Mark 12:1-12 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is Mark 12:1-12. With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage. Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage? After you’ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
Mark 12:1-11 (NIV)
1 He then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey.
2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully.
5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
6 “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
7 “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.
10 Haven’t you read this scripture: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;
11 the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
On verses 1-11: Being the master communicator, Jesus shares a simple, powerful, and arresting story that gives people a fresh understanding of a famous phrase in Scripture: “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone” (from Psalm 118:22-23). At the same time, he uses this story to hint strongly at the tremendous evil that the chief priests, teachers of the law and elders were wanting to do to him.
From this parable we can learn some powerful truths:
– The world often thinks: “What’s mine is mine. Whatever I earn, I deserve and I can do whatever I want with it”. But the truth is: everything we have is ultimately God’s. He entrusts it to us and expects us to give Him an accounting of what we did with what He gave us.
– The way the chief priests would treat Jesus the Son is consistent with the way the prophets who came before Jesus would be treated: shamefully, abusively, tragically, violently, and unjustly. Whereas the world treats God’s servants shamefully and rejects them, God chooses them, uses them, loves them and honours them.
– Sin is when we treat what God has entrusted to us as if it is ours and only ours. In so doing we’re stealing what is God’s and trying to make it our own (“Let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours” – v7). When we live without any awareness of God’s lordship over our lives, when we push God and His servants away saying, “Don’t bother me”, we’re showing how we have missed the point of our lives.
– The callous way that the tenants treated the king’s servants and the king’s son is reflective of the callous way that we treated Jesus. God will hold us accountable for how we treat His servants and in particular His Son Jesus.
– God’s values are so different from the world’s values. Jesus, once rejected and killed by people, is now the living stone God uses to complete and finish God’s work of bring salvation to the world. The stone that the builders rejected is now the capstone.
Mark 12:12 (NIV)
12 Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.
On verse 12: As powerful as they were, the chief priests, teachers of the law and the elders lived in great fear of what the people would say. Contrast this to Jesus. Jesus didn’t really fear what the crowd would think, but simply lived out of the purpose and conviction that the Father placed in His heart.
Jesus, like You, I pray I wouldn’t fear what people think but I would simply, wisely and boldly live out of the purpose and conviction You have given me. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
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