The Widow's Offering
What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Mark 12:9 · Berean Standard Bible
Then Jesus asked: 'What will the vineyard owner do?' He answered His own question: 'He'll come, destroy those tenants, and give the vineyard to others.'
Jesus was warning the religious leaders that their stewardship of God's people was coming to an end. God's purposes would continue — just with different people in charge.
Jesus poses and answers the parable's concluding question.
The leaders are hearing their own verdict, spoken by the very person they're plotting to kill. The vineyard doesn't belong to them — it belongs to the Owner.
Jesus' rhetorical question and answer pronounce judgment: the vineyard (God's kingdom purposes) will be transferred from unfaithful leaders to others — anticipating the Gentile mission.
This declaration of transferred stewardship anticipates the early church's inclusion of Gentiles and echoes prophetic warnings in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
Jesus asks and answers a rhetorical question about the vineyard owner's response.
The parable concludes with a verdict: judgment on the murderous tenants and the redistribution of the vineyard to new, faithful stewards.
7But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
8So they seized the son, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.
10Have you never read this Scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
11This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
Read all of Mark 12 — Trick questions from every direction, a scribe who almost gets it, and a poor widow who gives everything — two small coins that outweigh them all.
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