Mark 12:1-12

My wife works at the school district child care facility. She has been working primarily with two year olds. The other day she came home and said to me, “Those kids only know one word.” I took a guess: “Why?” Ronda shook her head: “All they say is ‘no’ or ‘I don’t wanna.’” Already at two we are learning the language of resistance. As teenagers, we rebel as a prelude to living on our own. In our first jobs we think we know more than our bosses. We often think we know more than our spouses. No matter how old we get we resist advice from our parents. Rebellion is deeply ingrained in us.

There remain pockets of resistance in my life, just as there are in each of our lives. If we are honest with ourselves, we can find thoughts, attitudes, and actions where we are failing to give God his due. There are places in our lives where we simply say “no” or “I don’t wanna” to God’s call to get right with him. This is the reality of humankind’s relationship with God from the earliest of times.

Think for a moment. Why would Mark preserve this story about Jesus’ conflict with the Jewish leaders? At the time it was written most of those leaders were dead. The early Christian church had been firmly established. What is the message to Christ’s disciples? Could it be that Mark wants us to be conscious of our continuing tendency to rebel?

Jesus challenges each of us to examine our own hearts for pockets of resistance. Where in our lives are we resisting God’s generosity and grace? Where are we saying “no” or “I don’t wanna” to God’s wishes or God’s plan? I invite you to pause for a moment and prayerfully reflect on possible pockets of resistance to God in your life. If the Lord reveals some areas, make note of them. Through the coming week, take time to pray about these things, asking God’s help in breaking down your resistance in these areas of your life.

Mark 12:1-12

The drama of our rebellion is recounted by Jesus in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Jesus’ authority for teaching and healing had been challenged by the leaders of the Jews. More and more Jesus had confronted their injustices and hypocrisy. At the time he is telling this story he has entered Jerusalem to the shouts of people’s praise for what will be the last week of his life. The Jewish leaders are jealous and don’t appreciate the disruption of their orderly observance of their most important religious holiday…Passover.

So Jesus tells the parable of the Wicked Vineyard Tenant Farmers who treat the owners slaves horribly and won’t give the owner his due. Their rebellion is so great that they are willing to kill the owner’s son in a futile attempt to gain the vineyard for themselves. All this is because they are unwilling to give the owner his due.

Jesus’ use of the vineyard for this story he told to the Chief priests and temple leaders was very intentional. Several times in the Jewish scriptures we call the Old Testament, the people of Israel were refered to as a vineyard. The Jewish leaders would have made that connection immediately. The wicked tenants of the story were God’s people, who over and over again, rejected God’s prophets who called God’s people to give God his due. The prophets, God’s servants, called God’s people to be faithful to God as God had been so graciously generous and faithful to them. In spite of God’s patience with us, rarely has God been given his due.

Are you ever blown away by the patience of God? In the parable, the owner looks incompetent, doesn’t he? Sending servant after servant to be reconciled with his tenants…each one treated horribly, some killed. Then to send his son…believing that he would get a different response? What are you called when you keep doing the same thing, expecting different results? That’s right…crazy! Let’s be grateful for a God of crazy mercy, who never tires in efforts to redeem us…to bring us back into a right relationship with him.

Mark 12:1-12

The drama of our rebellion is recounted by Jesus in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Jesus’ authority for teaching and healing had been challenged by the leaders of the Jews. More and more Jesus had confronted their injustices and hypocrisy. At the time he is telling this story he has entered Jerusalem to the shouts of people’s praise for what will be the last week of his life. The Jewish leaders are jealous and don’t appreciate the disruption of their orderly observance of their most important religious holiday…Passover.

So Jesus tells the parable of the Wicked Vineyard Tenant Farmers who treat the owners slaves horribly and won’t give the owner his due. Their rebellion is so great that they are willing to kill the owner’s son in a futile attempt to gain the vineyard for themselves. All this is because they are unwilling to give the owner his due.

Jesus’ use of the vineyard for this story he told to the Chief priests and temple leaders was very intentional. Several times in the Jewish scriptures we call the Old Testament, the people of Israel were refered to as a vineyard. The Jewish leaders would have made that connection immediately. The wicked tenants of the story were God’s people, who over and over again, rejected God’s prophets who called God’s people to give God his due. The prophets, God’s servants, called God’s people to be faithful to God as God had been so graciously generous and faithful to them. In spite of God’s patience with us, rarely has God been given his due.

Are you ever blown away by the patience of God? In the parable, the owner looks incompetent, doesn’t he? Sending servant after servant to be reconciled with his tenants…each one treated horribly, some killed. Then to send his son…believing that he would get a different response? What are you called when you keep doing the same thing, expecting different results? That’s right…crazy! Let’s be grateful for a God of crazy mercy, who never tires in efforts to redeem us…to bring us back into a right relationship with him.

Mark 12:1-12

The drama of our rebellion is recounted by Jesus in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Jesus’ authority for teaching and healing had been challenged by the leaders of the Jews. More and more Jesus had confronted their injustices and hypocrisy. At the time he is telling this story he has entered Jerusalem to the shouts of people’s praise for what will be the last week of his life. The Jewish leaders are jealous and don’t appreciate the disruption of their orderly observance of their most important religious holiday…Passover.

So Jesus tells the parable of the Wicked Vineyard Tenant Farmers who treat the owners slaves horribly and won’t give the owner his due. Their rebellion is so great that they are willing to kill the owner’s son in a futile attempt to gain the vineyard for themselves. All this is because they are unwilling to give the owner his due.

Jesus’ use of the vineyard for this story he told to the Chief priests and temple leaders was very intentional. Several times in the Jewish scriptures we call the Old Testament, the people of Israel were refered to as a vineyard. The Jewish leaders would have made that connection immediately. The wicked tenants of the story were God’s people, who over and over again, rejected God’s prophets who called God’s people to give God his due. The prophets, God’s servants, called God’s people to be faithful to God as God had been so graciously generous and faithful to them. In spite of God’s patience with us, rarely has God been given his due.

Are you ever blown away by the patience of God? In the parable, the owner looks incompetent, doesn’t he? Sending servant after servant to be reconciled with his tenants…each one treated horribly, some killed. Then to send his son…believing that he would get a different response? What are you called when you keep doing the same thing, expecting different results? That’s right…crazy! Let’s be grateful for a God of crazy mercy, who never tires in efforts to redeem us…to bring us back into a right relationship with him.

Mark 12:1-12

The drama of our rebellion is recounted by Jesus in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Jesus’ authority for teaching and healing had been challenged by the leaders of the Jews. More and more Jesus had confronted their injustices and hypocrisy. At the time he is telling this story he has entered Jerusalem to the shouts of people’s praise for what will be the last week of his life. The Jewish leaders are jealous and don’t appreciate the disruption of their orderly observance of their most important religious holiday…Passover.

So Jesus tells the parable of the Wicked Vineyard Tenant Farmers who treat the owners slaves horribly and won’t give the owner his due. Their rebellion is so great that they are willing to kill the owner’s son in a futile attempt to gain the vineyard for themselves. All this is because they are unwilling to give the owner his due.

Jesus’ use of the vineyard for this story he told to the Chief priests and temple leaders was very intentional. Several times in the Jewish scriptures we call the Old Testament, the people of Israel were refered to as a vineyard. The Jewish leaders would have made that connection immediately. The wicked tenants of the story were God’s people, who over and over again, rejected God’s prophets who called God’s people to give God his due. The prophets, God’s servants, called God’s people to be faithful to God as God had been so graciously generous and faithful to them. In spite of God’s patience with us, rarely has God been given his due.

Are you ever blown away by the patience of God? In the parable, the owner looks incompetent, doesn’t he? Sending servant after servant to be reconciled with his tenants…each one treated horribly, some killed. Then to send his son…believing that he would get a different response? What are you called when you keep doing the same thing, expecting different results? That’s right…crazy! Let’s be grateful for a God of crazy mercy, who never tires in efforts to redeem us…to bring us back into a right relationship with him.

Mark 12:1-12

The drama of our rebellion is recounted by Jesus in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Jesus’ authority for teaching and healing had been challenged by the leaders of the Jews. More and more Jesus had confronted their injustices and hypocrisy. At the time he is telling this story he has entered Jerusalem to the shouts of people’s praise for what will be the last week of his life. The Jewish leaders are jealous and don’t appreciate the disruption of their orderly observance of their most important religious holiday…Passover.

So Jesus tells the parable of the Wicked Vineyard Tenant Farmers who treat the owners slaves horribly and won’t give the owner his due. Their rebellion is so great that they are willing to kill the owner’s son in a futile attempt to gain the vineyard for themselves. All this is because they are unwilling to give the owner his due.

Jesus’ use of the vineyard for this story he told to the Chief priests and temple leaders was very intentional. Several times in the Jewish scriptures we call the Old Testament, the people of Israel were refered to as a vineyard. The Jewish leaders would have made that connection immediately. The wicked tenants of the story were God’s people, who over and over again, rejected God’s prophets who called God’s people to give God his due. The prophets, God’s servants, called God’s people to be faithful to God as God had been so graciously generous and faithful to them. In spite of God’s patience with us, rarely has God been given his due.

Are you ever blown away by the patience of God? In the parable, the owner looks incompetent, doesn’t he? Sending servant after servant to be reconciled with his tenants…each one treated horribly, some killed. Then to send his son…believing that he would get a different response? What are you called when you keep doing the same thing, expecting different results? That’s right…crazy! Let’s be grateful for a God of crazy mercy, who never tires in efforts to redeem us…to bring us back into a right relationship with him.

Mark 12:1-12

The drama of our rebellion is recounted by Jesus in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Jesus’ authority for teaching and healing had been challenged by the leaders of the Jews. More and more Jesus had confronted their injustices and hypocrisy. At the time he is telling this story he has entered Jerusalem to the shouts of people’s praise for what will be the last week of his life. The Jewish leaders are jealous and don’t appreciate the disruption of their orderly observance of their most important religious holiday…Passover.

So Jesus tells the parable of the Wicked Vineyard Tenant Farmers who treat the owners slaves horribly and won’t give the owner his due. Their rebellion is so great that they are willing to kill the owner’s son in a futile attempt to gain the vineyard for themselves. All this is because they are unwilling to give the owner his due.

Jesus’ use of the vineyard for this story he told to the Chief priests and temple leaders was very intentional. Several times in the Jewish scriptures we call the Old Testament, the people of Israel were refered to as a vineyard. The Jewish leaders would have made that connection immediately. The wicked tenants of the story were God’s people, who over and over again, rejected God’s prophets who called God’s people to give God his due. The prophets, God’s servants, called God’s people to be faithful to God as God had been so graciously generous and faithful to them. In spite of God’s patience with us, rarely has God been given his due.

Are you ever blown away by the patience of God? In the parable, the owner looks incompetent, doesn’t he? Sending servant after servant to be reconciled with his tenants…each one treated horribly, some killed. Then to send his son…believing that he would get a different response? What are you called when you keep doing the same thing, expecting different results? That’s right…crazy! Let’s be grateful for a God of crazy mercy, who never tires in efforts to redeem us…to bring us back into a right relationship with him.

Mark 12:1-12

The drama of our rebellion is recounted by Jesus in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Jesus’ authority for teaching and healing had been challenged by the leaders of the Jews. More and more Jesus had confronted their injustices and hypocrisy. At the time he is telling this story he has entered Jerusalem to the shouts of people’s praise for what will be the last week of his life. The Jewish leaders are jealous and don’t appreciate the disruption of their orderly observance of their most important religious holiday…Passover.

So Jesus tells the parable of the Wicked Vineyard Tenant Farmers who treat the owners slaves horribly and won’t give the owner his due. Their rebellion is so great that they are willing to kill the owner’s son in a futile attempt to gain the vineyard for themselves. All this is because they are unwilling to give the owner his due.

Jesus’ use of the vineyard for this story he told to the Chief priests and temple leaders was very intentional. Several times in the Jewish scriptures we call the Old Testament, the people of Israel were refered to as a vineyard. The Jewish leaders would have made that connection immediately. The wicked tenants of the story were God’s people, who over and over again, rejected God’s prophets who called God’s people to give God his due. The prophets, God’s servants, called God’s people to be faithful to God as God had been so graciously generous and faithful to them. In spite of God’s patience with us, rarely has God been given his due.

Are you ever blown away by the patience of God? In the parable, the owner looks incompetent, doesn’t he? Sending servant after servant to be reconciled with his tenants…each one treated horribly, some killed. Then to send his son…believing that he would get a different response? What are you called when you keep doing the same thing, expecting different results? That’s right…crazy! Let’s be grateful for a God of crazy mercy, who never tires in efforts to redeem us…to bring us back into a right relationship with him.

Mark 12:1-12

The drama of our rebellion is recounted by Jesus in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Jesus’ authority for teaching and healing had been challenged by the leaders of the Jews. More and more Jesus had confronted their injustices and hypocrisy. At the time he is telling this story he has entered Jerusalem to the shouts of people’s praise for what will be the last week of his life. The Jewish leaders are jealous and don’t appreciate the disruption of their orderly observance of their most important religious holiday…Passover.

So Jesus tells the parable of the Wicked Vineyard Tenant Farmers who treat the owners slaves horribly and won’t give the owner his due. Their rebellion is so great that they are willing to kill the owner’s son in a futile attempt to gain the vineyard for themselves. All this is because they are unwilling to give the owner his due.

Jesus’ use of the vineyard for this story he told to the Chief priests and temple leaders was very intentional. Several times in the Jewish scriptures we call the Old Testament, the people of Israel were refered to as a vineyard. The Jewish leaders would have made that connection immediately. The wicked tenants of the story were God’s people, who over and over again, rejected God’s prophets who called God’s people to give God his due. The prophets, God’s servants, called God’s people to be faithful to God as God had been so graciously generous and faithful to them. In spite of God’s patience with us, rarely has God been given his due.

Are you ever blown away by the patience of God? In the parable, the owner looks incompetent, doesn’t he? Sending servant after servant to be reconciled with his tenants…each one treated horribly, some killed. Then to send his son…believing that he would get a different response? What are you called when you keep doing the same thing, expecting different results? That’s right…crazy! Let’s be grateful for a God of crazy mercy, who never tires in efforts to redeem us…to bring us back into a right relationship with him.

Mark 12:1-12

The drama of our rebellion is recounted by Jesus in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Jesus’ authority for teaching and healing had been challenged by the leaders of the Jews. More and more Jesus had confronted their injustices and hypocrisy. At the time he is telling this story he has entered Jerusalem to the shouts of people’s praise for what will be the last week of his life. The Jewish leaders are jealous and don’t appreciate the disruption of their orderly observance of their most important religious holiday…Passover.

So Jesus tells the parable of the Wicked Vineyard Tenant Farmers who treat the owners slaves horribly and won’t give the owner his due. Their rebellion is so great that they are willing to kill the owner’s son in a futile attempt to gain the vineyard for themselves. All this is because they are unwilling to give the owner his due.

Jesus’ use of the vineyard for this story he told to the Chief priests and temple leaders was very intentional. Several times in the Jewish scriptures we call the Old Testament, the people of Israel were refered to as a vineyard. The Jewish leaders would have made that connection immediately. The wicked tenants of the story were God’s people, who over and over again, rejected God’s prophets who called God’s people to give God his due. The prophets, God’s servants, called God’s people to be faithful to God as God had been so graciously generous and faithful to them. In spite of God’s patience with us, rarely has God been given his due.

Are you ever blown away by the patience of God? In the parable, the owner looks incompetent, doesn’t he? Sending servant after servant to be reconciled with his tenants…each one treated horribly, some killed. Then to send his son…believing that he would get a different response? What are you called when you keep doing the same thing, expecting different results? That’s right…crazy! Let’s be grateful for a God of crazy mercy, who never tires in efforts to redeem us…to bring us back into a right relationship with him.