Mark 12:2 Commentary and Bible Study

In this case the rent is being paid in the form of produce from the vineyard. The owner is acting in an entirely reasonable way. He comes at the season, when the harvest is due. He has given the tenants adequate time to organise themselves and prepare the harvest, and he is not asking for more that is due from them. But the behaviour of these tenants is extraordinary. They have no intention of paying any rent and act as if they need return nothing to the owner in exchange for the right to work his vineyard. They act as if they owned the land, they had planted the vineyard, they set up the fence around it and built the tower, and as if the request to actually return a share of the produce was coming from an impostor. The first servant who has been sent is beaten, and sent back to the owner with nothing. What an insult! What madness! They are very brazen; they seem to have no fear. They appear to think that because the owner has gone into a far country, they can ignore his requests for rent, mistreat his servants, and insult him by mocking his claim to his own vineyard. Perhaps they imagine he is too far away to come and do anything about it. It will be too much trouble for him to organise any reprisals. They can get away with any behaviour, however outrageous. He will never deal with them.