The rejected stone is the key stone!

Mark 12:1-12

Jesus went on to speak to the chief priests, the scribes and the elders in parables: ‘A man planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug out a trough for the winepress and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce from the vineyard. But they seized the man, thrashed him and sent him away empty-handed. Next he sent another servant to them; him they beat about the head and treated shamefully. And he sent another and him they killed; then a number of others, and they thrashed some and killed the rest. He had still someone left: his beloved son. He sent him to them last of all. “They will respect my son” he said. But those tenants said to each other, “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” So they seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and make an end of the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this text of scripture:

It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone. This was the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful to see?

And they would have liked to arrest him, because they realised that the parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the crowds. So they left him alone and went away.

Food for thought!

Jesus uses stories we know to teach us eternal truths we do not know. Today's Food for thought is enshrined in a story. This story has much to teach us in three directions, that is, about God, about us, and about Jesus.

(i) It has much to tell us about God.

(a) It tells of God's trust in men. The owner of the vineyard is God, the vineyard is all the earth. The farmhands are you and me; we are the cultivators. Jesus is saying, God made the earth, entrusted it to men and women and went away. He did not even stand over them to exercise a police-like supervision. He went away and left them with their task. God pays us the compliment of entrusting us with his work. Every task we receive is a task given us to do by God.

(b) It tells of God's patience. The master sent messenger after messenger (the prophets). He did not come with sudden vengeance when one messenger had been abused and ill-treated. He gave the cultivators chance after chance to respond to his appeal. God bears with us in all our sinning; God is patient with us.

(c) It tells of God's judgment. In the end the master of the vineyard took the vineyard from the cultivators and gave it to others. God does not entertain unproductivity.

(ii) It has much to tell us about us.

(a) It tells of human privilege. The vineyard was equipped with everything--the fence, the wine press, the tower--which would make the task of the cultivators easy and enable them to discharge it well. God does not only give us a task to do; he also gives us the means with which to do it; God does not ask us to do the impossible, He equips each one of us with talents, gifts and life.

You and me were equipped by God, not to fail, but to succeed

in life.

(b) It tells of human freedom. The master left the cultivators to do the task as they liked. God is no tyrannical task-master; he is like a wise commander who allocates a task and then trusts a man to do it.

(c) It tells of human answerability. To all men comes a day of reckoning. We are answerable for the way in which we have carried out the task God gave us to do in the this life.

(d) It tells of the deliberateness of human sin. The cultivators carried out a deliberate policy of rebellion and disobedience towards the master. Sin is deliberate opposition to God; it is the taking of our own way when we know quite well what the way of God is. 

(iii) It has much to tell us about Jesus.

(a) It tells of the claim of Jesus. It shows us quite clearly Jesus lifting himself out of the succession of the prophets. Those who come before him were the messengers of God; no one could deny them that honour; but they were mere servants; Jesus was THE Son. This parable contains one of the clearest claims Jesus ever made to be unique, to be different from even the greatest of those who went before.

(b) It tells of the sacrifice of Jesus. It makes it clear that Jesus knew what lay ahead. In the parable the hands of wicked men killed the son. Jesus was never in any doubt of what lay ahead. He did not die because he was compelled to die; he went willingly and open-eyed to death.