“Tenants in the
Lord’s Vineyard” Mark
SCRIPTURE INTRO: Last week of Jesus’ life one of increasing confrontation
as he made increasingly clear who he was, what he came to do.
INTRO: On my trip back from
I had a little bottle of orange juice and a little bottle of water that I had gotten on the first flight. I was saving them because I wanted to have something to drink while sitting in the terminal.
But as I was going through a security check, an airport security guard pointed
at my two little bottles and said, No, no, no! And pointed to a trash can.
I said, these have not been opened.
But he just shook his head, pointed at trash can.
And even though I considered those two little bottles mine,
and I had saved them and had plans for them—I was under his authority—
and he got to tell me what to do with them.
Authority and ownership are closely connected—we see that in this passage.
The chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders came to Jesus.
Men from Sanhedrin, governing counsel that controlled civil, religious life.
Nothing happened in
the
But the day before Jesus had overturned the tables in the
Had said that the place was an empty show of religion.
So they challenged him: By what authority do you do these things?
Who gave you this authority?
Jesus turned the table on them:
You answer my question: John’s baptism, from heaven or from men?
Jesus was not evading their question—time for that was over.
He was making and incredible claim.
Do you remember what we are told in Mark’s Gospel about Jesus’ baptism?
When John baptized Jesus, a voice came from heaven:
“You are my son, whom I love. With you I am well-pleased.”
So Jesus was saying: My authority?
I am the Son of God. Testified by the voice from heaven.
This is not your
I have not come to have my authority questioned. You work for me.
And then he goes right into the parable of the tenants in the vineyard.
And the vineyard
represents
He tells how God puts people in his vineyard as tenants, to work for him,
but how they try to take it over for themselves.
What’s the point of all of this?
Jesus Christ has absolute authority as the Son of God
You work for him. You are a tenant in his vineyard.
If you are a tenant, then there is one word you can’t use: Mine.
A Christian can’t really say my money, my time, my success, my children.
We are tenants, tending the vineyard that belongs to Christ.
We live and work under his authority.
You can fight against that. Like these men who came to Jesus, you can say:
God, you have no authority to tell me what to do with my things.
You can do that. Resist God’s authority and suffer for it.
Or you can submit to him. And say: Yes, all things are yours,
I am a tenant and steward of what you have given me.
Now—what do you want me to do?
But this is the problem—we don’t want to submit.
In all of our hearts we want to challenge God.
Just like these men said to Jesus, we want to say: By what authority?
We want to own the vineyard.
This is my life, this my bottle of orange juice,
and I’ll take it anywhere I please, I’ll drink it when I want to.
That is our heart.
So God, in his grace, teaches us submission.
He teaches us what it means to be happy tenants in his vineyard.
Look at this passage under two headings.
1. What happens when we resist God’s authority.
2. How God teaches us to submit to his authority.
MP#1 What happens when we resist God’s
authority.
Tim Keller once said that resisting God is like pulling a wagon without wheels.
You can do it. It works fine for a while. But eventually things break apart.
As you look at these men who challenged Jesus’ authority,
they were, on the outside, men who seemed to be working fine.
The religious and civic leaders of
But the Bible lets us look beneath the surface
and we see three effects of their resistance to God.
1. The first is fear.
Did you notice that twice we are told they were afraid.
After Jesus asked them the question about John the Baptist—
was his baptism from heaven or from men?
They discussed. We can’t say: From heaven, then Jesus will say—
then why didn’t you believe him.
But if we say from men . . . sentence is not finished.
But Mark adds—They feared the people because everyone held John a prophet.
Then, after Jesus told the parable of the tenants, it says that they looked for
a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd.
And remember from our last reading, after Jesus turned over
the tables in
they began looking for a way to kill him, for the feared him
because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
It’s clear from all of these comments that the thing these men feared most
was losing the acclaim and support of the people.
The positions that they held, the admiration, the deference—
that was most important to them—fear of losing that paralyzed them.
If you resist God’s authority. If you say to yourself:
My life is mine. My things are mine.
I’m not a tenant or a steward. The vineyard is mine!
This is what will always happen. Some thing will become so big to you,
and so much part of your identity, you will be dominated by fear of losing it.
If you say, like these men, the approval and admiration I get from people is mine!
Then your life will be dominated by the fear of what people think of you.
That hits too close to home for me.
Or if you say, my money is mine!
It will be the fear of losing your money, or not having enough.
Or if you say, my success is mine!
It will be the fear of failure.
Or if you say, my children are mine!
It will be the fear for your children’s emotional state.
Or if you say, my beauty is mine!
It will be the fear of aging and losing your youth.
But if you submit to God and say: I am a tenant. I work for God in his vineyard.
All the approval and admiration I get belongs to God,
and my money belongs to God, and my success, my children, my beauty—
he can do with them as He will—then you will not be as fearful of losing them.
So fear is one effect of resisting God’s authority.
2. Another effect is anger.
We were told, that after Jesus turned over the tables of the moneychangers,
and
made his proclamation that the
that they began looking for a way to kill him.
Here were men whose life work was to teach and administer the law of God.
They knew that the sixth commandment is Thou shalt not kill.
And yet their anger was so great, that they looked for a way to kill Jesus.
Even though their plans to kill him are not mentioned in this reading,
you can sense their anger as they challenged his authority,
and then as they tried to figure out a way to arrest him.
It seems strange at first that men who were so fearful could also be filled with
such rage—but the two go hand in hand.
Because when you resist God’s authority and claim your life as your own—
you not only fear losing the important things—
you become enraged at the people who block those things.
I was talking recently to a minister who is in a large church, large pastoral staff.
The senior minister retired so while the church was looking for a new pastor,
the elders decided it would be best for one of the associate pastors to preach
every Sunday. Thought it would be better for congregation than different ones.
One of the other associate pastors become enraged over this decision.
Thought it was a total disregard of his talents as a preacher.
Attacked this associate and the session, caused all sorts of turmoil.
Why? He was unable to submit to God’s authority.
He was unwilling to say: I am just a tenant in God’s vineyard.
These are not my talents, God’s talents.
He will use them when and where he wants to use them.
And if he wants to use more talented tenants to tend his vineyard,
that is his business.
Instead, he became angry.
I challenge you to look at any sinful anger in your life—
whether it is expressed in fits of rage, or malicious words,
or cold bitterness—
Trace it back and you will often find that there is something that you claim
as yours that is being blocked by someone.
Someone hasn’t given you the respect you deserve.
Someone has disturbed your comfort, or whatever.
The only way you are going to be free of that anger is when you can say—
this is not mine, this is the Lord’s. I am his steward.
Resisting God’s authority brings fear, anger—
3. And pride.
These men who came to Jesus had many blessings.
They were the cream of Jewish society—educated, respected, wealthy.
They had a great
spiritual heritage—think of it, stewards of God’s
But because they considered these things their own—they proudly
looked down on Jesus Christ—the country Rabbi with no credentials.
When you size people up, judge them as lacking based on your education,
or your standard of living, or your looks, or even your spiritual maturity,
or morality—you are acting like an owner and not a steward.
You are proudly saying—the vineyard is mine.
You high school students—if you look down on people in your school who can’t
cut it academically or athletically or socially—because you can—
you are acting like an owner and not a steward.
Acting just like the tenants in Jesus’ parable when the owner of the vineyard
sent his servants to collect some of the fruit at harvest time,
and they beat the servants and threw them out.
That’s when the Lord comes to you and says:
What have you done with the blessings I’ve given you?
How have you used them at your school?
How have you used your popularity, your academic or athletic ability
to honor me and bless other people.
And you say—Back off, these are mine. I’ll use them like I want.
But when you submit to God’s authority—able to see that these are not yours.
They have been entrusted to you. That delivers you from pride.
Because you realize that God himself decides who gets what—
and it’s for his glory.
Fear, anger, and pride.
They all come from resisting God’s authority—
and claiming the vineyard for your own.
The longer you live like that, the more destructive they become.
Only by submitting to God, accepting your calling as a tenant
can you be delivered.
But the problem is that we can’t. By nature we resist God.
And so God comes to us and teaches us submission to him.
How does he do it? Brings us to our second point.
MP#2 How God teaches us to submit to his
authority.
God teaches us to submit to his authority through his Word and through his Son.
We see this in Jesus’ parable.
First, by his Word.
In Jesus’ parable the owner of the vineyard first sends his servants to the tenants
to collect a portion of the harvest from them.
This is a parable. Who are these servants?
They are the prophets.
Jesus is summarizing the history of
In the Old Testament, told that over and over, for centuries God sent
his servants the
prophets to the people of
belonged to God. God wanted them to honor him with their lives.
Some of the prophets just preached and taught—like Elijah, Elisha.
Others preached and wrote—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Minor prophets.
The prophets were inspired so they spoke and wrote the Word of God.
One of the most striking things about this parable is now naive the owner seems.
When his servants are beaten and killed, he keeps sending more servants.
And they are all treated the same way. It would be foolish for someone to do that.
But that is exactly what God did in the history of
And it was not naive or foolish—it was patient.
He continued to send his prophets who spoke his Word.
And this is also a picture of our own lives, isn’t it?
God patiently speaks to us, over an over, reminding us that we belong to him.
Teaching us through the Bible that everything we have is a gift from him.
Calling us to be faithful stewards of those gifts.
How long does it take you to learn those things?
It takes a lifetime. And we resist.
We want to own the vineyard.
In our hearts we beat, kill the prophets—but God patiently speaks his Word to us.
In my life I think of the ways that God has used his Word to teach me to submit
to him with my money. And he’s still teaching me things—I haven’t arrived.
But I remember the way God used several passages—Genesis 14, 2 Corinthians 9
to convince me to regularly and cheerfully give a percentage of my income
to his kingdom which I had resisted.
And I remember, even more vividly a time about 13 years ago when I was worried
about money (remember fear comes from resisting God’s authority).
God wanted me to submit to him and not worry—but I liked to worry.
He showed me two verses that I’ve never forgotten.
I Timothy 6—But godliness with contentment is great gain.
Verse in Proverbs, never remember the reference:
Better a meal of vegetables where there is love, than a fattened calf with hatred.
I know all of you could tell similar stories about how God has used his
Word to bring different parts of your life under submission to him—
and how you have resisted, and he has patiently spoken again and again.
If God is speaking to you now about a part of your life
that you do not want to give completely to him—your work, your children,
whatever it may be. Don’t resist him like these tenants, listen to him.
God teaches us to submit to his authority by his Word,
And also by his Son.
In the parable, who does the vineyard owner finally send?
His son, whom he loved.
And this is, of course Jesus Christ.
Once again, this parable is a summary of
Because after God had sent all of his servants the prophets—
and after the last one had been killed—that was John the Baptist—
God sent his own
Son to the people of
And in telling this parable, Jesus was predicting his own death.
By the end of the week, they killed Jesus just like they had killed the prophets.
And once again, this is not just
Jesus comes to bring us to submission to God.
He does it in a number of ways.
He is the great example of submission to God.
Even though he was the Son of God, and owned everything—
in the parable he is called the heir—he did not claim his it for his own.
Think about it, in the parable the son went, knowing what would probably happen,
but he went because his Father sent him.
Jesus could have called legions of angels, but did Father’s will.
What a great example Jesus is.
How can we resist God’s authority over our live and our things
when Jesus totally submitted and gave up everything, even his life?
How can we get angry when things we claim as our own are blocked?
Jesus didn’t get angry, even when his life and dignity taken from him.
How can we be proud of what we have and look down on other people,
when Jesus gave up everything—even his clothes taken, gambled away.
If ever we want to hold on tight to things God has given us
and say—This is mine! Look at the Son of God giving up everything,
and obeying God completely. What a great example.
But aren’t you glad Jesus is more than our example.
Wouldn’t it be depressing if Jesus was just our example?
Who could live up to that?
He’s more than our example, he’s our enabler.
Jesus ends this parable by quoting Psalm 118.
“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.”
Like lots of things Jesus says, it’s hard to see how this fits.
What does this have to do with the parable?
Clearly he is the rejected stone, he’s talking about himself.
But why this image of a capstone?
The capstone is the stone that crowns or finishes a building.
If you are reading in the NIV, notice a footnote, says: Or cornerstone.
That’s because this word can be translated either way.
A cornerstone different from a capstone.
Capstone last stone laid, cornerstone the first stone laid.
Anchors the foundation, sets the angle for the walls.
So Jesus is the stone that completes or he is the stone that sustains.
Either way you translate this word, Jesus telling us something tremendous.
Let’s go back to the beginning.
The reason we fight against God’s authority and God’s ownership
is because we want to be able to say—this is mine.
This is the thing that completes me, this is the thing that sustains me.
Whether it is my career or my children or my reputation or my comfort.
Whatever it is, we latch on to things and want to claim them as our own.
Jesus is saying—let go of those, they belong to God.
I will give you something that will truly complete you and sustain you—
I give you myself. I will be your capstone and your cornerstone.
And knowing me, and believing me, and experiencing me
will enable you to submit completely to God.
A few years ago I told you the story of Martin Jenco.
He was an American, living in
by Islamic terrorists. For a year and a half they kept him bound and blindfolded
and constantly moved him to different locations.
When they moved him, would be gagged and stuffed in space under truck.
First time it happened, bounced around, nose bloodied, almost suffocated.
His captors took away everything, but he had one possession didn’t know about.
In the struggle during his abduction he had pulled off a button from is overcoat.
He didn’t realize until later that he had it clutched in his hand.
That button became very important to him. It symbolized his freedom.
Whenever he was stuffed under the truck, would focus on that button.
Martin Jenco was a Christian. As he was praying.
He said that the Lord spoke to him and said:
“I am with you always, even when you are bound and gagged and stuffed under a truck.
The next time they move you, I want you to let go of the button.”
And so the next time they moved him, he opened his hand,
and felt himself completely sustained by the Lord Jesus Christ.
God is calling you to give up your claims to ownership over your life and
possessions, and to be free from the fear and anger and pride that comes from
resisting God’s authority.
He wants you to listen to his Word and to be enabled by his Son
to submit to him completely,
and to be a happy tenant in his vineyard.