1 Samuel 17-18, Psalm 102, Mark 12:1-12, 2 Corinthians 7

Mark 12:1-12:

And people think parables are all nice and sweet, sugary and gentle! This parable would have certainly rocked their world. The image of a “vineyard” would have been familiar to Jesus’ hearers. Essentially, it represented God’s people as God’s “vineyard.” Jesus is saying that God has sent the prophets over and again to call God’s people back to repentance. Over and again God’s people have rejected God’s Word. Finally, God sends his Son—that is, Jesus—and in the final act of rebellion, God’s people kill God’s Son.

Jesus asks the inevitable question. What will the owner of the vineyard do when he discovers that his tenants have killed his own son? The answer is that there will be judgment and punishment (v. 9) and God will give the vineyard to others. Paul teaches the same in Romans 9-11, where he shows that God’s people having rejected God’s Son have been rejected. And in fulfillment of God’s long-ago promise to Abraham, the gospel of God will now go to all nations. God’s people will be grafted back into the vine, if they come to believe in God’s Son, that is, in Jesus.

What is the relevance of this story/parable for us today? The answer is that we too should be careful, and we should also be grateful.

We should be careful because Jesus is our last chance. If we reject Jesus, there is no other hope for our salvation. None. There is no other prophet to come, no other avenue by which we may walk down the road of salvation. Only in Christ. In Christ alone our hope is found.

We should be grateful because there IS a way to be saved—and if we have Christ, and have accepted him, how “marvelous” (v. 11) this is in our eyes.