Step 36

Mark 11:27-12:12 Minions Removed

About Mark: These chapters of Mark's Gospel are usually taken to show the heightening antagonism between Jesus and the various factions of Judaism; chief priests, scribes and elders at 11:27, Pharisees and Herodians at 12:13, and Sadducess at 12:18. But there is a much more important point to observe. 

The whole dialogue shows Jesus adhering staunchly to the most foundational themes of the Old Testament. It is his opponents, those Jews who were contaminated by Herodian and selfish interests, who had veered from the Scriptures, not Jesus. Jesus and Christianity follow the path of biblical revelation.
 
The dialogue about John the Baptist invites his hearers to compare John with the prophets of the Old Testament. But his opponents are not interested in truth, only what answer is more expedient. In this, they are like many people today, impatient with truth and principle, committed only to pragmatism and gaining advantage.  

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants is also based on the Old Testament. Jewish leaders had repeatedly rejected God's messengers, and now they are rejecting God's Son.

The stone rejected by the builders, which later becomes the cornerstone (or capstone) of the temple, is central to the Christian explanation of the Jews' rejection of Jesus. Like that stone, Jesus too became the cornerstone of the Christian church. The quotation from Psalm 118:22 occurs elsewhere in the New Testament (Matthew 21:42, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:7). The Christian community saw Christ and themselves as a later stage of God's revelation in the Old Testament. 

It was not Jesus and the Christians who had left the truth of the Old Testament, but their opponents.
 
Bible: Mark 11:27-12:12, Jesus' Authority is Questioned
27 Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him 28 and said, "By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?" 29 Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me." 31 They argued with one another, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?' 32 But shall we say, 'Of human origin'?" -- they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet. 33 So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

1 Then he began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 4 And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. 5 Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 7 But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8 So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this scripture: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 11 this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes'?" 12 When they realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd. So they left him and went away.

Comment: MINIONS REMOVED
IN THE DISCUSSION with the "chief priests, scribes, and elders" (27) Jesus places himself in the tradition of John the Baptist - already killed by the petty whims of a Jewish ruler. The following story of the wicked tenants makes the event even easier to understand in terms of authority. They had commandeered God's property; rejected God's messengers like John. And they were now about to kill God's son, in order to keep their positions of privilege.  

A guide for interpreting parables is the principle of final emphasis. The emphasis of the punchline at the end of the story. The final emphasis of this story is the certainty of eventual judgement. It predicted the priests losing their temple.  

Mark 12:10-11 refers to Ps.118:22. During the building of Solomon's Temple, one of the prepared stones was rejected for the construction of the sanctuary. Later this rejected stone was discovered to be the keystone to the porch of the temple, one of the last pieces to be fitted, and indispensable for the completion of the design.

There is a sense in which Jesus is the New Temple; the one who enables people to approach God, and is the indispensable final piece of God's design to reveal himself to humanity, and to accomplish an atonement which would free them of sin and restore them to himself.

Discipleship today: The irony of the rejected stone being found indispensable, is so true to life. Many people in earlier life cast Christ and Christianity aside as irrelevant or inconvenient. But life goes on, and needs or circumstances or questions are uncovered for which Jesus is the only answer.  


He is the indispensable one who marvellously meets our needs. Some people say, "Oh, I made a huge mistake and I can now see where I went wrong." But others, like the tenants in the story, are so entrenched in resistance and building their own kingdoms, that they suppress every voice that might prick their conscience. So the tenants killed the Son.  


It is amazing that they could be so oblivious to the obvious, the inevitable result which the story reports.