In Mark 12, Jesus tells us the parable of the tenants. As He marches to the cross, He turns His attention to the religious leaders whom God had entrusted to lead His people. Yet the religious leaders were deaf and blind, though they had eyes and ears. And while they were incensed by the actions of these evil tenants, they missed the point that they were the tenants in the parable Jesus was speaking.
“And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country.” (Mark 12:1 ESV).
The man who planted the vineyard took great care to ensure it had everything needed to be a fruitful vineyard. He protected it with a hedge, dug the pit for the winepress, and built a tower. The man had done everything needed for the vineyard to produce good fruits. And that is exactly what the man expected from the vineyard.
Now, let’s pause and jump into Isaiah 5. Isaiah also tells a parable of a vineyard. His parable focuses on the unfruitfulness of the vineyard, while Jesus focuses on another aspect that we will dive into in a few moments. But notice how Isaiah starts the parable:
“Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” (Isaiah 5:1-2 ESV).
It doesn’t take much to see that Jesus is purposefully harkening back to Isaiah’s parable. In both parables, the man did everything needed to ensure the vineyard was able to bear good fruit. He cleared it, dug a pit for a winepress, and built a tower and hedge for protection. But in Isaiah’s parable, the vineyard produced bad fruit, or wild grapes. Isaiah goes on to tell us that the vineyard is the Jewish people.
“For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!” (Isaiah 5:7 ESV).
Because they did not bear good fruit, God was going to bring judgment upon them. It was only after God had done everything possible for them that this judgment would come. Notice,
“What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?” (Isaiah 5:4 ESV).
In the remaining chapter, God talks about the judgment He will bring upon the nation for their evil. Isaiah tells the people that God will bring in the Babylonians to take them away as the arm of His punishment upon His people. And that is precisely what happened.
Back in Mark, Jesus tells the same parable but shifts the focus. It is not on the wild grapes the vineyard produces but on the tenants who were responsible for tending the vineyard while the man was gone.
“When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.” (Mark 12:2 ESV).
When the time came, the man who had gone away on a long trip sent servants to the tenants to get some of the fruit the vineyard produced. This should not have come as a shock to the tenants. This is precisely why they were where they were. It was their job to tend the vineyard so that it produced fruit for the owner. But the tenants had other plans.
“And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.
And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed.” (Mark 12:3-5 ESV).
Over and over, the man sent servants to the tenants to harvest what was due him. Yet over and over, the tenants beat, mistreated, and even killed the servants sent to them. But, there was one more person the man could still send. One more person whom the tenants would certainly respect.
“He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'
And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.” (Mark 12:6-8 ESV).
These evil tenants did the unthinkable. They killed the very son who was sent to them. Mark tells us that Jesus asked the question, “What will the owner of the vineyard do?” In Mark’s retelling, Jesus goes right into the answer. But Matthew gives us insights into how the religious leaders felt about the despicable actions of the tenants.
“They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” (Matthew 21:41 ESV).
And by their own words, they condemned themselves. While Isaiah focused on the unfruitful vineyard, Jesus was foretelling the judgment that was about to come upon them, and they intuitively knew that the judgment was just.
The man who planted the vineyard was God, and the tenants were the religious leaders whom He put in charge of cultivating it while He was on a long journey. I believe this journey was the time from Moses to John the Baptist. God had given the vineyard everything it needed to be fruitful, and when the time came for the vineyard to yield good fruit, He sent servants to the tenants.
Yet the tenants beat and killed the prophets sent to them one after another until God sent His beloved Son. When Jesus told this parable, He was prophesying what the Jewish leaders in His day would do. They would kill the Son.
Do you remember how Matthew tells us the leaders responded to this part of the parable? In an indignant rage, they said, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
In less than forty years after these tenants put Jesus, the Son of God, to death on the cross, this is exactly what “The Man” did. He brought judgment upon them by destroying the temple in 70 A.D. along with the entire priesthood. No more priests, Pharisees, Sadducees, or Temple. It was all utterly wiped away. The Apostles and inspired New Testament writers became the new tenants to whom God would turn over the stewardship of His vineyard, and He would graft branches of Gentiles into this vineyard.
Mark tells us how Jesus answers this question of “What will the owner of the vineyard do?” In essence, He told the religious leaders that they were correct:
“What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.” (Mark 12:9 ESV).
And having eyes they could not see, and ears they could not hear… They had no idea that they were the wicked tenants upon whom judgment was about to be rendered. What does this mean to you and me?
God has sent you and me prophets and servants to teach us all that we need to know for salvation. But more importantly, He has sent you and me His Son. What will we do with Him? Will we reject Him and try to take the inheritance ourselves or will we bend the knee to the beloved Son and give to Him the fruits that the Father prepared us to produce?
Each one of us will make that choice. We will either embrace the Son, or we will try to kill the Son. There is no in-between. If we do not embrace Him, then we are wretches who will be put to a miserable death. Can we see that, or do we have eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear? May we all bend the knee to the beloved Son.
I'm in Ephesians in my daily Bible reading. I love these verses at the beginning of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight” (Ephesians 1:7-8 ESV).
Redemption.
Forgiveness.
Grace.
All this, He lavishes upon us. God is not stingy in His blessings. We are the object of His affection, demonstrating His love for us.
What a wonderful God we serve, that even though we were sinners, He still lavishes His rich grace upon us, full of forgiveness and redemption.
I am in Philippians in my daily Bible reading. Paul is in prison but looks on the bright side. Rather than despair, he rejoices that prison has opened an avenue to preach Jesus.
Early on, he tells a church who loves him and hurts for him this:
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21 ESV).
What a statement of belief. This is what I am shooting to attain. I want to get to the place where I can say, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” and mean it.
This is much easier to say for the benefit of others than to feel it in our hearts. But when we can say this in our hearts, when no one but God is listening, then we will find the peace that Paul tells the Philippians about.
The Lord has invited us to have a seat at His table. Do we understand what a tremendously rich blessing that is?
Will we accept His invitation, or will we make excuses for why we will be elsewhere?
How can we look Him in the eyes on the Day of Judgment if we spurn His invitation of grace?
“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.'
And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.'
And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'“ (Luke 14:18-20 ESV).
I am in Hebrews in my daily Bible reading. Chapter 11 is often called the great chapter of faith because it shows what people did because of their faith. But this is more than people showing their faith by works.
This chapter shows what people did because their future was a reality to them. This is where their faith came in. Jospeph instructed that his bones be carried out of Egypt because the exodus was a reality to him. He knew, because of God's promises, that the people of God would not stay in Egypt.
Abraham left his home because He knew God would give him a new home. Rahab protected the spies because she knew the Israelites would conquer the land. Noah built the ark because he knew the rain was coming.
The faith of our forefathers was more than a belief in God. It was an expectation written in stone because God had said what would happen. So, what is the Hebrews writer trying to teach us by pointing to these great men and women of faith?
He teaches that our actions should be motivated by more than a belief. It should be motivated by an expectation set in stone because God's word is absolute and sure. We act in the expectation of the future being just as God says it will be.
We serve because we know that the Father seated His Son on a throne at His right hand. We continue serving in allegiance because we know that Jesus will return to save those who are His own. That belief is an expectation as real as anything in our lives.
We do everything we do just like the great men of faith. The future promises of God are as sure as the realities we see every day. Just as the Hebrews writer stated,
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV).
Our hope is not based on wishful thinking but on assurances. Though we do not see the fulfillment of the promises by which we live, we do so with a conviction that the unseen things which we believe are just as real as the things which we do see. They are evidenced by the fact that God cannot lie, and He leaves us a perfect history of Him fulfilling every one of His promises.
Hebrews 11 is more than a chapter of people engaging in wishful thinking. It is a chapter of people who lived as though the reality of God's promises were as good as fulfilled.
If we lived that way, how would our lives be different? We would endure any hardship because we know the reality is that a rest and reward are just around the corner. We would give up anything this world offers because we know with all certainty that a far greater reward is ours in due time.
Hebrews 11 teaches us that we live as though we already received the promises and then wait until those promises catch up in their fulfillment. This is what faith is truly about.
I am in the book of Revelation in my daily Bible reading. It bookends the Holy Word of God that begins in Genesis.
In Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth. In Revelation, God creates a new heaven and a new earth.
In Genesis, Paradise is lost. In Revelation, Paradise is regained.
In Genesis, evil enters God's creation. In Revelation, evil is destroyed once and for all.
In Genesis, man's relationship with God is broken. In Revelation, the spotless Lamb has restored man's relationship with God.
In Genesis, man loses access to the Tree of Life. In Revelation, man is given access to the Tree of Life and the waters of the River of Life.
In Genesis, death enters creation. In Revelation, death is destroyed forever.
In Genesis, the Redeemer is promised. In Revelation, the Redeemer reigns in victory forever.
In Genesis, God makes the most amazing promise ever made. In Revelation, God fulfills His promise in a way that leaves creation in awe.
In Genesis, holiness and sin separate God and man. In Revelation, forgiveness and grace restores and renews man's relationship with God.
In Genesis, we see life without God. In Revelation, we see life with God.
In Genesis, God begins everything. In Revelation, God completes everything.
In Genesis, man sees his need for God. In Revelation, man sees God providing man's needs for an eternity.
In Genesis, it begins. In Revelation, it is finished.
Praise be to our Creator and God, who doesn't leave man lost in Genesis but sheds His grace upon us by seeing us through His mighty Revelation.
Christians are not hedging their bets with their faith.
Faith is absolute assurance because God is the author of the promises.