Who gave Jesus the authority to cleanse the temple? That’s the question on the minds of the religious authorities, the very question they ask Jesus in Mark 11:28, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” After their refusal to answer his question, Jesus delivers a final parable foreshadowing his death, their destruction, and his establishment as the cornerstone. Let’s look at this fascinating parable with these notes adapted from the Teach the Text Commentary. This commentary is an extraordinary resource that provides the pastor or teacher (or studier!) with everything they need to communicate the text faithfully and effectively.  

Jesus’ God-Given Authority to Condemn the Leaders

Big Idea

In 11:27–12:34 Jesus responds to a series of questions and challenges from the religious leaders. Jesus answers their first two challenges, concerning the source of his authority (11:27–33). He then goes on the offensive, using an allegorical parable to accuse them of plotting to kill him (12:1–12).

Key Themes of Mark 12:1–12

  • The locus of God’s presence is being removed from the apostate nation and given to the church.
  • Jesus is the cornerstone of God’s new building.

Understanding the Text

The central event on Tuesday of passion week is a series of five controversies that take place in the temple court. This event has two foci: (1) the leaders are trying desperately to prove Jesus wrong before the crowds, to show his true ignorance of Torah; (2) Jesus is fleshing out the meaning of his clearing of the temple the previous day. The authority of Jesus’s word continues (see 1:21–22, 27). The ignorance and obduracy of the leaders are proven once more. Jesus is the final interpreter of Torah and the arbiter of all truth.

Interpretive Insights

12:1 Jesus then began to speak to them in parables.

There has not been an extended parable since chapter 4, but Jesus now goes on the offensive and takes the fight to the leaders. They have challenged his authority in 11:28; now he challenges their refusal to follow God. He chooses a story form that will show them their unbelief, obduracy, and coming judgment by God. There are parallel parables in the Old Testament in which Ahab (1 Kings 20:38–43) or David (2 Sam. 12:1–5; 14:4–7) unwittingly condemn themselves.

A man planted a vineyard.

This parable is clearly built on Isaiah 5:1–7, where the vineyard is the nation of Israel (v. 7). The Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5 describes God’s loving care in planting the vineyard and then the fruitlessness of the nation (vines) that results. So the owner (God) destroys and makes a wasteland of the vineyard. Jesus uses this to set the tone of his parable: national sin and its consequences.

Rented the vineyard to some farmers.

Now Jesus moves away from Isaiah 5. The detail about tenant farmers makes great sense. Galilee has some of the richest farmland in the Roman world. Much of it had been purchased by wealthy people (increasing the number of poor who lost their small farms). Many of these lived in big cities and divided their huge estates into a number of small tenant farms.

12:2 sent a servant . . . to collect from them.

The tenants normally gave the owner half of the crops as rent, usually the cash value of the crops. “At harvest time” refers to the end of the first four years or so, during which the farm had been unproductive and the grapes were still maturing so they could later be harvested. During those years the wealthy man is in a sense subsidizing the tenant farm.

12:3–5 beat him . . . treated him shamefully . . . killed.

There is a progression: the first beaten, the second abused, and the third killed. The parable here describes the prophetic period; God sent the prophets, and the nation rejected, mistreated, and killed them. The “many others” sent probably includes the disciples as well and may even be prophetic of the missionary journeys in Acts.

At first glance this seems ridiculous, as if these farmers thought that they could get away with mistreating and even killing the agents of the powerful owner time and again. Surely they had to realize that at some point retribution would fall on their heads. But that is just the point. The Jewish people (and all of us sinners) think that they can continue to get away with it. It is not logical, but that is the issue—sin is never logical. The purpose of Jesus here is to depict the deep mercy of God; he did keep sending prophets (and apostles) to call the nation back to himself.

12:6 a son, whom he loved . . . “They will respect my son.”

The owner’s reasoning is valid on the surface: even if they rejected his servants, they must respect his “beloved” (agapētos) son (“beloved” recalls the voice from heaven in 1:11; 9:7; note also Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his “beloved son” in Gen. 22:2). It reflects once more the redemptive mercy of God, sending his Son to be killed.

12:7 let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.

The desire to take over the property on the death of the heir could recall Ahab gaining possession of Naboth’s vineyard after Jezebel had him killed (1 Kings 21). Some reason that the farmers thought that the owner had died and left it to the son (so killing him would give the deed to them), others that if both son and father were dead, the property would go to the residents on the land, still others that the owner would finally give up in light of the persistent trouble the farmers have been to him. However, Jesus never tells us the mind-set behind these evil tenants, and it is best simply to recognize their murderous intentions. Evil seldom makes rational sense.

12:9 kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

“Owner” (kyrios) is actually “the lord of the vineyard” and connotes “Lord Almighty” in Isaiah 5:7, who says in 5:5, “Now I will tell you what I am going to do.” The deserved retribution is swift and final. Obviously, this pictures the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 66–70, in particular the judgment of God against the leaders of Israel. The “others” could be the disciples (Matt. 19:28: “you will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes”) but likely is more general, referring to the church as new Israel, consisting of both believing Jews and Gentiles.

12:10 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

Jesus quotes Psalm 118:22–23 LXX, part of the “stone testimonia,” passages drawn also from Isaiah 8:14; 28:16 (cf. Acts 4:11; Rom. 9:33; 1 Pet. 2:4, 6–7) with a wordplay of Hebrew ’eben (“stone”) with ben (“son”), “the son is the stone.” Psalm 118 is a thanksgiving hymn celebrating victory over Israel’s enemies, with David as the cornerstone rejected by the establishment. Here Jesus, the Davidic Messiah, is the cornerstone. It is debated whether the imagery refers to the foundation stone at the corner of the building or either the keystone at the top of the arch or the capstone at the top of the building. The emphasis is on the importance and majesty of Jesus as the “cornerstone” of God’s new temple, the church. Moreover, it is God who has brought this about, and it is “wondrous, amazing” to all who are part of the kingdom community.

12:12 looked for a way to arrest him.

This repeats 11:18 (also 14:1). The leaders realize that they are the evil tenant farmers of the parable and that Jesus was unmasking them before the people. They have to get rid of him before he turns the people against them. However, they cannot arrest Jesus publicly lest a riot ensue. Their only hope lies in arresting Jesus by stealth away from the crowds, and as we will see, Judas will provide the means of doing so.

Theological Insights

As earlier, the primary theme is christological: Jesus’s supreme authority as the voice of God. As the “cornerstone” of God’s plan and of his new community, all power has been given over to him, and he has become the center of divine salvation. Here the added note is his authority as the final interpreter of Torah, the one who alone truly knows the meaning and intent of God’s revealed word. He is the repository of divine wisdom and speaks absolute truth. At the same time, the Jewish authorities and the people themselves have lost the authority that God had given them in the old covenant, and that authority to be spokesmen for God has now been transferred to the church.

Teaching the Text

1. God removes the authority of the Jewish leaders.

The Bible is clear that when leaders fail, they will answer to God. This was true throughout biblical history. Many of them (Abraham, Moses, David, Peter) responded to God, repented, and were returned to leadership. Many others, however, ended their lives in failure. Korah led a rebellion and died for it (Num. 16); Samson committed suicide (Judg. 16); Saul ended his reign in death and failure (1 Sam. 31); the kings of Israel and Judah who led their people into apostasy died miserable deaths. Jesus says that a leader who causes God’s “little ones” to “fall away” will suffer severe judgment (Mark 9:42). The Jewish leaders of Jesus’s day had become “false shepherds” (cf. Ezek. 34) whom God had rejected (on the curses on the nation, see the sidebar “God’s Wrath against an Apostate People” in the unit on 13:1–13). The warning to Christian leaders is clear.

2. God’s presence is given to the church.

The divine presence is about to be taken away from the apostate people of Israel and given to “others,” the church (v. 9). It is important to realize that this is not a “replacement theology,” with the church replacing Israel as God’s people. Rather, in the church as new Israel, believing Gentiles join with believing Jews to form the church. There is a basic continuity between the people of the two covenants, and there is still a “remnant” of Israel in the church (Rom. 11:1–10). Still, a new messianic community has been formed, but it is in fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant that the Jews became a “source of blessing” to the Gentiles (Gen. 12:3; 15:5; 18:18).

3. Jesus is the chief cornerstone.

As stated in verse 10, for the early church the cornerstone imagery became a major picture of Jesus as the foundation of the church. The two aspects—rejection by the “builders” (Israel) and God’s reversal of that rejection—are essential components of the gospel. In Acts 4:10–11, in Peter’s response to the Sanhedrin, the cornerstone is linked with “the one you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.” The cornerstone became the only source of salvation (Acts 4:12). Romans 9:33 and 1 Peter 2:4–5 draw from Isaiah 8:14; 28:16 to show how the stone became a “stone of stumbling” that “makes them fall” in order to emphasize both the judgment that came upon rebellious Israel for its disbelief and the church as the “elect” and “precious/honored” cornerstone.

Illustrating the Text

God removes the authority of the Jewish leaders.

Parable: You own ten convenience stores, each run by a different manager. Nine of the stores are doing well, but one is doing very poorly. You find that the manager of this particular store is not protecting your interests. You would not sit back and allow this to continue, nor do you need to get rid of this store or all of the employees, but you would replace the manager.

Answering critics with God’s wisdom

Applying the Text: Jesus repeatedly responds to the religious leaders with amazing wisdom. Imagine being able to respond to critics with the wisdom of God. We read in James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” And we are instructed in 1 Peter 3:15, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” We should not only ask for God’s wisdom in a moment’s opportunity to respond to critics, but also study and prepare to respond to those who oppose Jesus.

Jesus is the cornerstone of the church.

News Story: On November 7, 2012, a six-story building in Ghana’s capital collapsed, killing nine people and injuring many others. The structure had been built just nine months before it was destroyed. Kate Adobaya, a spokeswoman for Ghana’s National Disaster Management Organization, blamed the collapse on a weak foundation. The reality is that a building is only as strong as its foundation.

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