Topic: How Do You Treat Jesus? Mark 12:1-12
In the flow of Mark's gospel, Jesus has made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. There had been several exchanges with the religious leaders challenging the authority of Jesus. During the confrontation with the religious leaders Jesus shares the parable of the vine-growers (Mark 12:1-12).
Now as you look at this story, it’s the story of a murder in the vineyard and basically what Jesus is saying is that if you receive God's blessings but reject God's Son you will receive God's judgment. The story has three distinct points:
The Goodness of God. God is represented by the vineyard owner who builds a hedge around His vineyard and He puts a wine press in that vineyard, making the vineyard a fruitful one.
Not only does He allow these farmers to come in and reap the benefits of His vineyard, but He also provides everything they need in order to bear fruit and to have a good crop. This is a picture of the goodness of God. In this particular story, Jesus related the goodness of God to Israel. Israel is represented by the vineyard; they were to bear fruit unto God. They were to be a witness for God. God has been good to the nation of Israel. He has blessed the nation of Israel. In Psalm 73 we read, “Truly God is good to Israel.” When God called Abraham, He spoke of Israel when He said, “I will make you a great nation.”
The witness of God. In verse 2, when it was time for fruit to come in, God sent servants to the tenants to collect a portion of what He provided. But what did the tenants do? They rejected each one of these servants, one by one. God sent Israel great prophets like Moses and what did they do? They rebelled.
God sent them a great prophet in Jeremiah and what did they do? They cast him into a dungeon where he inherited the nickname, “the weeping prophet" because of the people’s rejection of God and the message He had sent to them. God wanted to witness to Israel of His love, His grace and His power.
God sent Isaiah to plead with them to repent, to turn away from their rebellion and turn to God and what did Israel do? Well, just like these farmers rejected the servants, Israel rejected the prophets.
They stoned them. They killed them. They threw them in prison. They persecuted everyone of the prophets that were sent to them. So Jesus said to them, "You have rejected all the witnesses God has sent."
And then the Bible says here that the noblemen said last of all, "I will send my son. They’ve stoned my servants, they’ve killed my servants, they’ve persecuted my servants, but surely they will reverence my only beloved son. I'll send him."
This is a picture of how God finally sent the Messiah. God sent His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. John 1:11 says, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him”. The Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Mark 12:12, “and they were seeking to seize Him (Jesus)…”
What have you done with the witness of God?
The judgment of God. The problem many people have today is that they want to make and mold God into the kind of God that they imagine. They want heaven but they don’t want hell. They want salvation, but they don’t want judgement. That’s because it’s easy for them to receive the goodness of God but the truth is that there’s also another side to the nature of God.
If you receive God's goodness but reject His witness, you will receive God's judgment. That’s what this verse is telling us. It says that the nobleman will come and he will destroy these wicked husbandmen. He's saying that if you reject God's Son, after everything He’s done for you, one of these days when you're least expecting it, God's going to come and say, “Alright, that’s enough. You have rejected my Son." And that is the greatest sin any person can commit.
You have seen His goodness and have heard His witness. So, will you receive His instructions or reject His instructions? What will you hear Jesus say when you stand before His throne of judgement? “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”, or “Away from me you evildoer for I never knew you!”
Something to think about!
See you Sunday,
Dr. Scott Kallem