Tenants of God’s Vineyard

 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.