The Truth Network Podcast is brought to you by Zola Levitt Ministries. Listen listening as Jesus tells a captivating story. It's a parable about a landlord who mistreated his tenants.
And midway through the story you realize the accusation is actually directed at you. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg begins Volume 6 in his verse-by-verse study through the Gospel of Mark. He's titled today's message This Is About Us. I invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of Mark and to chapter 12. Well, one phrase at the end of the reading that we had—that is, in verse 12—provides, I think, for us, the key both to understanding and applying this parable.
If it were not for this final phrase, we wouldn't be able to deal as directly and as successfully with it. And the phrase to which I'm referring, you will find there, For they perceived that he had told the parable against them. Against them. Who is the them? It is the they of the ruling council of the Jews. The they who have murder in mind, as we noted in verse 18 of chapter 11, And the chief priests and the scribes heard, and were seeking a way to destroy him. For they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.
Jesus, you see, had come into Jerusalem with great aplomb. Remember, we saw how in his procession towards Jerusalem there was a tremendous acclamation on the part of many of the people. This had disturbed the ruling authorities. They didn't like this. They were disappointed that they themselves were not the beneficiaries of such acclamation. And Jesus had followed his arrival by going into the temple and cleansing it and casting the people out. He had subsequently cursed a fig tree, and as a result of this, the rulers of the Jews decided that it was more than time for them to go to him and to challenge him in relationship to his authority. It wasn't simply a sort of intellectual quest on their part. They had already decided that they wanted nothing to do with him. They were the ones who had the right credentials.
They were the ones with the proper background. And this individual, this Galilean carpenter, really had nothing of worth to say for himself. But as we saw at the end of chapter 11, their challenge to the authority of Jesus was pretty hopeless, and it had collapsed like a bad deck chair. And they were left, as we saw at the end of chapter 11, just sort of shamefacedly looking at one another and realizing what a dreadful mess they had made of things. Then Mark tells us that Jesus immediately went on the offensive. They had come to challenge him, and as he has them in that posture, he then proceeds to tell them a story, to tell them a parable. He is telling this story because he recognizes the importance of people coming to understand it. So what I'd like to do in the time that we have is to look, first of all, at the parable, consider then the punchline, and then make a note of what I'm going to refer to as the postscript.
This may seem strange to us on first reading, because it seems so far removed from the environment in which we live our lives—a technical world that is framed by everything, really, that is other than a kind of agrarian culture. But for the people of the time, they were very familiar with this kind of scenario. Historians tell us that large tracts of land, both in Judea and in Galilee, were owned by foreigners, so that there were these foreign landowners, absentee landowners, who would lease out their property—in this instance, in this parable, they would lease out their vineyard to tenants, who then agreed to work it in the absence of the owner. The owner then had a legitimate right to payment, and often the payment was given to the owner in the form of the produce of the property—not in its totality, for the tenants had to make something as well, but certainly a significant amount of it. In verse 2, when you read the phrase, When the season came, he sent a servant, that is attributable to what I'm saying—that the time came when the product would be available. And so, in that season of time, the owner sends a servant to have for him what is required by the contract.
But instead of that taking place, these tenant farmers resist the claim of the owner, and they do so by insulting the servant that he sends and assaulting the servant that he sends. Now, in terms of background to the parable, there is not simply the understanding societally, if you like, but there is also the understanding which lies behind it in terms of the Scriptures. And it is for this reason, primarily, that the religious leaders perceive that the parable is about them.
It is because of this that they're able to say, you know, he's telling this against us. Now, without belaboring the point, let me turn you to Isaiah chapter 5. And in Isaiah 5 we discover that the prophet of God is addressing the people of God as the vineyard of God. And you have it just in a phrase in verse 7, if you turn to it, For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel.
So the picture becomes clear. The vineyard is Israel, the owner is God, the servants are the prophets, and the Son is Jesus. You see, it is because these fellows know their Bible, it is because they understand the Scriptures, that they are able to realize very quickly that what Jesus is doing here is not simply telling a story out of the blue, but he is actually employing a parable in order to confront them directly with what it is they're doing. And so, in telling this story with them present, he is actually looking into the faces of the people he is describing, so that what is obvious to us as the reader now is becoming apparent to them in the immediacy of the telling of the story. Now what he's doing here is he's saying to these fellows, You know the history of Israel, and you know that what has happened—that God has sent again and again his prophets to his people, and they have revolted against him. And the people of God had done these things.
The drama in this is unmistakable. Here is the place, here is the focus of the purposes and power of God in the city of Jerusalem. Here is the place to which the tribes go up. Here is where they have all gone in the Psalms of Ascend, as they've made their way up to Jerusalem. And now Jesus the Son looks over Jerusalem. He says, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. Well, you will notice the phrase that is used, He still had one other, a beloved Son.
This phrase wouldn't be missed on these people either. Remember in his baptism, the voice of the Father had come from heaven? This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And in the parable, the unthinkable is done, that the owner says, Let me send my beloved to him. And in sending the beloved, they kill him. Well, I can't imagine just how uncomfortable it was.
If ever there was a case of, If the cap fits, wear it. This is it. They all must have stood there, looking at one another, unable to talk to one another, except by means of their eyes—furtive glances, quizzical expressions—and by means of their eyes identifying for each other the fact, He's on to us. He knows exactly what we plan to do. This parable is about us. I would suggest to you that that's the key to understanding it.
If we misplace that key, then we very quickly can go wrong. But what, then, is the punchline in this? Well, the punchline is essentially in the second half of verse 9. Jesus says, What will the owner of the vineyard do? So let me tell you what he will do. He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Now, which do you think would be the most staggering aspect of this execution of judgment for these individuals?
I don't think that it would be the notion of capital punishment. They had a significant enough sense of justice. They knew the Ten Commandments. If these characters have been killing people, then there is no doubt about the fact that the owner then has every legitimate right to bring the full weight of the law down upon them. He will then come and destroy these tenants—but here's the real rope—and give the vineyard to others.
Now, that they couldn't handle. Because they had such an understanding of God's purposes for Israel, such an understanding of their place in the process of things. Are we to assume—they must have been saying in their minds—are we to assume that this parable carries all the way through in its application to us, that the catastrophic response of the owner in this parable is representative of what is going to happen to us as a nation? Are we gonna put two and two together and begin to understand that he is actually going to—he will destroy this temple, and in three days it will be raised, and they're beginning to put all these pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together, and they don't like it? And in Matthew's account, it reads as follows. Therefore, I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
There's the rub. This is ours. It can't be taken from us. Well, Jesus says, it's going to be taken from you. And they took him and threw him out—I'm reading Matthew now, just to make sure it's there for myself—and they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. And when therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? And in Matthew, the crowd come out with it. It's a rhetorical question on the part of Jesus. He has the answer.
It's almost as if it becomes antiphonal. Jesus says it, and they say it, or they join in unison with one another. They said to him—this is the response of the crowd—he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruit in their season. This is the drama.
And this they couldn't stand. It will be taken from them and given to others. What does this mean? Well, it means that God now will bring to bear upon the unfolding story of redemption the creation of a new Israel that will comprise both those from a Jewish background who believe in Jesus as Messiah and those from a Gentile background who believe in Jesus as Messiah. In other words, the people of God that are now going to unfold will be those that Peter references—and you can turn to this to see it for yourself, because interestingly, he quotes from the same Old Testament story in 1 Peter chapter 2.
Here you go. Verse 10. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.
Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So the others to whom he's going to give his vineyard consists, then, of the church—of all who have repented and believe the good news. And if you want to really think that through, go home and read Romans 9, 10, and 11, and ponder all that Paul has to say there about the fact that the rejection of the Jew has meant salvation for the Gentile, the Gentile has been grafted in, and the day will come when there will be a great resurgence of Jewish people who then are embraced within the unfolding drama of God's purposes.
It is a wonderful story. So it's not so much that he's saying, I've rejected the Jews and I've gone with the Gentile thing. What he's saying is, I've rejected those who stumble over my son. Those who come to trust in him, from every background, from every nation, tribe, language, and tongue, are the others to whom I am giving this vineyard.
Do you get that? And let me just say this, in case I don't have a chance to. The prophets had gone to the people of God again and again and again.
Instead of them responding, in large measure, they beat them, treated them shamefully, stoned them, and killed them. Jesus has now come as the Son to his people. What does John tell us in the prologue? He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. But to as many as received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the power to become the children of God.
Do you get this? When the pursuit of God in the pleadings and the promptings of his Spirit are not responded to in faith, they put the individual who rejects the pleadings and the promptings in a far more different and dangerous position. That is why the pleadings and the promptings and the wooings and the winnings and the sending of his messengers, the messengers that have come to you, your mother when you were a child at her knee, that uncle who gave you that Bible on your graduation, that girl in the office who said to you, Have you ever really thought about who Jesus is? And these wooings and these pleadings and these promptings have come again and again to you. Listen, my dear friend, if they do not soften your heart and bring you to faith, they will harden your heart. And these characters were irritated and hardened. They were not impressed and converted. They wanted just to be told, You're in an exclusive club.
You're okay, because you've come from the right background, and so on. Jesus says, No, here's the story. The owner sent his son. They killed him too.
And here's what's going to happen. Well, the postscript is there, isn't it, in the quote from Psalm 118? Jesus has begun his parable by making sure that it is grounded in the Bible.
Every good preacher should. Hence Isaiah 5. And now he directs his listeners, as he comes to a conclusion, once again to the Bible.
And there you have the quote, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. And he says to them, Have you not read this Scripture? Of course they've read this Scripture!
There might be some gentle irony in it, insofar as it is from this very Scripture that the people were singing and chanting when Jesus had made his way into Jerusalem. So he's able to say, I know you've heard it recently, but I wonder if you read it recently. And when you read it, did you get it? See what he's saying? You rejected Jesus?
That stone was absolutely crucial in the construction of the temple. And Jesus, whom you despise and reject, is actually the one in whom everything holds together. And then he quotes the balance of it. He says, And this was the LORD's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes. We've been reading Mark's Gospel, haven't we? And when we think about the LORD's doing, think about all the things that we've learned of God doing in and through Jesus.
They're marvelous. Think about what we've learned about the values of the kingdom, turning human evaluation upside down, setting materialism in its place. What would it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lost his own soul? The amazement at the inscrutable ways of God? And not least of all, in the fact that he hasn't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. What makes it so chilling, I think, to me is the fact that these religious leaders, with all of their knowledge of the Bible— the Old Testament Scriptures—they find themselves within touching distance of God's final messenger. But you will notice in verse 12 that they go on their cowardly way, blinded by their animosity to the truth. Jesus is going to die for his conviction. These characters are unprepared to die for their conviction.
They're cowards. In the parable, the tenants killed the son because they recognized him—not because they failed to. And I find, in talking with people, that people reject the claims of Christ not because they misunderstand them but because they understand them too well. Now, you mean to tell me—that's what they always say—you mean to tell me that Jesus Christ is the only Savior? Yes.
Because he is the only one qualified to save. Do you know of anyone else who died for sins and was raised for your justification? No. Do you mean to tell me that Jesus is the Judge of all the earth and he will do right?
Yes. That he has set a day when he will judge the world, that day is fixed, that day will be a fair day, and that day will be a final day. People say, Well, I'm sorry, but I just flat-out cannot accept that at all. Do you mean to tell me that I have to give up myself and my life in order to become his disciple?
If anyone wants to be my disciple, let him take up his cross, die to himself every day, and follow me. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that's just far too much for anybody to ask. And so the Son is rejected, not because the claims are misunderstood but because the claims are so clearly understood. How about you?
How about you? That had to be a convicting moment for the ruling counsel of the Jews, and the implication of Jesus' story applies to us as well. You're listening to Truth for Life. Today's message from Alistair Begg is titled, This is About Us. Earlier we heard Alistair say that Jesus told parables not to confuse his listeners but to clarify his point. As we continue our study in Mark's Gospel, we'll see this truth repeat itself over and over again. This is consistent with our mission at Truth for Life, which is to teach the Bible with clarity in hopes that unbelievers will be converted, believers will be established, and local churches will be strengthened. We're able to accomplish this mission thanks to Truth Partners who give generously each month and thanks to one-time donations that come from listeners like you who value the clear Bible teaching they hear every day on Truth for Life. Today, if you're able to make a donation, we'd love to say thanks by offering a fascinating documentary about the Puritans.
The Apostle Paul taught that we're to do everything we do to the glory of God, and perhaps no group of Christians took this command more seriously than the Puritans. Their story of devout commitment to God and the contributions they made are beautifully portrayed in this impressive documentary. Ask for the film called Puritan, All of Life to the Glory of God. It comes on two DVDs. One has the full-length documentary. The other contains special features, including helpful commentary from Sinclair Ferguson, and there's a link in the DVD kit to stream the documentary if you prefer. To give a donation and request the documentary, call 888-588-7884 or go to truthforlife.org.
Are believers required to pay taxes? Tomorrow, Alistair Begg describes a moment when the Pharisees cornered Jesus with this tricky question. I hope you can join us tomorrow. I'm Bob Lapine. This daily program features the Bible teaching of Alistair Begg, and it's furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
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