The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes

 Then He began to speak to them in parables:  "A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower.  And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.  Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers.  And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.  Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.  And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.  Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  But those vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'  So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.  Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do?  He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.  Have you not even read this Scripture:

'The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes'?"

- Mark 12:1-11

Yesterday we read that Jesus and the disciples came again to Jerusalem.  And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.  And they said to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things?  And who gave You this authority to do these things?"  But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things:  The baptism of John -- was it from heaven or from men?  Answer Me."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'  But if we say, 'From men' " -- they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed.  So they answered and said to Jesus, "We do not know."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

Then He began to speak to them in parables:  "A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower.  And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.  Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers.  And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.  Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.  And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.  Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  But those vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'  So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.  Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do?  He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.  Have you not even read this Scripture:  'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.  This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"   My study bible explains the parable in the following way:  The man represents God the Father, and the vineyard refers to God's people.  The vinedressers are the leaders of the Jews, to whom Christ is speaking, who are entrusted to care for the people.   Each servant in the parable who is sent by the owner stands for an Old Testament prophet who comes to call people back to God.  The beloved son refers to Christ Himself.   When the Son is killed and cast out of the vineyard, it is understood on two levels:  first, that Jesus was killed outside of Jerusalem (Golgotha was outside of the city gates in Christ's time), and secondly that Christ was crucified by foreign soldiers, not by those of His own vineyard.  The others to whom the vineyard will be given are the Gentiles brought into the Church.  Jesus quotes from Psalm 118:22-23.

Perhaps the most striking thing about this parable as told by Jesus is what we would call today the "entitlement" of the vinedressers.  Their own outlook is through such a materially-oriented lens that they can't see anything but this property -- and it is most decidedly simply looked upon as property.  That is, not something to care for, not something to steward well, but something to own, to possess, and to selfishly exploit singularly for personal gain.  All in all, a pretty unimaginative sort of outlook that only understands the material and nothing more.  There is not even a sense here of cultivating the property for the future, merely a sense of possession.  But the parable goes beyond  mere possession and into entitlement:  they forget altogether that it is not theirs to claim ownership of.  It belongs to the landowner who leased it to them.  So limited is the vision of those who lease this vineyard that they can only focus on what is in their hands.  They decide to ignore the fact that it is the owner of the land who actually planted the vineyard, set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower -- thus making the property worth something in the first place.   All they can think about is the value that they have in their own hands.   They have no respect for the person who is the owner of the property, who did the work and investment, who leased it to them.  And there is really the sense of entitlement, and where such a commonly found modern problem lies:  the pure focus on the material, and the selfishness engendered by such a perspective.  There is no room for relationship to anything:  not to the land itself, to the crop and its growth, to the investment in the land, and to the one who did all the work and leased the property to them.  There is no regard for the servants of the owner, nor for the son.  A purely material outlook does not respect the values that exist beyond this perspective.  There is no sense of the good except how one is materially and immediately profited.  All of this is entirely in contrast to the goodness of the vineyard, the goodness of faith, the goodness that God wants us to understand about our lives.  When we forget where we come from, we lose sight of the great gifts we have -- the fact that they are gifts at all, and that there is a Giver.  What are the fruits the vineyard owner wants?  God asks us for fruits of the spirit.  That is, things which are intangible, beyond material, which infuse all of life on every level and give us meanings and motivations in the world.  We could consider the material something that exists to give these realities manifestation and expression.  St. Paul names such fruits as "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23).  These are the things which Christ has asked us to cultivate throughout His ministry.  They are the true aims of faithfulness.  All the "activism" in the world is not going to replace the internal work necessary for such fruits, the action of the Holy Spirit, the love of Christ, and regard for the Father that brings these fruits into being through experience and transcendence.  They are the things that must come first, because without them any form of fixing up the world, so to speak, falls flat and fails because vision is so limited and motivation is false.  The best plans fail to produce the goodness of the true fruits.  Let us bear in mind Jesus' condemnation of the religious hypocrisy that also falls into this category (Matthew 23:13-39); His warnings apply to all of us today.  The prophets come to call people back to God, over and over again.  And we note that the parable gives us the Son as the final One who is sent in that holy lineage of servants.  What do you have to give Him?