But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’But those farmers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.
3 sermons cite this verse
I want to go to the gospel of St. Mark 12 verse 1 through 12 where we left off Sunday. The gospel of St. Mark chapter 12 verse 1 through 12. And if once you have it, would you stand? If you can put it on my monitor to make it easy for me. Thank you so much. Thank you, Jesus. Let me preface this by saying they were always trying to set Jesus up. Always trying to set Jesus up. I'm so glad for the Bible because the Bible lets you know what's normal. There's nothing new up under the sun. And right before this, they were trying to set him up. And so Jesus said, they asked Jesus a question. Jesus asked them a question. He answered the question with a question. And he said, now, if it's the baptism of John of God or not. And they were in a dilemma because they reasoned in themselves. If we say it's not of God, the people are going to judge us. …
What I'm going to give you today is in the book of Mark, the Gospel of St. Mark, chapter 12, verse 1 through 12. It is extensive. It is fairly, fairly unfamiliar, not often preached about, but it is something that the Holy Spirit gave to me today to share with you that you might hear what the Spirit says to the church. You're looking good this morning. Thank you. Thank you. I'm feeling good. That's the good part. I hope I look good, but I'm happy I'm feeling good. Hallelujah. I'm feeling good down to my toes. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling blessed. I'm feeling like God is with me. I'm feeling like somebody praying for me. Yeah, yeah, that's good, that's good. In the Gospel of St. Mark, chapter 12, verse 1, he records a parable that was written, that was given by Christ in response to an adverse crowd who was trying to trip him up. You must understand that most of Jesus' ministry was not done amongst his fans, his friends, or his congregants. …
2. Take another example, and you will see the same thing still more strikingly. How overpowered should we be, nay not at the sight only, but at the very hearing of cruelties shown to a little child, and why so? for the same two reasons, because it was so innocent, and because it was so unable to defend itself. I do not like to go into the details of such cruelty, they would be so heart-rending. What if wicked men took and crucified a young child? What if they deliberately seized its poor little frame, and stretched out its arms, nailed them to a cross bar of wood, drove a stake through its two feet, and fastened them to a beam, and so left it to die? It is almost too shocking to say; perhaps, you will actually say it is too shocking, and ought not to be said. O, my brethren, you feel the horror of this, and yet you can bear to read of Christ's sufferings without horror; for what is that little child's agony to His? and which deserved it more? which is the more innocent? which the holier? was He not gentler, sweeter, meeker, more tender, more loving, than any little child? Why are you shocked at the one, why are you not shocked at the other? Or take another instance, not so shocking in its circumstances, yet introducing us to another distinction, in which Christ's passion exceeds that of any innocent sufferers, such as I have supposed. When Joseph was sent by his father to his brethren on a message of love, they, when they saw him, said, "Behold, this dreamer cometh; come now, therefore, and let us slay him." They did not kill him, however, but they put him in a pit in spite of the anguish of his soul, and sold him as a slave to the Ishmaelites, and he was taken down into a foreign country, where he had no friends. Now this was most cruel and most cowardly in the sons of Jacob; and what is so especially shocking in it is, that Joseph was not only innocent and defenceless, their younger brother whom they ought to have protected, but besides that, he was so confiding and loving, that he need not have come to them, that he would not at all have been in their power, except for his desire to do them service. Now, whom does this history remind us of but of Him concerning whom the Master of the vineyard said, on sending Him to the husbandmen, "They will reverence My Son?" "But when the husbandmen saw the Son, they said among themselves, This is the Heir, come, let us kill Him, and let us seize on His inheritance. And they caught Him, and cast Him out of the vineyard, and slew Him." Here, then, is an additional circumstance of cruelty to affect us in Christ's history, such as is suggested in Joseph's, but which no instance of a brute animal's or of a child's sufferings can have; our Lord was not only guiltless and defenceless, but He had come among His persecutors in love. …