He Sent His Son and We Killed Him
Rev. Thomas West
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He Sent His Son and We Killed Him
Rev. Thomas (TA) West, Sr
February 7, 2021
Mark 12:1–12
Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.
“Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read this Scripture:
‘The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.
Introduction
The title for today’s message is “He Sent His Son and We Killed Him”
Our Scripture is taken from the Book of Mark, chapter 12, verses 1 thru 12.
1 Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.
2 Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers.
3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
4 Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.
5 And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.
6 Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
7 But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
8 So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.
9 “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.
10 Have you not even read this Scripture:
The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
11 This was the LORD’s doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away. Mark 12:1-12
The Text
In the Holy Scriptures there are a number of biblical truths that we need to keep together so that we do not run the risk of distorting them, of understanding them out of balance.
This is especially important when it comes to two central moments in the life of Jesus Christ: His incarnation and His crucifixion. Christmas must always be celebrated in light of Easter. The cradle in a stable providing a resting place for a little baby must always be viewed in tandem with a bloody man hanging on a cross at Calvary.
Why did Jesus use this setting for this parable? You may be asking, what is a parable? Well, a parable is, literally, something “cast alongside” something else. Jesus’ parables were stories that were “cast alongside” a truth in order to illustrate that truth.
His parables were teaching aids and can be thought of as extended analogies or inspired comparisons. Simple put it is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.
As the parable begins it say that Jesus began to talk to them in parables. So, the quest begs to be asked WHO was he taking to? Let’s look back at Mark 11:27 the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him. So, He being Jesus was talking to those with a little bit of sup-posit knowledge.
In our text, Jesus tells a story of which the meaning can scarcely be doubted if we dig deeper into what Jesus is telling us: God sent His Son and we killed Him. There was a murder in the vineyard and we know who committed the crime.
The story that Jesus tells is really an allegorical parable, and the identity of the central characters is not in question. It is drawn from a very familiar Old Testament passage: Isaiah 5:1–7.
Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard
On a very fruitful hill.
He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also made a winepress in it;
So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.
“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
What more could have been done to My vineyard
That I have not done in it?
Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,
Did it bring forth wild grapes?
And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;
And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
I will lay it waste;
It shall not be pruned or dug,
But there shall come up briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds
That they rain no rain on it.”
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard
On a very fruitful hill.
2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also made a winepress in it;
So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.
3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
4 What more could have been done to My vineyard
That I have not done in it?
Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,
Did it bring forth wild grapes?
5 And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;
And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will lay it waste;
It shall not be pruned or dug,
But there shall come up briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds
That they rain no rain on it.”
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help. Isaiah 5:1-7
In this parable there are five parties or participant groups represented, they are:
The Man who plants the vineyard is God the Father. The vineyard is Israel. The tenants are the religious leaders of Israel. The servants are the faithful prophets. And the beloved Son is Jesus.
Mark 12:1-5 tells us just how God Is Incredibly Patient, Even When Sinners Resist His Gracious Wooing
A parable in this case is defined as “an earthly story or analogy with a heavenly meaning.” This parable is a story of Israel’s relationship to God and is a reminder of His incredible patience (2 Peter 3:9).
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The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
God planted a nation called Israel as a special vineyard. In spite of the fact that He planted her, put in place some protective fencing and a tower, she did not produce many good things, only bad for the most part.
The landowner had made an agreement with the tenant farmers whom He believed could be trusted and would be reliable caretakers of His vineyard. They would work the vineyards, benefit from the produce, and pay a percentage of the harvest to Him as rent.
Accord to the laws of the time, in order for a landowner to retain legal rights to his property, he had to receive produce from his tenants. However, it seems the tenants “paid their rent in blows.”
As we walk through the text, we find in verses 2–3 that harvest time has arrived and so the landowner sends a servant to collect what rightly belongs to the owner. They beat the servant and sent him away empty handed.
In verse 4, the owner sends a second servant, who was treated even worse. In verse 5, the gracious and long-suffering landowner sends yet a third servant and the response of the tenants escalates—they kill him. And on and on it would go with many others. Some they would beat. Some they killed.
These faithful servants represent the faithful prophets sent by the Lord time and time again (Jer. 7:25–26; 25:4–7; Heb. 11:35–38).
God’s gracious patience was extended repeatedly, but rebellious sinners like you and me resisted His wooing. We took what was His and in rebellion said it was ours!
In verses 6 through 8 (Mark 12:6-8), When the Father Sent His Son, He Sent the One He Loves and that we Should Honor.
The parable takes a remarkable turn in verse 6. It continues the theme of the amazing patience and long-suffering of God with humanity. Jesus is talking at this moment to the religious leaders of Israel and yet, I must confess, I see all of us as well.
The landowner now becomes a father. In one final attempt, He sends on a mission “a beloved son.” The phrase “beloved son” is filled with biblical and theological significance. It was idiomatic for “an only son” (Mark 1:11; 9:7; Gen. 22:2).
If verses 1–5 convey the hope of God for His people, verse 6 conveys the loving-kindness of God for His people. The Father sent His Son as an act of grace. Seeing the son may have led the tenants to wrongly conclude that the landowner was dead.
They are foolishly and with evil intent surmised that if they assassinate the son, then they could claim His property as their own. John 1:11 rings in our ears: “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” To reject the Son is to reject the One who sent Him. It is nothing less than an act of spiritual insanity.
Even Though People Believe They Can Escape It, God’s Judgment Will Certainly Come as we look at Mark 12:9–12.
The one rejected and murdered will be vindicated, and how we now respond to this radical change of events could not be more important. Historically, God judged the religious leaders and the nation for their rejection of His Son.
In AD 70, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the nation of Israel was brought to ruins. Today that same judgment falls on all who have “trampled on the Son of God, regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified, and insulted the Spirit of grace” (Heb. 10:29 NKJV).
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Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? Hebrews 10:29
Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
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Jesus quotes Psalm 118:22–23, changing the metaphor from a vineyard to a building. The rejected stone would become a well-known symbol for the Messiah. The Jewish leaders rejected Jesus. They rejected the stone and cast it aside as worthless and of no value.
The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing;
It is marvelous in our eyes.
They beat Him and crucified Him. God, however, in a marvelous reversal, takes what man rejects and makes it the cornerstone, the key stone, the most important stone to the whole structure that would ensure its stability and symmetry.
Jesus’s rejection, humiliation, and crucifixion is an apparent tragedy, but God will use it all for a greater purpose that can only be described as, “This came from the Lord and is wonderful in our eyes!”
Conclusion
In The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis, Queen Lucy says to Lord Digory, “In our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”2 To this we might add, “In our world there once was also a cross and hanging on it was someone greater and more wonderful than our whole world.” It was the Lord’s doing. And it is marvelous in our eyes!
I want to close with these 4 facts:
1. Every human is a sinner. Romans 3:23
2. God's penalty for sin is death. Romans 6:23
3. In His great love, God has made provision for the salvation of sinners. Romans 5:8
4. Each person must put his trust in God's Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9-10, 13
{{PRAY}}