Mark 12:1 - Meaning and Application

Christ had already used parables to show how he would build up the gospel church. Now he begins to use parables to show how he would set aside the Jewish church, which could have been joined to the true stock but was built on its ruins. We have the same parable in Matthew 21:33. It teaches several things.

Those who enjoy the privileges of the visible church are like tenants in a vineyard. The vineyard is rich and can be made very fruitful, and the owner rightly expects rent from those who work it. When God showed his word to Jacob and his laws and judgments to Israel (Psalm 147:19), and when he set up his temple, priesthood, and ordinances among them, he let out to them the vineyard he had planted. He hedged it around and built a tower in it (Mark 12:1). Church members are God’s tenants. They have a good landlord and a good arrangement, if they do not ruin it themselves.

Those to whom God lets out his vineyard are also sent his servants to remind them of what he rightly expects from them (Mark 12:2). God was not harsh in his demands, and he was not in a hurry. He did not ask for the rent until the right time, when they could bring it. He did not force them to turn it into money first, but was willing to take it as it was.

It is sad to see how badly God’s faithful ministers have been treated in every age by people who enjoyed the church’s privileges but bore no fruit. The Old Testament prophets were persecuted even by those who belonged to the Old Testament church. They beat them and sent them away empty-handed (Mark 12:3). That was bad. They wounded them and sent them away shamefully treated (Mark 12:4). That was worse. At last, they became so wicked that they killed them (Mark 12:5).

It is no surprise if those who abused the prophets also abused Christ himself. At last God sent his Son, his beloved Son. That made his sending even more kind, as when Jacob sent Joseph to visit his brothers (Genesis 37:14). It should have been expected that they would honor the one whom their Master loved, and respect him all the more because he was the Son and heir (Mark 12:6). They should have said, in effect, “They will respect my son, and out of respect for him, they will pay what they owe.”

Instead, they hated him because he was the Son and heir (Mark 12:7). Christ called them to repentance and reform with more authority than the prophets had done, and that made them even more angry. They planned to kill him so they could keep all church power for themselves, and so all the people’s respect and obedience would go to them alone. In their hearts they said, “The inheritance will be ours. We will rule over everything.” There was an inheritance that could have been theirs if they had honored the Son, a heavenly inheritance. But they despised that and wanted their inheritance to be the wealth, honor, and power of this world. So they took him and killed him. They had not done it yet, but they would soon. Then they threw him out of the vineyard, refusing to accept his gospel after he was gone. It did not fit their plans, so they rejected it with contempt.

For such sinful and shameful conduct, nothing can be expected except a terrible judgment (Mark 12:9). What will the owner of the vineyard do? It is easy to answer, because nothing could be more provoking. He will come and destroy the tenants whom he wanted to save. When they only refused to give fruit, he did not seize their property or drive them out for not paying. But when they killed his servants and his Son, he determined to destroy them. This was fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jewish nation was brought to ruin and scattered.

He will also give the vineyard to others. If he does not receive fruit from one people, he will receive it from another, because God will not lose anything. This was fulfilled when the Gentiles were brought in and the gospel spread widely through the world (Colossians 1:6). If some people from whom we expected good prove bad, that does not mean others will not do better. Christ encouraged himself with this when he said that although Israel would not be gathered to him, but gathered against him, yet he would still be glorious as a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:5, 6).

Their resistance to Christ’s exaltation would not stop it (Mark 12:10, 11). The stone the builders rejected became the head of the corner. He was raised up as the chief stone, and he is also the corner-stone, which gives the building strength and hold. God would make Christ king on his holy hill of Zion, despite their plan to break his rule apart. All the world would see and admit that this was the Lord’s doing, in justice to the Jews and in mercy to the Gentiles. Christ’s exaltation is the Lord’s doing, and it is also his work to exalt Christ in our hearts and set up his throne there. If that happens, it cannot help but be wonderful in our eyes.

What effect did this parable have on the chief priests and scribes, for whom it was meant? They knew he had spoken it against them (Mark 12:12). They could see their own faces in it. One would think it showed their sin as so great, and their ruin as so sure, that it should have frightened them into yielding to Christ and his gospel. It should have led them to repent, or at least to stop their malicious plans against him. But instead, they tried to seize him at once and make him their prisoner, so they could do what he had just said they would do to him (Mark 12:8).

The only thing that held them back was their fear of the people. They did not respect Christ, and they had no true fear of God, but they were afraid that if they openly seized Christ, the crowd would rise up against them and rescue him. So they left him and went away. If they could not harm him, they were determined that he should not help them. For that reason, they stayed away from his powerful preaching, so they would not be converted and healed. If people’s prejudices are not overcome by clear truth, they are only made stronger. If the heart’s sin is not humbled by faithful correction, it only grows angrier. If the gospel is not a fragrance that leads to life, it will be a fragrance that leads to death.