Jesus Rejected

This morning we're meditating on the passage just read, and it's really a passage about rejection. As we think about this, I'm curious, how much of your life is marked by a fear of rejection? How much of your decisions, how much are we afraid of rejection? This kind of fear of man can leave us pretty socially paralyzed. We won't risk applying for that position. We won't ask that person out. We won't try to be part of that friend group. Let's just be honest. Rejection is discouraging, embarrassing. It hurts. It really puts there a sense of inferiority and or flawedness. You know, when we're rejected, we ask, what's wrong with me? Why wouldn't I get that thing I was wanting? This morning is about rejection, but it's actually flipped on its head there. Because what we're going to see is that we are the rejectors in what's wrong with us because we reject God. What's wrong with us in our rejection of God? Very simply put, sin is rejecting God. It's not listening to Him. It's not receiving Him. It's not responding to Him. And we're also gonna see the good news that Jesus is rejected so that we can know His salvation. That is our main point from the text this morning. Jesus is rejected so that we can rejoice in His salvation. If you're new with us, we're in the Gospel of Mark. We're in chapters 11 and 12. And we've been walking through the Gospel of Mark. Last week, we looked at the triumphal entry. Jesus comes in as the triumphant king. He's being praised. Hosanna, the Lord saves. He goes into the temple. He cleans it out. He takes the money changers and turns their tables over. You know, kind of like the guy that has a fit of rage in the middle of Monopoly and just throws everything up, the game's over, money's going everywhere. Never happened to anybody else. And here we come, it's the next day. Notice and they came again to Jerusalem. So they've they've gone out of Jerusalem They've gone to Bethany because there are so many people here for the Passover. There's no room in Jerusalem So they go out to the the outskirts of Jerusalem. He comes back and And here we are, a new setting. And really, it's a section within Mark. Chapters 11 to 16, that's what we call the Passion Week. Mark takes all those chapters to explain one whole week, the last week of Jesus' life. His last supper, His death, His burial, His resurrection. In this section here, chapter 12, it actually has its own little unit. We see here seven conflicts. and they're typically all conflicts with the religious rulers. Our story this morning is the Sanhedrin, the chief priests, scribes, and elders. There's a conflict with Jesus and them. Then we'll see that there's a conflict with the Pharisees. Who do you pay taxes to? Caesar, Will you pay taxes to Caesar? Or is that false worship? Then you will see a conflict with the Sadducees. Is there a resurrection? Is there marriage in the resurrection? And then there's another conflict with the scribes. What is the greatest commitment? We've got a series of seven conflicts of Jesus. And we're gonna look at these together. I believe our first conflict is an introduction. By what authority do you do these things? That's an introduction to this series of conflicts. And I want you to see, I've organized this passage in the question, 11, 27 to 33, by what authority, that's the question, Jesus' answer is given in chapters 12, one through 12. It is the authority of the Son of God. Let's look at our text. Verse 27, they came again to Jerusalem, again next day. as he was walking in the temple, the chief priest, the scribes, the elders. This is the trifecta of the who's who of the Jerusalem religious leadership. This is the Sanhedrin. Now, it's kind of curious, Jesus just entered into the court of the Gentiles and caused a huge disruption, and as he's coming, imagine, what are the people in the temple thinking is going to happen next? You can kind of see the money changers trying to gather their things so that when he flips the table, money doesn't go everywhere. Imagine, the guys are selling pigeons. They're scared to death. He's gonna push them out of the temple again. There's probably some concern what's going to happen again that Jesus comes and we see here the religious leaders who oversee the temple and oversee the religious practices, they're meeting him at the door. Okay, chief priests, they're the ones who are specifically called to watch and keep things in the temple. The scribes, they're the expert lawyers of the word of God. They're the ones who have the, take on the role of interpreting. And then the elders, they're the wise older men in the community who are turned to leadership. These three meet Jesus at the door. and ask him, verse 28, by what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them? This is at least a challenge. Who do you think you are? How could you come into our religious setting and disrupt it the way you are? This is actually likely a trap. Because they want to trap him, saying by what authority, so that they can take him to the Roman government, the Roman rulers, and accuse him. This theme of authority, if you've been with us, it's marked. It's all throughout Mark. We can go back to Mark 1, when Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. Mark 1, 22 and 27. The people say, What kind of teaching is this? It has authority unlike the scribes. The people are recognizing He has more authority. He's saying things in a more authoritative way than those who are teaching us beforehand. Mark 27, He has a unique authority. Mark 2, Jesus says, I have authority to forgive sins. Our religious leaders, they still haven't gotten who He is. and what kind of authority he has. What gives you the right? Well, as we'll see, and as we've seen over and over again, when there's a conflict, there's a question like this, Jesus is kind of coy. He rarely answers any question like this, an accusatory question, right? They're not looking for information. They're looking for ammo. He really answers a question like this directly, if at all. And here we see him brilliantly respond, not by answering their question directly. Verse 29, Jesus said to them, his response, I will ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Okay, so we see he's kind of, he's put them in the seat. They're in the hot seat. They've got to answer the question. Verse 30. Was the baptism of John, that is John the Baptist, from heaven or from man? Answer me. Now we need to just back up and remember who John the Baptist is. Okay? He's the cousin of Jesus who had his own miraculous birth narrative. He's not born of a virgin, but he's born of a woman whose womb was closed and was of an older age. It was a miracle inception. He's a forerunner of the Messiah. He's the one who paved the way, the path for Messiah to come. He's a prophet of the Old Testament, but he's actually one of the most unique prophets Not only was he saying the Messiah is going to come, he got to say, behold the Lamb of God, as he saw Jesus coming towards him. He's the prophet of the Old Testament. They got to say, not only is he coming, look, he's right here. And then he baptized Jesus. And as he baptized Jesus, he heard the Father say, this is my beloved Son. And he saw the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus like a dove. And so as we, we look at this, we have to answer the question, John the Baptist was clearly from heaven. His baptism was, was one of heaven. His baptism was telling the, the people, repent of your false religious ways, your, your hypocrisy. follow God by faith. Here, the Sanhedrin is forced to answer that question. Is John, was his baptism from heaven or was it of man? And we get insight into their little holy huddle. Look at verse 31. Again, the three most important groups in Jerusalem, they discussed it with one another saying, And listen to the calculation. This is not leadership. There's no conviction in anything they're saying. This is just self-preservation and calculation. If we say it's from heaven, Jesus will say, why didn't you believe him? Okay, so you see, you see the trick there. If they, if they say there was something unique, if they, if they say John was a man of God who came with a mission from God and a message from God, then we have to give an account as to why we didn't believe him. All right? But, verse 32, if we say it was from man, then the crowds, they, they believe John was a prophet and we're going to have a, we're going to have a PR problem. We're gonna have a problem with the people we're serving. So they're stuck. Either they say he's from heaven and have to give an account for their rejection, or they actually reject he is from heaven, they have to deal with a crowd. And you see here that fear of man controlling them more than a fear of God. Verse 33, so they answered, we do not know. The religious leaders of Israel have no conviction, and they're cowards. Now sometimes the most courageous thing you can say is, I don't know, but here it's clear the calculating kind of answer that's avoiding conflict. And so Jesus says to them, kind of end of discussion, if you're not willing to tell me about John the Baptist, I'm not willing to tell you where I get my authority from. It seems like a simple, ending. But the story is going to go on. But before we look at this next section, I just want to recognize there's two main problems that are already being identified with the religious leaders. First, they have little faith or no faith in God. The whole point here is if John the Baptist is from God, and he came with a message from God, why did not, why did they not believe John the Baptist? They didn't listen to him. There's a warning for us. We don't get to pick and choose what we like that God says. We either submit and stand under the entire word of God or we're really our own God that's deciding what God said is good and what's not. We need to see that there's a tendency here, not submitting to God's word as authoritative. They're rejecting God by rejecting John the Baptist. We also see here a fear of man that's controlling them. They're more concerned about their constituents. They're more concerned about the people that they're supposed to be serving the Word of God to, but they want to make sure they keep them happy so that they remain in power. This is man-pleasing. Working for the esteem of others rather than working to hear God say, well done, good and faithful servant. You cannot serve two masters. Either you live a life that's living out convictions from God's Word, or you're living as a coward seeking to please people. Now as I wrestled with this, and I kind of thought, all right, how do we in our culture, in our own church, how do we demonstrate a fear of man? And I kind of wonder if this is even like a real primary competitor for the fear of God. I think our culture has a bigger problem with a fear of missing out. Right? Our SVPs have yes, no, maybe. And if you ever look at how people respond, the maybes are full. And why do we say maybe? Because something better may come along. We're afraid of missing out. Our culture, we are just longing for bigger, better experiences. I wonder if there's something about our desire and not missing out, or our desire for our kids not to miss out on what we think is supposed to be the dream, that keeps us from living a life that's living out real convictions from the Word of God. Here we see the danger of not living out from convictions, but living a cowardly life for something else. Now, if we look at chapter 12, verse 1, I want you to see Jesus begins to speak to them in parables. So it's same setting, still in the temple door, same Sanhedrin, his disciples are with him, and he speaks to them in parables. Now, Mark 4 has a number of parables and explains what a parable is. We have not seen another parable since then, and we will not see one. This parable stands out as the only parable outside of Mark 4. And its importance is in its placement here. Now Mark 4 verse 11 tells us that a parable is said so that those on the outside don't understand. A parable is a way for Jesus to teach us something, but there's a kind of a secret knowledge. There's a Holy Spirit-inspired understanding that is only given to his disciples. A parable is, at some level, a way of teaching while causing some to stumble and some to embrace. Some to understand and some to remain in darkness. So Jesus here is telling them a parable, and I believe this parable is actually answering the question where he gets his authority from. Let's look at the parable. A man planted a vineyard, Okay, if you're in Palestine, this is just a normal setting for any story. This could be a love story. It could be a tragedy. It could be a comedy. It could be that this man who's building a vineyard in the time of peace is going to go out to war. This is a common setting. A man planted a vineyard. The genre of the story is a redemption story, just in case you want to know. A man planted a vineyard. And notice who does all the work. He put a fence around it. He dug a pit for the wine press. And he built a tower. OK, the owner of the vineyard has done everything to defend it and equip it to be a functioning vineyard. He's done all the work. And then what does he do? He leases it to tenants. There's going to be people who do not own the land, but are going to work it and keep it. and he goes into another country. So that's our setting. A man and a vineyard in this parable. He's done all the work, and then others are supposed to work it and keep it. Verse two. This again is just going along with a common understanding of what would take place. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. You own a vineyard for a reason, you want the fruit, and you expect some kind of, in the agreement, you're going to receive some of the product, some of the fruit. Verse three, we see here the tension in the story. And the tenants took the servant, just to make sure we understand what we're talking about, beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed." Now the word sent here from the owner, it's the same word we get apostle from. It's an authoritative sending. And this is very much like the power of attorney. They are representatives of the landowner. They have all the rights and privileges to speak on behalf of the landowner and to receive what is rightfully his. And notice the tenants take that person with that authority, representing the owner, and they beat him and they run him out empty-handed. They're not... acting as stewards, but owners. This really just, this treatment of the servant, it reveals their posture towards the owner. Let's continue to read along. Verses four to six are odd. And he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed, and so with many others. Some they beat, Some they kill. This looks like an exercise of insanity. He keeps doing the same thing, that is the owner, expecting a different outcome. Can you imagine the servants, like, each time he's calling out for a servant, they're scared to death? I don't want to go there. We know what's going to happen. Some may not ever come back. Some are going to be treated shamefully. I don't want to get hit in the head. Over and over again, he is just persistent in his pursuit to exercise his ownership of his vineyard. And the tenants are equally stubborn in their stance in hatred of the owner. Over and over and over again. Verse six. Verse three introduced the tension of the story. Verse six is showing us the turning point of the story. He had still one other. Our attention should be grasped right now. We should be interested. One other. There's one more that stands out and somehow unique. How is he unique? He's a beloved son. All right, sonship in this culture is significant. You could not transfer ownership to a daughter or a servant. You don't sell land. If you're a father with a vineyard, you only transfer ownership to a son. There's something unique about a son in this culture in that it carries on the legacy of the father and the name of the family. And it's very emphatic. He's not just any son. a beloved son. There's an affection for the son. There's a unique relationship here. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally, all right, we're coming to a climactic end. This is a turning point and heading towards a climactic end. Finally he sent him and he said, they will respect my son. Notice the faith the owner has in these tenants who have regularly shown their rejection and hatred of the owner by beating and killing his servants, but he's thinking, surely they won't treat my son this way. Verse seven. It'd be wonderful if there was an and, but there's a but. But those tenants said to one another, You get in the holy huddle here. This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. Now, I'm not quite sure it works that way. But you see here, their complete selfishness, their complete desire to be owners. The rejection of their proper place in the vineyard. The rejection of the true owner. And just the evil. Selfishness. Let's kill him for our own well-being. This wasn't just a plan. Verse 8. They took him. They killed him. And they threw him out of the vineyard. Treated him like an object. Not a human being. Not the son of their owner. Not of someone who has rights and privileges there in the vineyard. They killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. That's the parable. A man with a vineyard hired some tenants. Those tenants rejected his servants over and over again. He sent his son, and they even killed his son. And then verse nine draws it to a very pointed question. When Jesus asked questions like this, it's supposed to be self-reflective. What will the owner of the vineyard do? We can all ask, what will we do if we're the owner? I would have already smitten them with a mighty smiting. He will come and he will destroy the tenants and he will give the vineyard to others. He's making it very clear that this kind of rebellion, rejection, hatred, not respecting the boundaries set before you, not respecting the role set before you, it ends with destruction. Then he asks a pretty provocative question. Remember, he's talking to the Sanhedrin. The religious rulers, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, Have you not read this scripture? That's like going to the boardroom of the NRA and asking them if they've ever shot a gun. Right? It's just, it's asking the most provocative question. Do you not know the very Word of God that you pretend to be masters of and leading others in? Do you, have you not read the Bible? And he quotes for them Psalm 118. The stone The builder is rejected, has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Let's think through what this Psalm is saying. the stone becomes a cornerstone. A cornerstone, usually in our understanding of what this looks like today, is it's the first stone you lay that really sets out the levelness and the boundaries and the foundational structure. This is probably a capstone. It's a stone in the building that still takes all the weight. It's a foundational piece. It holds up the strength of the structure. The stone that is rejected, that is like the son of the owner, he becomes the foundation. Jesus is giving us a divinely inspired decoder ring for the parable with this passage. He's helping us see so that we might be on the inside what's going on. The son is rejected, he is killed, so that he is actually the foundation for the new kind of worship, and the new kind of servant that's going to be in the vineyard. In many ways, I believe verse 9, it has been traditionally interpreted, that giving it to others is taking away the Israel's privileged position in the kingdom of God, and giving it to us, Gentiles. But the key point here, is that this happens because they reject Jesus. It is significant that Jesus asked the Sanhedrin about John the Baptist in the previous inquiry of chapter 11. You see, if John the Baptist is a prophet from heaven, we see they've rejected a prophet from heaven. And this helps inform what's going on in this parable, because if we read this parable in this way, according to, I think, what Jesus is teaching, all those servants were the prophets from the Old Testament. Over and over again, God sent prophets. David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah. go on and on. All those servants are the prophets that God has sent over and over again, and Israel continued to reject their God and their messenger, and they killed some of those men. And then he says, I'll send my own son, and the language of his beloved son is supposed to bring us back to Genesis 22, where God tells Abraham, take your son, your only son, your beloved son, up on the mountain and sacrifice him. And Abraham does so, believing that Jesus could even raise him from the dead. But instead, God provides a sacrifice, a substitute. It leads us right into the truth at John 3, 16. God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Friends, this parable is the gospel truth. In our sin, we reject God. The way where this parable breaks down is verse 11, quoting from Proverbs 118. It looks as if from the parable that the owner is not in control of what's going on and doesn't seem to understand what kind of tenants he has in his vineyard. He keeps thinking, they surely won't reject my own son, or they surely will receive this servant. Now verse 11 of Psalm 118 shows us that the Lord is actually completely sovereign. The rejection of the stone was the Lord's doing. It was marvelous in His eyes. God the Father knew what we would do to His Son if He sent Him to us. Why would He do it then? It was the only way for His Son to become the cornerstone, the foundation of our salvation. This should be marvelous in our eyes. Our hatred of God is so intense that we would kill Him when He comes to save us. His plan of salvation is so powerful that He allows that to happen. He plans it to happen so that when Jesus Christ dies on the cross, He's actually dying to save those who are killing Him. Remember the words of Jesus on the cross? Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they do. Our sins are put on Jesus on the cross if we believe in Him. He died being rejected so that we might be received, forgiven, because our sin has been paid for in His death. Now He has risen at the right hand of the Father so that we can be received fully in His righteousness. But he has to be received by faith. Look at verse 12 and how the Sanhedrin responds. They were seeking to arrest him, but feared the people. You see, there's no faith. They perceived that he had told the parable against them, but they didn't really understand it. Because they refused to believe, they left and went away. As we reflect upon this passage, I want us to see that this is first a, a judgment passage. And therefore it should be a warning to us. This is a judgment passage. The primary purpose of this is to show us that God has left the, the religious rulers. He, because they have rejected him and his servants and his prophets and even his own beloved son, they've been cut off. This is language that we see very easily from the Gospel of John. The Father is the master pruner. He cuts off dead branches. We see this in Romans 11. God is kind and severe. Because Israel has rejected Him, they've been cut off. New branches have been grafted in. And the key application from Romans in that teaching is, be warned. If we ever think we deserve God's pleasure, God's love. If we think we're somehow better than those who rejected Jesus here from the Sanhedrin, we're fooled. We're just as evil. We're just as selfish. We're just as cruel. It's by grace alone that He overcomes our sin that abounds. I think we're being warned here of just ungrateful pride. not recognizing the privileged position we have as children of God, the temple of God, being adopted into the family of God. There's a warning here for us, church. There's a warning for you if you're not a Christian this morning. If you're rejecting God, He will surely come and destroy you. We will be judged for our sins. You will not be judged for other people's sins. You'll be judged for your sins unless you put your faith in Jesus, who takes the judgment for our sins on Himself, so that we can be forgiven. Don't leave here without talking to somebody about that. There's another focus here that I want us to think about before we depart. I mentioned earlier that the landowner's actions could look like insanity. He keeps doing the same thing, expecting a different outcome. I think for us, we need to be overwhelmed by how patient God is with us. How persistent He is to speak His truth to those He loves. to not abandon those who continue to persist in sin, who continue to have a stubbornness over and over again. Has He been speaking in a way that says, stop that sin and come to Me? This isn't insanity from the Father. This is pure, powerful, saving love over and over again. He speaks that same word. Come to me, confess your sins. I will forgive you and receive you. This is the God we know. That this is Jesus giving him the answer. I have authority to lead the worship according to my Father because he has empowered me to come, to die, to be the cornerstone of a new worship. Believe in me, he says. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank You that You are steadfast in love. As we've begun our service, proclaiming Your steadfast love. Lord, as we see it in how You continue to patiently be persistent in sending Your Word to us, Lord, give us the grace now we need to not only receive it, to respond to it properly. Lord, let us marvel that this whole plan is of Your doing. Help us, Lord, to sing with great confidence. And can it be that we would be able to partake in the Savior's blood? That we would be able to partake in Your patience and Your love? Lord, let us be afraid of receiving Your judgment for rejecting You. And let us fully and quickly come to You, knowing that You're a God of love who receives us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.