Mark 12:1-12 | Maarten Van Valckenborg | Parable of the Wicked Tenants

Mark 12:1-12 Parable of the Wicked Tenants

Parable of the Wicked Tenants, Painted by Maarten Van Valckenborg (1535-1612), Painted circa 1585, Oil on canvas © Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes and the elders in parables: ‘A man planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug out a trough for the winepress and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce from the vineyard. But they seized the man, thrashed him and sent him away empty-handed. Next he sent another servant to them; him they beat about the head and treated shamefully. And he sent another and him they killed; then a number of others, and they thrashed some and killed the rest. He had still someone left: his beloved son. He sent him to them last of all. “They will respect my son” he said. But those tenants said to each other, “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” So they seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and make an end of the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this text of scripture: It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone. This was the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful to see? And they would have liked to arrest him, because they realised that the parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the crowds. So they left him alone and went away. READ MORE Reflection on the Painting To put this parable into context, it was not unusual in the first century for a wealthy investor to buy a farm or a vineyard and then leave it in the care of tenants. It was a concept that all the people listening to this parable would have been familiar with. Come harvest time, the investors would send someone to collect their portion of the proceeds and thus make their return on investment. In our parable today, the landowner is God, the vineyard represents Israel, and the tenants are the religious Jewish leadership who were trying to discredit Jesus. Jesus is saying in this parable that His Father sent numerous prophets to Jerusalem, but they were not listened to and were even mistreated. But now God has sent His own Son, Jesus, hoping that He would be listened to… but as we know, He got killed too… Jesus is thus prophesying His own death in this parable, at the hands of the religious leaders. Marten van Valckenborch was a Flemish Renaissance painter, specialising in landscape scenes, populated with religious or allegorical themes, such as our parable today. We see the vineyard on the left; the landlord sending his son in the top middle; and the wicked tenants mistreating the servants at the bottom right… All the elements of the parable depicted, in one painting…. All the elements of Jesus foreshadowing his own death, in this one parable… by Patrick van der Vorst