And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country.
Christ had formerly in parables showed how he designed to set up the gospel church; now he begins in parables to show how he would lay aside the Jewish church, which it might have been grafted into the stock of, but was built upon the ruins of. This parable we had just as we have it here, Mat 21:33. We may observe here, I.
Commenting on Mark 12:1-12
MARK CHAPTER 12 Verses 1-12. See this parable explained in Barnes Notes on (n) "A certain man"
In this parable, the Jewish church is compared to a vineyard; Almighty God to an householder; his planting, pruning, and fencing his vineyard, denotes his care to furnish his church with all needful helps and means to make it spiritually fruitful; His letting it out to husbandmen, signifies his committing the care of his church to the priests and Levites; the public pastors and governors...