Mark 12:4, commentary and pictures

The owner of the vineyard sent another servant to collect and receive the fruit due to him, but the husbandmen stoned him, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated and abused. The servants are God's messengers and prophets, whom He patiently continued to send even after earlier messengers had been rejected, and who were persecuted rather than welcomed. The husbandmen are the Jewish nation, especially the priests, teachers, and leaders responsible for His vineyard, as people entrusted with what belongs to Him.

The vineyard is also presented as the world, teaching that all people entrusted with God's work are accountable to Him. The fruit claimed and due to be returned is corresponding fruit for great privileges and blessings, defined as love, humility, and self-sacrificing service in obedience to God's law. The husbandmen met the messengers with contempt, injustice, cruelty, and dishonor to God, treating them with greater hostility after earlier rejection. Priests and teachers withheld the service He claimed, misled the people, resisted His claim, and turned them from obedience and from Christ, reflecting selfish use of their trust.

Their rejection brought judgment, with the vineyard to be given to other husbandmen, and the religious leaders' rejection of Christ and its consequences made them responsible for the nation's sin and ruin. The parable applies not only to the Jewish nation but also to the church in the present generation, which has received great privileges and blessings and is expected to return corresponding fruit. It is expected to do faithful, unselfish work throughout every part of the vineyard, and concentrating its blessings and facilities in one part while leaving others unworked withholds its fruits. Teachers who turn people from obedience withhold the fruits of God's vineyard and are unfaithful servants.