These small group studies of the gospel of Mark 11:27-12:12 contain commentary, cross-references, Bible study discussion questions, and applications to encourage life change. Visit our library of inductive Bible studies for more practical studies on this and other books of the Bible you can use in your small group.
Mark 11:27-12:12 Bible Study – A “Debate” and the Parable of the Vineyard
Outline
I. The religious leaders challenge Jesus’ authority (11:27-33)
II. The parable of the evil vine-growers (12:1-12)
I. The religious leaders challenge Jesus’ authority (11:27-33)
Discussion Questions
• How did the religious leaders challenge Jesus?
• What may have been their motivation for challenging Him?
• What do you think of their question?
• Did Jesus answer them? Why or why not?
• Did they answer Jesus’ question? Why would they not answer it?
• What does this account teach us about human nature?
• What do we learn about Jesus?
• Are there any principles that we can apply from this passage about communication?
Cross-References
Mark 9:7 – And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”
Matthew 28:18 – And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Colossians 1:15-17 – He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Verse by Verse Commentary
1. The leaders challenge Jesus –
This encounter took place immediately after Jesus cleansed the temple.
Mark 11:27-28 – And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?”
“By what authority do you do these things?”
This is the wrong question. They should have been asking a question like one of the following.
• “Why did we not drive out these greedy businessmen earlier?”
• “Why did we allow the temple to become a place of business and profit instead of worshipping God?”
But they didn’t ask those questions. In debates, there are a number of strategies for trying to win an argument. The purest form of debate is to discuss the merits of the issue at stake. In this case, that would be to talk about whether those businesses should be allowed to operate on temple grounds.
However, many debaters who are on the losing side of an issue use other strategies to confuse the issue. One of the most common is the ad hominem attack. This attacks the other debater’s character or credibility. It is considered a weak debating tactic only used by those who have already lost the argument. Not surprisingly, this is the strategy that the leaders turned to because of their public humiliation.
Rather than humbly consider if they had been wrong to allow these businesses, they attack Jesus’ credentials.
Reflect – Do you resort to ad hominem attacks on others in arguments? Why is this a weak method of debate?
2. Jesus’ reply –
Mark 11:29-30 – Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.”
Jesus did not directly answer their question.
Reflect – Why did not Jesus not directly answer them?
Perhaps Jesus did not answer because it would be casting pearl before swine. Or more likely, Jesus knew that telling them He was the Son of God and it was His house would stir up their anger and hatred against Him even more. It wasn’t yet time for His death.
Therefore instead of answering, Jesus asked them a question. “Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?”
Jesus wisely maneuvered their traps.
Application – Think carefully before you speak, especially if you are engaging with those who are hostile.
Proverbs 26:4-5 – Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
How did Jesus apply the above verses? How can you?
3. The leaders evade Jesus’ question –
Mark 11:31-33 – And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, Why then did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”
They had rejected John the Baptist and refused to listen to his message. Sensing a pattern here? It seems that they rejected everyone God sent. Their guilt, jealousy, and lust for power kept them from listening to John or Jesus.
Jesus’ question pushed them into a corner. They didn’t accept John as a prophet. But the crowds did. If they publicly stated their opposition, they would have lost popularity and support.
As experienced politicians do, they didn’t give an answer. These were people who were good at political maneuvering. But they were hypocrites. Pragmatism was their guiding light.
Their religion made them look nice on the outside, but their hearts were stained black with sin. This is an important reminder that following religious rituals is not the answer. It wasn’t the answer then and it isn’t the answer now. We need to allow God to transform our hearts.
Matthew 15:8 – This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Application – Are you more concerned with politics or truth?
4. Jesus didn’t answer –
Mark 11:33 – And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
They didn’t answer so Jesus didn’t answer. What lesson can we learn from Jesus’? He didn’t just do what people expected Him or wanted Him to do (ie: answering questions). He didn’t answer just because He could. Sometimes answering a question is the easiest thing, but not the best thing.
• Your child asks you to tell them the answer to their math question. How do you respond?
• In Bible study, a member asks for your “expert” opinion. Do you always tell them the answer or ask them to think about it and share their ideas first?
• In a live Q and A, a mocking student asks, “Can God make a rock so big, He can’t lift it?” How do you respond?
All of these situations require wisdom. By putting a question back to people, we can challenge their assumptions and encourage critical thinking.
Jesus did answer many questions as well. But He didn’t use other’s questions as a chance for Him to puff out His chest, march on stage, and show off His amazing debate skills. He answered according to what was best for that individual’s faith journey.
Each situation is unique and requires a different type of response. Pray for wisdom from God to deal with both argumentative and sincere question-askers.
II. The parable of the evil vine-growers (12:1-12)
Discussion Questions
• Who is the “them” in 12:1?
• Who is the one who planted the vineyard in this parable?
• Who are the vine-growers?
• Who are the people who the owner of the vineyard sent to receive some of the produce?
• Who is the beloved son?
• So what is the main point of the parable?
• What prophets in Israel’s past were rejected and beaten or killed?
• Why did Israel reject so many of the prophets?
• Why did God keep sending more?
• What do we learn about human nature? What do we learn about God’s nature?
• What was going to happen to those evil vine-growers? Has this happened yet?
• How did this parable relate to the question of where Jesus got His authority?
• Explain verses 10-11?
Cross-References
Nehemiah 9:26 – Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies.
2 Chronicles 24:20-21 – Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, Why do you break the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’” But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord.
Psalms 80:8 – You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
Isaiah 5:1-2 – Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
Matthew 5:11 – Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Hebrews 1:1 – Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.
Psalms 118:22 – The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
Verse by Verse Commentary
1. He began to speak to them in parables – This parable was directed primarily to the religious leaders who had rejected John and now were rejecting Him. It speaks both to their rebellion against God and to Jesus’ authority.
2. The parable – Jesus tells a story about a group of vine growers. These workers rented a vineyard from the owner. They then harvested produce from the vineyard for sale. Evidently, they had made an agreement with the owner to take care of the vineyard and harvest its produce. Out of the profits, they were to give the owner an agreed-upon cut. But because the owner was far away, they did not give him his due. When the owner tried to collect what he was owed, they beat the various people he sent and refused to give the owner his share. Finally, they killed the owner’s very son. Jesus said that the owner would come and destroy them and give the vineyard to others.
Reflect – What is the meaning of this parable? Why did Jesus share it with the religious leaders questioning His authority?
3. The symbols –
A. The owner –
Mark 12:1 – A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country.
The owner is God. He is the creator of all. You can see God’s great care for the vineyard in that He planted it Himself, protected it with a wall, and built a tower to watch over it. He took care of it and helped it to become productive.
B. The wicked tenants –
These are the leaders of Israel, religious or political. They are supposed to be workers for God. God has given them every blessing and advantage. They were tasked with stewarding Israel. Their positions were given by God and they were answerable directly to Him.
Yet instead of faithfully fulfilling their responsibilities as God’s stewards, they greedily sought to use their position for personal benefit in order to get rich. They didn’t give to God what belonged to Him, but instead kept it for themselves. We see this very thing happening in the last chapter as the temple had become a place of business. The religious leaders allowed and supported this arrangement for their own personal benefit. They are characterized by greed, selfishness, rebellion, violence, dishonesty, and hatred.
Application – God has placed us as stewards over certain things, perhaps family, church, business, a home, or a plot of land. Whatever He has given us is to be used for building His kingdom. What are you a steward over? How can you be a good tenant?
C. The vineyard –
The vineyard represents Israel, God’s kingdom on earth. God showed great care and love for the people of Israel. They were His vineyard, planted, cared for, and nourished for millennia.
Deuteronomy 7:7 – It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
He didn’t choose them because they were better than others. But He did invest a lot in them. He performed hundreds of miracles on their behalf, sent prophets, gave them the Scriptures, preserved them throughout a tumultuous and rebellious history, and sent His only Son to die for them. No matter how much they rebelled against Him, He never abandoned them.
Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
The Lord cared for them and He was right to expect a return on His investment!
We see the same attitude from the Lord in Jonah.
Jonah 4:10-11 – And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
This is good news for us. God didn’t create the world and leave it on its own. He doesn’t save a person and then abandon them. He has an invested interest in seeing us grow.
When I was a kid, my family had a garden. We planted watermelons. Every day, I excitedly went out to see how much they had grown. I watered them and tracked their progress. One day I was devasted to see that they were withering. They had become broken off of the vine. Soon they dried up. I was disappointed that I would never see any results from the work put in.
Philippians 1:6 – And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
C. The servants –
The servants sent by the owner to collect the owner’s share are a symbol for the prophets. Prophets were sent throughout the Old Testament period to teach, correct, and call Israel to repentance. In the parable, Jesus mentions that these servants were not received well.
Reflect – Which prophet did the people fully accept and listen to?
Samuel may be the closest, though they didn’t listen to him in regard to appointing a king.
Isaiah and Jeremiah were largely ignored. Jeremiah was thrown into a pit and beaten by the religious establishment. His first copy of the scroll we call “Jeremiah” was burned by the king. Many believe that Isaiah was the prophet which is said to have been sawn in two in Hebrews 11. Zechariah was killed. Elijah and Elisha were largely ignored. Elijah lived as an exile on the run from the political and religious establishment.
Joshua 1:17 – Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses!
Moses was widely considered to be their greatest prophet. The people claimed that they obeyed Moses. But if that is obedience, I would hate to see what disobedience is. The people grumbled against Moses repeatedly. They almost stoned him. Multiple rebellions were sparked against his leadership.
John the Baptist was killed, albeit by Herod.
The fact is that most of the prophets were rejected during their lifetimes. Future generations claimed to disagree with their forefathers but then did the same thing to prophets sent to them.
Why? When the cat is away the mice will play. The first sin was a rebellion against authority. Rebellion against God’s authority is a long-running theme throughout the Bible. We see it today as well with ideologies such as evolution, the express purpose of which is to declare that there is no God and no standard above man. One of the first words most children learn is “No.”
The vine growers were happy when the owner was away on the journey. Then they were free to do what they wanted without the guilt of someone right there telling them they were wrong.
Romans 1:21 – For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
D. The son – Jesus is obviously the son, the last emissary sent by the Master. The leaders should have seen Jesus’ authority as the people did (Matthew 7:29). They should have seen His miracles and His teachings and welcomed Him with open arms. That would have required humility, submission, and repentance, traits which they were totally lacking.
E. Judgment is coming –
Mark 12:9 – What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
Jesus warned them about the coming punishment for their rebellion. It wasn’t too late. If they turned away from the murderous hate in their hearts, they could still be forgiven. Some scholars say that this judgment refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. That is likely a partial fulfillment. But it may not refer specifically to one event, but rather the broader truth that every person who rejects Christ will be held accountable.
Hebrews 9:27 – And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.
For some, judgment would come sooner. For others, it would come later. However, each person would be held accountable for their behavior. They thought the owner was far away, too far away to do anything to them. But the owner could return from His journey at any time, and when He did there would be a great reckoning.
4. What lessons can we learn from this parable?
A. The nature of man –
People are naturally rebellious. When left alone, they run away from God and His commands as fast as they can.
Romans 3:10-12 – As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
A thousand years, the rise and fall of governments, and massive cultural changes have not changed people’s tendency toward sin. Think about it. The first generation of Jews to rebel against God’s prophet lived in Egypt as slaves. They then rebelled in the wilderness. Their children rebelled in the Promised Land under judges and then kings. They rebelled against God under the Babylonians, Persians, and Romans. This stretched for more than a millennium.
We desperately need God’s grace!
B. The nature of God –
God is gracious and kind. He would have been perfectly just in wiping out these evil vine-growers long before, but He gave them chance after chance after chance. By the time their destruction would come, no one could blame God for it. Their doom was on their own heads.
Reflect – How has God shown grace to you? Think back over the past few days and weeks. How many times have you sinned? How many times have you forgotten God? How many times have you ignored His commands like these religious leaders? How many times has your heart been stained with sin while you smile and look clean on the outside?
We all deserve punishment just like these vine growers did. God did not choose us because of our goodness either. He saw a forlorn, rocky, barren ground. Instead of rejecting the ground as an unusable wasteland, He made it His personal project to restore it. He removed the rocks and junk. He tilled it, fertilized it, and gently planted seeds. He removed weeds. He watered it and gave it sunshine. Even when the ground didn’t bear fruit as it should, He patiently waited and kept tending it.
This is how God treats us. He doesn’t cast us aside at first chance, but patiently loves and nurtures us.
Application – Say a simple “thank you” to God for His grace and patience.
C. Be patient and gracious with others as God is with us –
If God was patient with these rebellious people (and with us) for thousands of years, shouldn’t you be patient as well? Next time you are tempted to get angry with someone in your life, remember this parable. Remember how patient and gracious God is toward you.
D. God gives responsibilities to people – God gives responsibilities to people in His kingdom (vineyard). He expects us to use the gifts He has given to us for the building up of the body of Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 – Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Yet the vineyard still belongs to Him. We are to serve not for our own benefit. We are to serve in His vineyard for His glory. The fruit belongs to Him, not to us.
Are you a worker in His Vineyard or just an eater? Don’t be like all of the animals in The Little Red Hen who wanted to enjoy food without putting in any work.
E. Everyone is personally accountable to God – There will be a great day of reckoning. The Master is gone on a journey, but He won’t be gone forever. The mistake of the vine growers was that they thought the Master was far away. To them, out of sight was out of mind.
Do not make the same mistake. God sees everything we do. There is a record of our every action, word, and thought.
What’s in your record?
What you have already recorded cannot be undone except with Christ’s blood. Repent of the mistakes you have made.
The good news is that there are still blank pages in your life’s book. How are you going to fill up those blank pages? What are you going to record in them today? Are they going to be filled with things you are embarrassed about? Or perhaps fluff? Or will they be filled with useful and productive things which you have done for God?
Ephesians 5:16 – Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
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