Mark 12:1-12 And he began to speak to them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and dig a place for the winefat… I. The picture suggested by the scene which Christ calls up into imagination would be likely to cause surprise, or be termed an exaggeration, if it were laid anywhere outside of Palestine. Down even to the present time customs remain very much the same as in Christ's day in that oppressed country. 1. The insecurity of property and person is proverbial. The Scripture record might be incorporated into the ordinary guide books. 2. There has been in all ages a special confusion of iniquitous dealing in respect to real estate. Thievery and violence seem to be the rule in the east, peace and possession the exception. Something is to be charged to the government; the laws are indefinite, and bribery is rife; indeed, the government sets the example of systematized crime. In all history of the Holy Land, from Christ's time to ours, the rulers have been organized for official robbery and outrage. No titles are secure, even when one has paid for his vineyard or his building plot. 3. Then, too, the custom of committing all oversight and control of farms and orchards to underlings makes the matter a great deal worse. Absenteeism is a fruitful reason for crime (Mark 12:1). Those men left in charge of the vineyard, to whom messenger after messenger had been sent, and who now were peremptorily addressed by the owner with a final demand in the august person of his son, are represented as communing with each other, and saying, as they laid the wiles of their conspiracy, what might be construed into an utterance of their belief that, if this one inheritor were only dead, all heirship would be extinguished (Mark 12:7). 4. Still, so far as we can learn, there was no ground for hope of success in this plot. No enactment has come down to us which would sustain such an entailment or division or heirship as those infamous creatures assumed. Luke's language (Luke 20:14) agrees with Mark's; but Matthew (Matthew 21:38) says, "Let us seize on his inheritance." This suggests the true interpretation. The husbandmen had no countenance in the common law; they intended to say that they would make the vineyard theirs by violence, and hold it by any extremities of force. It was a singularly stupid plan; it could not have even a plausible look anywhere but in that wretched region. It assumed an absence of justice, an insecurity of possession, an immunity from the worst crime, positively oriental in its toleration of rapine and murder. 5. Add to this the fact that in those early days, when invention had not yet brought firearms into use, the measures taken for homicide were brutal and hard beyond description. Not even spears or daggers or knives are used there for assassination now any more than they used to be. The coarse, rude weapon for murder is a club or bludgeon of the roughest sort; the Bedawin will have a gun on their shoulders, but will knock their victim on the head with a knotted stick all the same. The description, left on record by the Psalmist, is true to this day: "He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: He hideth His face; He will never see it." 6. Hence, this frightful picture was a tremendous invective as well as a vivid illustration when employed by our Lord. He used it for a similitude in one of His most direct and forcible arraignments of the Jewish nation for their blind, dull, coarse, criminal rejection of God's only-begotten Son, despatched then from high heaven to secure His Father's rights from those who had grasped after heirship by murder. II. We turn now to the second branch of the story. Our Lord suddenly drops His figure, and leaves the parable altogether, finishing His application with a quotation from one of the most familiar of the psalms (Psalm 118:22). 1. Thus He illustrates His position. He claims a Messianic psalm for Himself. Matthew (Matthew 21:43) tells us He said to those hearers of His in plain words that He was speaking this parable concerning them. And He chooses to show them that, for Himself, there was no fear of the future. The "son" of the story, who got murder instead of "reverence," is heard of no more. But the Son of God, though "rejected" now, should one day come to His place of honour. They understood Him very well, for in an alarmed sort of murmur they said, "God forbid!" (Luke 20:16). 2. Thus He predicts His eventual triumph. There is a tradition of the Jewish Rabbis which relates the history of a wonderful stone, prepared, as they say, for use in the building of Solomon's temple. Each block for that matchless edifice was shaped and fitted for its particular place, and came away from the distant quarry marked for the masons. But this one was so different from any other that no one knew what to do with it. Beautiful indeed it was; carved with figures of exquisite loveliness and grace; but it had no fellow; it fitted nowhere; and at last the impatient and perplexed workmen flung it aside as only a splendid piece of folly. Years passed, while the proud structure was going up without the sound of axe or hammer. During all the time this despised fragment of rock was lying in the valley of Jehoshaphat covered with dirt and moss. Then came the day of dedication; the vast throng arrived to see what the Israelites were wont to call "the noblest fabric under the sun." There it stood crowning the mountain's ridge, and shining with whiteness of silver and yellowness of gold. The wondering multitudes gazed admiringly upon its magnificent proportions, grand in their splendour of marble. But when one said that the east tower was unfinished, or at least looked so, the chief architect grew impatient again, and replied that Solomon was wise, but a builder must admit there was a gap in his plans. By and by the king drew near in person; with his retinue he rode directly to the incomplete spot, as if he there expected most to be pleased. "Why is this neglect?" he asked in tones of indignant surprise: "where is the piece I sent for the head of this corner?" Then suddenly the frightened workmen bethought themselves of that rejected stone which they had been spurning as worthless. They sought it again, cleared it from its defilement, swung it fairly up into its place, and found it was indeed the top stone fitted so as to give the last grace to the whole. 3. Thus Jesus also clinches His argument. He made His audience see that He was fulfilling every necessity of the Messiah's office, and answering to every prediction made of Him, even down to the receiving of the "rejection" at their hands as they were now giving it to Him. They were educated in the ancient oracles of God, and were wont to admit the bearing of every sentence and verse of prophecy. And when this strange, intrepid Galilean asked them, "Did ye never read in the Scripture?" they saw that He knew His vantage with the people, and would be strong enough to hold it against their violence or treachery. There was force in argument when one brought up a text inspired. 4. Thus, likewise, our Lord enlightened their consciences. There is something more than logical defeat in their manner after this conversation: there is spiritual dismay and consternation. "They know that He had spoken the parable against them." It was necessary to silence this terrible voice of denunciation. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. |
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