What will the owner of the vineyard do?

 ⁶ He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come,let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others... ¹² And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. Mark 12

Have you ever had some friends talk about something that happened recently, but they did not use any names.  After a few minutes you realize they are talking about your embarrassing moment that happened earlier that day.  You could feel the blood rush to your head as you remember that they said they were not going to tell anyone.  Yet, you are hearing the story with your own ears.  The Pharisees had the same experience when Jesus was telling the parable about the vineyard.

Jesus told a story about a land owner who planted a vineyard. The tenants would not give the owner his profit and would kill the servants who came to retrieve it.  Eventually they would kill the owner’s son.  This of course is exactly what happened to Jesus.  As God’s Son, he came to earth to share what God expected of men and what he wanted to do for mankind.  But the Jewish people rejected him and he was crucified on a cross.

The key question that Jesus asks, which is also relevant to us today, is “What will the owner of the vineyard do?”  Jesus answers the question by saying that the vineyard will transfer to other tenants.  Who are these tenants?  And what did the original tenants do wrong?  Yes they killed the messengers sent by the land owner.  But the bigger issue is the attitude toward the owner.  Denial that the owner actually has a claim to his vineyard is the real rebellion. 

Anytime, someone rejects that God has a claim to their life is the same type of rebellion.  People claim there is no God.  People claim that God only has “jurisdiction” in religious affairs.  Resistance to allow Jesus to be “LORD” over all areas of your life is the same type of rebellion.

So what will the vineyard owner do to those who live in this same type of rebellion?