Since we’ve titled this series “Good News,” a lot of the sermon titles have related to the news—“The most trusted name in News,” “A Slow News Day,” “The Rest of the Story—” stuff like that. So that’s where this title comes from, and I’ll talk more about this later.
An interesting thing about Trish—she doesn’t like the news very much, but she does love the weather. She can name weathermen the way I can name rock and roll drummers. And when I first started picking up on it, I have to confess I felt a little threatened because she would talk about Josh Johnson from WSFA like they were on a first name basis. So I was a little worried—what is this with you and the weather guy from WSFA?
Then I saw him, and I was like, ok. I’m not quite as worried.
But far and away, Trish’s favorite meteorologist is James Spann from Birmingham. A few days ago, there was a tornado warning in Birmingham, and apparently the TV station interrupted their regularly scheduled programming to talk about it. And the next day, Trish said, “Did you see James Spann’s Facebook page? And I’m like, no… why are you friends with James Spann on Facebook?
Which, again… James Spann…
But the point is, apparently someone didn’t like the fact that James Spann interrupted whatever they were watching on TV because James Spann posted a screen cap of their Tweet on his Facebook page:
Its so interesting to me that there are people who get mad at the weather man because they don’t like the warning. If James Spann or Josh Johnson gives you a good weather report—the forecast is for sunny skies, humidity is at 60%, whatever, then we feel good about the weather. But if we don’t like the warning, sometimes we take it out on the weatherman. Especially if the warning means that our plans are going to get disrupted or are programs will get interrupted.
That’s what’s going on in Mark 12. Jesus is James Spann the Weather Man here—giving a warning in the form of a parable to the religious leaders of the day, and the religious leaders don’t like it. Let’s look at this together. If you are physically able, please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word:
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[a] 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;[b]
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.
Let’s pray…
Before we get into these verses, I want to Catch us up to where we are in Mark. We finished up chapter 10 last week, and now we are jumping to Mark 12 because we talked about the Triumphal Entry and other details from Mark 11 on Palm Sunday. So just understand that this story happens in the context of Holy Week—the last week of Jesus’ life.
And I want us to notice how much Mark slows down here. We’ve talked about how fast paced Mark is—how his favorite word is immediately, and how he just jumps from event to event. But beginning in chapter 11, Mark goes from warp speed to a slow walk. In fact, when you realize that Jesus’ public ministry lasted about three years, then the first ten chapters of Mark covered two years, 11 months, and 24 days of it. But The last six chapters of Mark cover the last seven days of Jesus’ life
• Sunday: Mark 11:1-11
• Monday: Mark 11:12-19
• Tuesday: Mark 11:20-13:37 (This is where we are this morning)
• Wednesday: Mark 14:1-11
• Thursday: Mark 14:12-72
• Friday: Mark 15:1-47
• --------------------------- (Silence on Saturday)
• Sunday: Mark 16:1-13
And you’ll notice also that far and away, Mark spends more time on the Tuesday of Holy week than he does on any other day. By far. And you’ll also see that nearly everything that happens on Tuesday has something to do with the religious leaders. This isn’t in your printed notes, but its all on YouVersion, so don’t feel like you have to race to write all this down:
94 Verses About Tuesday! (build each as a separate transition)
1. Withered fig tree: Cursed for not bearing fruit (11:20-25)
2. Opposition from religious leaders (11:27-33)
3. Parable against religious leaders (12:1-12) (Where we are this morning)
4. Debate with religious leaders (12:13-27)
5. Instruction for a religious leader (12:28-34) (we’ll wind up here)
6. Warning about religious leaders (12:35-40)
7. Widow contrasted to religious leaders (12:41-44)
8. Teaching about the end of the age/The lesson of the Fig Tree (13)
So Jesus tells this parable, and this particular parable is an allegory, because each character and details in the parable represents someone or something else.
Who's Who In the Parable: So…
The owner of the vineyard: GOD
The Vineyard: ISRAEL
Now, before you think we’re just applying our own interpretation to the parable, realize that most of the details of this parable come straight from Isaiah 5. The religious leaders who were listening to Jesus would have immediately gone to Isaiah in their heads, because here’s how Isaiah 5 starts:
Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then, in verse 7, Isaiah gives the interpretation key:
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting;
But in Mark 12, Jesus’ parable makes a major departure from Isaiah’s Song of the Vineyard. In Jesus version, there are some tenants that the vineyard owner leases the vineyard to. The arrangement was that they would tend to the vineyard, and the owner would get most of the harvest, while the tenants would have a share for themselves.
So according to verse 2, the season came for the owner to get some of the harvest. And he sends a servant to collect. And the tenants beat him up. So he sends another servant, and they beat him. Another one they kill.
The religious leaders knew their Scriptures, and they knew that Jesus had added to the story from Isaiah 5. So we have to add to our who’s who list:
The tenants: RELIGIOUS LEADERS.
The other servants: FAITHFUL PROPHETS.
Let’s park here for a minute.
Throughout Jewish history, there would be times when God would send a prophet to speak to the people. In between those times, the religious leaders would continue to offer sacrifices, continue to be in charge of the day to day business of the temple.
So when a prophet would come, their message wouldn’t just threaten the king of Israel or Judah. It would also threaten the religious folks. They had gotten used to the way they did things, and they didn’t like a prophet coming and telling them they were doing it wrong.
• Isaiah warned Judah against embracing the outward signs of worship without any real emotion from the heart (see Isaiah 29:1-14). The Talmud says that Manasseh ordered him sawn in two.
• Zechariah warned Joash about breaking God's command. He was stoned to death in the middle of a sermon in the temple! (2 Chronicles 24:20-22)
• Jeremiah warned that Judah would be taken into exile. He was beaten, put in stocks, (Jeremiah 20:2) and later thrown down a well (Jeremiah 38:1-6)
Remember the Tweet from James Spann we talked about at the beginning? Well, all these were “dang it, James” moments. The prophets were interrupting people’s regularly scheduled program, and they didn’t like it.
But there’s one more detail Jesus adds to his parable that isn’t in Isaiah 5.
The son: JESUS: By the time Jesus came on the scene, it had been 400 years since there had been a prophet from the Lord. That’s why Jesus adds the detail that the owner of the vineyard goes into another country. That’s not in Isaiah. And in Mark 12:6, God’s Word says:
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.
And it eventually dawns on them (we know this from v. 12) that Jesus is speaking the parable against them. They are the religious leaders that have gotten so comfortable with being in charge that they get threatened by anyone that is actually a representative from God. And I think its incredibly ironic that when they realize Jesus is talking about them, they start to put plans in motion to kill Jesus, which would even further identify the religious leaders with the wicked tenants who kill the son of the owner of the vineyard.
Now the question for us is, where do we see ourselves in this parable? Can the warning for the religious leaders be a warning for us as well? I think it can. Let’s go from who’s who in the parable to what’s what in the parable:
What's what in the parable? (Image of vineyard on ppt)
God’s provision: First, you have a vineyard that has been richly provided for. Isaiah says it is built on a fertile hill. God has dug it, cleared it of stones, planted it with choice vines. Then he hewed out a wine vat. He did everything he could to set up the vineyard for success. Friends, while this immediately about Israel, I think it’s a great description of our country as well. I believe God has blessed the United States of America with unbelievable resources. This continues as we think about…
God’s protection: The owner of the vineyard built a wall around the vineyard. He secured its borders. He built a watchtower over it so guards could watch over the workers. Again, its not a stretc to see how, in the almost 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed, we have enjoyed God’s protection of our country. We’ve had wise leaders. We’ve had a powerful military. For the most part, we have had security within our borders.
Here’s the thing, though. In both Isaiah and Mark, we understand that the owner of the vineyard has provided for the vineyard, and protected the vineyard, then He has a right to expect something from the vineyard.
God’s expectation: What does God expect from the vineyard? What should anyone expect from a vineyard? Sometimes, in our outrage over what the tenants did to the messengers, we forget that the servants, we forget why the servants went to the vineyard in the first place. It was to get some of the fruit:
When the season came, he sent a servant[a] to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
We never get an explanation in Mark 12 of what the fruit itself represents. But since every other detail in the parable corresponds to something, we would expect the fruit of the vineyard to be allegorical too. So what does the fruit represent?
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
So the fruit God expects from the vineyard is justice and righteousness. And this might be your “dang it James” moment.
We’ve heard a lot about justice in the past couple of weeks. Justice for black men who have died in police custody. Justice for police officers who have been killed in the line of duty Justice for store owners who had their shops looted at the height of the riots that grew out of peaceful protest. Justice for the unborn, because if black lives matter, then babies lives should matter, too. And sometimes, we agree with the cry for justice, but we see it through our own worldview or paradigm.
So we have to ask the question, what does the Bible mean when it talks about justice? I gave you a link on YouVersion to an article from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia about justice that is probably the best starting point for understanding what the Bible means when it talks about justice. Basically,
Justice is not only giving to others their rights, but involves the active duty of establishing their rights.
Justice had to do with conduct in relation to others, especially with regard to the rights of others. And so of the dozens of times the Old Testament talks about justice, it most often has an object: [Build out each transition]
• Justice for the poor (Ex. 23:6; Ps. 72:2)
• Justice for the fatherless, the widow, and the sojourner, which is the OT word for foreigner (Dt. 10:18; 24:17; 27:19; Is. 1:17; Ez. 22:29))
• Justice for all the people (1 Ch. 18:14)
• Justice for the oppressed (Ps. 10:18; Ps. 103:6; Ps. 146:7)
• Justice for the weak, the afflicted, and the destitute (Ps. 82:3)
• Justice for the righteous (Ps. 94:15; Pr. 18:5)
• Justice for the needy (140:12)
• Justice for the hungry and prisoners (Ps. 146:7)
• Justice to the nations (Is. 42:1)
So at the end of the day, our standard isn’t what black people say justice is, or white people, or republicans, or democrats, or abortion activists. The objective standard for understanding justice is what the Bible says about justice. And if the biblical deinition of justice is different from popular opinion on Facebook, or our preferred news channel, or our own worldview, guess which one needs to change?
A big difference between Isaiah and the parable in the gospels:
In Isaiah, the judgment is against the vineyard:
5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
So the takeaway is, God will remove His blessing from a country that denies justice to its inhabitants.
In Mark, the judgment is against the workers in the vineyard:
9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
The takeaway: God will remove the influence of religious people who don’t work for justice.
Now, I think I know what some of you are thinking. This is a “dang it James” moment, because the warning feels like it is interrupting our favorite programs. We want the church to be about the gospel, and suddenly it sounds like we’re talking about social issues. But I’ve got to remind you that from the beginning of the gospel, Jesus was about social issues. Do you remember the sermon he preached at the beginning of his ministry? He went back to his hometown of Nazareth and he said,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
Conclusion: Why it’s important to know God before you can love God (Mark 12:26-34)
28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
When the religious leader asked Jesus what the most important commandment was, Jesus gave the answer that is the basis for Glynwood's mission statement:
Bottom line: If we don't begin with knowing the God of the Bible, we will wind up loving a God that is nothing like the God of the Bible. Instead, we will fall in love with our own reflection.
How do we know when we are doing that? Pay attention to the things that fill us with anger on social media. [Chris Hodges? Confederate flag? Would I post what I posted about Black Lives Matter if I was actively trying to build a relationship with a Black neighbor or coworker?]
So here is the challenge: We are all watching the news. We all have our opinions about the things that are going on in the world. My challenge is to base your opinions on the truth of Scripture. Not on your favorite news channel. Not on your party’s political platform.
And hold me accountable to this as well. You might not like the warnings. As we study God’s Word together, you may have a lot of “Dang it James” moments. And there may come a day when something I say in a sermon will bother you so much that you decide its time to find another church. And if that happens, I will be incredibly sad. I will hope that we at least have a conversation about it before you go. But if its from scripture, and you don’t like it, and you feel like you need to find another church, I won’t stop you.
But, if we ever come to something that is clearly taught in God’s word, and I don’t want to talk about it because it might offend you, or it might cause a decline in giving, then you don’t need to find a new church. You need to find a new pastor.
