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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
MARK CHAPTER 12
Mar_12:1-12 In the parable of the vineyard let out to wicked
husbandmen Christ foretells the reprobation of the
Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles.
Mar_12:13-17 His reply to the insidious question concerning paying
tribute to Caesar.
Mar_12:18-27 He confutes the Sadducees who questioned him
concerning the resurrection.
Mar_12:28-34 He shows which are the two great commandments of
the law.
Mar_12:35-37 He proposes a difficulty to the scribes concerning the
character of Christ.
Mar_12:38-40 He cautions the people against their ambition and hypocrisy,
Mar_12:41-44 and values the poor widow’s two mites above all the
gifts of the rich.
Ver. 1-12. This parable is related by Matthew, and by Luke also: See Poole on "Mat_21:33", and following verses to Mat_21:46. Mat_21:12 tells us, that the rulers of the Jewish church knew that he had spoken this parable against them, and they needs must know it, considering what Matthew adds to this parable, (which Mark and Luke have not), that he also told them, Mat_21:43, Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. By the man planting a vineyard, is to be understood God, who, Psa_80:8-11, brought a vine out of Egypt, and cast out the heathen, and planted it in the land of Canaan, and prepared room for it, and caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. It was a noble vine, a right seed, Jer_2:21. God planted it in a fruitful hill; he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, Isa_5:1,2. The church of the Jews then was this vineyard, which God hedged by his providence, and gave them all means necessary for the production of fruit. The servants sent to receive the fruit, so abused by the husbandmen, (as Mar_12:2-5,) were the prophets. 2Ch_36:16 is a compendious exposition of these verses.
They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words and misused his prophets. The son mentioned as sent at last was Christ, and the latter part of the parable is prophetical, foretelling what they should do unto him, and also of the ruin of the Jewish nation and church, and the passing of the gospel to the Gentiles, who should more freely believe in Christ, and embrace and receive the gospel: so as they should not obtain their end; but Christ, though rejected by them, should yet be the Head of a far larger and more glorious church, according to a prophecy owned by themselves as a piece of holy writ, Psa_118:22. See Poole on "Mat_21:33", &c.