Passage: Mark 12:1-12

The Big Idea

“Why would a God of love send anyone to hell?” In the parable of the wicked tenants, Jesus turns that question around. God planted His vineyard, sent servant after servant with incredible patience, and finally sent His beloved Son, and the tenants killed Him. Jesus is God’s final word, His ultimatum. Once we see our sin and God’s patience clearly, hell isn’t the hard thing to understand. Heaven is. How could God ever welcome sinners like us? Only because the sacrifice of His Son is so great and so sufficient.

Does Hell Make Sense?

Hell: a place of eternal torment. Most people laugh it off as a fable, or assume the only people who deserve it are Hitler, murderers and terrorists. (And maybe politicians.)

But hell is no joke.

People ask, “Why would a God of love send people to hell? How does hell make sense?”

Today Jesus tells a parable that answers that question by turning it around: “Why would God ever let anyone into heaven? How does heaven make sense?”

Always remember: we’re not the heroes of Bible stories. The Pharisees show the worst of what’s in us. Our hearts are Pharisees! When we read the Bible, we should realize we’re the villains, and He is the Hero who rescues and gives His life for the villains.

Cast of Characters

The man who plants the vineyard: God the Father.
The vineyard: Israel (see Isaiah 5:1-7).
The tenants: Israel’s religious leaders.
The servants: the faithful prophets.
The beloved son: Jesus.

Jesus was about to explain what had been going on for centuries.

The Song of the Vineyard (Isaiah 5:1-7)

Jesus may well have had Isaiah 5 in mind that morning. Isaiah sang a love song about God’s vineyard. God planted it on a fertile hill, cleared out the stones, planted the choicest vines, built a watchtower and dug a winepress. He expected good grapes, but it produced wild, sour ones. Then God asked, “What more could I have done for My vineyard that I haven’t done?” So He would remove its hedge, break down its wall, and let it be trampled and overgrown. And Isaiah explains: the vineyard of the LORD is the house of Israel (Isaiah 5:1-7).

Israel was His vineyard.
He loved them. What more could He have done?
Yet they rejected Him, like a vine producing terrible fruit.
There would be consequences. It couldn’t go on that way.

Now let’s hear what Jesus said to Israel’s leaders, just days before His betrayal and crucifixion.

The Parable (Mark 12:1-12)

Jesus began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. At harvest time he sent a servant to collect his share of the fruit. They seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant; they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent another, and they killed him. And so with many others: some they beat, some they killed.

“He had one left to send, a beloved son. Finally he sent him, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him, 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. Haven’t you read this Scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Psalm 118:22-23).

They wanted to arrest Him, because they knew He had told the parable against them, but they feared the crowd. So they left Him and went away.

God’s Heartbreak

This parable tells the story of God’s heartbreak from God’s point of view. The Pharisees (and we) are so self-focused that we only see the world from our own perspective.

God planted the vineyard. He set His people up for success. He blessed them, protected them, cared for them and poured out His love on them. He put in the work.

The tenants were the nation’s leaders: Pharisees, priests, scribes, representing the nation as a whole. Not every person, but most.

God reached out again and again, sending His representatives, the prophets, over and over:

Jeremiah was beaten and put in stocks (Jeremiah 20:2).
Through Jeremiah God said that from the day their ancestors left Egypt He had sent His servants the prophets day after day, but they wouldn’t listen; they stiffened their necks and did worse than their fathers (Jeremiah 7:25-26).
Tradition says Isaiah was sawn in two.
Zechariah son of Jehoiada was stoned to death in the temple courtyard (2 Chronicles 24:20-21).
Nehemiah’s prayer confesses that the people rebelled, threw God’s law behind their backs, and killed the prophets who warned them to return to Him (Nehemiah 9:26).
And just recently, John the Baptist had been beheaded.

Hebrews describes the faithful who were mocked, flogged, chained and imprisoned; who were stoned, sawn in two, killed by the sword; who wandered in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute and mistreated, in deserts, mountains and caves, people of whom the world was not worthy (Hebrews 11:35-38).

What does all this mean?

God is incredibly patient! His love can’t be questioned. Look how long He endures. Look at His forgiveness and mercy! He waits far longer than any person would. He keeps sending messengers of His love. When will we listen?

Peter says the Lord isn’t slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward us, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

The Beloved Son

“He had one left to send, a beloved son. Finally he sent him, saying, ‘They will respect my son.'”

I can see the Father’s heart laid bare here:

“I adore Jesus! He is My beloved Son. I love Him. He is to be worshiped and adored as I share My glory with Him. He’s the King of heaven and the perfect expression of My heart and glory.”
All of heaven is fixed on Him. Angels delight in Him, and every star sings His praise.
All of hell fears Him and trembles before Him. None can stand before His power, majesty and glory.
His beauty is beyond compare.
His holiness can destroy every evil.
His righteousness will judge the world.
“Surely, since My Son is the delight of heaven, since He is My beloved, they will listen to Him.”

“Let’s Kill Him”

“But the tenants said, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.”

The response of sinners is so sad. Instead of receiving God’s Word, they reject it, throw it out and kill it.

“If we silence the Messenger, maybe God will just go away.”

We do this all the time:

“I’m not going to read the Word. I’m not going to pray.”
“Let’s push Him out of public life.”
“I’m not going to church. I don’t want to be part of His family.”
“Let’s convince people Jesus never lived, or that He wasn’t really good, or that He’s too narrow-minded.”
And throughout history and around the world today: “Let’s kill His followers. Burn the Bibles. Make any conversation about Him taboo. Treat anyone who loves Him like a freak.”

The world still does the same thing. And so does my sinful heart.

God’s Ultimatum

“What will the owner of the vineyard do? He’ll come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

Jesus let the leaders pronounce their own judgment. Matthew records that they answered the question themselves (Matthew 21:41).
They answered the ultimatum.

Jesus is God’s ultimatum. His mercy and patience are astonishing. But once He has sent His Son, there’s no one else to send. Reject Him, and you reject the one door of hope.

Spurgeon said: “If you reject Him, He answers you with tears. If you wound Him, He bleeds out cleansing; if you kill Him, He dies to redeem; if you bury Him, He rises again to bring us resurrection. Jesus is love manifest.”

And he went on: “He is one greatly beloved of His Father and in Himself He is of surpassing excellence. The Lord Jesus Christ is so inconceivably glorious that I tremble at any attempt to describe His glory. Assuredly, He is very God of very God, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, and yet He decided to take upon Himself a human form! He was born an infant into our weakness and He lived as a carpenter to share our toil… He took upon Himself the form of a servant and yet in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily! He is the Prince of the kings of the earth and yet He took a towel and washed His disciples’ feet… Do not turn your back on Him whom all the angels worship!… I beseech you, then, by the love which God bears to His Son, to listen to this matchless Messenger of mercy.”

So why would a God of love send someone to hell? He extends His hand of grace and mercy again and again, and finally sends His beloved Son. If a person finally and fully rejects the Son, there’s no other hope. They have chosen judgment instead of mercy (John 3:18, 36).

It’s Heaven That’s Strange

If we really think about it, hell makes perfect sense. It’s heaven that’s strange.

How could God possibly forgive sinners like us? Sinners who rejected His mercy time after time. Sinners who haven’t surrendered to the King of heaven. Sinners who constantly choose our own way. Sinners who fail over and over.

But the sacrifice of Jesus is so great and so sufficient that God accepts it on our behalf. If you’ve trusted Jesus and called out to Him, your salvation is sure, because the Father honors what His Son has said and done. Boom!

God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him won’t perish but will have eternal life (John 3:16).

God: the greatest Giver
so loved: the greatest motive
the world: the greatest need
that He gave: the greatest act
His only Son: the greatest gift
that whoever: the greatest invitation
believes in Him: the greatest opportunity
should not perish: the greatest deliverance
but have eternal life: the greatest joy

The Standard

God is so patient. But make no mistake: if a person dies with their debt unpaid, still a guilty sinner, judgment comes. God must judge. And we already know the standard, the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17):

You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet.

We’re guilty. We’re sinners. Yet God in His boundless mercy has provided a gracious way for us to be saved, forgiven and set free: the sacrifice of His beloved Son, the precious blood of Jesus, poured out for every sinner who will cry out for it.

If that way is ignored, rejected or despised, there’s no other sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:26). Nothing more can be done for the person who refuses the only help there is.

The Parachute

Picture us all on an airplane falling out of the sky. We blew up the engine. There’s one parachute being offered to you: Jesus. Scripture says, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14).

Every other religion and philosophy says, “You need to save yourself. Be good enough. Work hard enough. Pray long enough. Serve God enough.”

Find your own parachute. Try to sew one together really fast. Believe a magic one will appear because you deserve it. Borrow someone else’s. Or complain: “Jesus is a jerk for offering me a free one. He’s narrow-minded for saying I need a parachute at all. If He really loved me, He’d give me wings or keep the plane from crashing.”

Jesus is the only One who does the saving for us, holding out the parachute and lovingly urging us to accept His free offer. He’s the only One who has purchased the grace He freely offers, with His own precious blood.

And hear this about the parachute: it isn’t offered to give you a nicer flight. It’s an ultimatum.

Ray Comfort tells a story about two passengers who are each handed a parachute. The first is told it will improve his flight. He puts it on, finds it heavy and awkward, gets laughed at by the other passengers, and soon throws it off in bitter disappointment: he was promised a better flight and got humiliation. The second is told he’ll soon have to jump from 25,000 feet. He straps it on gratefully. He hardly notices the weight or the laughter, because he knows what would happen without it, and he’s filled with gratitude toward the one who gave it.

When the gospel is presented only as “Jesus will improve your life,” people who try Him and then meet trials, temptation or mockery often feel cheated and walk away. But when we understand that Jesus is the only rescue from a real judgment, we hold on to Him with joy and gratitude through every bump in the flight.

Grace Takeaway

God planted His vineyard, sent prophet after prophet with patience no human would have, and then sent His beloved Son. Jesus is God’s final, loving ultimatum. The real wonder isn’t that judgment exists; it’s that heaven is open to sinners like us at all. It’s open because the Son the tenants killed is the Stone God made the cornerstone. Don’t throw Him out. Put on the Lord Jesus, and hold on with grateful joy.

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