On Memorial Day I read the following passage from Mark 12:1-12
“And he began to speak to them in parables. 'A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And 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 tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture:
‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.”
I was struck with the amazing statement by the Psalmist in Psalm 118: “this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’.” Wow! Jesus unpacks a graphic parable describing the selfishness, the hatred, and the disrespect of the murderous tenants. Christ prophetically describes and with his own life, death, and resurrection fulfills the reality of the gospel going to all nations. The means by which this happened was through the sinful acts of the ungodly, God-ordained tenants.
Have you pondered the breath-taking reality of the statement “it is marvelous in our eyes’”?
Today I noticed that Piper blogged about the same passage yesterday.
http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1819_how_not_to_read_a_parable/
“And he began to speak to them in parables. 'A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And 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 tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture:
‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.”
I was struck with the amazing statement by the Psalmist in Psalm 118: “this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’.” Wow! Jesus unpacks a graphic parable describing the selfishness, the hatred, and the disrespect of the murderous tenants. Christ prophetically describes and with his own life, death, and resurrection fulfills the reality of the gospel going to all nations. The means by which this happened was through the sinful acts of the ungodly, God-ordained tenants.
Have you pondered the breath-taking reality of the statement “it is marvelous in our eyes’”?
Today I noticed that Piper blogged about the same passage yesterday.
http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1819_how_not_to_read_a_parable/
Good thing to think about. The work and mission of the son of God.
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