Mark 12:1-12

The Voice

The religious leaders ask Jesus where His authority comes from. What gives Him the right to heal people on the Sabbath, teach about God, do miracles, and cast out demons? Who exactly does He think He is—and where does His authority come from? This question is a trap: if He claims His authority is from God, then they can argue that God does not endorse someone who breaks His laws; but if He says His authority is His own, then He will be in trouble with the crowds and perhaps even with the Roman governor.

Jesus, however, issues a challenge: I’ll tell you what you want to know if you’ll answer My question first. But He asks them an impossible question—impossible not because they don’t know the answer, but because they cannot say the answer.

12 Then He told a story.

Jesus: There was a man who established a vineyard. He put up a wall around it to fence it in; he dug a pit for a winepress; he built a watchtower. When he had finished this work, he leased the vineyard to some tenant farmers and went away to a distant land.

²When the grapes were in season, he sent a slave to the vineyard to collect his rent—his share of the fruit. ³But the farmers grabbed the slave, beat him, and sent him back to his master empty-handed. ⁴The owner sent another slave, and this slave the farmers beat over the head and sent away dishonored. ⁵A third slave, the farmers killed. This went on for some time, with the farmers beating some of the messengers and killing others until the owner had lost all patience. ⁶He had a son whom he loved above all things, and he said to himself, “When these thugs see my son, they’ll know he carries my authority. They’ll have to respect him.”

⁷But when the tenant farmers saw the owner’s son coming, they said among themselves, “Look at this! It’s the son, the heir to this vineyard. If we kill him, then the land will be ours!” ⁸So they seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹Now what do you suppose the owner will do when he hears of this? He’ll come and destroy these farmers, and he’ll give the land to others.

¹⁰Haven’t you read the Scriptures? As the psalmist says,

    The stone that the builders rejected
        has become the very stone that holds together the entire foundation.
¹¹    This is the work of the Eternal One,
        and it is marvelous in our eyes.^[a]

¹²The priests, scribes, temple leaders, and elders knew the story was directed against them. They couldn’t figure out how to lay their hands on Jesus then because they were afraid the people would rise up against them. So they left Him alone, and they went away furious.

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