There is only one way through which we as a nation can keep the goodly heritage in which God has placed us. The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. This parable is known as the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, the Wicked Tenants. (Matt. It is the system known in India at this day as ryot-rent; the cultivator undertakes to give the owner a certain fixed quantity yearly from the produce of the farm, and all that is over belongs to himself. However the parable portrays the tenants as being too presumptuous, because there are a number of ways the land could have been inherited and not necessarily through the son. But the parable shows not only God’s great patience and love, but also His righteous judgment on those who reject His Son. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. The worship and ordinances of God's house were transferred to the apostles and their followers, neither as Jews nor as Gentiles, but as the disciples of Christ. They were to be the means through which true religion would prevail over the whole world. The conduct of the husbandmen at this point is unintelligible, if you suppose that the country enjoyed a regular government, and that the men had deliberately adopted a plan. The personal and permanent application of the lesson is obvious. Ah, my country, I dread the punishment of thy unfaithfulness! The Owner Commits His Vineyard to Husbandmen (vs 33, 34) If we flee to him for refuge, he is the sanctuary in which we shall be safe; if we fall on him, in a vain effort to escape, we shall stumble, and fall, and perish. The rejected The husbandmen: “And let it out to husbandmen” (v 33). He opens up to each Christian wonderful opportunities and He expects much good fruit from such a vineyard. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Have you noticed that even in this life, those who use the world for personal gains and pleasures, gradually lose the blessings they seek to keep for themselves? The New King James version says, “He dug it up.” The Philistines settled along the southeastern shores of the Great (Mediterranean) Sea in the twelfth century B.C. The last days of the Mediator's ministry on earth are now running: it must now be decided whether his own will receive or reject him. God sends His Son: This was Jesus Himself. The last day of Jesus" public ministry. He makes every Christian fruitful through His Holy Word and His Spirit, providing every means of grace. Jesus enforced the same truth by another illustration: v 42 ... “Did ye never read in the scriptures,” (Ps. v 40 ... “What will he do unto those husbandmen?” Jesus asked this question of leaders who, at this stage, had no idea that the story applied to them. It is the space-time nearness we have to one another, the purified interactions we share with one another, the mutual concern we have for one another’s welfare, and the practical involvement we have with each other to encourage the living out of the things we say we believe. The difference is important: it determines clearly the main line in which the interpretation of the parable should proceed. The scribes and rulers in all the pomp and color of official costume. The rejected stone: It is said that when building Solomon’s Temple one of the stones appeared unsuitable for any portion of the building. The Consequences of Rejecting the Son of God (vs 40-46) A common Christian interpretation is that this parable was … Standing beside it, and reverting to its possible history, you give scope to your imagination and ask, What if it had fallen, or should yet fall on me? His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor’s corn also improves. The parable of the wicked husbandmen (Mark 12:1-9) describes great moral evil, setting the scene for an important moral lesson, yet fails to deliver one. Then help others find happiness. 2. We are permitted to enjoy all for our own benefit, under deduction of a tribute to the Giver. The Owner Commits His Vineyard to Husbandmen (vs 33, 34) 4. The taking of the vineyard away from the wicked husbandmen and giving it to others represents the displacement of Israel by the Gentiles in the church. Jesus had just overturned the tables in the temple courts and driven out the moneychangers. As opposition to Him grew in intensity, so did His parables in their force, solemnity, and number. No man can make a piece of furniture from its small, supple, gnarled stem and branches. They do not seem to have laid their plans with much care: there is more of passion than of policy in their conduct. In due time, accordingly, he constructs a fence around the field to keep out depredators, whether men or beasts; digs a vat for receiving the juice, and prepares an apparatus above it for squeezing the clusters quickly in the hurry of the vintage; builds a tower as at once a shelter for the keeper and an elevated stand-point for the watcher by night or day. 5:1-4) 3. 1. If they retire and repeat the onset, the rock lies still in majestic repose, while their feeble limbs are mangled on its sides, and their life-blood sinks into the soil at its base. 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