Mark 12:1-12-- The Meaning of the Cross

And He began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard and put a wall around it, and dug a vat and put a tower in it, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But those vine-growers said to one another, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!' 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 vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; This came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes'?" And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away.

Jesus tells a parable directly to and about the leaders of Jerusalem.  Jesus begins the parable with words from Isaiah 5:1-2, which was also spoken to the leaders of Jerusalem in his day.  An owner plants a vineyard and then hands it over to managers to care for it.  The owner wanted some of the fruit, but every servant he sent they beat.  Finally, the owner decides to send his son, but they kill the son.  Then the owner would kill the managers and give the vineyard to another.  

The managers were the leaders of Jerusalem—the priests and elders who ruled the Jews of the world.  The vineyard was Israel, scattered throughout the world.  The slaves were the prophets over the years, who were persecuted and killed—for example, Isaiah who was sawn in two, and Jeremiah who was put in jail and thrown down a well.  The Son, of course, is Jesus.  The way Jesus speaks of the Son here is that he is the representative of God, having the full authority of the Father.  So Jesus is predicting that the very people who he was speaking to would kill him, and that God, in turn, would destroy them as punishment—which is, in fact, what happened.  Jesus was killed in 33AD and Jerusalem and the Sanhedrin and the priesthood was destroyed in 70AD.  

Jesus then uses one more verse to prove his point—Psalm 118:22-23.  This Psalm is considered to be about the Messiah, the coming king of Jerusalem.  And it is clear that the “builders” or current rulers would reject the Messiah, or chief cornerstone.  Jesus quoting this implies that he agrees with the assessment given by his disciples two days earlier—for they quoted Psalm 118 to proclaim Jesus the king of Jerusalem.  The verses were clear to the leaders of Jerusalem, and they determined that when the time was right, they would arrest him.

This passage is, interestingly enough, the only one where Jesus fully explains his reason for dying.  He is putting himself in a position to be killed by the leaders of the Jewish people so that they would be taken out of leadership.  Jesus is clearly planning that his resurrection would give him an opportunity to their their place as head of the kingdom of God. 

In order to obtain God's strength, we must first surrender that strength.  In order to obtain leadership, we must surrender leadership.  In order to obtain God's life, we must surrender our lives.  The way of exaltation is through emptiness.  The only way to truly change the world is to allow ourselves to die for the world.  Jesus knew this and called us to this very path.

Do we have the boldness to take up His cross?