Mark 12:1-12 | Jesus is the Cornerstone

Rejecting the Beloved Son

As tensions with the Jewish religious authorities mounted, Jesus “began to speak to them in parables.” A parable is a simple story with a profound point. In this parable, a man carefully develops a vineyard and then leases it to tenants. When the man sends servants to collect his share of the fruit, the tenants horribly mistreat them. In one last attempt, the man sends “a beloved son,” whom they kill. Now the owner will destroy the tenants and give his vineyard to others.

What is this simple story’s profound point? God would destroy the his people’s caretakers and give his people to others. Because they knew their scriptures, the Jewish religious authorities would have immediately understood the vineyard to represent God’s people, Israel. Isaiah 5 opens with a description of God developing Israel as a vineyard using almost identical language.

As the caretakers of God’s people, they are like the parabolic tenants. Jesus knew they were rejecting him, God’s beloved Son (Mark 1:11; 10:33-34). In rejecting him, they were rejecting the Cornerstone of Psalm 118. They were rejecting the foundation and standard for everything that God is building.

Building a People

What is God building? A people.

From Ephesians 2:19-22 and 1 Peter 2:4-10 we learn that God is:

• Granting strangers and aliens citizenship with the saints and membership in the household of God.
• Building this household on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the Cornerstone.
• Joining together the whole structure in Christ Jesus so that it grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
• Building his people together in Christ into a dwelling place for himself by the Spirit.
• Placing his people into his spiritual house building project like living stones.
• Choosing as his living stones a new race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.
• Bringing these stones out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• Making those who were not a people into his people.
• Giving mercy to those who had not received mercy.

From these same passages we learn why God is building up his people in this way:

• So that they will be a holy priesthood.
• So that they will offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
• So that they may proclaim his excellencies.

The Jewish religious authorities could not have understood all that God was up to through Jesus, but they suspected enough to be threatened. They had rejected God’s servants, they were rejecting God’s Son, and they were in the process of being destroyed.

Had they received the Beloved Son, they too could have been chosen for the Structure God is building. They could have been brought out of the darkness into God’s marvelous light, and placed alongside the other living stones. They could have joined the ranks of the holy priesthood, began offering spiritual sacrifices, and proclaiming God’s excellencies. But they sought to destroy him, thus proving themselves to be just like the horrid tenants of Jesus’ parable.

Submitting to God’s Building Plan

Now the searching gaze of God’s word turns from the Jewish religious leaders to you and me. Will we, like the wicked tenants, reject the Beloved Son and Cornerstone? “Surely not!” you think; but so many do.

Modern American church folks often reject Jesus by accepting him as another brick in their own building projects, along with a good night’s sleep, some exercise, and eating their vegetables. To accept Jesus as anything other than the colossal Cornerstone of God’s glorious building project is to reject him.

The question is not Is Jesus your cornerstone? Attempting to make Jesus your cornerstone is asking him to submit to your building efforts. The question is Do you submit to Jesus as the Cornerstone? Coming to him as God’s chosen and precious living Cornerstone means submitting to God’s building efforts. It means having your entire self plucked up out of darkness and placed alongside the other chosen ones in God’s spiritual house. Rather than bringing God into your tiny endeavors in tiny doses, it means allowing your entire being to be brought into God’s grand construction project. Your marriage, your work, your hopes, your fears, your body, your soul–all in submission, like a single brick in God’s hand.

Based on all this from God’s word, come to Jesus, the Beloved Son, the Cornerstone, and be placed in God’s holy, eternal, glorious building plan.

Discussion Starters

1. Before discussing this week’s passages, catch up with one another and pray together for God’s help in understanding, receiving, and responding rightly to his word.
2. Read Mark 12:1-12 together. Parables typically have one profound point with which the speaker intends to strike his hearers (as opposed to several points up to the subjective reactions of different hearers). Ask each participant to state the one profound point from this parable (verses 1-9) in their own words.
3. How does verse 10 further clarify Jesus’ point?
4. What does this mean for us today, far removed from the immediate circumstances of Mark 12?
5. Read Ephesians 2:11-22. There’s a lot here. Have each person share what stands out to them after this cursory reading.
6. Focusing in on verse 20 and the surrounding verses, what is God doing on and in Jesus Christ, the Cornerstone? Be specific, using the words in the text.
7. Now try to put these ideas in your own words. Tease out in as concrete of terms as you can what exactly God is doing through Christ as the Cornerstone.
8. Finally, read 1 Peter 2:4-10 together. Go through the same process you did with Ephesians 2 (questions 5-7) with this passage.
9. How does what you’ve seen in God’s word together effect your understanding of what God is up to in the world through Jesus?
10. How does it effect your perception of yourself? The church?
11. Are there any specific steps of response the Spirit is prompting you to take?
12. Pray together.