WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:01.120 Good morning, Church. 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:05.839 Uh today's scripture is from Mark twelve, one through twelve. 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:08.560 And he began to speak to them in parables. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:18.320 A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it, and dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower, and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:25.120 When the season came he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:29.199 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty handed. 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:37.359 Again he sent them to a he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:40.240 And he sent another, and him they killed. 00:00:40.479 --> 00:00:44.560 And so with many others, some they beat, and some they killed. 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:49.119 He he had still one another, a beloved son. 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:53.359 Finally he sent him to them, saying, They will respect my son. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:57.039 But those tenants said to one another, This is the heir. 00:00:57.359 --> 00:01:00.880 Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:05.280 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:08.799 What will be what will the owner of the vineyard do? 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:12.799 He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyards to others. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:14.799 Have you not read the scripture? 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:18.560 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:22.400 This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:29.920 And they were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:32.159 So they left him and went away. 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:33.439 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:34.799 Please be seated. 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:39.439 Good morning. 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:41.840 Thanks for joining us this morning. 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:43.040 My name is James Rathman. 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:45.359 I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:48.000 Always look forward to gathering with you all. 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:52.000 Let's uh pray before we move into our text today. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:58.560 Holy Father, we give thanks to you for your good. 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:01.680 Your steadfast love endures forever. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:09.520 Lord, we remember your faithfulness to your people throughout all ages. 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:14.319 Lord, your covenant faithfulness and your patience towards us. 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:17.840 Lord, we remember it in the stories of our own lives. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:27.360 How you've sought us, how you've cared for us, all of the deliverances that you've given to us, Lord, your patience with us and holding us fast. 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:31.280 Lord, your steadfast love endures forever. 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:33.919 We praise you for that, Lord. 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:37.360 We thank you that we get to experience it even today. 00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:39.120 We'll lift this up in Jesus' name. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:40.000 Amen. 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:48.319 So we're continuing through the gospel according to Mark, and we are still in Holy Week. 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:51.360 We are on Tuesday of Holy Week. 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:54.080 A brief recap on Holy Week. 00:02:54.560 --> 00:03:02.479 Jesus at the end of his ministry enters Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is the place where he faces the greatest opposition and the greatest threat. 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:10.879 It is the center of Jewish authority, and the ones who will kill him have their counsels here. 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:19.680 And so Jesus enters at Holy Week, and uh this is the week that all the Jewish people would gather together in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:22.960 And when Jesus enters, he enters triumphantly. 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:36.560 He is riding on a donkey, and he's brought in, and the people gather around to sing his praises, saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the one who comes to establish the throne of David our Father. 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:38.639 And so they sing for him as he comes in. 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:51.360 And then the next day, on Monday, Jesus comes to the temple and he cleanses the temple by driving out the money changers and those who are buying and selling inside the temple courts with a whip. 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:59.599 And he flips over their tables and he drives them out and says, My father's house is meant to be a place of prayer, and you've turned it into a den of thieves. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.000 This is now Tuesday. 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:13.840 After driving out the people the day before, he comes back to the temple on Tuesday, and he begins interacting with the Pharisees and the scribes and the chief priests. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:18.079 They come to him and immediately they try and discredit his authority. 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:20.079 And that's what we looked at last week. 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:24.720 That they questioned, by what authority, Jesus, are you doing these things? 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:27.199 How is it that you are coming in and driving out the temple? 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:29.439 How is it that you are entering triumphantly? 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:32.800 And then more broadly, by what authority are you casting out demons? 00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:37.360 By you claim are you claiming that you can uh have the power to forgive sins? 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:48.639 And in questioning Jesus' authority, Jesus exposes that they are not interested in any real authority, that is, authority which is given to him by God the Father. 00:04:48.800 --> 00:05:05.600 They are only interested in the authority that comes from below, the authority which is given to them from the approval of the crowds, or at least the docility and the compliance of the crowds as they lie and deceive those who are beneath them. 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:24.879 Jesus exposes this in them, and he makes plain that if you are more interested in the approval of the crowds and the power that you gain from that, and you are not truly seeking the authority that comes from heaven, which is given to Jesus, then he will not describe to you the source of his authority. 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:29.279 He will not engage with you in a conversation that takes place at this level. 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:43.839 So Jesus continues after that interaction, and he refuses to answer them as to where his authority comes from because they refuse to answer him with regards to another issue regarding John the Baptist's authority. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:46.560 They continue their dialogue. 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:51.439 But well, well, actually, the dialogue comes to an end, and Jesus just begins teaching in the temple. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:54.399 Now, this is the ordinary pattern of Jesus' ministry. 00:05:54.560 --> 00:06:11.439 Jesus' ministry, when we think about it, we think of it as primarily a ministry of healing or casting out demons or feeding 5,000 or 4,000 or calming storms or all those sorts of things, which are it is, you know, he did that stuff. 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:17.839 But the way that Jesus describes his own ministry is primarily one of preaching and teaching. 00:06:18.160 --> 00:06:29.279 So all of those other things that he does are to the end of preaching and teaching the kingdom of God, the coming kingdom which he has come to inaugurate. 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:36.720 And so Jesus begins teaching in the temple on Tuesday, and he begins to teach them in parables. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:45.199 So after this interaction with the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees, Jesus just begins teaching in the temple and he starts telling a parable. 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:56.879 In chapter four of Mark, we get a long series of Jesus' parables, and it's interesting that here, when he comes to Jerusalem, he returns to this practice of preaching in parables. 00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:03.759 When Jesus taught in parables before in this book, he describes why it is he teaches in parables. 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:10.319 When he is talking, and it describes these sort of two different groups of people that Jesus is interacting with. 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:14.160 The first group is his inner circle of his disciples. 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:16.800 And with them he speaks more plainly. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:21.040 Things are not couched in parables, as when he speaks to the crowds. 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:24.480 When he speaks to the crowds, he speaks in parables. 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:31.120 And he speaks in parables because the parable itself is like a filter. 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:36.000 It's a tool that does a sorting for those who are listening. 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:44.319 There are those who will understand and receive the teaching, and there are those who will not understand and will reject the teaching. 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:46.639 And the parable serves as that tool. 00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:51.920 We understand it because the first parable that Jesus tells in this book is the parable of the sower. 00:07:52.480 --> 00:08:02.319 And he describes that the sower is the one who goes out and he sows the seed, and it lands on rocky ground, and it doesn't grow up on for on some of the ground that it lands on. 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:06.480 Some of the ground that it lands on grows up quickly, but then is choked out by thorns and thistles. 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:15.600 Other ground that it lands on is good soil, and it's taken in, and then it bears fruit tenfold, a hundredfold fruit that it bears. 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:18.560 And that shows us what the parables do. 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:20.480 He's scattering seed. 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:28.480 In some hearts it will be rejected, and in other hearts it will be taken in, and it will bear this incredible fruit. 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:48.399 Now, parables are we we often think of uh when I was learning uh Greek and Hebrew, they would often say that you're you have to remember that you're learning a language. 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:51.200 You're not learning a code to decipher. 00:08:51.679 --> 00:08:58.559 Because I often think of it as like, okay, this word equals this word in English, and this word equals this word in English. 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:05.200 And if I just learn the code, then I'm able to break the code and I'll know what each of these words mean in my own language. 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:06.879 But that's not the way a language works. 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:18.240 Languages are living and they have weird idiosyncrasies and things that that we say that don't really equal exactly what the words mean, but they have these uh different uh different meanings. 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:21.840 I was I said to my son yesterday, and then I thought, that's uh I don't really know why I say that. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:24.000 But I said, I wouldn't put it past me. 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:29.919 And we all know what that means, because he was like, we just got a new yard, not to brag. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:36.320 But I've what I've been doing a lot is just walking outside and looking at it. 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:38.639 Like a lot. 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:48.240 It's okay to do that because uh uh when uh God made the world, he ended each day by looking at it. 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:53.120 And so we are I would like to be more like my Heavenly Father. 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:56.960 And he keeps saying, Why do you keep looking at the sprinklers? 00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:58.720 Because I'm like, isn't it amazing? 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:01.600 It's like an eternal spring from the ground. 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:12.080 Anyway, I walked out to like get a water bottle or something that I'd forgotten outside, and JT said, Were you just out there looking at the lawn again? 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:13.440 And I said, I wouldn't put it past me. 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:18.080 The point of this is I wouldn't put it past me. 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:26.399 We all know exactly what that means, but if I were to treat that like a code, you'd be it would be like we'd I have no idea what James is saying there. 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:31.519 I wouldn't put it past me. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:35.759 I don't, those that's not what those words mean, but it is what those words mean. 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:46.559 Parables are like a language where you're not just saying like this symbol equals this, this symbol equals this, this symbol equals this, now we've deciphered it, we've cracked the code. 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:49.360 It's it's something that you catch. 00:10:50.320 --> 00:11:03.919 And once you start to catch it, then you begin to intuit the meaning here, because there is a meaning in these parables that is that is very rich, and it that is beyond the code that is that is able to be deciphered. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:10.000 And because you see, oh, this truth, there's a sense in which it must be communicated in this story. 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:19.360 Because if it weren't communicated in this story, while we might have gotten the principles of it correct, we would have missed the heart that is being communicated here. 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:31.440 And so what I want us to try and do this morning is when we hear this parable about a man who owns a vineyard, and then he leases this vineyard out to tenants. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:41.360 And then when he goes to collect the fruit that he deserves from this vineyard, the ten the servants that he goes to collect are harmed and killed. 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:46.320 And then he finally sends his son, who is killed by the tenants. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:50.399 And we see those laid out. 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:57.679 I want us to be able to see in that story that there is a heart here that is being communicated, and I want us to catch it. 00:11:57.919 --> 00:12:02.960 And when we catch it, I want it to bear fruit in our lives as we catch that story. 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:13.279 So don't think of this like a code to break, although later on I will use the word cipher to describe the scripture reference that he gives, but it's it unlocks the fullness of the meaning. 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:17.679 So, Jesus is teaching in parables. 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:20.960 Let's look at the one that he begins to teach in the temple. 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:22.480 Mark 12 1. 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:24.320 And he began to speak to them in parables. 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:40.399 See, I told you, that's exactly a man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it, and dug a pit for the wine press, and built a tower, and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:43.039 This is a familiar setting. 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:49.200 It's a business model that any of the original hearers would have been able to easily intuit. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:51.759 They know this strategy. 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:54.720 This is or this is how many of them would have made a living. 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:57.039 This is just ordinary sharecropping. 00:12:57.279 --> 00:13:15.200 I own the land, I get it set up, I plant the vineyard, I put all that's needed there for it, a watchtower for its protection, I cleared it of the stones, I built a hedge around it so that it's set out set apart from the rest of the wilderness and would be able to be protected. 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:17.600 And then I put tenants in charge of it. 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:22.399 And those tenants will farm and to intend to the vineyard. 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:31.120 And at the end of the season, when it is time for harvest, I, as the owner, will receive a portion of what the tenants harvested. 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:34.159 They will receive a portion, I will receive a portion. 00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:39.519 They receive a portion for working it, I receive a portion as the owner and the one who set it in motion. 00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:41.519 This is an ordinary business model. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:49.360 This would be like if we were to tell a story, a parable today, and say it's like a parable of uh somebody desired to open a restaurant. 00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:59.759 And in desiring to open this restaurant, they uh got their business plan in order and they took it to a bank and they uh laid out the details of this restaurant in front of the bank. 00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:07.039 It's uh uh a fast casual restaurant, and Tennyson Street could use another one of those. 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:16.000 And it's on Tennyson Street, and so it will we will charge more than you could ever possibly imagine paying for a sandwich. 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:24.240 But then you will get the people will become used to it, and their sandwich expectations will be forever shifted. 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:27.600 So that type of story we would understand. 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:29.759 They they understand it in the same way. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:35.440 The practical reality, what the terms are, what the uh uh stakes of the game are. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:48.240 Tenants work the land, and then for working the land that is not their own, they receive the fruits of their labor and then give a portion of the fruits of their labor to the owner of the land. 00:14:49.600 --> 00:15:08.000 But they would also understand that this is they they wouldn't just understand this at a practical level, they would also understand it at a level of what it means when someone is teaching in the temple and they are describing a parable that involves a vineyard. 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:13.360 When they are teaching in the temple, they will understand what the vineyard means. 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:23.440 And that's because the vineyard is a consistent description throughout the scriptures of the people of Israel. 00:15:23.679 --> 00:15:28.639 This is an image that the scriptures often return to to describe the people of Israel. 00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:47.200 So in Hosea, for example, the nation of Israel is described as wild grapes, which a man found and they were wild and in a sense not producing the fruit that they ought to have, but the Lord finds them and he domesticates them and makes them fruitful. 00:15:48.480 --> 00:16:01.120 In Psalm 80, Israel is described as the vine which was taken out of Egypt and then replanted that it might grow and bear much fruit. 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:12.480 But I think the particular scripture which Jesus has in the back of his mind as he is describing this parable is in Isaiah chapter five. 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:23.759 In Isaiah chapter five, the nation of Israel is also described as a vineyard, and it says this Isaiah five, verses one and two, let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard. 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:28.080 My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:33.679 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines. 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:44.320 He built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it, and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:57.679 Here's the story of Israel, and it shows us the simple reality that the purpose of a vineyard is to bear fruit. 00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:01.919 This is not a wild insight. 00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:12.640 You don't have to be John Maynard Keynes to say that the reason that you have a vineyard is so that it would bear fruit. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:22.720 So the purpose of the vineyard that was planted, which is Israel, the purpose for the Lord is that it would bear much fruit. 00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:26.960 Now, what what's being referred to there? 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:30.160 What does it mean for a vineyard to bear fruit? 00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:33.359 What does it mean for the people of Israel to bear fruit? 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:40.480 Well, you can think of this at almost every level because the the Lord describes the fruitfulness at all sorts of levels. 00:17:40.559 --> 00:18:00.880 It is that they would be, as was commanded in the very beginning to Adam and Eve in the garden, that they would be fruitful and multiply, so that they would grow as a nation, and that the ones who grew up, the children among them, would be told the stories of their people, so that they would be taught, you are the ones who God rescued. 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:08.400 You are the part of the vine that was transplanted out of Egypt and placed here by the grace of God alone. 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:11.839 You are the ones that have the promises of the Lord. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:16.880 And so, as they as a people multiplied, then they would be bearing much fruit. 00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:48.079 But the fruit of the Lord is also described to us in the scriptures as those characteristics which we are to embody as the people of the Lord, that they would be a people of justice, that they would be a people of mercy, that they would be full of love for the Lord and love for one another, they would be patient with one another, they would be kind, that as you got to know them, you would see a goodness expressed, there'd be a generosity expressed, and that that would be their fruitfulness in the world. 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:51.359 And you can see how those would go together. 00:18:51.599 --> 00:19:12.400 That that type of characteristics embodied by these people, as they are obedient to the Lord, it would be blessed by the Lord, and they would become a people of peace and love for one another, and they would be very fruitful, beyond the fruitfulness of any other nations, as the Lord would bless their obedience to him. 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:26.079 And so just as a vineyard has an end, which is fruitfulness, so too do the people of God have an end, which is bearing fruit in glorifying him. 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:32.880 And the Lord receives back the fruitfulness of his people that he might be more glorified. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:37.200 So Jesus lays out ordinary stakes. 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:40.160 He says, Look, you kind of know this, don't you? 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:46.720 You probably think you've heard this sermon before, like, oh, he's doing the Isaiah 5 bit. 00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:53.279 You know, where we're the we're the people of the Lord were were meant to bear fruit for him. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:58.799 But this story becomes very strange. 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:13.279 In Mark 12, 2 through 3, as he returns, he says, When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:19.039 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:32.160 The servant would have been uh uh vested with the authority of the owner, and he's sent back to the vineyard that he owns, and he says, Hey guys, it's the end of the season. 00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:34.559 Uh, hope it was a great harvest. 00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:37.279 We're here to collect our share of the harvest. 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:43.440 But the tenants, when they see the servant come, they do not give him the fruitfulness. 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:50.240 Instead, they beat the tenant and they send him back empty-handed to the owner. 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:56.640 The purpose of the vineyard for the owner is that it would bear fruit for the owner. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:06.640 The tenants are ensuring that the owner will see none of the fruit that is born of the vineyard. 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:13.119 Now the story escalates and gets stranger and stranger. 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:16.799 It continues in Mark 12, 4 through 5. 00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:26.240 Again, he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:37.440 And he sent another, and him they killed, and so with many others, some they beat, and some they killed. 00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:54.799 Now the the people that are listening to the story, we're sort of familiar with these these parables, and so I want us to try and hear it as though we're hearing it for the first time, because this is a very strange story. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:59.599 He's sending his servants, and the first one is beaten and then sent. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.440 Back empty-handed. 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:12.799 But then he sends another servant, and that servant is struck on the head and then is shamed by the tenants, also to return empty-handed. 00:22:13.039 --> 00:22:18.880 Then the next servant that he sends is murdered by the tenants. 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:25.359 And then it continues and says, and so with many others. 00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:30.160 Some they beat and some they killed. 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:36.319 Now let's picture this owner. 00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:44.559 He's at the coffee shop in the morning and he's talking with some other landowners, as landowners are wont to do. 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:47.039 Talk about us, proletariat. 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:57.279 And they are saying he's saying, I'm having trouble collecting from uh this one property that I own here at the end of the season. 00:22:57.519 --> 00:22:58.640 I'm getting no fruit from it. 00:22:58.799 --> 00:22:59.599 He says, Well, what happened? 00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:04.240 He says, Well, I sent a first servant and they beat him and they sent him back empty-handed. 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:06.480 He says, Oh man, so what did you get what did you do? 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:09.839 Did you go back and get your men together and go take the place? 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:10.480 No. 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:14.559 I sent another servant and they beat him too. 00:23:15.359 --> 00:23:20.960 And the friend says, Okay, uh, you know, maybe give him another shot, I guess, two times. 00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:22.319 Yeah, so what happened after that? 00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:25.680 Well, I sent a third and they murdered him. 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:26.720 Okay. 00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:34.960 So then you got your guys together and you took back your land and you got the fruitfulness of the land and you drove them off, right? 00:23:35.279 --> 00:23:36.799 No, not yet. 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:41.200 I uh I sent a lot a lot more of my servants. 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:43.920 You sent a lot more of your servants. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:45.440 I I sent a lot more. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:48.240 How did how did it go? 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:54.160 Some uh they beat and some they killed. 00:23:55.119 --> 00:23:59.759 The other guy is thinking, what is why is he doing this? 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:08.960 Why it's why do you continue sending servants to these tenants? 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:14.079 You're you hear's a way to think about it. 00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:25.839 You had a deal, and the deal was you give them the land, they tend it, you get the fruitfulness of it. 00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:29.119 They keep some and you get some. 00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:31.599 That's what the deal is. 00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:39.039 They are not operating within the terms of that deal. 00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:45.519 But you are still treating them like they're just your tenants. 00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:51.279 These are not your tenants, these are your enemies. 00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:55.039 These are no longer people that you're in a deal with. 00:24:55.279 --> 00:25:00.880 That old deal that you formed at the beginning of the season, it's broken now, don't you see? 00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:06.480 Now they are not your tenants, they are thieves and robbers. 00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:13.359 These are no longer tenants, these are invaders who have stolen from you. 00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:22.079 So what you need to go do is you need to drive them off the land, and you should kill them for the people that you that they have killed of yours. 00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:38.640 Why are you still operating within the terms of the deal that you had made in the beginning, you fool, when you can so easily see they have broken the deal. 00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:43.279 They are not operating as tenants anymore. 00:25:47.599 --> 00:25:50.000 God is the owner of the land. 00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:53.920 The Israelites are the tenants. 00:25:58.240 --> 00:26:18.000 The servants that the Lord is continually sending, the servants that the owner is sending are the prophets that the Lord has sent to his people over and over again, that they might bear witness to, collect the fruitfulness of the people of Israel. 00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:26.880 And each of the prophets that have been sent to the nation of Israel have been humiliated, shamed, or murdered. 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:32.160 And they have said, We are not your tenants. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:36.720 None of our fruitfulness belongs to you. 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:43.440 You may have placed us in this land, it may be yours, but we will give none of it to you. 00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:51.119 And so the prophets are sent over hundreds of years, and they are murdered. 00:27:10.960 --> 00:27:23.119 He says this in Matthew 23, 37, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. 00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:31.359 How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing. 00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:40.000 Christ's parable continues. 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:48.000 But the absurdity of it reaches an unimaginable depth. 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:51.200 In Mark twelve, six. 00:27:56.880 --> 00:27:59.119 All the servants have been sent. 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:04.960 But he had still one other to send. 00:28:06.799 --> 00:28:08.319 A beloved son. 00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:15.200 Finally, he sent him to them, saying, They will respect my son. 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:24.240 The listeners to this parable would have gasped. 00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:45.680 You expend all of your servants, they have shown you over and over and over again that they do not respect your ownership of the land. 00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:57.039 That the deal and the promises that you had entered into with them, they will not honor. 00:28:57.839 --> 00:29:01.359 And whatever you send them, they will kill. 00:29:05.279 --> 00:29:08.960 So they hear, the listeners would have heard the story. 00:29:09.359 --> 00:29:12.960 I had still one other, the owner would say. 00:29:13.759 --> 00:29:15.279 A beloved son. 00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:24.480 And they would think, like any listener of a story like this would think, they would think of their own children. 00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:29.680 And they would think of what they were sending them into. 00:29:31.839 --> 00:29:33.920 And they would consider that conversation. 00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:43.359 Hey, this land that is ours, that we need the fruitfulness from, you you can see there are no servants left. 00:29:44.480 --> 00:29:46.640 There is no one else that can be sent. 00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:50.799 Only you can go. 00:29:53.039 --> 00:30:01.440 And the son, knowing what he is walking towards, in obedience to the father, says, okay, well, I will go. 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:04.720 Perhaps they will respect me. 00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:18.880 We should be thinking, why is the owner sending his son? 00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:26.160 Why is the owner sending his son to these tenants? 00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:29.519 They are not tenants. 00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:32.160 They are enemies. 00:30:32.720 --> 00:30:36.640 Why is he still treating them like their tenants? 00:30:39.119 --> 00:30:40.640 Mark twelve, seven through eight. 00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:44.079 But those tenants said to one another, This is the heir. 00:30:44.319 --> 00:30:48.000 Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. 00:30:48.240 --> 00:30:51.839 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 00:30:54.079 --> 00:30:57.440 The conclusion is so glaringly obvious. 00:30:59.599 --> 00:31:03.119 He sent the son, they acted the same. 00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:06.880 You know, it's one thing to give a benefit of the doubt. 00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:12.400 Oh, they didn't think that first servant really represented me. 00:31:13.279 --> 00:31:16.079 But this is not a benefit of the doubt situation. 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:24.960 There's a sense in which the owner of the land has no excuse for not knowing what would happen. 00:31:26.319 --> 00:31:31.200 And we should be thinking, why would he do that? 00:31:32.640 --> 00:31:34.480 How foolish could he be? 00:31:34.720 --> 00:31:38.559 Yes, they saw him, they didn't respect him as the son. 00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:47.519 In fact, they thought there was some benefit of him of him being the son, that they might kill him, and the heir would be gone, and then the land would simply be theirs. 00:31:47.759 --> 00:31:55.200 Now it's foolish because in killing the heir, the owner is still alive. 00:31:56.319 --> 00:31:58.559 So they haven't actually gotten rid of their problem. 00:31:58.960 --> 00:32:02.079 But you can tell these people are enemies. 00:32:02.720 --> 00:32:04.240 They are not tenants. 00:32:04.880 --> 00:32:14.960 All of the promises that have been made with them now, in the way they ought to be dealt with now, are irrelevant. 00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:17.440 It doesn't matter how the deal started. 00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:20.319 Look at what they've shown you to be. 00:32:22.480 --> 00:32:23.839 Mark 12, 9. 00:32:26.319 --> 00:32:29.519 Jesus says, What will the owner of the vineyard do? 00:32:30.799 --> 00:32:35.119 He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:45.279 Again in Matthew, when this parable is referenced, the question is answered by the people that Jesus is teaching. 00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:49.759 When he asks them, what will the owner of the vineyard do? 00:32:50.000 --> 00:33:00.319 The people are the ones that say in Matthew, he will come and destroy the tenants, and he'll give the vineyard to others. 00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:03.759 This is the obvious answer. 00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:13.279 Jesus, of course, recognizes that it's the obvious answer, and he agrees with them, which is why it can be recorded in Mark that Jesus says this very thing. 00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:18.640 He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:24.880 There are two things on full display in this parable. 00:33:25.759 --> 00:33:41.279 One is the absurd, incomprehensible, surpasses understanding the patience of the Lord. 00:33:42.880 --> 00:33:46.960 How many servants would he send? 00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:50.160 How many would he see be destroyed? 00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:59.519 And yet he continues treating them according to the deal that he made with them. 00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:03.599 Unthinkable patience. 00:34:03.839 --> 00:34:09.280 A patience that when told in a story like this, it just looks like foolishness. 00:34:12.480 --> 00:34:17.760 But is not it is not an unlimited patience. 00:34:19.920 --> 00:34:26.880 There is a final marker, which is the sun. 00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:34.400 When the sun is killed, the nation will be destroyed. 00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:40.239 When the sun is killed, finally it will be beyond a shadow of a doubt. 00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:42.000 And what will the owner of the land do? 00:34:42.239 --> 00:34:44.159 He will destroy those tenants. 00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:48.960 And he will give the land to a new people. 00:34:52.079 --> 00:35:06.159 Now, this story in that sense for the nation of Israel, there's a sense in which the story of what's happening and what Jesus is saying could have been perceived by almost everyone listening. 00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:12.800 Because he's saying something that's just very similar to what Isaiah says in chapter five. 00:35:13.519 --> 00:35:19.840 I came to you seeking fruit, and you disrespected me. 00:35:20.480 --> 00:35:22.800 You murdered the ones I sent to care for you. 00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:27.519 I continued acting within the terms of the covenant that I had made with you. 00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:32.320 The Lord comes to his people and he says, I'm your God, you're my people. 00:35:32.719 --> 00:35:35.199 This is the nature of our relating to one another. 00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:42.079 I will give to you all that you need to be fruitful, and in your fruitfulness you will glorify and honor me. 00:35:42.559 --> 00:35:47.280 And then he returns to them over and over again, and they say, We are not your people. 00:35:47.440 --> 00:35:50.079 We're not your people, you're not our God. 00:35:51.039 --> 00:35:58.480 And God says, I'm I'm going to continue treating you as though I am your God and you are my people. 00:35:58.559 --> 00:36:01.440 And he does it over and over again. 00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:10.400 And anyone looking on over the centuries, if such a perspective were possible, they would look and they would say, This God is a fool. 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:18.320 Why is he continuing to treat them as though they are his people? 00:36:18.559 --> 00:36:23.599 They have shown over and over again they are not his people. 00:36:24.960 --> 00:36:28.800 They do not see him as their God. 00:36:30.079 --> 00:36:41.840 Why is he continuing to act in the terms of the deal that he had established when that plainly no longer applies? 00:36:44.639 --> 00:36:47.119 That's the question that remains. 00:36:48.960 --> 00:36:52.159 That's the absurdity that we're able to see in the faithfulness of the Lord. 00:36:52.239 --> 00:36:58.719 But then there's still this question that's almost that's like this mystery that Jesus places in the parable. 00:36:59.119 --> 00:37:00.880 Why did he send the son? 00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:04.159 Why would he send the son? 00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:18.400 Why would anyone in their right mind send their son to these tenants, knowing that he will be killed? 00:37:20.239 --> 00:37:30.239 This is where Jesus provides this verse from Psalm 118, which unlocks the meaning of the parable. 00:37:32.079 --> 00:37:37.440 He says, Have you not read Mark 12, 10 through 11? 00:37:38.880 --> 00:37:43.039 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:37:44.320 --> 00:37:48.880 This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. 00:37:53.519 --> 00:38:00.800 And you're thinking, okay, that kind of answers our question of why he would send the sun. 00:38:02.559 --> 00:38:09.760 Jesus says that the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:38:11.360 --> 00:38:16.880 This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. 00:38:22.559 --> 00:38:25.920 Mark 12, 12, he shows us the people who miss it. 00:38:27.280 --> 00:38:38.559 And they were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them, so they left him and went away. 00:38:40.079 --> 00:38:41.679 Do you see them miss it? 00:38:43.199 --> 00:38:48.159 Do you see them miss the key that unlocks the question of the parable? 00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:54.880 Why would he send the son to be rejected? 00:38:57.840 --> 00:39:05.840 Because the son who is rejected will become the cornerstone on which the new kingdom will be built. 00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:09.840 Now think of this from the Pharisees' perspective. 00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:11.760 What have they just learned? 00:39:13.840 --> 00:39:34.480 Our only hope of maintaining our ownership of the land, our ownership of the people, is if we kill him, the one who, by his preaching and by his teaching, threatens the validity of our ownership and comes in and proclaims this is not your kingdom. 00:39:35.039 --> 00:39:37.360 This is not bound by your traditions. 00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:40.400 This is the Lord's kingdom, the father's. 00:39:40.719 --> 00:39:45.360 It is bound by him and by his traditions, and he will have it back. 00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:48.320 He demands fruitfulness from it. 00:39:48.639 --> 00:39:58.239 Well, the only way that we can maintain our perceived ownership of the kingdom is if we kill the one who's undermining it. 00:39:58.800 --> 00:40:00.960 But what have they just been told? 00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:11.280 The one that they reject, the stone that they reject will become the cornerstone. 00:40:12.480 --> 00:40:21.760 So if they had eyes to see it, what they might have been able to see was if we don't kill him, we lose the kingdom. 00:40:22.480 --> 00:40:26.079 If we kill him, we lose it even more. 00:40:26.800 --> 00:40:29.199 This is what Jesus has explained to them. 00:40:31.440 --> 00:40:33.039 He is the Son. 00:40:34.960 --> 00:40:36.559 He is the one who is sent. 00:40:36.719 --> 00:40:39.440 Now, why could they not have imagined this? 00:40:39.760 --> 00:40:44.159 Because who can imagine resurrection? 00:40:46.480 --> 00:40:54.400 That's why the psalm that he quotes said, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:40:54.639 --> 00:41:00.159 I want you to recognize that that is technically impossible. 00:41:03.280 --> 00:41:08.880 That's not I I built a playhouse for my daughter, my backyard, you guys. 00:41:11.599 --> 00:41:14.880 It is a walled garden, as in the beginning. 00:41:31.599 --> 00:41:40.239 And there's a uh you unfold that this thing and it becomes like a playhouse. 00:41:40.320 --> 00:41:40.719 You know? 00:41:41.039 --> 00:41:43.119 Ver it's great engineering. 00:41:43.679 --> 00:41:56.639 If I take that thing and I say, I'm gonna reject this part that unfolds into the playhouse before I put the roof and stuff on it, then that part's not a part of the playhouse. 00:42:02.400 --> 00:42:07.119 We're familiar with this phrase that the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:42:07.280 --> 00:42:14.079 And it's like, okay, yeah, that's one of those Bible things where it's just weird Bible words and we all pretend we know what it means. 00:42:14.239 --> 00:42:17.679 But I want you to recognize just the plain absurdity. 00:42:19.280 --> 00:42:23.519 If the builders reject it, it's not in the building. 00:42:23.760 --> 00:42:26.159 Here's a like absurdity. 00:42:27.119 --> 00:42:30.079 If you die, you don't win. 00:42:31.280 --> 00:42:35.679 If you die, you're not the king anymore. 00:42:36.880 --> 00:42:41.679 One way to not be in charge is to be dead. 00:42:42.639 --> 00:42:47.679 If your enemies kill you, you're the one who lost. 00:42:50.400 --> 00:42:59.199 But the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:09.679 That's why the verse says, This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. 00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:13.679 How could it be anyone else's doing? 00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:37.360 The only one who can die and be victorious is the one who can make something come from nothing, is the one who can speak into the formless and empty void and say, Let there be light, and the light would shine. 00:43:38.960 --> 00:43:47.360 The one who can look into death and bring about resurrection, because death could not hold him. 00:43:47.599 --> 00:43:53.440 So why is it that the Pharisees cannot see that they've plainly been checkmated? 00:43:53.599 --> 00:43:56.000 Heads I win, tails you lose. 00:43:56.159 --> 00:44:05.039