Killing the Son

“He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
“But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.” Mark 12:6-8
The parable of the tenants features in all three synoptic gospels (Matt. 21, Mark 12, Luke 20). Understanding this parable is not hard. The man who planted the vineyard is God, the vineyard is the nation Israel (see Isa. 5:1-2). The tenants are the leaders of the nation Israel, given charge to tend the vineyard until the owner came to claim it. The servants who were sent to collect the fruit, but were beaten and killed, are the Old Testament prophets (see Matt. 23:34-35, Acts 7:52). The son is Jesus, the Messiah. He is the last person God sent to seek a harvest from the nation Israel. There have been no other prophets sent to warn the nation Israel, in the way that the prophets of the Old Testament were sent.
But here’s an interesting thing. The Pharisees knew that Jesus was talking about them being the tenants when He gave this parable (Mark 12:12). He says that the reason they would kill Him is so they could take His inheritance. What is that inheritance? We know that Jesus has been promised the world as His inheritance by the Father (Ps. 2:8), and He will share it with us, His bride, the church (Rom. 8:17). Were the Pharisees consciously thinking this? I don’t think so – else Jesus would not have said on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). However, there is someone who was consciously thinking this – Satan. His desire is for world domination, forever. He therefore incited the Pharisees to have Jesus put to death. But God used this to achieve His purposes. The death of Christ was not the end – it is the beginning of our salvation.