Mark 12:1-5 1And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a trough for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenant farmers and went on a journey. 2At the right season, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them the fruit of the vineyard. 3And after taking him, they beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5And he sent another, and they killed that one, and with many others, some they beat, and some they killed.
The audience of Jesus’ next teaching appears to be the chief priests, scribes, and elders of verse 27. Mark does not record all the parables Jesus taught. This is the first parable outside of the group in chapter 4. This particular story had a direct application to the Jewish leaders. It was one of the last opportunities for them to accept his messiahship and recognize his authority. They were likely informed leaders and had heard either directly or indirectly what Jesus had been teaching. They should have recognized the meaning of this parable.
The story is told in several parts. Verse 1 gives the setting. The listeners could picture the scene since there would have been vineyards and wealthy people in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Records of that time show that this parable accurately describes what many wealthy did. The owner of the vineyard invested a lot in setting up his vineyard. The fence and tower would protect his investment from outsiders. The winepress prepared for the harvest. His going away to another country emphasizes the total responsibility of the tenants to care for the vineyard. Jesus could have also chosen this imagery in reflection of the allegory of the Lord’s vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-2. Also in the background could be Jeremiah 7:25-26.
As expected, the land owner expected the tenant farmers to produce a harvest and give him his share. The land owner appears to be still in the other country and so sends servants to collect the rent. Verse 3 introduces the problem and reveals the attitude of the tenants. Instead of receiving the fruit, they receive a beating. One curious part of this story and more surprise is how the landowner sent more servants. He was giving the tenants another opportunity to pay up and do as they agreed. The beating gets more severe with each of the servants until the climax of of some of them getting killed. The end of verse 5 emphasizes, even more, the refusal of the tenants to do as they should.
The application of this part of the parable should have been clear to the leaders. The owner of the field represents God. The tenants are the leaders of the people of Israel. The servants that God sent were the prophets. Over the centuries, the kings and religious leaders of Israel refused to listen to God’s prophets. Many times, these prophets were abused, imprisoned, beaten, and even killed. The prophetic voice of God still speaks today, particularly through the Bible. When God speaks to us, we must not make the same mistake as the tenant farmers and the leaders of Israel. Jesus continues the story with the most important messenger in the following verses.
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