The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

[0:00] Amen. Open up your Bibles to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12. We're going to read what is a fairly well-known parable of Jesus this morning.

[0:12] And so we're going to begin reading in verse 1 and read all the way down through verse 12 of chapter 12. So I want to ask you guys to stand with me as we read from the Word this morning. Mark writes, And he began to speak to them in parables.

[0:27] Verse 1.

[0:57] And some they killed. He had still one other. A beloved son. Finally he sent him to them saying, They will respect my son.

[1:10] But those tenants said to one another, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him. The inheritance will be ours. And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do?

[1:25] He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.

[1:38] And they were seeking to arrest him. But feared the people. For they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.

[1:51] Father, help us to understand your word this morning. And help us to be changed by it. We ask in Christ's name. Amen.

[2:02] If you read the gospels very often, Then you will realize pretty quickly That one of Jesus' favorite modes of communication Was through parables.

[2:14] In fact, Jesus taught in parables so often That his disciples at one point in time Were prompted to ask him, Master, why do you teach the crowds in parables?

[2:25] Why is this your normal mode of teaching When you are teaching the people, the crowds out there? In fact, here, even here in our passage, Mark tells us that Jesus began to teach In parables, plural, there in verse 1, Even though Mark only records for us one parable That Jesus teaches before moving on to other teachings of Christ.

[2:45] In the account of this same story, The same time in Jesus' ministry in the gospel of Matthew, Matthew records three parables. But for all we know, Jesus could have spoken 5, 10, 15, or 20 parables This day when he was walking around teaching in the temple.

[3:00] We don't know. What we know is that Jesus frequently, Often taught in parables. It was one of his most common methods Of communication with the people. And the reason for that is not very difficult to discern.

[3:15] Jesus often taught in parables Because we are created to be A kind of people who connect with stories. I mean, the Bible recognizes this. God recognizes this.

[3:25] This is why if you read through the Bible, You'll see that over two-thirds of the Bible Is stories. It's narrative. So the beginning in Genesis, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, We begin with a story.

[3:39] And you read through the rest of Genesis, It's all story. The vast majority of Exodus is story. Even parts of Leviticus and Numbers And most of Deuteronomy are story. Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, All the way to Job.

[3:57] We get to Job. We're halfway through the Old Testament. And we've got almost exclusively story. Narratives. Over and over we see story after story.

[4:08] You turn to the New Testament And you begin with the story of Christ. Told by four different writers From four different perspectives. Then you get the story of the early church. The Bible concludes with God revealing to John The story of history And its culmination at the end of time.

[4:23] This is a book that's filled with stories. And you have to begin to ask yourself, Well, why? Because I don't think that God had to tell us The story of David and Goliath.

[4:35] I mean, it's an event that happened in history. I certainly don't want you to think That because I keep saying the word story That I mean that in terms of a made up fictional story. I don't mean that at all. The stories of the Old Testament, The stories of the New Testament Are historical narratives.

[4:49] They're events that really took place. But God didn't have to tell us about those events. He didn't have to record the story Of David and Goliath for us. He could have just simply told us The truth that the story teaches. He could have said, I'm sovereign.

[5:01] I rule over the nations. And I have great care and concern for my name. And I'll defend my name. I mean, that's the lesson of the story Of David and Goliath. And he could have just, He could have said that in two sentences Without giving us the whole story.

[5:13] And yet he tells it in a story So that we learn it And we retain it. God knows that we That we understand stories And we connect with stories In a way that we do not always connect With the simple, straightforward statement Of the truth.

[5:31] And so Jesus, recognizing that Often will tell fictional stories As he relates the truth. That's what a parable is. Essentially a fictional story That Jesus makes up In order to drive home A theological point That he's trying to make.

[5:48] And over and over and over In the gospels he does this. Now sometimes those stories are Just kind of straightforward. There's nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing strange in the story. And honestly, it wouldn't It wouldn't make a huge impact on you Unless you heard his interpretation of it.

[6:04] So for instance, I think of the parable Of the sower. Where he sows the seed And that falls on the good ground The rocky ground And some on the path And some among the thorns. If you lived in this culture In this time And Jesus told you that story You would think, okay So what?

[6:21] I mean that sounds like An average daily occurrence When it's time to sow seed. Because if a farmer's Walking through his field And he's throwing out the seed Then someone's going to fall On the walking path When he's walking.

[6:33] Someone's going to fall Where he intends for it to fall In the soil that he's plowed up. Someone's going to land over here In the rocks Because the ground in Israel Was extremely rocky And they always had to move Rocks out of the way. And then some of it's going to Fall outside As he's sowing the seed Along the edge of the field.

[6:46] Some of it's probably going to Fall among the thorns That lie outside the field With weeds that he hasn't Plowed up. And so if Jesus told you That story It wouldn't really Anything Nothing would stick out.

[6:57] Sounds like a guy Sowing the seed Like he does every year. And so until you get The interpretation from Jesus There's nothing about that That would strike you as strange. But most of Jesus' parables And most of the stories That he tells Begin with normal Everyday Just sort of Humdrum occurrences.

[7:13] But as the story progresses Characters in the story Make strange decisions. They do things And events transpire Within this normal Sort of setting That would strike you As odd.

[7:27] That would cause you To kind of take a step back And say What's going on here? And that's exactly What happens in this story. In fact In this story We begin In the first couple of verses With things that are Not at all strange Or odd If you live in this time period And then you begin To get some things Happening that are strange And then they get Stranger still Until near the end By the time you get To the end of the story The events that are Taking place Are incomprehensible They are so strange They are so uncharacteristic Of anybody And how anyone Would behave That there's got to be Something more happening Than simply the relating Of a normal story.

[8:05] So let's take a look At the parable And then we'll come back And look at the Interpretation of the parable. But first let's take a look At the parable itself Because like I said It begins With a normal setting. Jesus says That a man Planted a vineyard And he put a fence Around it And dug a pit For the wine press And built a tower And then he leased It to tenants And went away Into another country.

[8:29] That's not strange At all. Vineyards were very common In ancient Israel. They're even somewhat Common there today. In fact most vineyards In those days Would have been planted On a mountain Or on a mountain side Or at the foot Of a mountain Near a valley.

[8:44] You'd plant other crops On the plains And in the larger valleys. But you would find These vineyards Planted very often. And what would normally Happen because the ground There was so rocky They would have to Dig up all the rocks That they were able To first And then they would Use those rocks Normally to build Sort of retaining A wall A retaining wall A wall around the vineyard As protection Against those Who would try to Come in and destroy The crop Or steal the crop And then frequently You would also Build a tower That could either Serve as a lookout To look for people Who were coming To cause trouble It could serve as a place Where the workers Would sleep on the nights That they had to stay There all night It's where the tools Would often be stored And so there was Often some sort of Building if not a tower Itself that was Constructed in the middle Of the vineyard And then almost always There was a hole dug For the wine press For a vat For the wine To be made in And so none of the Things that happen here Are unusual These are all The normal ways In which the owner Of a vineyard Would build his vineyard

[9:45] Nothing strange Happening at all Here And even the fact That he leases it Out to others He puts tenants In charge of it And goes away Into another country Is not strange It's not odd Even today If you know Very many farmers One of the things That you'll realize Very quickly As you talk to farmers Is a lot of farmers Farm on land That they don't Actually own They lease it From the land owner But that's what Happened often times In Israel That a land owner Would lease out his land To tenant farmers And it was their job To work the farm And then he would Come periodically And he would Take either A percentage Of the money That they earned Off the farm Or he would Take a percentage Of the crops That they were Able to grow So there's nothing Strange happening At all here The fact that he Allows others To take care of it And then he goes Away He goes away Because you won't Get usable grapes Out of a vineyard For at least Three years The Old Testament Law required Israel to wait Until the fifth year To harvest grapes That were edible

[10:45] That you could Make wine out of So it's a long term Crop There's no reason For this owner Of the land To stay there So he builds The vineyard He leases it out To tenant farmers And then he leaves For a very long time Somewhere between Three and five years Later He sends one of his Servants back To collect As they would have Always done Verse two When the season came So when it came time Three to five years later He sent the servant To the tenants To get from him Some of the fruit Of the vineyard Everything's normal Until you get To verse three It begins to get A little strange Verse three We're told that They took him And beat him And sent him away Empty handed Why would they do that What's their motive For doing that That's strange It's not altogether Unheard of For tenant farmers To revolt against The land owner It's not altogether Unheard of But it's certainly Not normal

[11:45] I mean there are Stories in ancient Historical records Of things like these Happening But it wasn't The normal course Of affairs And it wasn't normal Because usually The land owner Was wealthy He was capable Of forming up His own militia And exacting revenge On the tenant farmers He could come And get his fruit If he wanted to get it By force If necessary Often times When the Roman government Ruled as they did In this day He could even appeal To the local Roman Governor who would Give him some of the Roman guards And they would go With him And help him To get what was Rightfully his So this is It's not unheard of But it's strange And it's uncommon That they would do that But then it begins To get even more Strength In verse 4 It says again He sent to them Another servant So he doesn't Get a militia together He doesn't appeal To the government He just sends Another servant And now this time It escalates They struck him On the head And treated him Shamefully Now the word here

[12:47] That's translated Struck him on the head Is actually a confusing Word that we don't Know exactly What it means But it's related To the Greek word For head That's why It's usually Translated struck Or hit on the head But we really Don't know what it means It has something to do With abuse of their Head or face It could have been That his skull Was literally Bashed in by these And that he was Treated shamefully And then sent on Maybe barely alive That may be What Jesus is telling Us happened here Or it could be That the beating Him on the head Or whatever That did to his head Was a part of the Shaming him Because in this culture To have something done Particularly to a man's beard To have it shaved off Or plucked out Was a shameful thing And this is the kind of word That you might use To describe something like that It's like when Jesus Was on the cross And when they were beating him They plucked out his beard As they beat him Why?

[13:42] Well it was painful Yes But primarily because It was a shameful thing Alright I mean this is This is sort of like The Duck Dynasty Of Scripture You know What's the worst thing That you could do To one of those guys From Duck Dynasty Boy you could beat him up But if you held him down And shaved off half his beard And sent him home Boy he'd be shamed In front of his whole family Anybody ever seen that show You guys know What I'm talking about?

[14:05] Okay Yeah I mean that'd be like The worst thing That you could do To one of those guys Would be to shave off Half their beard And send them on their way So I think maybe Something like that May have been What happened here That happened once In the Old Testament Where some of David's men Had parts of their beard Shaped off And were sent back And they were treated Very shamefully They left without the honor That's perhaps What happened here That this man is dishonored And sent on his way So it begins with A beating And sending him back Now it's a possible Beating Certainly a shaming And is sending him back So it's increasing It's getting worse So at this point in time If you're in the temple And you're listening to Jesus At this point in time You're thinking Well now he's going to Send his militia in Now he's going to Gather together His armed men And he's going to Take care of business And he doesn't Verse 5 And he sent another And they killed him And then to make matters worse It goes on and says And so with many others

[15:06] Some they beat And some they killed So now we're bordering On the ridiculous Because this sort of thing Would never happen No land owner Would continue to send Servant after servant After servant To only be beaten Or killed By these rebellious Tenant farmers No one would do that So at this point Jesus has reached The ridiculous And now he's going To move into the realm Of the completely Inexplicable Notice what happens Verse 6 He had Still one Other All his servants Have been killed All of them And the only one Left that says Is his beloved Son His only Son His heir Nothing more important In the ancient world Particularly among the Jews In a family Than the heir This is why Abraham Was so upset In Genesis When he didn't yet Have a child And he came to God And he began to plead With God And he says I don't have an heir Eliezer my servant

[16:07] Is going to have to be My heir And he's upset about that He's going to have to Leave everything to his Servant Because he doesn't Have a son God just don't worry I'll give you a son But Abraham was afraid Because It was a terrible thing Not to have an heir And now here's a man Risking his heir Over grapes And wine It makes No sense Whatsoever No one would ever Do this He had still one other Beloved son Finally he sent him To them Saying they will Respect my son But those tenants Said to one another This is the heir Come let us kill him And the inheritance Will be ours That's unusual That they would think The inheritance Would automatically Revert to them It was possible If land was left Unclaimed That those who Are working the land Could petition the government And gain ownership Of the land That was possible But it's strange here

[17:08] Since the land owner Would still be alive That they think If they kill the son That they will somehow Become the owners Of the land Perhaps they have it in mind To kill the son Draw the father out And kill him We have no idea Their thinking probably Is just not quite right As Jesus tells the story None of this makes A whole lot of sense So verse 8 They took him And killed him And threw him Out of the vineyard This is the worst of all Not only did they kill the heir They just threw him Out of the vineyard Out into the wilderness Tossed him out What's more shameful Than that in this world Where the bodies of the dead Are elaborately prepared Where there's a ritual That you go through Where the law prescribes What you're supposed to do With someone's body After they've died I mean you remember When Jesus died Because it was the Sabbath There was no time To prepare his body So that on Sunday The ladies came To prepare his body To anoint him with oil And do all the things That you did for someone

[18:09] That you cared about All the things that were proper That you ought to do For someone who's died Well this heir Gets none of that This beloved son Gets none of that They kill him And they throw him out For the animals to eat It can't get any worse than this And so then Jesus Asks the question What then Will the owner Of the vineyard Do What will he do Jesus is trying To elicit A certain kind of response From his audience He's told a story That has reached Ridiculous proportions Of shaming Ridiculous proportions Of a refusal To give to someone What is rightfully theirs And Jesus is drawing Out from the crowd Their response In fact Matthew tells us That the crowd Did indeed respond Kill this wicked man Kill him In fact it says Bring this wicked man To a wicked inn Literally Well the crowd is ready

[19:09] Now Mark doesn't Record that response All he records is Jesus Confirming that their Response is right What will the owner Of the vineyard do He will come And destroy The tenants And give the vineyard To others That's the parable That's the story Jesus has worked The crowd Until they're ready Until they're to a point To see the tenant farmers Killed themselves They deserve it And then Jesus quotes The Old Testament From Psalm 118 Have you not read This scripture The stone that the builders Rejected has become The cornerstone This is the Lord's doing And is marvelous In our eyes And then verse 12 Is a surprising verse It says They were seeking To arrest him But feared the people For they perceived That he had told The parable Against them This is the religious leaders These are those Who just previously At the end of chapter 11

[20:09] Have questioned Jesus By what authority Are you doing these things These are the scribes These are the priests These are the elders We're told in Matthew That the Pharisees Were even there These are the religious leaders And they perceive something They understand something That Jesus told this parable Against them Now that's surprising Because earlier When Jesus' disciples Had asked him Why he taught in parables Why he spoke in parables Jesus told them That the reason He spoke in parables To the crowds Was to keep them From understanding What he was saying So that seeing They may not perceive And hearing They may not understand Jesus taught the crowds In parables In order to hide Truth from them Not to reveal it to them So it's a strange thing here That Jesus tells a parable And these religious leaders Perceive the truth of it They understand at least Part of the meaning Of the parable That is a strange thing If you've been walking Through the gospel

[21:09] And walk like we have And if you're doing it More quickly Like we're not doing Then you'd be able To make that easy connection Between what Jesus said A few chapters earlier About the purpose of parables In keeping people In concealing the truth Now running up against people Understanding the parable The very people Against whom Jesus told the parable And that's not to strike you As strange That's got to strike you As odd And you've got to ask The question How is it that they understand Because no one else Understands Jesus' parables He has to explain the meaning To his disciples So how is it that they understand They understand the parable Because they know their Bible What we call the Old Testament Because this humdrum set of events This normal ordinary planting Of a vineyard Recorded in verses 1 and 2 Particularly in verse 1 That description It's not necessary to the parable Jesus doesn't have to describe How the man constructs the vineyard

[22:10] They all know this I mean they all know That you build a wall And dig a mat They all know how They know what vineyards look like It's an agrarian society They understand that They've seen vineyards No but Jesus doesn't have to explain To them the process Of building vineyards And yet he does He could have just let this out He could have just said A man planted a vineyard And lended out with some tenants But instead he adds All this information He adds information In order to draw The attention of the crowd And particularly of these Religious leaders To draw their attention To a particular Old Testament passage Isaiah chapter 5 Hold your place there in Mark I want you to turn to Isaiah chapter 5 Where the prophet Isaiah Describes a vineyard And I want you to pay close attention To the language here Isaiah chapter 5 Beginning in verse 1 Isaiah says Let me sing for my beloved My love song Concerning his vineyard My beloved had a vineyard On a very fertile hill Not unusual

[23:10] Like I said They'd often build these vineyards On the sides of the hills He dug it And cleared it of stones Normal And planted it with choice vines He built a watchtower In the midst of it And hewed out a wine Back in it And he looked for it To yield grapes But it yielded wild grapes Verse 3 And now O inhabitants of Jerusalem And men of Judah Judge between me And my vineyard What more was there To do for my vineyard That I have not done it When I look for it To yield grapes Why did it yield wild grapes And now I will tell you What I will do to my vineyard I will remove its hedge And it shall be devoured I will break down its wall And it shall be trampled down I will make it a waste And it shall not be pruned Or hoed And briars and thorns Shall grow up I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain upon For the vineyard Of the Lord Of hosts Is the house of Israel And the men of Judah Are his pleasant planting And he looked for justice But behold Bloodshed For righteousness

[24:10] But behold An outcry So here is a vineyard Built by the Lord By the beloved It has got a wall around it It has got a tower In the middle of it It has got a wine vat Dug out And the prophet Isaiah Says that the vineyard Is Israel itself So Jesus is Helping these people To recall this particular Message of the prophets And the religious leaders Themselves would have Been especially prone To think of this passage They know the scriptures Well Better than even the religious People in the crowds Who are there for Passover The religious leaders Know the scriptures Well enough That they would have Recalled this passage From Isaiah chapter 5 And they would have Known that the vineyard Of which Jesus is speaking In Mark chapter 12 Is Israel The planter of the vineyard The builder of the vineyard Is God himself So who are the tenant farmers They're those God

[25:11] Has put in charge Of caring for the vineyard Those who are To tend to it Those who are To help it To bear fruit They are The priests The Levites Scribes The Pharisees The elders In a word They are the Sanhedrin The religious leaders Of the nation It doesn't take a genius To see that They have seen it Very clearly That they are The tenant farmers They have been put in charge And yet When God Sends for his Fruit What does he find Just as Isaiah said Bloodshed Bloodshed Is what he finds Here He sends Prophet After prophet The servants The Old Testament Records for us Over and over The prophets Of the Lord Sent to Israel The prophets Who were often Rejected The prophets Who were at times

[26:12] Stoned At times Beaten The writer Of the book of Hebrews Speaks of prophets Being sawn In half If you read from the Writings of the early Church followers They tell us that The prophet that was Sawn in half Was none other Than the prophet Isaiah We don't know that With certainty But it seems likely There's no reason Why they would have Made that up So that possibly Isaiah himself This great prophet Of the Old Testament Was sawn In half By the leaders Of Israel At the end Of his Prophetic career Jeremiah would Die at their hands According to early Church tradition The Old Testament Itself records For us times When the prophets Of Israel Were killed And then The last prophet The greatest prophet John the Baptist The last of the prophets Of the Old Covenant Killed in Israel Beheaded by Half Jewish king Ruling At the pleasure Of the Romans Recently beheaded Servant after servant

[27:13] Prophet after prophet Had been said To Israel And time and time again The message of the prophets Had been rejected Time and time again The prophets Had been shamed And sometimes killed And sometimes beaten And sent away We're not interested In your message Over and over And over In fact When Jesus approached Jerusalem Matthew records for us That the night Before his Triumphal entry Into the city Jesus sat up On the Mount of Olives And he looked out Over the city Of Jerusalem And he spoke Over the city Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem City Kills Prophets City that kills The prophets And then he says How often I long To gather Your children Together As a mother Hen Gathers her chicks Together But you would not Now You read that You think to yourself If Jesus wants to gather The children of Jerusalem

[28:14] To gather The children have to be The people Which means that Jerusalem are the leaders Who do not want Jesus to gather The people of Jerusalem To himself So Jesus looks And laments over the city Jerusalem Jerusalem Leaders of the city Leaders of the nation Who kill the prophets That's who they are That's how they're Described By Jesus And just a few verses Later there In that same passage Jesus predicts A coming time When not only Will they have killed The prophets In the past But they will kill The preachers And the messengers That Jesus sends out And the rest Of the New Testament And early church history Is a record Of that happening Stephen is stoned To death In Jerusalem Of all places By the same Religious leaders The servants Have been sent Over and over And over The prophets Have come Many many times In the past God spoke to our followers By the prophets

[29:16] In many various ways Hebrews chapter 1 Verse 1 So it's happened That much of it They understood I think Certainly they understood That they were The tenant farmers And I think Quite possibly They understand That Jesus Is laying the blame For the deaths Of the prophets At their feet I do not think That they understood The rest Of this parable Because after After the servants Are sent And after all The prophets Have come And their words Have been wasted On the leaders Of Israel The beloved son Sent Over and over Jesus is described As God's One and only Son And then As his Beloved son That's language That's borrowed From the Old Testament That was used To describe King David In the Psalms King David Was viewed As God's Beloved son

[30:16] Because It was through King David That God's Ultimate beloved son Would come And through his line The Messiah Himself Would come So there's There's not only An obvious reference To Jesus here For those of us Who know the New Testament And have read the story And have seen it But for those Who really know The Old Testament For those who Really understand Who the beloved Is in the Old Testament There's a clear Reference to the Messiah And Jesus says He sent the prophets Now he sent His own beloved son He sent the Messiah He sent the one From the line of David He sent him And you Are going To kill him You will But do not fret The stone The stone That the builders Rejected That very stone Has become The cornerstone It is only In his Rejection By Israel In his death At the hands Of the leaders Of Israel It is only Through those events

[31:16] That the rejected stone Becomes the cornerstone That Jesus himself Becomes The foundation For our Salvation In his dying He dies a death For us In his dying He takes our place So that now He lays down A foundation That we can Stand upon And he holds up A building As a cornerstone That only he Could hold up This is good news For us This is not just A story That Jesus told To upset Some Pharisees And Sadducees This is good news For us It is good news For us Because it means And is a reminder Once again In the gospel Of Mark That the good news Of the coming Of the Jewish Messiah Is not for Israel Only That it is for All those who Trust in this Cornerstone That just as surely As these religious leaders Have been rejected Now the Gentiles

[32:18] Will begin To come to Christ And he will become For all of us A savior If we will But trust in him It is good news For you It is good news For me It is not just A message To honoring Religious leaders In the first century It is a message To us That salvation Has gone out Beyond these Religious leaders It has gone out Beyond the borders Of Israel So that now Salvation is available To us We can become Sons of Abraham We can come Under the rule Of the king Of Israel It is for us Good news But it is also For us A terrible Warning These are After all The religious elite In Israel They are the ones Who know the scriptures Well enough To spot a reference To Isaiah chapter 5 Probably none of us Spotted here This morning Anybody catch it On the first reading They caught it When he told the parable One time Out loud With background noise In the temple They know their Bibles

[33:19] They are the religious elite They are better than we are When it comes to The religion thing Because we come to church On Sundays Some of you came this week A little bit early To Sunday school So you get an extra Gold star Alright You'll have to sit through Two 40 minute sessions Of me talking Alright You should get extra stars For that These people Are far better than that I mean they They spend much of their time In the temple If they are not in the temple Then They are probably out Teaching the word To someone else Or they are at least They are at least Out doing their religious duties They are busy About their religious life And so this remains A warning For religious people Like you And like me We may not see ourselves As religious But believe me The world sees us As religious If you come to church Regularly on Sunday mornings The world sees you As a religious person

[34:20] And you need to be aware Of the dangers Of being a religious person The good news Is not good news For religious people The good news Is good news For people Religious And irreligious Who turn away From themselves And turn to Christ But the moment You begin to trust In yourself The moment You begin to trust In all of your Religious activities Is the moment You become The ones Against whom The pyramid Is told Beware Lest in all Of your religious Activities You reject You reject The cornerstone Beware Lest you build On some other Foundation And you make Something else Your cornerstone Of life I spoke to a lady Not long ago On the phone Whose Life was in turmoil And I can't

[35:20] Give you the details Of things That were going on But what I can tell you Is that her life Was in turmoil Because She had made Of man The center Of her life And had fallen apart Something else Had become Her cornerstone Something else Had become The foundation Under her feet And like all Other foundations It crumbled Now these Religious leaders Had a strong Foundation They had They had a Religious system That was centuries Old And yet Crumbled They had a Massive temple Complex 35 acres Of cover Huge Was this temple Complex And yet It too Would crumble Literally 80-70 Stone Taken from stone Not one left Upon another And we We often Fall into the Trap of making Either our Our religious Duties The things That we do In the name Of the Lord We will make

[36:20] Those We will begin To thank On those things Or we will do Something more Subtle than that And we will make Someone or something Else the foundation Of our joy And our hope It may be A spouse Or a boyfriend Or a girlfriend It may be Your children It may be Your grandchildren It could be Any number It could be Your job Whatever it is That you depend Upon That you count Upon in life More than Anything else You have Replaced Christ With that faith For these It's all Of the religious Trappings of Judaism And Jesus says You rejected The one Building stone That you need You have Rejected it And it has Become the Cornerstone And we're Told elsewhere In the New Testament In reference To this stone That everything That comes up Against it Is shattered To pieces He is your Only hope And that's Good news For those of us Who are hopeless

[37:21] But it is a Great warning For those of us Who would hope In anything Other than Jesus Followed through Thank you.