Context No. 3452 of 4322 · Mark

Mark 12:1-11: in context

1He began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a pit for the wine press, built a tower, rented it out to a farmer, and went into another country. 2When it was time, he sent a servant to the farmer to get from the farmer his share of the fruit of the vineyard. 3They took him, beat him, and sent him away empty. 4Again, he sent another servant to them; and they threw stones at him, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. 5Again he sent another, and they killed him, and many others, beating some, and killing some. 6Therefore still having one, his beloved son, he sent him last to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7But those farmers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8They took him, killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. 9What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the farmers, and will give the vineyard to others. 10Haven’t you even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner. 11This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes’?”

Jesus tells a pointed parable: a man plants a vineyard and rents it to tenants, but when he sends servants to collect his share of the fruit, they beat and kill them, one after another. Finally he sends his beloved son, thinking, they will respect my son. But the tenants kill him too, hoping to seize the inheritance for themselves.

It is a devastating picture of God's long patience and the persistent rejection of his messengers, the prophets sent again and again, and at last his own Son. The parable is really the story of salvation history, told with unflinching honesty about human rebellion and about the astonishing patience of a God who kept sending servant after servant, and finally his Son, into hands he knew would be hostile. And yet it does not end in defeat but in reversal: the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The rejected Son becomes the foundation of everything. What people threw away, God made the head of the corner.

Do I receive God's Son whom the world rejected, building my life on the very stone the builders threw away, now the cornerstone?

Sources

Mark 12:6: "Therefore still having one, his beloved son, he sent him last to them, saying, They will respect my son."
Mark 12:7: "But those farmers said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours."
Mark 12:10: "The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner."