#48 The End Begins
Series: Mark
Chuck Sligh
August 1, 2021
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chuckcsligh@gmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 11
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – Who would win World War II hinged on many decisions and battles, but none was more important than the Normandy Invasion of Europe on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Had D-Day failed, historians have speculated a number of resulting scenarios, from a second offensive later on, to a retreat in the U.S. to isolation, to the horrific possibility that the first atomic bomb would be dropped in Germany, not Japan. The build-up to D-Day was one of the most massive military accomplishments in history, carried out in almost complete secrecy. One thing is for sure for the war to be won: it had to happen, and it had to succeed. D-Day was the beginning of the end of World War II and pointed to the dawn of a new era in Germany after the war had ended.
In today’s text, Jesus is in Jerusalem on the Temple mount and over the next few days He will be verbally attacked relentlessly by the religious establishment, ending eventually in a battle of cosmic proportions on the cross. The cross had to happen, and it most certainly would succeed, and it too pointed to the dawn of a new era for humanity.
The conflict actually began the day BEFORE today’s text—when Jesus purged the Temple. This was His D-Day attack, the opening salvo of the verbal clashes to come. Right after the D-Day invasion, the Germans responded bravely and fiercely in 3 decisive battles before Germany’s final defeat in Berlin: The Battle of the Bulge on the Western Front, the Battle of Stalingrad on the Eastern Front, and the Blitzkrieg, not a battle per se, but a warfare tactic that kept the German forces off balance.
And coincidentally, there are 3 decisive verbal battles leading up to Jesus’ final victory on the cross: 3 counterattacks by the Jewish religious leaders, all of which ended in failure, enraging the religious establishment even more.
That first counterattack is found in Mark 11:27-33, where the Jewish leaders confront Jesus, hoping to trip Him up, followed by a parable in verses 1-12 of chapter 12 that exposed the Jewish leaders as the frauds that they were.
We’ll look at the other two verbal battles over the next two weeks.
I. WE SEE IN MARK 11:27-33 AN ATTACK ON JESUS’ AUTHORITY.
Look with me at verses 27-28 – “And they came again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the Temple, there came to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, 28 And said unto him, ‘By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?’”
As Jesus walked into the Temple grounds, He was immediately accosted by a delegation of 3 religious groups, members of the Sanhedrin, a group of 71 religious men from all the Jewish religious sects of the day which ruled Jerusalem.
They asked him by what authority he did “these things.” The things they were referring to were, most immediately, His purging of the Temple the day before, which enraged them, and more broadly, all the authoritative things He had said and done during His three-year ministry. He had exercised complete and immediate authority over all demons He encountered. He accepted sinners and fellowshipped with tax collectors, a big no-no to the religious leaders. He presumed to forgive sins and redefine the Sabbath, and so on.
If Jesus possessed no official status, the Sanhedrin wanted to know by what authority He taught so authoritatively, often in direct contradiction to their own teachings, and performed what appeared to be official acts. As we say down South, they wanted to know, “Just who do you think you are, anyway?”
Look at how Jesus answers in verses 29-30 – “And Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? Answer me.’”
It was a common rabbinical tradition to answer a question with a question, but there’s a note of impatience and an ADDED display of authority in His answer. He asks His questions, but then he says authoritatively, “Answer ME!”
Illus. – Have you ever done that with your kids?: “Jimmy, did you take Micah’s apple or not? Answer me.” You wouldn’t say such a thing to a superior, like your boss, would you?: “General Johnson, did you receive my report? Answer me!” How would that go over?
Jesus was demonstrating His authority even in His non-answer about His authority. He asked them about John’s baptism, whether it was from heaven (that is, from God), or from men.
It sounds like Jesus is evading their question, but in fact, He’s setting a trap for those trying to discredit Him, as we see in verses 31-33 – “And they reasoned with themselves, saying, ‘If we shall say, ‹From heaven›; he will say, ‹Why then did ye not believe him?› 32 But if we shall say, ‹Of men›; they feared the people: for all men counted that John was a prophet indeed.’ 33 And they answered and said unto Jesus, ‘We cannot tell.’ And Jesus answering saith unto them, ‘Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.’”
Jesus had set the trap: If they answered, “From heaven,” they would incriminate themselves for not believing John or supporting his ministry, and people would wonder why they had rejected one whom all the people recognized as a prophet. If they answered, “From men,” they feared rejection from the people for condemning someone they legitimately considered to have been a prophet from God.
Better to not answer. And then Jesus demonstrates His authority again by defiantly saying to these puffed-up religious leaders who thought THEY were in charge, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.
II. NOTE SECOND, A REVEALING AND CONDEMNING PARABLE IN MARK 12:1-12.
In the previous verses, Jesus avoided clearly revealing His deity, something He did until the very end in order to carry out the plans of the Godhead in His own time and order. Yet a sharp eye could’ve clearly caught that Jesus discloses His deity in this parable.
Let’s begin by looking at verse 1 – “And he began to speak unto them by parables: ‘A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a pit for the winepress, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen [that is, “tenant winegrowers’], and went into a far country.’”
As with all of Jesus’ parables, the basic ideas of this parable are drawn from the everyday experience of life in Palestine. Everyone would have known about tenant farming in that day…. A landowner would own properties which he rented out to tenant farmers. The landowner would front the expenses for equipment, tools and supplies and the tenants would, in turn, farm the land for the owner in exchange for a percentage of the crops, which they could use to feed their family and sell off the rest at a profit. Unlike sharecropping in our country’s history, tenant farmers could make a decent living and support their families off of their proceeds.
The details Jesus gives may seem obscure to us today, but would have been readily understood by the people He was telling the story to… The owner planted a vineyard. Then he had a hedge built—or this word can also be translated “wall”—built for protection and to clearly demarcate his property from others’ property. Then he had a pit dug for the winepress. And finally, he built a watchtower that would have served 2 purposes: to provide storage for the crops and security from marauders.
In Jesus’ story, the landowner supplied everything the tenants needed to make a good living, but things went south from that point on. – Look now at verses 2-5 – “And at the season [that is, the vintage season of the fifth year] he sent to the tenants a servant, that he might receive from the tenants some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. 4 And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. 5 And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some.”
Rather than give their proper portion to the owner, the tenants, in the words of C.H. Dodd, “paid their rent in blows.” The owner sends two servants who are in turn beaten and stoned, sending them away empty-handed, and the third one they killed. Jesus adds that the owner sent “many others,” beating some and killing some. This was a mean bunch of dudes!
What Jesus was alluding to in this section could hardly be missed. Israel was referred to as God’s vineyard in Isaiah 5, so this association was clearly understood by anyone with even a passing knowledge of Old Testament. They would have recognized that…
• The OWNER represents God who lovingly and generously provided the vineyard.
• The VINEYARD represents Israel.
• The TENANTS represent the Jewish leaders who had forgotten God and by this point, turned His Temple into a den of thieves.
• The SERVANTS represent many Old Testament prophets God sent to collect the fruits of repentance, but Israel had repeatedly persecuted and abused them, and the last—John the Baptist—they beheaded.
What was the landowner to do? He owned the land, and the tenants had a legal duty to pay their rents. He had every reason to take drastic action, yet he persisted and persisted. “If I were God,” cried Martin Luther, “and the world had treated me as it treated Him, I would kick the wretched thing to pieces.” If you knew anything about Martin Luther, you know he would have!
But that’s not what this landowner did. – Look at verses 6-8 – “Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, ‘They will reverence my son.’ 7 But those tenants said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.’ 8 And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.”
As a last-ditch effort, he sent his beloved son, thinking that they would at least respect him because of his relationship to the father. But they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.
The picture Jesus painted was obvious: God had been more than patient! His patience seemed to know no bounds…until they killed his son.
It is here that Jesus answers the question of the source of His authority. All the elements of the story up until the introduction of the son would have been readily understandable to the hearers that day. But who was the SON in the story?—They were too dense to see that Jesus was claiming a direct link to God. HE was the Son in the story. It was He who would shortly be killed outside the city. They had no concept of the Trinity, so this would have just flown right over their heads. But Bible readers would later understand who the Son was and that Jesus was claiming deity—He was identifying Himself as GOD THE SON. And God the Son had authority by virtue of His deity.
Jesus concludes His parable by asking and answering a question in verse 9 – “What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinegrowers and will give the vineyard to others.
In verse 9, Jesus asks rhetorically what the owner would do, inviting his audience to share in deciding what action the owner of the vineyard should take.
He knew what their answer would be, for they would have remembered the rest of Isaiah 5 where God reigns down His judgment on the vineyard—Israel—for their sinfulness and hardheartedness. This should have been a strong warning to those who would plot His death in a few short days, but the warning fell on deaf ears.
Then in verses 10-11, Jesus sharpens the application to Himself by quoting word-for-word Psalm 118:22-23, recognized by the Jews as a messianic psalm: “And have you not read this scripture; ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone: 11 This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?’”
Jesus changed the metaphor from the son/tenants motif to the stone/builders theme, alluding to Jesus’ resurrection and exaltation. The cornerstone, also called the capstone, was considered the most important stone of a building. Since in the previous verses He reveals Himself as the son in the parable, He is saying that He would be rejected…but in the end, He would be the chief capstone. Jesus was associating Himself with the Messiah and stating that this Messiah would be the cornerstone of God’s doing that would be marvelous in our eyes.
Mark ends this portion of scripture in verse 12 this way: And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.”
The religious Mafia had lost the first counterattack. They had been exposed for who they were—the evil killers in the parable, but rather than stop their rebellion and turn to Jesus in repentance, they began to plot the next battle, which we’ll examine in next week’s sermon. To them it was not “I surrender all,” but “Game on.” Well, it wasn’t a game, and they were bound to lose all 3 counterattacks.
CONCLUSION
A clever debate and an interesting parable. What do they have to do with you and me? Let me share just two quick takeaways:
First, this text should remind you to receive the love of God offered in Jesus Christ.
In human terms, that the owner sends his son makes no sense. He already knew how wicked the tenants were. Didn’t he know they would kill his son as well? It makes no sense in HUMAN terms, but in the heart and mind of GOD, Jesus was the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.
1 John 4:9 says, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, in that God sent his only begotten Son [which means His “one and only Son”] into the world, that we might live through him.”
How on earth can you resist that kind of love?
Illus. – In the early 1960s, the publishers of Time magazine were concerned about their declining circulation, so they designed a campaign to send out thousands of letters making an emotional appeal to potential subscribers. Prior to that, mailings were done manually, at great cost in human resources. IBM was developing something called a “computer,” so they proposed to install a fully automated system that would write the letters, seal the envelopes, address them according to a selected database, stamp them and send them out without the letters ever being touched by a human hand. The huge computer was installed with much fanfare and anticipation.
However, as is still sometimes the case with computers, there was a glitch, and as a result, a poor rancher in Wyoming received 12,634 letters appealing to him to subscribe to Time magazine. The surprised rancher, who didn’t ordinarily get much mail, opened the mailbags and started reading the letters. After reading a few dozen, he sent in a $6 check for a subscription with a note that said, “I give up!”
That’s the kind of persuasion that’s hard to resist! God’s love for you is so powerful, it’s hard to resist! So don’t try.…Turn to Christ and experience His love for you.
My second takeaway is this: Jesus has authority over our lives as believers.
Jesus had the authority to say and do whatever He desired because He was GOD. He didn’t need the approval of a proud and corrupt religious establishment. And God has the authority to tell us what to do and how we should live our lives.
Illus. – A ship’s captain was sailing late one night and he saw a light on a collision course with his own course.
He told the signaler to send the message, “Alter your course ten degrees south.”
The message came back, “Alter YOUR course ten degrees south.”
The captain got mad and signaled back, “Alter your course ten degrees south; I’m a commander.”
The response was, “Alter your course; I’m a seaman third-class.”
Furious, the commander signaled back, “Alter your course; I’m a battleship.”
The response was, “Alter your course; I’m a lighthouse.”
God’s authority is like that lighthouse—it doesn’t move. It trumps our own desires and our own authority in our lives.
Jesus said in John 14:21, “He who hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is who loveth me: and he who loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
May God help us who claim the name of Christ to obey God in every aspect of our lives and in every commandment Jesus has given us. What is there in your life you have not yielded to God’s will?
Surrender to Jesus’ will in your life today.
