Ridiculous Patience: Parable Of The Vineyard - Mark 12:1-12 Series

God does not allow you to abdicate your responsibility to listen to his prophets yourself. You can’t just pass that responsibility on to your pastor or favorite preacher or anyone else.

I have a friend who was an evangelical all his life who recently left evangelicalism and joined the Eastern Orthodox Church. He did that because he was so overwhelmed with all the denominations and differing interpretation of the Bible, and didn’t know who was right or who to believe. And in the Eastern Orthodox, you don’t have to figure any of that out. Whatever the authorities say is the way it is, period. It makes it so much easier—you don’t have to bother interpreting Scripture. Just go with whatever they say.

It’s interesting—he takes the same approach with politics. I’ve tried to debate with him, and I’ll lay out a whole argument, and he’ll just say, “But the NY Times says …” or “Dr. Fauci says …”—he’ll always appeal to some authority, and no matter how strong my argument might be, he won’t consider it because I don’t have the credentials of those authorities. Some people err in being rebellious against authority, but other people err in following blindly. Both are deadly errors. It’s not a big deal in politics, but it’s not an option God offers us in religion, because sometimes the builders all get it wrong. And if you go along with them, you find that the very thing you rejected ends up being the capstone, and stone that comes and crushes those who rejected it.

The Lord Has Done This

11 the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Jesus became the supreme ruler of the universe with just one vote being cast. Donald Trump is the most powerful man in the free world, and yet he’s totally dependent upon millions of people voting for him. If he doesn’t get enough support in the election, he loses all that power and there’s nothing he can do about it. King Jesus didn’t have to campaign. In fact, the builders all voted him out, but he still ended up on top, thanks to God the Father who always casts the deciding vote.

Marvelous in Our Eyes

11 the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Allowing his son to be rejected and killed, raising him from the dead and exalting him—revealing him only to the lowly and not to the proud—it’s marvelous in our eyes. It was marvelous and delightful in Jesus’ eyes. It filled him with joy.

Luke 10:21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

Their Response: Arrest Jesus

12 Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them.

And at some point in the story it dawns on them, Wait a second—these idiot tenants are supposed to be us! So what do they do?

12 Then they looked for a way to arrest him

Jesus paints this horrific picture of the evil tenants, and the Jewish leaders immediately begin to fulfill the exact behavior Jesus just prophesied in the parable! “When Jesus told a story about horrible tenants who say, ‘Come, let’s kill him,’ that was directed at us! How dare he! Come, let’s kill him!”