Questions and Answers

In Mark 12:1-12, Jesus teaches about the Parable of the Tenants.
Please read this passage and think carefully about what Jesus is saying.

This is the story of a man who plants a vineyard and then rents it out to some farmers/tenants.
Later on the man sends his servants one by one to collect the harvest. But they are all beaten or treated shamefully or killed.

What does this story really mean?

The man in the story represents God.  The servants represents His prophets that He sent.  They were abused, shamed and killed by those very people He sent them to.

So what did the man do? Let’s look at the following 3 verses:

Verse 6: He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all saying, “They will respect my son.”

Verse 7: But the tenants said to one another, “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and the inheritance will be ours.”

Verse 8: So they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

(bold emphasis mine)
What do we learn from Jesus’ parable? Three truths.

1. After sending all the prophets, God sent His Son, Jesus, last of all.
2. No other servant or messenger was sent after Him
3. The Son was killed

[You can read the rest of the parable Mark 12:1-12 to see what God does next.]

 

“Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.”

(Hebrews 1:1-3)