The Love of God / Frederick M. Lehman, 1917
John 3:16; Romans 8:38-39
The love of God is greater farWhat richness there is in these old words of this hymn. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Mark 12:1-12, 28-34:
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
The Parable of the Tenants
1 He then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
6 “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
7 “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Haven’t you read this scripture:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
11 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away…
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
My Understanding: Since the song is about God’s love for us, when I read Mark 12, I was looking for a message about God’s love. What I saw in these quoted scriptures (above) was a 3-fold message of love – God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for mankind. So, I believe God would have me, this morning, to concentrate on those three areas of love.
God’s Love for Us– This “Parable of the Tenants,” as applied to today’s church, is an allegory to describe God’s relationship with us and with the spiritual leaders of God’s flock, the sheep of His pasture. The man who planted the vineyard is God the Father. We are that vineyard. The wall, the winepress and the watchtower are symbols of God’s protection, nurturing, security for His people, and shelter, i.e. his provisions for them to help them become a choice vineyard. The farmers to whom God has rented the vineyard are the spiritual leaders in the church, though at the time this was written they were the Jewish leaders in Israel and the vineyard was the nation of Israel. We are now Israel, as Israel is now those who are in Christ Jesus since only those in Christ Jesus can be God’s children.
The word harvest has many meanings. It has to do with the gathering of a crop and of reaping the results of something that was sown. In this context, it has to do with God’s people producing lives – actions, words, thoughts and deeds – that are consistent with the seed of God’s Word He has sown into our lives, i.e. we should be producing the fruit of the Spirit and fruit in keeping with repentance. God is continually harvesting our lives with his harvesting instruments of daily trials, tribulations, tests, etc. that are intended for the purpose of making us into mature believers in Jesus Christ and fruit-bearing Christians who hold out the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. Yet, there will be a final harvest in which Jesus returns and he judges the world and where the wheat (true believers) will be separated from the chaff (non-believers) and we will each receive the reward due us for what we have done with Jesus Christ in this life.
The servants spoken of in this parable were the prophets of old that God sent to the nation of Israel. Today they can be anyone in the Body of Christ to whom God gives a Biblical message to share with His Church in order to strengthen them spiritually, to encourage them in their walk with the Lord, to spur them on to good deeds, to exhort them to follow Jesus Christ with their whole hearts, to rebuke them for living self-centered and worldly lives, and to urge them toward repentance and Christ-filled lives that are bearing spiritual fruit in keeping with repentance. Many of Christ’s servants within the Body of Christ are doing this today. And, many of them are meeting up with the same resistance from spiritual leaders in the church as did the prophets of old from the spiritual leaders of Israel. They may not be physically beaten and killed for their messages today, yet many are being mistreated, rejected, falsely accused, mocked, made fun of, persecuted and even asked to leave because of their strong convictions that don’t fit with the local body called the church.
For the nation of Israel, the sending of the Son had to do with God sending His Son Jesus Christ to the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel rejected Him, spat upon Him, mocked Him, falsely accused Him, beat Him and crucified Him. The Bible tells us that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we can expect to be treated the same as Jesus was treated if we are truly following Jesus with our lives. If the world loves us, then something is wrong. This sending of God’s Only Son was the ultimate sacrifice of God’s love for His people who were once the nation of Israel but no longer, because they rejected His Son. Now God’s people are those who are in Christ Jesus through faith in Him. And, it is because of God’s great love for us in sending His Son to die for us on the cross for our sins – to provide us with freedom from the penalty, control of, and bondage to sin – that we are able to be called sons of God; and heirs of the promise of eternal life with God. The nation of Israel rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, but God has made Him the capstone (cornerstone) of the church.
Capstone – top stone – “a stone used at the top of a wall or another structure; something considered the highest achievement or most important action in a series of actions” (Encarta). The capstone or cornerstone is the most important stone of a building and the building is Christ’s church. Because Jesus was rejected and was crucified he died for our sins and because of His death on the cross and His resurrection, we are now heirs of the promise. God knew His Son would be rejected and killed but it was because of His great love for us that he allowed this to happen and the result is that we can be free.
Our Love for God – Because of God’s great love for us we should love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and with all our strength. Human love cannot do this. It is only because of God’s love for us and because of His love living in and through us that we are able to love God with this kind of love, and this is a tall order at that. What is impossible with man, though, is possible with God. We can love because He first loved us.
Our Love for our Fellow Man – Ditto to the above! Because God loved us, and because of His love living in us and flowing through us, we are able to love our neighbors as ourselves. So, God’s love for us, our love for God and our love for our neighbors has one source – God’s divine, measureless, rich, pure and unending love for mankind.
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