The Parable of the Tenants of the Vinyard (Mark 12:1-12)

 

The Parable of the Tenants of the Vinyard (Mark 12:1-12)

How is a person's life evaluated? It is fruit. Good fruit, righteous fruit, the fruit of heaven. It is the fruit of love, joy, and peace. It is the fruit of forgiveness and long patience. If we do not bear good fruit, we bear bad fruit. Hatred, complaints, anxiety, and worry are bad fruit.

In Mark 12:1-12, Jesus taught the message of repentance in response to God's earnest love through the parable of the tenants of the vineyard. God planted the vineyard so that it could bear good fruit and went away to a distant country. God comes to settle accounts with the tenants to see if they have borne good fruit. This is because God is the owner of the vineyard.

God Planted the Vineyard

Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.” (Mark 12:1)

God chose Abraham and made him the source of blessing (Genesis 12:1-3). As He promised, God chose and called his descendants, making them a vineyard that bears the choicest good fruit. God planted a vineyard that could bear good fruit, put a wall around it, and built a winepress and a watchtower. Everything was fully provided. Then, He entrusted the vineyard to the tenants—namely, Israel—and went to a distant country.

"I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile ridge. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit." (Isaiah 5:1-2)

Bearing fruit is important. We must bear good fruit. Those who bear bad fruit face judgment. However, God first prepared all the environments so that they could bear good fruit. After eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, God first sought out Adam, who was hiding from His presence. And He promised to send the Christ among the offspring of the woman to crush Satan's power of sin and save them (Genesis 3:15). Likewise, God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us so that we might reach salvation and store up the fruits of heaven (Romans 8:32).

Fruit refers to the fruit of the Spirit, and it is stored up in heaven. It is the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, and forgiveness (Galatians 5:22-23). Things on earth cannot become fruit because they exist for a moment and then vanish away. Jesus said that if you receive human recognition, praise, and glory in this world, there is no reward in heaven (Matthew 6:1-4). Whatever is done by faith has a reward in heaven, but things done otherwise have no reward.

The owner of the vineyard went far away to a distant country. This implies that it takes a considerable amount of time until the owner returns. That time refers to the period while we live on this earth, lifespan. God gave everyone an equal opportunity to bear good fruit. However, not everyone bears good fruit. Therefore, we must be careful not to bear bad fruit.

This is because the owner will surely return and settle accounts based on the fruit. Life never happens by accident and ends with death. After all deeds are finished, the day of God's righteous and fearful accounting arrives (Hebrews 9:27). This world is heading toward that day—the end, when everything is settled. The moment each person dies, they stand before the judgment seat of God to receive recompense according to what they have done (Romans 2:6). Therefore, we must always examine what kind of fruit we are bearing right now.

Sending Servants to Receive the Harvest

“At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.” (Mark 12:2-5)

The owner, who had journeyed far away to another country, wanted to conduct an accounting by sending a servant. Surprisingly, however, the tenants not only failed to welcome the servant and give him the produce, but they seized the servant, beat him severely, and sent him away empty-handed. Although the owner should have rightly punished them, he sent another servant, and still another. Yet astonishingly, the tenants consistently rejected, insulted, killed, and persecuted the owner's servants.

God sent prophets like Moses and Elijah and gave His word. He sent many prophets such as Jonah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Micah, Haggai, and Malachi, letting them hear the word of God. The prophets took the words of God's truth and delivered them to kings, officials, priests, and elders. However, they hated listening to the prophets' words, beat them, imprisoned them, and even killed them.

They wanted to hear only words that sounded pleasing to their ears. They wanted to hear favorable things, but hated prophesying disasters (1 Kings 22:8). They hated hearing God's words rebuking sin and telling them to turn back. Following their own wills and desires, they acted according to their own pleasure and regarded God's word as interference. They abandoned God's love, chased after worthless idols, distancing themselves far away from God. This way, they treated God's prophets recklessly.

“Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:36-40)

They had not the slightest gratitude or feeling of recompense toward the owner's grace. They now considered the vineyard their own because of their sweat and labor. They were shamelessly ungrateful and lacking in appreciation. Despite this, the owner continued to send servants. This was because he wanted them to turn their hearts, respect the owner, and offer the proper produce.

This is the heart of God the Father. God wants no one to perish, but everyone to come to eternal salvation (2 Peter 3:9). Therefore, God did not instantly judge the ungrateful tenants, but sent other servants. When the criminal crucified alongside Jesus asked the Lord to remember him when He came into His kingdom, God even bestowed the grace of salvation upon him (Luke 23:42). God's love offers the gift of eternal life to anyone who turns back, comes to the Lord, and receives His mercy (John 3:16).

Sending the Son He Loved

“He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.” (Mark 12:6-8)

The owner finally sent his beloved son. He expected that the tenants would respect the son because he was the owner's son and offer the produce. Instead, believing that the son was the heir and that killing him would make the vineyard theirs, the tenants killed him and threw him outside. They trampled the owner's final expectation and hope underfoot. They completely failed to comprehend the owner's loving heart.

The tenants deeply misunderstood. They lost the fundamental reason and purpose for which they were allowed to work in the vineyard. In fact, our life, property, health, and the joys of life come from our heavenly Father. A person comes naked from the womb and departs as naked as they came; the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away (Job 1:21). We own nothing. From the air we breathe to all kinds of vegetables, grains, and fruits, they grow and are harvested because God causes the sun and rain to come down from heaven.

For a person who does not know their place and try to take everything is what Satan the devil does. Forgetting his status as a created being, Satan rebelled, wanting to exalt himself above God (Isaiah 14:13). God cursed Satan, who disobeyed with an impure heart, and a day of judgment is prepared for him (Revelation 20:10). Likewise, woe to anyone who does not respect God and tries to make themselves the master.

God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up as a sacrificial offering on the cross. This is so that believers may gain eternal life through the blood of Jesus Christ. God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). This was accomplished according to God's eternal purpose formulated before the ages. To save people trapped in darkness under the shackles of the devil, the ruler of the kingdom of the air, He sent His one and only Son.

God's love is painful and patient. It is to save people who have become like the blind—trapped in ignorance and misunderstanding, unable to see ahead—so that they may gain eternal life. God is like the father who goes out to the edge of the village to wait for the return of his son, who left home, squandered all his wealth, and reached a tragic state of trying to fill his stomach with the pods the pigs ate (Luke 15:20). However, if anyone hears God's word, responds, repents, and turns back, He opens the gates of heaven and pours out eternal life.

What Will the Owner of the Vineyard Do?

“What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away. (Mark 12:9-12)

Woe to those who do not know God's love, stubbornly resist to the end, and go their own way. However, Jesus was rejected by His own people, condemned to a death sentence, and lifted high on a cross. God raised His Son—whom people rejected as completely useless—from the dead, making Him Lord and King of kings over all (Philippians 2:9-11).

This is truly marvelous. Stubborn people want to achieve their own will, but in the end, everything is accomplished according to God's will. God is love. Earnestly desiring that people enter into His holy love, He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up. There is no sin or transgression that falls outside of God's love. However, if someone persistently refuses to accept the Lord's holy love, the corresponding woe will befall them.

When and how do we bear fruit? It is a process that takes a lifetime. Yet, at the same time, we bear fruit right now and continue to bear it. This is the ongoing growth process in God toward attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. To bear fruit, a branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine (John 15:4). For a branch to remain in the vine, it must be cleansed by the Lord's word (John 15:3). Because we have been cleansed by Christ's blood, we remain in Him, and the Lord makes His home in us (John 15:5). Remaining in Christ is the way to bear much fruit. Remaining in the Lord means following the path that the Lord walked, the way of the cross!

Amen!

August 2, 2026

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Scripture quotes are from the NIV.