The Terrible Tennant Farmers
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This morning we looked at the “Authority of Jesus”, even though the religious leaders would not submit to it. As I closed the message I shared with you that the patience of God has it’s limits, and that time has come for the religious leaders. Tonight we are going to look at a parable Jesus gives to the religious leaders about their time of grace from God that has now come to an end! We know this as the Parable of the Vineyard Owner, but I want to focus on “Terrible Tennant Farmers.”
Text: Mark 12:1-12
1 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.
2 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.
3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
4 Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.
5 And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.
6 Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
7 But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
8 So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.
9 “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.
10 Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
11 This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.
1. The Cast of Characters; 1-2
1. The Cast of Characters; 1-2
In this parable Jesus lists all the characters involved. The man who plants the vineyard is God the Father. The vineyard is Israel. The tenant farmers are the religious leaders of Israel. The servants are the faithful prophets. The beloved Son is Jesus.
In that day tenant farming was very common. Wealthy landlords owned large land estates which they leased to tenant farmers. The tenants agreed to cultivate the land and care for the vineyards when the landlords were away. A contract between them designated that a portion of the crop was to be paid as rent. At harvesttime the owners sent servants to collect the rent.
This landlord went to great extreme to make sure that not only was His investment in the vineyard protected, but He provided the tenant farmers with all they needed to make that vineyard fruitful and prosperous.
He planted a vineyard with choice vines. He removed the stones from the area, no doubt using them to build a wall around it, dug a vat under the wine press to collect the juice from the crushed grapes, and built a tower to serve as a lookout post, offer shelter for the workers, and provide storage for seed and tools.
God did all this with Israel as He took them from Egypt and planted them in Canaan!
1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill.
2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes.
3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes?
The grace of God goes above and beyond all that anyone ever deserves!
We are not Israel who was in bondage in Egypt, but we were in bondage to sin! God chose Israel as a choice vine, but He purchased us by the blood of His Son to be grafted into the vine.
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.”
2. The Corruption of the Tenant Farmers; 2-8
2. The Corruption of the Tenant Farmers; 2-8
These tenant farmers renigged on their agreement with the landlord. They got greedy and wanted the vineyard and the profits from it all for themselves. So they eliminated anyone who would threaten that, even the landlords only son.
Through out the history of Israel, they were known for persecuting and killing their own prophets that God sent to them to warn them of their evil ways and to receive fruit from their covenant with God.
Jezebel killed the prophets of God, Elijah fled for his life, Elisha was threatened because the king of Israel thought he caused the famine, Micaiah was thrown in prison by Ahab, Hanani was imprisoned for criticizing Asa for seeking help from Syria instead of God, Zechariah confronted the people of Judah for disregarding God’s Word and was executed by Joash, Uriah confronted Jehoiakim about his evil ways and was killed, Zedekiah thought Jeremiah was a traitor for prophesying Jerusalem’s fall and was thrown into prison/muddy cistern and John the Baptist confronted Herod in his adultery and he was beheaded.
Barton, B. B. (1994). Mark (p. 335). Tyndale House Publishers.
The tenant farmers represent the religious leaders of Israel [Sanhedrin, Pharisees, Sadducees, priests and scribes]. Religion had become a position of power and prestige and a very lucrative business. But Jesus was creating a problem with their profits and they weren’t going to go down without a fight.
[6-8] The land owner [God], continues to extend grace to the corrupt tenant farmers by sending “His only Son,” even after they had hurt or killed the previous servants He sent to collect His profits.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
But the tenant farmers [religious leaders] felt that if they kill the heir the vineyard would finally be theirs and they could live happily ever after on their own terms. The downward path of sin will destroy the soul!
1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
The religious leaders had been entrusted with the spiritual wellbeing of the nation of Israel. But instead of walking in the wisdom of God, they begin walking in the council of the ungodly. The next thing that happens is you stop and start standing in the path of sinners. And finally you will sit in the seat of the scornful, the prideful and foolish!
[8] That man has gone so far in sin and seared his heart to not hear God, that he would put God’s Son to death without remorse or repentance.
Jesus here predicts His own death at the hands of the Terrible Tenant Farmers! He lets them know without question that they would be the ones who kill the SON of GOD!
5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”
6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.”
25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”
23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;
So many today have deliberately crucified Christ to become the master of their own soul. That is a terrible tragedy!
3. Consequences of the Tenant Farmers; 9-12
3. Consequences of the Tenant Farmers; 9-12
There are consequences to the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The landlord in that day would destroy the tenant farmers. He would have them thrown in jail, stand trial and pay the penalty of death for their actions according to the Law.
5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.
Nothing has changed even under grace apart from the Law. In Matthew 23, Jesus flogs the religious leaders verbally for the failure of the nation of Israel spiritually [woe’s]. Then Jesus says this to them in judgment.
34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Today that same judgment falls on all who reject Jesus.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
[10-11] But the plan of the religious leaders was foiled by the plan of God. Even though they crucified Christ and thought they had won, the resurrection of Christ changed it all!
The chief cornerstone is the firm foundation of a building that will make that building solid and able to withstand any storms. Even though God has blinded the eyes of Israel, He has purchased by the blood of His Son, a new building, built upon that chief cornerstone, to represent Him in the world, the Church, the Body of Christ!
The marvelous thing in our eyes is the Resurrection of Christ! Though the religious leaders rejected Jesus and tried to get rid of their problem by putting Him to death, God ignored them and set Jesus up as the cornerstone of His church! God gets the glory through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the witness of His Son in the church!
The religious leaders were mad because they knew who Jesus was, where His authority came from [God], and they knew they had been exposed and couldn’t do anything about it.
Close;
The church is now the tenant farmers of God’s vineyard. God has extended His grace to us through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. God’s grace abounds towards us, always having sufficiency in all things for an abundance for every good work.
The question is, “When Christ returns, will he find us faithful bearing fruit for the Owner of the Vineyard, or will we be no better than the Terrible Tenant Farmers of religious Israel?