel explains, the tenants here, quote, saw the coming of the son as a golden opportunity for seizing the property. Why would they see it as such? Well, as Dr. Wessel explains, they may have inferred from the son’s coming that the owner had died. If they did away with his son, the property under the law, the property would be ownerless and therefore available to the first claimant. So there they might have thought, well, you know, the owner must be dead. So the son is claiming coming to claim his inheritance. Let’s kill the son, and then no one else will be able to claim the inheritance, then it’ll be ours, right?
But again, through this parable, Jesus confronts these religious authorities with their murderous intention. Now, what are some of the truths that we can glean from this and apply to our own situation today. What we learn in this parable, beloved, as we learn in all of scripture, that our God is a God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. God is patient. He is forbearing. He is long-suffering. He is faithful even toward his unfaithful people. And that is one of the great lessons of the Old Testament. As the people of God, the visible, professed people of God, continuously sin against the Lord, break his law, violate his covenant, go after other gods. Yet God does not immediately cast them out of the land. He sends them multiple prophets. Eventually, though, he does. bring judgment upon them.
He does send them into exile eventually, but even in exile, they are still his people, and he will bring them back from exile. God is patient, and that is our salvation, beloved. Praise God that his mercies are new every morning. This is not an excuse, obviously, to sin, but this is something that should give the convicted, burdened sinner hope. because God welcomes the prodigal home. And dear prodigal child of God, God welcomes you home. Your heavenly father invites you home. Turn back to the Lord in penitent faith, and he will run to you, embrace you, and welcome you back to his fold. Praise God, he is patient. And we learn this from our parable today, and indeed from the testimony of all scripture But we also learn in this passage, as we read of the vine growers and their hardness of heart, we learn here that apart from God’s grace, man is spiritually, utterly spiritually blind and hardened in sin and rebellion.
Again, this is another truth that is proven by Israel’s covenant history and which the religious leaders in our Lord’s time were repeating in their own generation. These chief priests and scribes and elders of the people, they saw Jesus do his miracles. They saw the claims of Christ. They saw, they should have seen, that yes, this indeed is the promised Messiah. This is the one whom we should welcome. This is the one whom we should embrace. But no, instead, they hardened their hearts against him in their blindness and pride and self-righteousness. Praise God for his grace, and if you’re spiritual eyes have been opened to see Jesus for who He is as the Anointed One, the promised Messiah, the God-man, the Word made flesh, the Son of God, the only Savior of sinners. If the Lord has opened your eyes, it is only because of His grace, not because of your ingenuity or your worthiness or your intelligence.
It’s all by grace and grace alone. The next, as we move on to the next section, and we’re going to cover briefly verses eight and nine, take to heart God’s judgment upon the unfaithful tenants and the turning over of his vineyard to others. We see here God’s judgment upon the unfaithful tenants and the turning over of his vineyard to others. Jesus says they took him and killed him. This is the beloved son of the owner. They took him and killed him, the owner’s son, and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine growers and will give the vineyard to others. This language anticipates, ultimately, the doing away of the old covenant order, the destruction of the temple, which took place in 70 AD, and, of course, the bringing in of the new covenant order in Christ, which includes Gentiles on equal ground with Jews in the Israel of God.
The true Israel of God, the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord’s Vineyard now includes Jews and Gentiles who believe in and trust and confess Jesus Christ as Messiah, son of God, Lord and Savior. We learn here, beloved, we are reminded in these verses that God will judge the impenitence and unbelieving. While there is much encouragement here as we consider God’s patience, at the same time, there is warning here not to persist, not to presume upon the Lord’s grace, not to persist in impenitence and unbelief. Oh, dear listener, be warned against rebelling against the word of God. Be warned against hardening your heart against the Lord. May God in his mercy and grace give you the grace to have a softened, malleable, teachable heart. Cry out to God for his spirit to make your heart teachable, malleable, that you might be repentant and might rest in Christ for your salvation.
We also notice here that God is looking for spiritual fruit. Why did the owner of the vineyard send his servants to the vineyard in the first place? Well, verse two, At the harvest time, he sent a slave to the vine growers in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine growers. God is looking for spiritual fruit. But we cannot produce spiritual fruit apart from spiritual life, apart from spiritual union with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only by abiding in Christ, the true vine, by true faith, that we can bear spiritual fruit for God. Now, that fruit that we bear does not save us, you are not saved by the fruits of God’s grace in your life. The fruit of grace is just that. It’s fruit. It’s evidence of a true and living faith.
We are saved, justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But never by a faith that is alone. A faith that will always produce spiritual fruits. The fruits of humility and hatred of sin. The fruits of walking after a new obedience out of gratitude for God’s gift of salvation. and so forth. Let us, by the grace of God, rest in Christ and call upon the Lord for his Spirit’s grace that we might indeed bear fruit. May we abide in Christ, the living vine, that we might bear spiritual fruit for God. We also learn here in this passage that the church is the Israel of God, inclusive of Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus as Messiah, Son of God and Savior. As Jesus says in verse nine, what will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come and destroy the vine growers. He’s going to destroy the old covenant order. He’s going to destroy the temple that represented the temple that ultimately pointed to Christ. And Christ did away with the need for the temple by his atoning death on the cross. But also it says he will give the vineyard to others. It’s not just for the Jews now, it’s for Jews and Gentiles. who believe in Jesus. No longer will God’s vineyard be limited to the covenant nation of Israel and to isolated Gentiles who happen to identify themselves with the God of Israel and with his covenant nation. But now, under the new covenant, it is expanded to include all who come to profess true faith in the true God and in his messianic son, the Lord Jesus Christ. How about you, dear listener?
Are you planted in the Lord’s vineyard? Do you belong to Christ and to his body? Come to Christ today in faith and repentance, and he, by his sovereign grace, will make you part of his vineyard, whatever your background may be. But finally, we see here, as we consider the closing section of this parable and Mark’s commentary upon it, Christ, the rejected stone, has become the cornerstone. Christ, the rejected stone, has become the chief cornerstone. Here in verses 10 and 11, the Lord Jesus is quoting from the passage that I opened up our service today with. He’s quoting from Psalm 118, particularly from Psalm 118, verses 22 and 23, which is clearly a Messianic psalm. That passage was initially fulfilled in Israel, which was rejected by the Gentile nations, but it’s ultimately fulfilled in Christ because, friends, Jesus Christ is the true Israelite.
Unlike Israel of old, Jesus kept the covenant. He kept it perfectly. He kept it on our behalf, in our stead, in our place. He is the cornerstone, or it could be, some suggest that it should be translated as capstone. But whether it’s a cornerstone or the capstone, it is central to the stability of the buildings of the church. The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation by water and the Word. He is the foundation. As Jesus says, have you not even read the scripture? Oh, how that must have burned in the ears of these chief priests and these scribes and these elders. Haven’t you read the scriptures? You know, you’re supposed to be the Bible experts. Haven’t you read your own scriptures? And what does he quote for them?
The stone which the builders rejected. They, the religious leaders, they’re the builders, but they’ve rejected Christ the stone. The stone which the builders rejected. This became the chief cornerstone. And this came about from the Lord. It’s not by human doing or human invention. or human manipulation, it came about from the Lord. And it is marvelous in our eyes. Isn’t it marvelous in your eyes, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that God would choose to save us through a crucified Messiah? The cross of Christ is a stumbling block for Jews. It is foolishness to Gentiles. But for those who are being saved, it is the power of God. Dr. William Hendrickson, in his commentary, says the following about this passage. He says, Jesus surprises his audience, particularly his bitter opponents, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, by reminding them of this passage from Psalm 118.
There is a similar transaction there in that passage, rather a similar transaction had been described. Builders had rejected a stone, meaning leaders, prominent men of other nations had scoffingly denigrated Israel. Nevertheless, Israel had become, in a very true sense, the cornerstone, the head of the nations, and he refers there to Psalm 147, verse 20. This, moreover, had not happened because of Israel’s own intrinsic moral and spiritual excellence or because of its own power. On the contrary, by the Lord, this wonderful thing had been accomplished. Jesus now shows that the words of Psalm 118 reach their ultimate fulfillment in the owner’s son, that is, in himself, the true Israel. He is that stone that was being rejected by the chief priests, scribes, elders, and their followers. At Calvary, he was rejected by the nation as a whole.
Remember, the people said, crucify him, crucify him. But something marvelous was going to happen. The rejected stone would become the cornerstone. The owner’s beloved son will be killed by the vine growers. He will be rejected and killed. But that’s not the end of the story. Christ crucified. That’s not the end of the story. As Hendrickson says, something marvelous was going to happen. The rejected stone would become the cornerstone. Christ crucified would rise triumphantly. So in the place of the old covenant people, there would arise, was it not already beginning to happen? A nation producing its fruit, a church international gathered from both Jews and Gentiles. What is the reaction? Again, as we see in verse 12, they were seeking to seize him. basically seeking to fulfill what Jesus, in parabolic form, had confronted them with, their murderous intention.
They were seeking to seize him. And yet, they feared the people, for they understood that he spoke the parable against them. And so they left him and went away. At this time, at least, they left him and went away. For his time had not quite yet come. It would come, but not quite yet. Again, beloved, the church is built upon Christ and his word. He is the beloved son of the owner of the vineyard. He is the chief cornerstone. By God’s grace, let us as a church build our life and our fellowship upon Jesus Christ and his gospel. What are you building your life upon? Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, We thank you and praise you, O God, for the richness of Holy Scripture. We pray that by your spirit, these truths that we have considered today would find a lodging place in our souls and that indeed they would bear spiritual fruit in our lives.
Lord, as we take these truths to heart, may we hold them near and dear to us, especially as we look for that day and long for that day when Christ our Lord returns again. to take us to be with himself. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen.
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