Mark 12:1–12 (ESV)
The Parable of the Tenants
12 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. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And
they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And
he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect
my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And
they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have
you not read this Scripture:
“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11 this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 And they were seeking to arrest him but feared
the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.
Jesus tells how God deals patiently with people. But eventually, God’s
patience runs out, and every person must face judgment. God planned the death of His Son for the sins of all people. Unlike the story here, His beloved Son rose from the dead on the third day, taking up again the life He had laid down for us, to give us the
Kingdom as a gift.
I pray: “I trust in Him with all my heart; Now all my sorrow ceases. His words abiding peace impart; His blood from guilt releases.” Amen.
Edward A. Engelbrecht, The Lutheran Study Bible (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 1683.