MARK 12:1-2 Lesson # 34
THE REJECTED STONE
I. Greetings:
II. Introduction:
Q What do you do with people who are spiritually blind and reject the truth?
An = It is easy to quit on them, gossip about them, or bad mouth them, but Jesus does something different, He does the right thing.
Note: Today we are going to look at one of Jesus’ parables given right after He has been hassled by the religious authorities. His little speech is a bold move. He is going to confront those who have rejected Him and do it with an illustration from agri-business.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 12:1.
Q Why does Jesus use parables? How come He does not merely tell them straight forward what He thinks?
An = Listen carefully to and note their answers, then add the following if they did not bring these ideas up.
1) “In parables truth is expressed in concrete pictures, rather than in abstractions.” We can relate to stories because we are able to picture them. (Lane, p. 149).
2) The parables appeal to the imagination and force the listener to get involved.
3) Jesus appeals to natural life experiences that can illustrate His redemptive plan. This is because both our experience of nature (our existence in this life), and the kingdom of God originate in God. (Lane, p. 151).
4) Stories can also sneak up on us and hit us from behind.
Note: The story we will see Jesus use is about business, specifically agri-business. Jesus has picked an story about economics, about the realm of finance and business. This story reflects a typical agri-business set-up in Jesus’ time, but this situation still exists frequently today.
A large amount of land in Jesus’ area was owned by absentee ownership. The owners were either foreigners who had bought Palestinian land for an investment or they were Jews who owned the land but chose to live elsewhere.
III. The Parable of the Tenants: Mark 12:1-8.
Note: Before we read Jesus’ attempt to wake up blind religious leaders, let us first read an ancient story, ancient even for Jesus’ day, it was told 600 years before Jesus was born by the prophet Isaiah.
>>>> Have someone read Isaiah 5:1-7.
Q How is this parable similar to the one Jesus is beginning to tell?
Q What is the meaning of Isaiah’s parable?
An = This is a parable of rejection. However, the rejection is by God of wicked religious people. The vineyard is Israel and they were well cared for by God and given the best possible circumstances, but Israel produced wickedness, in the form of bloodshed and oppression (5:7) instead of righteousness (i.e. metaphorically, lousy grapes instead of good ones). With this parable in mind let us go back to Jesus’ story in Mark 12.
IV. The Parable. Mark 12:1-8.
Note: Since the function of a parable is to appeal to the imagination. Listen to this parable as it is read and try to picture it in your mind. Perhaps even close your eyes and try to picture it. This too is a picture of rejection. Try to see it with your mind’s eye.
>>>> You read Mark 12:1-8.
Q What did you picture?
Q What does this story mean?
Q Who is the owner?
An = God, right?
Q What is the vineyard?
An = Our life.
Q Who are the vine dressers or farmers?
An = These are the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. He is telling this parable about them.
Q Who are the servants sent to collect the crop?
An = These are the prophets or those preachers and believers who tell us that God has a right to our lives. He owns us and has to right to tell us what to do. God sends his true servants to tell us that God has a right to our lives. Those who do not tell you this are not true servants of God. They are men-pleasers or people who wish to manipulate and fleece you.
Q Who is the son?
An = The son represents Jesus Christ.
Note: Jesus is clearly attacking the religious leaders of His day with this little story.
Note: Jesus clearly says He is more than a prophet, but the son! Jesus is subtly claiming to be the son of God to these men who are rejecting Him. (Barclay, pp. 293-295).
Q Did Jesus know at this time what they were going to do to Him?
An = Yes He did. He knew these men were going to kill Him. He is predicting His death in this little story.
Q Why did they think killing the son would give them the land?
An = Actually, if the owner was dead it was possible they could claim the un-owned land (Lane, p. 418). Note that they supposed the father was either too far away to do anything, would not act, or was dead himself.
Q Again, who does the owner represent?
An = God. Today many think God, for all practical purposes, is either: dead, too far away, or would not act anyway. They are wrong. Many will possibly treat you as they treated God’s son. People do some amazingly wrong things and think they will get away with it.
>>>> Have someone read Psalm 37:34-39.
V. The Final Result: Mark 12:9-12.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 12:9-12.
Q Will they get away with it?
An = No, God will come, kill the tenants, and the vineyard will be given to others (Mark 12:9).
Q Will Jesus be vindicated according to 12:10-11?
An = Yes!! The stone the builders rejected has become the key stone (Mark 12:10-11). The religious leaders of that day rejected Jesus, and He is the key element of our planet. What is more, Jesus Christ is the key stone, the key element in our eternal destiny.
Q Who will get the vineyard? Who is the vineyard?
An = The people of God. There will be new leaders for the people of God.
Note: Have everyone turn to I Peter 2:4-10
>>>> Have someone read I Peter 2:4-10.
Q How many people do you know in church who are “dead stones”?
An = A lot of people just go to church and are not “living stones”. To be living stones you have to be connected with the “Living Stone”. To be living, you have to be alive, you have to be born again!. That is not popular with some, but remember Jesus Himself was rejected! Our chosen, royal, Holy status is connected to the One who was rejected. If we are not willing to be rejected, we cannot be with Him. (Give an example of Christians you know who were rejected and hassled because they stayed true to the Lord.)
Note: Turn to Acts 4:8-14.
>>>> Have someone read Acts 4:8.
Note: See what it says about Peter: he is filled with the Holy Spirit when he spoke. The Lord’s Spirit filled Peter.
>>>> Have someone read Acts 4:9-12.
Note: Notice here they are on trial because a man was healed, but Peter said all power was tied to the “name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene”. He then pointed out that they crucified Him, and He was the corner stone that was rejected. Peter and John were not going to back off because in verse 12 they state that salvation is in no other name. The rejected one is the key to the salvation of the world.
I love the way this ends.
>>>> Have someone read Acts 4:13-14.
Q What did these authorities accredit the boldness they found in Peter and John?
An = These two young men were in real hot water here, but they had confidence even though they were untrained and uneducated. Their accusers marveled and noted: “they had been with Jesus”. It is true we will face rejection if we identify with Jesus and do as He did, but we will be changed. If people do not see such confidence in us, maybe it is because we have to go through the experiences the apostles had.
Q According to verse 14, what silenced the authorities?
An = The presence of the healed man. These men had been used of God to do powerful acts of mercy. It was hard to ignore such hard data. May such hard data be in our ministries.
Note: Stay with the crucified one. He was rejected, but His rejection brought power to us. Do not be ashamed of His humility, for if you are willing to identify with Him, you will be the new vineyard cultivators, the new farmers, the new leaders in His kingdom.
Note: Rejection is not avoidable no matter what we do. I would think it would be better to be rejected with Jesus than be rejected by Jesus.
Mark 12:1-12
12 And He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and put a wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey.
Isaiah 5:1-7. ( Note: God Speaking Through Isaiah)
5 Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2 He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.
3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge between Me and My vineyard.
4 “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
5 “So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed;
I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.
6 “I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress
Mark 12:1-8
2 At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. 3 They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. 6 He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’8 They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not even read this Scripture:
‘The stone which the builders rejected,
This became the chief corner stone;
11 This came about from the Lord,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away.
1 Peter 2:4-10. ( If time allows read)
4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For this is contained in Scripture:
“Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone,
And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve,
“The stone which the builders rejected,
This became the very corner stone,”
8 and,
“A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”;
for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Peter is being accused of healing someone in the Name of Jesus. Responds to the leaders;
Acts 4:8-14
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, 9 if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. 11 He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” 13 Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. 14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply.