Mark 12:1-9 Then He
began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a
hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a
tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now
at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive
some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. And they took him and
beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them
another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in
the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he
sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and
killing some. Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent
him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those vinedressers
said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the
inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him and
cast him out of the vineyard. “Therefore what will the owner of
the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the
vineyard to others.
Continuing in this small
Bible Study in the Gospel of Mark, this lesson states that during the first
century AD, the agricultural system of Galilee featured landowners who did not
supervise the care of their vineyards directly. Instead, these landowners hired
tenant farmers to tend their vines on their behalf. This Bible passage records
a parable Jesus told based on the familiar reality of tenant farming. A
“parable is a fable or allegorical relation or representation of something real
in life or nature, from which a moral is drawn for instruction.
Jesus’ parable of the
tenants also borrows imagery from the prophets that is key to understanding His
teaching. Isaiah 5:1–7 describes Israel as the special vineyard God
planted, so we see a correspondence in Mark 12:1–9 between the vineyard and
the old covenant community, and between the owner of the vineyard and the Lord.
In Isaiah 5, the vineyard is judged for failing to yield the proper fruit—a
strong warning to those who claim to be God’s people that they must bear the
fruit of loving service to God and neighbor. But in the parable of the tenants,
the tenants are condemned. Without taking away from the responsibility of
individual vines in God’s vineyard to produce a good yield, the condemnation of
the tenants does point to the great responsibility and accountability laid on
the shoulders of those who care for God’s people. The failure of God’s people
to bear His good fruit is not disconnected from the failure of their leaders to
teach and discipline them properly.
In any case, the tenants in
our Lord’s parable are condemned for mistreating first the vineyard owner’s
servants and then for killing the owner’s own son. Obviously, the servants
represent the old covenant prophets, whom the leaders of the ancient covenant
community frequently rejected (see Amos 3:7; Zechariah 1:4–6). The son of the
vineyard owner is none other than Christ Himself, the “Son of the Most High
God” (Mark 5:7). Essentially, then, the parable of the tenants
rehearses the history of old covenant Israel. God called a people out of
slavery in Egypt, planting them as a vineyard to bear fruit for Him, leaving
them under the care of tenants—kings, priests, and other leaders. Periodically,
the Lord sent prophets to investigate the vineyard, but as a rule the tenants
left in charge rejected the prophets. Rather than destroy the nation, however,
God decided to send one last emissary—His Son. But the Son would be received
with even more hatred than the prophets. The tenants killed Him in an attempt
to steal the owner’s inheritance.
Psalm 83:2 “For
behold, Your enemies make an uproar, And those who hate You have exalted
themselves.”
The parable of the tenants
was a prophecy to its original hearers of the death of Christ, but it also
shows us how much unredeemed people hate God. Let us thank Him for giving us
hearts to love Him.