We have a saying that if you want to get someone’s attention, hit him in his pocketbook. What it means is that people often put a higher priority on their income and financial wellbeing than anything else. This saying was certainly true with regard to the religious leaders in Jerusalem during Jesus’ ministry. The priests and teachers of the Law had turned God’s Temple in Jerusalem into a place of business. They profited from selling sacrificial animals to those who came to worship and from charging people to change their money into the coins required to pay the Temple tax. The leaders conducted this business in the courtyard intended as the place for non-Jewish people to worship and seek God. In this way the very people who claimed that their lives were dedicated to God perverted God’s Law and destroyed the purpose of the Temple.
Jesus would not tolerate this. He drove the traders and businessmen out of the Temple and proclaimed in the words of the prophet Isaiah that the Temple was to be, “a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:7) It is worth noting that neither the priests, nor the teachers of the Law, nor the businessmen, nor the Temple police were able to stop Jesus from cleansing the Temple. This should have put everyone on notice that Jesus was acting in God’s power. Otherwise, how could just one man, acting alone, accomplish this?
In spite of the evidence, the priests and teachers of the Law demanded to know by what authority Jesus was acting. Jesus responded with a question of His own. He asked whether John’s baptism was from heaven or from men. The leaders realized that if they admitted that John was a prophet, Jesus would ask why they hadn’t believed John’s message. On the other hand, they couldn’t deny that John was a prophet for fear of the people. So, they demonstrated their own hypocrisy by saying they did not know where John received his authority.
Since the leaders would not be honest about John, Jesus refused to answer them about the source of His own authority. In chapter 12, verses 1 through 12 in the Gospel which bears his name, Mark tells us what happened next, “He then began to speak to them in parables: “He 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. When it was time, he sent a servant to the farmer to get from the farmer his share of the fruit of the vineyard. They took him, beat him, and sent him away empty. Again, he sent another servant to them; and they threw stones at him, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. Again he sent another; and they killed him; and many others, beating some, and killing some. Therefore still having one, his beloved son, he sent him last to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those farmers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ They took him, killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the farmers, and will give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes’?” They tried to seize him, but they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spoke the parable against them. They left him, and went away.”
The religious leaders could not have mistaken Jesus’ meaning in this parable because the prophet Isaiah had already used the same metaphor to refer to the Jewish people. After describing the vineyard and how it did not produce the kind of fruit it should have, Isaiah wrote, “The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.” (Isaiah 5:7 NIV)
In light of Isaiah’s words the meaning of Jesus’ parable is obvious. The vineyard is the people of Israel. The owner is God. The wall, watchtower and winepress refer to the protection and blessings which God granted the Jewish people. He gave them everything they needed to prosper and be successful. The tenants of the vineyard are the religious leaders into whose hands God committed His people. According to Isaiah, the fruit God expected to receive from His people was justice and righteousness. He was rewarded instead with bloodshed and cries of distress.
In order to obtain what was due him, the owner sent servants to the tenants. This refers to the many prophets which God sent to Israel. Instead of listening to the prophets and giving God what was due Him, the people and their leaders dishonored, humiliated and insulted them. Many of the prophets they killed.
At last, the owner of the vineyard sent his beloved son, hoping that the tenants would respect him though they had mistreated the servants. There is no doubt that in using the metaphor of the beloved son, Jesus was referring to Himself. In chapter one of this Gospel, Mark already recorded that at Jesus’ baptism, “…a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”” (Mark 1:11 NIV) By killing the son, as the religious leaders were planning to do to Jesus, the tenants of the vineyard brought certain destruction on themselves.
To drive the point home, Jesus quoted from Psalm 118. The very stone which the builders, that is the religious leaders rejected, God would make the cornerstone, that is the most important stone. In other words, by rejecting Jesus, the religious leaders were rejecting the One whom God proclaimed was the most important of all.
The leaders understood what Jesus was saying. Unfortunately, instead of changing their attitude toward Him, they continued to play the part of the dishonest tenants. The only reason they did not arrest Jesus, then and there, was because they were afraid of the crowd. In just a few days, however, they would succeed in killing Jesus. Not long afterwards a man named Stephen would tell these men, “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—”(Acts 7:51-52 NIV)
Like the tenants in the parable, by killing the son, these men brought upon themselves the destruction Jesus predicted. Within 40 years Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed. What about us? Will we listen to the Son, or will we be like the dishonest tenants who killed Him?