Mark 12:1 Commentary and Bible Study

The parable is delivered in the temple and in the presence of his enemies. He gives it in the hearing of the crowds, but it is addressed to the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees. It is one of three parables; three are given in Matthew's Gospel, but Mark describes only one of them. Traditionally it has been called the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen. It is a vineyard parable. This is very familiar picture language for the Jews. Isaiah had used the same image long before: ‘Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill’ (Isaiah 5:1). When the Lord Jesus Christ gives a strikingly similar (though not identical) parable, they know that this represents Israel the nation. The chief priests also knew with dawning realisation that Christ was talking about them as the leaders of Israel. As we read this parable, we may think that the behaviour of the various characters is very unrealistic, and that the whole account is most unlikely. What tenants would behave with such ingratitude and hatred towards the owner of a vineyard they were renting? What owner would persist so long, and at such personal expense, to try to persuade unwilling tenants to respect him? Both sides seem far-fetched, but this is entirely deliberate and is an essential feature of the parable. Christ is having to stretch reality in order to find a good illustration of both the unreasonable ingratitude and hostility of man, and the unreasonable kindness and patience of the Lord God.‘A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge [fence] about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen [farmers], and went into a far country.’ This was not an unusual thing to do in those days. There were many wealthy landowners who lived elsewhere and they set up a vineyard, had it properly equipped – a watch tower built and store place, and winepress – and then leased it. They would send people to call for the rent: perhaps in the form of money taken every year, or as a share of the produce. The immediate application is to Israel: God has blessed this particular nation and done wonderful things for them, and it is like a vineyard that somebody has prepared with care, with choice plants, a protective wall or hedge, and everything necessary in place. God gave Israel wonderful founders: Abraham and the patriarchs, Moses and others, men of faith. He gave them enlightening instruction, a system of worship, and just and upright laws. He delivered them, when they were enslaved in Egypt, and he brought them out with wonderful demonstrations of his power, and led them to the land of milk and honey which he prepared for them. Yet, while individuals within the nation loved God and sought him, the majority of people, the nation as a whole, resisted God and rebelled against him.