Mark 12:6-7

“And he had yet one, a beloved son. He sent him last to them saying, ‘They will treat my son with due honour’. But those tenant farmers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ”

Here Jesus made His most clear public statement yet that He was the Messiah, and more than the Messiah, and yet He did it in a way that could not be used against Him. He was confirming that He was ‘God’s beloved Son’ (compare Mark 1:11; Mark 9:7). For the owner ‘sent his own beloved son’. Now Jesus was making clear that a greater than the prophets was here (Matthew 12:41; Luke 11:32), one who was totally unique and was related to God as no other. He was their last opportunity. The change to ‘son’ would certainly be noted by the members of the Sanhedrin, eager as they were to pin any charge they could on Jesus.

‘They will treat my son with due honour.’ This emphasises the distinction between the slave-servants and the son. It is inconceivable that they could be so degraded as not to pay due honour to the son, for he is both distinct from the servants and has an authority which is singularly his own. Here is one who is like no other, having a unique relationship with the owner and a right to the vineyard which belongs to him by right of inheritance.

But the tenant farmers, instead of treating the son with honour, plotted his death, just as these members of the Sanhedrin present knew in their own hearts that they were doing as they sought to find a way to bring about the death of Jesus.

‘ Those tenant farmers.’ The ‘those’ points back to what we know of the tenant farmers, and is filled with contempt. It indicates ‘The ones I have described’. It is strongly disparaging.

‘Come let us kill him.’ The words are those used by Joseph’s brothers in Genesis 37:20 (see LXX). Jesus was likening these men to Joseph’s brothers, full of hate and jealousy as they attacked the one whom God had chosen to honour.

‘And the inheritance will be ours.’ Not by right of inheritance but by possession. There would be no one left to challenge them. They would be able to go on illegally holding it in spite of their rejection of the owner. (They did not think he would trouble to come himself, and there were certain land laws that enabled the takeover of land held by tenants undisturbed for a number of years). So in the same way the leaders of the Jews had convinced themselves that once they had got rid of Jesus they would be able to carry on in their position as religious leaders of the people without interference.