B-Side - Mark 12:1-12

Parables are to give an image of what Jesus is talking about. However, he normally uses them not to make his message easier to understand, but to communicate judgment. Unbelievers remain in darkness; those hearing and not understanding are about to be judged.

The Sanhedrin understood what Jesus meant here; he wanted them to understand judgment was coming!

This parable is the conclusion of Mark 11, and the introduction to chapter 12 (the disputations). 

v1... fences around vineyards are to keep animals away, a pit holds the winepress, and a tower is to keep a lookout for threats. The owner has set up his tenants to succeed! 

v2... the vineyard should be producing good fruit at some point, so the owner sent to check on progress. Vineyards are a picture of the Garden.

v3... Servant after servant is beaten, some killed.

v6... The final servant, the son, is killed. 

Isaiah 5... similarly shows a beloved son and a vineyard. Also found in the Song of Solomon! Where the woman is waiting for her beloved to return. In a sense, here in Mark we have the Beloved returning to the garden. But Israel ahs rejected their beloved.

At the garden tomb, Mary Magdalene is looking for the Lord... she finds her beloved! She leaps and clings to him. In Revelation 10, Jesus says he will return among the lampstands, Menorahs, an image of trees, a garden or vineyard. But Jesus will be rejected and killed.

v7... the tenants want to kill the heir so they can have his inheritance. Similar to Joseph's brothers scheming against Joseph. Genesis 37:20... they wanted to kill him. The Sanhedrin are acting like these evil brothers! And they're delusional if they think the owner would hand the vineyard over to them after killing his son.

The temple didn't just exist for Israel, but the Sanhedrin want it all for themselves.

v8... they killed him. Stewardship is not ownership. On Sunday when we gather, it's as if we're assembling God's vineyard each week. But we're only stewards! Every day is a gift. We're just tenants of the vineyard, not owners! Any power we have is gifted to us by the real authority.

How are we stewarding the parts of our life God has given us dominion over?

What will the owner to do these evil tenants? The Sanhedrin answer (in Matthew) that the owner will kill the evil tenants! After he quotes Psalm 118, they realize the parable was told against them!

2 Sam 12... Nathan gives David a parable after David had killed Uriah, and like the Sanhedrin in Mark, David agrees the deeds of the parable's antagonist are worthy of death... then Nathan reveals it's about David. The same here happens between Jesus and the Sanhedrin! But unlike David, the Sanhedrin didn't repent.

Aramaic was the common language of the day. The word "ben" meant son, and "eben" meant "stone"... so the ben thrown out of the vineyard is the eben that becomes the cornerstone. Jesus is the rock that the church is built on!

v11... this is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous; Mark quotes more of Psalm 118 than the others here. Jesus declaresa himself the Lord!

v12... The Sanhedrin figured it out, and left. If you oppose the Christ, you will be crushed. But for the rest of this chapter, they will argue with him... though they fear the people. If only they truly feared God more!