Q3, S07 The Wicked Tenants
Question 09:
Can You See My Kingdom as a Farm?
This quarter we are considering three questions that all focus on the kingdom of God. The question for this group of sessions is: Can you see my kingdom as a farm? Remember that as we look at these questions, we’re imagining the kingdom as three spaces in a home: the front yard, the home, and the backyard. In the front yard, imagine a seed being planted to grow into a large tree that shades the home. Inside the home is a table with a prepared meal. Outside, around the back of the house, is a garden or farm—large enough to run as a business with servants or employees.
The parables we will look at in this section focus on the farm. What does it mean for the kingdom to be an agricultural business? How should this affect the way we view God? How should it affect the way we view ourselves? What is it about the kingdom of God that invites the comparison with a landowner, employees, and a business?
Tool: The Farm
Our tool for the next few sessions is the Farm. As we walk through the house and out back, we find a garden, a vineyard, or a farm. It’s an agricultural enterprise with multiple employees. This farm represents the work of God’s people for the kingdom. This is where countless hours are invested in planting seeds, growing crops, and multiplying food. Production, investment, and stewardship are the key words in back of the home. As you contemplate the next few parables, consider what this business or farm metaphor reveals about the kingdom. What does it say about our relationship with Jesus and what he wants to do with us and through us?
Quarter 3, Session 7: Wicked Tenants
WILL YOU RESPOND WHEN I CALL YOU BACK?
Passage
Mark 12:1–12
Concept
This session falls under Jesus’ ninth question: Can you see my kingdom as a farm? Jesus told a parable about tenants who were working a vineyard. When the owner sent messengers—even his own son—to collect from the harvest, they rejected, abused, and in some cases killed the messengers. In this parable, we see God portrayed as a landowner trying to produce a harvest. The question for us is whether we will be working toward his harvest or against it. We also have to ask if we will respond when he calls us back to working for his harvest.
Key Question
How can you tell when God is working around you? We often assume that what God wants to do is the thing that we’re doing. But how would you be able to tell if God was doing something different than your thing? How would you know it’s time to join what God is doing?
The Farm Tool
Do you see our Farm tool being played out in Mark 12:1–12? With whom? How so?
Wicked Tenants
Who do you find yourself resisting the most? Who do you fight against? Who or what gets beneath your skin the most? We all have people or issues that get us fired up. That’s part of living in a human society. There’s a healthy side to fighting for the right thing. But it’s always important that we’re mindful of who we’re fighting against.
Whenever we feel the urge to resist or oppose, we need to diligently assess the situation and our own hearts. The directions in which we feel the need to resist can reveal a lot about our hearts. In most cases, we assume that we are right and our opponent is wrong. But we should be careful about this. Are we sure we’re always standing with God? Is it possible we’re resisting him? The Bible is full of stories of people who at one point in time were working with God, but who eventually came to be fighting against him.
In Mark 12, Jesus told a parable about the Jewish people, who were completely certain that they were fighting for God, but who were in fact resisting what God was doing through Jesus. This should be a real concern for us: Does it really seem impossible that we could end up resisting something that God wants to do in or around us?
1. Read Mark 12:1–12. Right off the bat, what strikes you about this passage? What do you find interesting or challenging or confusing?
Resistant Tenants
We have already looked at parables in which the kingdom is compared to a seed growing in soil and a family celebrating together. In these next parables, the kingdom is portrayed as a farm producing a harvest. In these parables, God is compared to the owner of a farm or vineyard. We get a bigger picture of what the kingdom is like as we see it from this perspective. It’s not just about the way we grow as individuals (seeds) or the way we relate to the other members of the kingdom (family), but here we see that it’s also like a farm in which the farmer is trying to produce a crop. Who will he work through? How will that crop be produced? What hindrances to the harvest need to be overcome?
In this parable, the land owner sends multiple servants to check on tenants who are working his vineyard. As the landowner, he wants to collect on the harvest. But the tenants respond with violence. The owner keeps sending more messengers, with the same result. When he finally sends his son, believing they will respect his authority, the tenants kill him in an effort to gain the land for themselves. (Most likely, they thought the son had come because his father had died.) Instead, the tenants gain nothing as the land owner destroys them and gives the vineyard to others.
God is the landowner and the tenants have been Israel. They have always been the tenants, ever since God called them as a nation to have a unique relationship with him. Everything they did was intended to display the goodness and glory of God. As they strayed from this, however, he continually sent prophets to his people to warn them, to call them back. But they resisted the prophets. They even oppressed and sometimes killed the prophets.
2. Unfortunately, the history of Israel and the Church has many chapters in which God’s people have resisted the things God was doing. Can you think of any possible instances of this happening today?
3. Are there any ways in which you might be resisting what God is trying to do through you right now? Why do you think you’re resisting?
Patiently Calling
This parable paints a picture of God as extremely patient. He continually sends messengers to call the wicked tenants to comply. God is clearly far more patient than we would ever be in such a situation.
This is exactly the story we see in the Old Testament. Time and time again God asks his people to follow him, to represent him well, to trust him. His people constantly say yes and then follow him for a time, but then they always fall away. They always go back to grumbling and to doing what they believe is right.
The reason God is sending messengers to try to turn the farm around is that he is trying to produce a crop. He wants to see it run the way it was designed to; he wants it to actually produce a harvest. When he has to remove the tenants, he brings in more tenants who will work towards the harvest. God’s people always have the privilege of being invited to join him in what he’s doing. And when we get off track, God continues to patiently call to us. But we have to respond to his invitation.
4. Can you think of any times that God has patiently overcome your resistance to him? What was this like? How did he finally get your attention?
Who Are We Fighting Against?
We often respond strongly—perhaps even violently—when God calls us to do something that we don’t want to do. It’s hard to remember sometimes that we are tenants. We want to be landowners. But the vineyard is his. We don’t set the agenda.
God had a purpose for his vineyard and his people were not fulfilling it. So the question was, “What is God going to do?” He doesn’t get rid of the vineyard, but he ultimately brings in new tenants. As we see with Israel, as they resisted what God was wanting to do, God brought in new people to lead his movement. As we see God bringing in new people to work through, how will we respond to them? Will we insist that we belong in the vineyard? Or will we get back to working towards God’s purposes?
One of the telltale signs that we are fighting against God is when we find ourselves picking up stones. When we see something happening around us and we feel the need to destroy a person or their platform, we have to ask ourselves if perhaps we’re resisting something God is wanting to do around us. We can see this in denominations. Every denomination represents a group that tried to reform where the people of God had gone off track and who did their part to correct the course. But inevitably, those same reformers lose sight of the goal. We always have to watch what such a group will do when God raises up others to bring further reform.
God will use people to produce his harvest. The question is, will he use us? (For this question, we’re talking less about a person’s relationship with God and more about whether he or she is working for or against God’s kingdom.)
5. How can you tell when God is working around you? We often assume that what God wants to do is the thing that we’re doing. But how would you be able to tell if God was doing something different than your thing? How would you know it’s time to join what God is doing?
Repentance (Still)
This brings us back to repentance once again. We talked about repentance when we looked at the ministry of John the Baptist. If we are going to be part of what God is doing, we will always need to be ready to repent of the ways we’ve gone wrong, or the ways we’ve co-opted God’s mission and taken it in a different direction. Following Jesus always requires repentance. It requires us to continually turn back when we get off track. We can’t be afraid of conflict, we have to lean into conflict so we can continue to be those people God will use.
We have to remember we are working rented land. There is a landowner, and it’s his crop we’re working for. Are we working toward his harvest? Or have we gotten off track?
6. Is there anything in your life right now that you need to repent of? This might mean blatant sin, or it could be turning from some distortion of God’s mission. Is there any area in which you need to get back on track with God and what he’s calling you to do?
7. Spend some time in prayer. Thank God for entrusting his kingdom to you, for the privilege of being one his co-laborers. Pray that God would continue to raise up workers for his harvest. Pray that he would give you the grace to respond well when he calls you to repent and follow more closely.
Key Question
How can you tell when God is working around you? We often assume that what God wants to do is the thing that we’re doing. But how would you be able to tell if God was doing something different than your thing? How would you know it’s time to join what God is doing?