Mark 12:4 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Mark 12:4

Comments

How does the owner respond? In the parable it is as if he tries to come up with an explanation which accounts for this extraordinary behaviour. He seems unwilling to believe the worst about these tenants. Perhaps there has been a misunderstanding. Perhaps they have not recognised his servants. Perhaps they will behave better next time. He will persist in trying to get them to act as they should. It is almost as if he does not want to have to punish them for this first outrage. So he sends more servants, and the ill-treatment they receive becomes even more extreme and even more shocking. The tenants are becoming bolder in their mistreatment of his servants. Now they are not simply sending them away empty handed, they are actually hurting them, and in some cases killing them. They behave as if the owner is acting provocatively towards them in still trying to get any rent out of them. Human beings have an amazing capacity to turn things on their head in their effort to justify their own wicked behaviour. Yet the owner does not give up on them, even when faced with this great provocation. What is Christ saying to these Jews? What is the fruit God requires? It is righteousness in the form of worship, praise, and gratitude. But all that Israel had returned was rebellion. God had sent the prophets and they had stoned them. The parable provides a disturbing picture of the Jewish nation and its unreasonable ingratitude and waywardness to God. The lease was never honoured, the rent was never paid, the nation as a whole did not render sincere worship and godliness and learn the things of God, and honour and obey him. And yet God appealed to them through prophets and preachers time and again down the years – ‘To Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people’ (Romans 10:21).

Application

From time-to-time God sends a messenger to speak with us. How many times has God spoken to you and you have pushed him away? We owe God our lives. Perhaps you can remember times in your life when the gospel came to you. You know how you responded. You refused to take the message seriously. You scorned the messenger and tried to make them feel uncomfortable in attempting to reach you. You certainly did nothing to encourage them to say more. Maybe you responded better than that. The gospel made sense to you; you saw its consistency and power. But when you became aware of the cost of discipleship, you turned away, though you knew that you risked God never speaking to you again.

Questions

In representing God by this vineyard owner, and in picturing him as acting as if he could still get the tenants to do the right thing, Christ is not for a moment suggesting that God has an unrealistic view of what is in the human heart. He knows exactly what we are (John 2:24-25). The parable portrays God in this way not to make him naïve about human behaviour, but to express the amazing lengths his grace and patience is prepared to go. By comparing God to someone who makes unreasonable efforts to win over recalcitrant tenants, the parable deliberately ignores the omniscience of God and focuses on just one aspect of his character – his amazing longsuffering.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Mark 12:4 Commentary and Bible Study