Mark 12:1-12

Knowing from the beginning what would transpire if man were given free will to choose good or evil….God still placed him in paradise and surrounded him with beauty. Adam and Eve wanted more. He sent His people prophets after that trying to get them to serve Him freely and with love…they declined… they wanted more. Still God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to die in their place so that they could spend eternity with Him, His plan from the beginning, they declined. They hung Him. Now this amazing grace, in the Cross of Salvation, is offered to anyone who will accept the love of the Trinity given in Jesus Christ and His Kingship.

cornerstone (Gk. gōnia, akrogōniaios) Strong’s #1137; 204: In biblical times, buildings were often made of cut, squared stone. By uniting two intersecting walls, a cornerstone helped align the whole building and tie it together. In his address before the Jewish Sanhedrin, the apostle Peter quoted Ps. 118:22 and boldly proclaimed that “Jesus Christ of Nazareth,” crucified and raised from the dead, was the stone rejected by the builders “which has become the chief cornerstone”. This chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ, is the foundation of the church, because “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”. In Him “the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord”.

Mark 12:1-12

12 Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. ² Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. ³ And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. ⁵ And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. ⁶ Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸ So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.

⁹ “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Have you not even read this Scripture:

‘The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone.

¹¹ This was the Lord’s doing,

And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

¹² And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.

¹⁶ But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy. 

2 Chronicles 36:16

²³ Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 

Acts 2:23

²² The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. 

Psalm 118:22