Mark 12:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Foolish ones! How can you expect to claim your inheritance? Was it through your act of killing Him? You may have taken His life, yet that inheritance does not belong to you. Do you really believe that the One who sleeps will not awaken? He lay in slumber while you reveled in His death. As stated in another psalm, ‘I was asleep.’ He was indeed at rest. They were filled with fury and sought my destruction, yet I remained at peace; for if I had not chosen to, I would not have rested. I rest because I possess the authority to lay down my life and the authority to take it back again (John 10:17). ‘I laid down, slept, and arose.’ So let the Jews rage, let the wicked hold dominion over the earth, let them execute Him on a tree, pierce His hands, and thrust a spear into His side (cf. Matt. 27:63; Mk. 8:31, Mk. 10:34; Lk. 18:33): will not the Sleeper awaken? (Cf. Eph. 5:14; Rom. 6:4)

The Lord continued in His discourse to disclose that due to their obstinacy and wicked defiance, not just they but the entire nation was being deprived of the honor associated with the first entry into the kingdom of the Messiah. The new parable shared not only with the Pharisees but also with the crowds (Luke 20:9-19) drew from the imagery of a vineyard. This vineyard was entrusted not for the purpose of labor but was given to certain tenants, who were employed solely for the gathering of its produce. They were sent not just once, but on two or three occasions; yet these unworthy stewards mistreated some of the messengers, killed others, and stoned even more.

It appeared that the moment had arrived to take the vineyard away from the unscrupulous vine-growers, yet the landowner, in his mercy, opted for one final attempt: “I have,” he said, “a cherished son; I will send him; surely they will not reject him; they will likely feel shame and honor him.” Thus, the owner’s son went to the vine-growers; however, when they spotted him from afar, they identified him as their heir and, fearful of losing the vineyard, plotted to take his life. “Let us put him to death,” they conspired, “and the vineyard will belong to us forever.” Having made this determination, they seized him, killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.

He then called upon them to ‘listen to another parable,’ the tale of the defiant vineyard workers who refused to yield the fruits of the vineyard. The vineyard belonging to the Lord of Hosts represented the house of Israel, with the Jewish nation as His cherished planting. The leaders and teachers entrusted with the people were expected to offer the produce of the vineyard to the Lord. However, despite the care he bestowed upon his vineyard, it yielded no fruit, or perhaps only wild fruit. The vinedressers, unable to provide any harvest and unwilling to acknowledge their barrenness for which they were accountable, insulted, assaulted, wounded, and killed one messenger after another that the owner of the vineyard dispatched to them.