16 

The Rejected Cornerstone
(Mark 12:1–12) 

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. 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. They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” 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. (12:1–12)

Throughout history, skeptical unbelievers have claimed that Jesus was surprised by His unexpected rejection and death; that He was an unwitting, unwilling victim. Some who advocate that pernicious and false view imagine that Jesus was merely a sage; a philosopher who taught morality and ethics. To others Jesus was a revolutionary, a crusader for social and political justice whose attempt to incite a revolution against Rome went horribly wrong. Managing to antagonize both the Jewish and Roman authorities, Jesus quite unintentionally got Himself executed.

But that blasphemous caricature of the Lord Jesus Christ as a well-intentioned but misguided martyr exists only in the minds of “those who are perishing” (1 Cor. 1:18). Jesus was no victim. Neither the Romans nor the Jews had the power to take His life. “I lay down My life so that I may take it again,” Jesus declared. “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father” (John 10:17–18). Far from being a surprise, His death was the very reason that Christ came into the world.

Fully anticipating His death, Jesus said, “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour” (John 12:27; cf. Luke 22:22). In Mark 8:31 Mark notes that “He began to teach [His followers] that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

After the transfiguration, as Jesus, Peter, James, and John “were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead” (Mark 9:9), thus affirming that He knew He would die and rise again. In verse 31 of that same chapter, He “was teaching His disciples and telling them, ‘The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later’” (cf. Matt. 26:2). As Jesus and those accompanying Him on His final journey to Jerusalem “were on the road going up to Jerusalem … He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, saying, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles’” (Mark 10:32–33). In verse 45 He added, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (cf. Heb. 2:14–15; 1 John 3:5, 8). He declared to Nicodemus, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14; cf. 8:28; 18:31–32).

At the Last Supper Jesus said of His betrayer, Judas Iscariot, “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born” (Matt. 26:24). After the resurrection, Jesus chided the two disciples on the road to Emmaus for not knowing His teaching concerning His death: “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:25–26). Not long afterward, He reminded the eleven remaining apostles, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day” (v. 46).

The apostolic preachers also taught that Jesus’ death was precisely God’s plan. In the first Christian sermon ever preached, Peter boldly declared, “This Man [Jesus], delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23). Later Peter added, “The things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled” (Acts 3:18). The apostles and the early believers prayed, “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur” (Acts 4:27–28). The apostle Paul told those gathered in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch,

Jesus told the parable recorded here by Mark on Wednesday of Passion Week, after the triumphal entry on Monday displayed His popularity and His assault on the temple on Tuesday displayed His power. Despite the crowds’ public show of enthusiasm for Him, the Lord knew that in two days it was the Father’s will that they would turn on Him and He would be crucified. The supernatural evil force behind His death would be the devil (Luke 22:53; John 13:2). The human driving force behind His execution would be the intense hatred of the Jewish religious leaders. They resented His popularity, seeing in it a grave threat to their own popularity, and consequently their influence, power, and prestige. They also hated Him for disrupting their lucrative business operations in the temple.

The leaders’ desire to murder Jesus and His understanding of His coming death come together in this parable. The Lord masterfully drew them in to this dramatic, unforgettable story graphically depicting their perverse, murderous craving, until they indicted themselves. Matthew (21:28–22:14) records three parables Jesus told on this occasion; Mark mentions only this one. This story traps the murderous leaders because it is designed to incite the listeners’ hostility against the tenant farmers and their outrageous, lethal behavior. As the hypocritical religious leaders became outraged at such wicked behavior, they indicted themselves.

Mark’s account of this incident divides logically into two sections: the parable and the interpretation.

THE PARABLE

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. 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. They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. (12:1–9)

As was the case with all of Jesus’ parables, this one used familiar imagery from everyday life to illustrate a spiritual principle. It draws on the familiar illustration of Israel as a vineyard depicted in Isaiah 5, from which the statement planted a vineyard and put a wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower is directly quoted (vv. 1–2). This man did everything possible to ensure the success of his vineyard. He removed the stones from it, no doubt using them to build a wall around it, dug a vat under the wine press to collect the juice from the crushed grapes, and built a tower to serve as a lookout post, offer shelter for the workers, and provide storage for seed and tools.

Having fully prepared his vineyard, the owner rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. Such an arrangement was common; an absentee landlord rented his land to tenant farmers for an agreed upon share of the harvest proceeds, which he would receive after the crop was gathered. When the initial harvest time (which may have been as long as five years after the vineyard was planted) came, he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. This was normal, expected behavior; the authorized representative came from the vineyard owner to receive the amount due the owner under the terms of the contract.

But in an unexpected response, the criminal vine-growers refused to pay the vineyard owner his agreed upon share. Instead, in violence they took his slave and beat (a form of the verb derō; lit., “to remove the skin,” vividly depicting the severity of the beating) him and sent him away empty-handed. This action would have shocked the sensibilities of Christ’s hearers. Such wicked behavior was outrageous cruelty, flagrant ingratitude, as well as open defiance of the terms of the contract to which they had agreed.

Undeterred by their defiant refusal to pay, the vineyard owner sent them another slave to collect. He, however, was treated no better than the first. The vine-growers wounded him in the head (lit.,“struck him in the head”; cf. the contemporary slang phrase “bashed his head in”) and treated him shamefully (from a verb that could also be translated “insult,” or “dishonor”).

The violence escalated dramatically when the vineyard owner sent a third slave—they killed him, evidently by stoning him to death (cf. Matt. 21:35). In an amazing display of patience with the hostile, recalcitrant vine-growers, the vineyard owner sent many others of his servants, but the vine-growers responded by beating some and killing others. Finally, in a remarkably generous display of patience and mercy toward those murderous tenants, the vineyard owner made one more appeal to them to honor what was right. He had one more representative to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” The Lord often introduced surprising elements into His stories, and this decision would certainly have been one of them. His hearers would have expected the owner of the vineyard to muster an armed force and, with the backing of the legal authorities, to exact justice by executing those who had slaughtered his servants (cf. Gen. 9:6). That he would instead send his son would have seemed shocking, inexplicable, unacceptable, even foolish to them.

Though the vineyard owner hoped the vine-growers would respect his own son, such was not to be the case; they had other plans. Realizing the opportunity that had been afforded them, those wicked vine-growers said to one another, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!” According to traditional law, land that remained unclaimed for three years would become the property of those working it. If they killed the heir, they reasoned, the land could be theirs.

Having chosen their vicious course, they took immediate action. They took the son and killed him and, disdaining even the common decency of a burial, threw him out of the vineyard, leaving his body to be consumed like roadkill. This vile act of killing was the final shock. Thus, when Jesus asked His audience, What will the owner of the vineyard do? with noble outrage they immediately responded, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons” (Matt. 21:41). Jesus agreed that the owner of the vineyard would come and destroy the vine-growers, and would give the vineyard to others, thus affirming their reaction.

At this point the full implications of the Lord’s story settled into clarity in the minds of the leaders and the people. They realized that Jesus had just led them to condemn themselves. By taking the side of the vineyard owner and condemning the tenants, they had passed sentence on themselves (see the discussion of v. 12 below). Backpedaling away from their self-declared sentence, they cried out, “May it never be!” (mē genoito; the strongest term of negation in the Greek language) (Luke 20:16).

THE INTERPRETATION

Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (12:10–11)

What caused the leaders and the people to recoil in horror from their condemnation of the vine-growers was their realization of what the elements in Christ’s story represented. The man who planted and owned the vineyard represents God (cf. Isa. 5:1–2); the vineyard represents Israel (cf. Isa. 5:7). The vine-growers represent the Jewish leaders, who were responsible as stewards of God’s possession to care for Israel. The journey taken by the owner represents Old Testament history, beginning with Abraham. During that time, God gave His people the law and ordained priests and scribes to teach it to them, so they could obey Him and properly worship Him. The harvest represents the time when God expected to see the spiritual fruit that should have resulted from Israel’s understanding of and obedience to the law. Instead of the fruit of obedient worship and love for God, Israel produced only the worthless grapes (Isa. 5:4) of rebellion and unrighteousness.

The slaves dispatched by the owner represent the Old Testament prophets from Moses to John the Baptist. They were sent by God to denounce Israel’s sin and call the nation to repentance, and so produce a fruitful harvest for God’s honor and glory.

But Israel mistreated and rejected those God-sent preachers. Commentator Alfred Plummer wrote,

The second-century Christian apologist Justin Martyr reports that Isaiah was sawn in half with a wooden saw (Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew, chap. 120; cf. Heb. 11:37). Jeremiah was constantly mistreated, falsely accused of treason (Jer. 37:13–16), thrown into a pit (Jer. 38:9), and, according to tradition, stoned to death by the Jews. Ezekiel faced similar hatred and hostility (cf. Ezek. 2:6); Amos was forced to flee for his life (Amos 7:10–13); Zechariah was rejected (Zech. 11:12); and Micaiah was struck in the face (1 Kings 22:24). Both the Old Testament (e.g., Jer. 7:23–26; 25:4–6) and the New Testament (e.g., Matt. 23:29–39; Luke 6:22–23; 11:49; 13:34; Acts 7:51–52) rebuked Israel for rejecting and persecuting the prophets.

By creating this riveting parable, Jesus made it clear to those who sought to murder Him that He knew exactly what they were planning to do to Him. He, God’s beloved Son and final messenger (Heb. 1:1–2), was represented by the owner’s son in the parable. Just as the owner’s son was not a slave but his son, so also Jesus was not merely another prophet but the Son of God. The leaders wanted control over the inheritance (Israel in the story). Therefore just as the tenants killed the owner’s son and threw him out of the vineyard, so also would the religious leaders reject and throw Jesus out of the nation, by turning Him over to the Romans, who would kill Him outside of Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders would prove themselves to be “sons of those who murdered the prophets” (Matt. 23:31). They would “fill up … the measure of the guilt of [their] fathers” (v. 32) by killing both the Son of God and the Christian preachers who would proclaim the truth about Him after His death. As a result, “upon [them would] fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom [they] murdered between the temple and the altar” (v. 35).

The vineyard owner’s destruction of the rebellious tenants depicts God’s judgment on Israel in A.D. 70. God was remarkably patient with His disobedient, rebellious people. The prior judgments on the nation had been centuries earlier, at the hands of the Assyrians on the northern kingdom (Israel) in 722 B.C., and the Babylonians on the southern kingdom (Judah) in 586 B.C. The coming destruction of Israel and especially Jerusalem was devastating. Tens of thousands of Jews were slaughtered, and thousands more sold into slavery. The temple was destroyed, bringing to an end the entire religious system of sacrifices, priests, rituals, and ceremonies that depended on it. The religious leaders of the nation had utterly failed in their stewardship, which was taken from them in a devastating judgment, as had happened centuries earlier when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.

Not only was the apostate leaders’ stewardship over God’s people taken away from them, it was also granted to the unlikeliest group imaginable—the apostles. Those twelve ordinary despised Galileans, not trained in the rabbinic schools and outside the religious establishment, would become the recipients and stewards of the divine revelation, which they would be enabled to disseminate to the world. Jesus had already given them authority over demons and disease, and to proclaim the gospel (Mark 6:7, 12–13). The next night, in the upper room, He would promise them the divine revelation through the Holy Spirit that would inspire them and their close associates to write the New Testament (John 14:26; 15:26–27; 16:13–14). For that reason, when the early church met, they studied the doctrine taught by the apostles (Acts 2:42; cf. 1 Cor. 4:1; Eph. 2:19–20; 3:1–5; 2 Peter 3:2). All who would subsequently hold to and proclaim the apostles’ doctrine follow in their line.

Although the parable had ended, the death of the Son could not be the end of the story. For the conclusion, Jesus transitioned from the metaphor of a vineyard to that of a building. His question, “Have you not even read this Scripture?” indicted the Jewish leaders for their ignorance of Scripture, for failing to understand the teaching of Psalm 118:22 that the stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes. The one whom they rejected would become the chief corner stone, a reference to the most important part of a stone building that set the foundation and the correct angles for all aspects of its construction. Jesus, the chief cornerstone in the eternal kingdom of God, supports the entire structure and symmetry of God’s glorious kingdom of salvation. As Peter boldly declared to the Sanhedrin, “He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone” (Acts 4:11; cf. Eph. 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6–7).

To Israel’s leaders in their ignorance, the stone did not measure up. It was a rejected stone, inadequate, imperfect, unacceptable, not to be the head of the corner, unable to support the whole structure and symmetry of God’s glorious kingdom. But they were dead wrong. Jesus is God’s cornerstone, the very one of whom was said two days earlier during the triumphal entry, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Mark 11:9). Matthew adds to the account a final word from the Lord: “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust” (Matt. 21:43–44). This was a terrible reiteration of crushing judgment. It was also a prophecy of the church, God’s new people composed of Jews and Gentiles born at Pentecost. Did not the psalmist have this in mind when he wrote, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it”? (Ps. 118:23–24).

THE RESPONSE

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. (12:12)

Enraged, the leaders were seeking to seize Jesus, for they understood at last that He spoke the parable against them. But the time in God’s plan for Him to die was still two days away, so they were not able to arrest Him, because they feared the people. Unlike most of Jesus’ parables, which hid truth from unbelievers (Matt. 13:10–13, 34–35), this audience understood the point of Jesus’ parable. They knew that their ancestors had persecuted and killed the prophets, and that their leaders sought to kill Jesus, but they were not yet ready to stop listening to Him (cf. Luke 21:37–38). Yet even they would soon turn against Him and cry out to the Roman governor Pilate, “Crucify Him!” (Matt. 27:22, 23) and, “His blood shall be on us and on our children!” (v. 25).

Though the religious leaders left Jesus and went away, they would soon be back in His presence physically (Mark 12:13). But having scorned the indicting judgment parable and rejected the chief cornerstone Himself, they were permanently damned. As was the case with them, Jesus is for all people, either the judgment stone for those who reject Him (Luke 20:18; Rom. 9:32–33a; 1 Peter 2:7–8), or the chief cornerstone of God’s salvation kingdom for those who believe in Him (1 Peter 2:6; Rom. 9:33b).