Mark 11:27-12:12 -- Master of the Vineyard

This sermon is from Mark 11:27-12:12.

Mark 11:27–12:12

It is entitled, "Master of the Vineyard," and it was delivered to Ekklesia Churches

on Sunday, November 23, 2025.

Perspective is a kind of funny thing because some version of it applies to almost everything

in life.

You can look everywhere and see perspective come into play.

So in art, you learn the concept of perspective because you need to understand that things

aren't always how they appear from just one angle.

Objects appear to grow smaller, for example, as they move into the distance, but they aren't

actually getting smaller.

There are loads of optical illusions that expose the limits of our perception and our

brain desperately trying to make sense of it.

But the really funny thing is that even with loads of experience telling us that our perspective

is limited, we still tend to trust it more than we should.

We are finite beings who are limited to being in one place at one time and limited to one

point in time as well.

And our own judgment is famously unstable and is influenced by any number of desires

and emotions, even physical conditions, you name it.

And all of this unpredictability in the world around us and our predictably limited viewpoint

leaves us needing the kind of wisdom that can only come from a perspective outside our own.

The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about what is wise versus what is foolish, and it

actually has a lot to say about perspective.

So, for example, I can learn a lot from history and the people who have lived it.

Proverbs 19 verse 20 says,

Proverbs 19:20

Listen to advice and accept instruction that you may gain wisdom in the future.

In the same way, I can gain some balance of perspective by involving multiple people and asking them to weigh in.

Proverbs 11, verse 14 says, where there is no guidance, a people falls. But in an abundance

Proverbs 11:14

of counselors, there is safety. So by that logic, the highest form of wisdom is going to come from

someone with the greatest, highest, and least limited perspective. Scripture is the revealed

wisdom of God to man. God who is eternal with no beginning and no end, infinite in wisdom and power,

knowing all things, creating all things, sustaining all things, and bringing all things together for

his glory and for our good. It's like the most impressive resume you'll ever see. And he has

chosen to reveal himself to us through the written word that we call scripture. That is why we

prioritize reading and understanding and living by everything that is written in this book,

because it comes from a God who reveals what is true beyond the shadow of a doubt and is a

perspective that we can trust. In today's passage, we're going to encounter the religious leaders

that Jesus has kind of sparred with for his entire ministry. What began with these meetings

of like envoys that they sent out to see him in the countryside is now at a climax with him

exposing their twisted use of the temple. And in this passage, he's going to go toe-to-toe with

this group of powerful religious leaders that is called the Sanhedrin on their own turf.

And really in what they consider to be their house, the temple court. This is a group of people

who are experiencing a crisis of limited sinful perspective. They think that they are the ones

with ultimate power in this situation. They think that the temple belongs to them and is for their

benefit and their glory. And they think that Jesus is here to steal their show,

and they conspire to destroy him. Even as they stand there blinded by their sin and pride

to the true reality of things, Jesus offers to open their eyes if they will come in faith.

And then he tells them a parable about themselves that even they kind of understand,

but they fail to respond to. So if the last passage highlighted the benefit that we receive

through this relationship coming to us through Jesus, this passage holds a warning for anyone

who would choose to pridefully hold on to what they can't keep anyway. However, in classic Jesus

fashion, it also holds an invitation to anyone who would come in faith, even with questions to Jesus.

So let's dig into this first interaction with these leaders, and then we'll look at this parable

together. This is Mark chapter 11, starting with verse 27. And they came again to Jerusalem. And

Mark 11 · chapter mention

as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him. And

they said to him, by what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do

them. Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what

authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.

And they discussed it with one another, saying, If we say from heaven, he will say, Why then did

you not believe him? But shall we say from man? They were afraid of the people. For they all held

that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, we do not know. Jesus said to them,

neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

So as Jesus steps into the temple, likely not too long after he was there flipping tables, he's

greeted by a pretty fierce group of men. It says he's greeted by this group of kind of three groups,

the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, which is together a specific group of religious

leaders referred to as the Sanhedrin. These are the people in charge of the temple. They're in

charge of religious law, generally the leadership of the Jewish people in the absence of a king.

And you can almost see them fuming as they hear Jesus has entered the temple again. You can see

a few money changers kind of sink behind their reassembled booths. You can see a few sketchy

guys selling pigeons slide the cage under their now slightly wobbly table. And here comes a column

of well-dressed men marching out to confront this rabbi with a reputation now of being confrontational.

And their question for Jesus is one of authority. They want to know who has given Jesus the authority

to act and speak the way that he does. The way that we would say this today is,

who gave you the right to act like this? Or who made you king? And yes, they are talking about

the table-flipping incident. But they are probably also referring to this long string of confrontations

they've had with Jesus. Jesus has challenged their traditions and their additional laws.

He's called them out on their hypocrisy and their poor leadership.

He may have only come to Jerusalem recently, but his name has been whispered in backroom

meetings of the Sanhedrin for quite a while now.

Much of the gospel of Mark has really centered around this question of Jesus' authority.

It is a theme that we have talked about often.

And the question of where Jesus' authority comes from was answered for us by Mark in the very opening chapter at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.

When the people who were there witnessed this moment in which the sky appeared to split open and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove on Jesus,

and a voice from heaven audibly said,

So Jesus' authority, we know, does not come from men or from the natural world or even from the

supernatural world because his authority is not externally derived or given. His authority

comes from who he is. And this is something that every reader of Mark can answer at this point.

In the words of Peter, we can say, he is the Christ, the son of the living God.

That is where his authority comes from.

So it is unsurprising that Jesus responds to their question by not so subtly pointing

back to his first announcement of his identity.

He asks a question of his own about the baptism of John.

And they recognize that they've been put in a tight spot with this question.

They even pause to discuss it among themselves that however they answer, they're kind of

creating a problem for themselves.

If they say John was a prophet of God, meaning his calls to a baptism of repentance was a

message from God, two problems present to them.

First, they didn't submit to the baptism of John, which means a message from God was given

and they didn't listen or obey.

And second, they also would have to recognize what people are saying about this baptism of

Jesus a little less than three years ago at this point.

If, however, they say that John was just a man, they risk angering the many people who believe

that John was indeed a prophet before he was beheaded by Herod.

These men see everything as an argument.

Do you know anybody like that?

They see everything as a test and a challenge because they are trying to challenge and test

and win an argument with Jesus because they are so confrontational that they see everything

regarding Jesus as a confrontation, as a threat to their power that they are desperately trying

to hold on to.

But Jesus responds to their question, not with an argument, but actually with an invitation.

I want us to really see things here from God's perspective, because we know that Jesus doesn't

need to win the argument with these people, right? These guys are playing checkers, and Jesus is

playing 4D chess. Realistically, he's not even playing a game. His aims are not the same. He's

not trying to get them with a zinger before he takes over Jerusalem. Jesus is actually giving

them an invitation or an opportunity to respond to this question with some measure of faith.

He's giving them a chance to do more than just oppose him and actually come honestly

with an honest question. He doesn't ask them a question about the Torah or the temple or even

Roman authority. He asks them a question about the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of men.

Will they have a mustard seed of faith and be willing to say, I do believe it was from God,

and I have heard the stories about you, and I actually do want to know where your authority

comes from? Their answer, of course, is to refuse to even come to the table with Jesus to have an

honest conversation. They don't want to know the answer really to their own question. They shrug

their shoulders and they say, we don't know. In other words, we refuse to even entertain your

question. They are willingly choosing to remain blind to who Jesus is, and they don't want to

consider the implications of that. They don't like where this road of questioning leads,

and so they refuse to come with even an ounce of faith to walk that road with Jesus.

And the thing we've seen in Mark's gospel is Jesus time and time again showing a tremendous openness to people who came to him with honest questions.

Even those who had a minute amount of faith and an imperfect understanding were welcomed by Jesus to know him more.

We have seen all throughout the last 11 chapters, stories of marginalized women and lepers and

Gentile fathers and even the blind coming to Jesus.

And in each case, all Jesus asked for was their openness to him.

He's asked questions like, do you believe that I can heal you?

He's asked things like, why do you call me good if God alone is good?

Really, he's asking, what are you trying to say about me?

Anyone, even someone plotting his demise like these guys in this passage,

was invited to come to him with enough faith to ask an honest question and desire to know him for who he is.

And because Jesus is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow,

we know that his invitation to those who would come to him is open to us today too.

To those who aren't sure about Jesus, but are willing to come and learn more about him.

To those who have doubts, but are willing to bring those to Jesus as well.

Jesus does not shun, but invites you to bring even a little bit of faith and an openness

to know more about him and ultimately to know him.

These are the first steps towards Jesus.

And it's to show a heart that is perhaps ready to receive this seed of truth, to begin a journey

with Jesus. A journey that I hope and pray would lead you to fully believing the gospel,

the news that Jesus is the Son of God who came and died and rose from the dead,

and he offers you eternal life and friendship with God if you choose to follow him as your only

hope. A journey that might lead you to walking daily with Jesus and growing in maturity and

being remade into what Paul calls the image of Christ Jesus. But that whole journey starts

with a heart that is open to asking the question, who is this Jesus? Because I want to know him.

As for these religious leaders, Jesus knows that that's not the heart that they come with.

They have turned down his invitation in this moment, refusing to even respond to his question.

But Jesus can see their hearts, and he sees their motivations.

So instead of a simple answer, he tells them the truth in the form of a parable.

So let's read this together now.

This is chapter 12, beginning with verse 1.

Isaiah 12 · chapter mention

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.

So the religious leaders understand the meaning of Jesus' parable almost immediately, but let me

give you just a little bit of context on tenant farmers that might kind of help us out here.

So a pretty widespread practice in that region during the first century was for wealthy landowners

to own agricultural land, but actually live far away.

So they would then hire a tenant farmer to work the ground or the orchard or the vineyard

or whatever was on the ground.

And the tenants of the property were usually paid in either a percentage of the goods produced

from the land or in a fixed amount.

So if you worked a vineyard as a tenant farmer, you would dress the vines, you'd pull the

weeds, you'd harvest the grapes and you'd make the wine. And then at the end of the season,

the landowner would send someone to come collect the casks of wine that were due him from that

year's crop and would leave the agreed upon amount with the tenant as payment. It's not terribly

different from like the cash rent system in the Midwest that is really common around Iowa where

we are. So in that system, a farmer who owns the land but doesn't necessarily want to farm it,

either because it's far from his home or because he's retired, will lease this to another farmer.

Another farmer will rent the ground and farm it themselves,

and then hopefully make more on it than they paid in rent and expenses.

The tenant situation, though, in Jesus' day was a little less of a business transaction,

and it was a little more like hiring an employee.

So the tenant was hired to be a steward and work the existing setup for the owner,

who would then come to collect what was owed him from the tenant.

Jesus says here that it was the owner who had planted the vineyard, put a fence around it,

made the wine press and the tower, and then found some people to run this operation for him.

So while there were plenty of conversations in Jesus' day about fair compensation of the tenants

and fair treatment by the landowner, this parable is set up putting the owner in the right,

and the tenants are the ones behaving wrongly. And that's pretty key to understanding the parable

the way Jesus intended. The point of the parable is this. What the tenants were given never really

belonged to them. So the parable is, of course, about the leaders of the Sanhedrin. The temple

and the people of God, Israel, did not ever belong to them. They were put in place to be stewards of

this place of worship, serving God and the people with gratitude. But instead, they had tried to

keep it for themselves, mistreating those that were sent. So the people that were sent is an

allusion to the prophets that were sent to give Israel the word of God, calling them to repent,

to worship God alone. And then he sends his son. Hopefully we're all kind of cluing in on the

parable at this point, as Jesus prophesies to these people, not only what they are about to do

to him, but what the consequences of that will be. Don't miss what they say about the son in the

parable. They say, we'll kill him and take his inheritance for our own. This is always the way

sin works. If we back up just a little bit, even since the very beginning, when Eve believed the

temptation of Satan, that she could become like God if only she took what he had forbidden she take.

Here we have these men who should know better, saying, if we kill the son, we can be like the

master, possessing what he alone possesses. For these leaders, it is power over Israel,

the praise of the people, even the use of the temple itself. And the next part is a warning,

that the owner is going to come back and he is going to destroy those greedy tenants and he is

going to give the vineyard to a people of his own choosing. And really the sad irony of the whole

parable is that these people who have had their hearts and desires laid bare before them in this

parable and have been warned about what will happen if they don't turn from their wicked pursuit,

No sooner has this parable finished and they have understood it was about them.

And they begin to do exactly what the tenants did in the parable.

They begin to plan the death of the son.

And Jesus is unique in this parable in that he's not just another servant or messenger.

He's not just a prophet sent with a message.

He's the son of God.

And the difference from the son in the parable is that Jesus knows exactly what they're going to do,

and it's exactly why he came.

We don't want to be blind to our own heart condition,

or at the very least unwilling to come to Jesus honestly with it.

Just like the vineyard is the owner's possession,

all that we have and all that we are belongs to God alone.

And that is true whether you want to believe it or not.

And sin has blinded us to this by making us think that we are worthy of the glory and the honor and the praise that is due to God alone.

And Christians are not above this, but instead, we have hopefully had our eyes uncomfortably opened to it.

We know that everything we have has been given to us to steward.

Our time is a gift from God, so don't waste it on all the things that have no heavenly value whatsoever.

Our physical wealth and possessions, whatever we are given, are something that we hold with an open hand,

thanking God for them and using all of it with a heart that desires the glory of God and the good of the people made in His image.

Our skills and our talents are a gift from God to be used and honed and practiced before the Lord.

Because when we see Jesus for who he is, and we know what he has done for us,

it is marvelous in our eyes, just like Isaiah said the work of Jesus would be.

I recently had kind of a scary experience in which my doctors were trying to figure out

if a variety of symptoms I was experiencing were primarily psychological or neurological.

Basically, they ordered an MRI to see if there was some kind of issue with my brain. And the

options, if that would have been the case, would not have been good ones. And you know what I was

thinking? As they rolled me into this tunnel that is the loud MRI machine, I was terrified. I was

thinking, God, what are they going to find? What are they going to see? What's going to happen to me?

And two Bible verses came almost immediately into my mind, so loud that I could almost

hear them being recited mentally. The first was Matthew 10, 30.

Even the hairs on your head are all numbered. I was reminded that God knows the number of hairs

on my head. He knows every cell in my brain, every bone in my body, and he has put it all there

for a reason. And then of Psalm 139 verse 16, which says, in your book were written every one

Psalms 139:16

of them, the days that were formed for me. It's reminded that God knows the number of my days

and that he has graciously given them to me and he is not surprised by anything.

I get to live out my days in the comfort of knowing that the master who made me loves me dearly.

And I get to live in the joy of just being a faithful steward of what he has entrusted to me.

So do you see how this passage is equal parts warning and invitation?

The warning is that those who reject life through Jesus are choosing their own destruction.

And we want to see that clearly, and we want to show others that clearly because it's the truth.

And at the same time, the invitation is so wide open to anyone who would come to Jesus,

those who would come with questions and really want to know the answer are going to find it in Jesus.

Those who come with doubt and are willing to lay that doubt at the feet of Jesus and choose to

trust him are going to find hope like they've never known, a confidence that they've never

known with their doubts. Because in Jesus, we are all invited into a kingdom that has come

in Christ and is coming in full when he returns. So instead, in the meantime, let's follow Jesus

knowing that he's our only hope. And let's be stewards of everything that he has graciously

given to us so that when he returns, we are found joyfully awaiting his arrival.

Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Council Bloss, Iowa,

and in homes throughout the week. We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching

from scripture and making disciples of Jesus. You can learn more about our statement of

faith and contact a pastor by visiting ecclesiachurches.org.