Articles
Parable of Tenants (Mark 12:1-12)
Rarely do we play audience to a parable as candid as the Parable of Tenants. As parables often employ various figures and use speech less agreeable to the laymen, one finds consolation when reading one as clear and concise as this.
Contextually, Jesus’ authority had just been brought under the microscope (11:27-33). No doubt this was the result of Jesus’ second purging of the Temple (11:15ff). Jesus turned the tables on the Jewish leaders’ question by requiring that they demonstrate where John the Baptist received his authority to command baptism for repentance. Rather than implicate themselves, they fled away to avoid public humiliation. They would not accept that John the Baptist bore the authority of God as Christ’s forerunner and prophet. Ultimately, their forsaking of John had led to his physical demise at Herod’s hand. So, when pontificating this parable, Jesus’ comments are directed toward this selfish and ungodly disposition. The leaders rejected the authority of God bestowed upon His prophets. Jesus sought to demonstrate both the history and depth of this denial as well as what the mindset would lead to.
Jesus introduces this parable through a quotation of the most respected prophet in Israel – Isaiah. Isaiah preached against the nations of Israel and Judah and records/prophesies their respective downfalls because of their repudiation of God. In beginning in such a manner, he clearly establishes his indictment against the leaders of Israel in that for 750+ years they have acted contemptibly, and frankly, self-destructively. Jesus then catalogues the repetitious rejection, humiliation, and even murder of God’s prophets by the pronounced leaders of Jewish history (compare Matthew 23:34-39). He then identifies Himself as the final ambassadorial heir of the Lord’s vineyard; yet, even He would not find respect in the house of Israel, but rather death. This murder of God’s Son was foreseen in Psalm 118:22f and would consummate in both the redemption of spiritual Israel and the annihilation of physical Israel as related in the Olivet Discourse in chapter 13.
