Mark 12:3-8 - They took him and killed him

12:3-5

The farmers should have given the fruit to the servant, but instead they seized the servant and beat him up. Then they sent him away empty handed.  The owner sent a second servant, this time they treated him even worse. They struck him on the head and “treated him shamefully”, perhaps stripping him naked. This represents how Israel treated the prophets. The owner sent yet another servant. In the Old Testament we see God giving Israel chance after chance, yet them rejecting God again and again. 

12:6-8

Finally the owner sent his son. Note that the son has some similarities to the servants, though there is also a clear difference. The owner thinks “surely they will respect my son”. Israel should have welcomed Jesus, but the religious leaders reacted just like the farmers in the story. We also see the warped thinking of the farmers, and of all mankind. They thought that if they killed the son, then the vineyard would be theirs. Mankind thinks that if they reject God then the world will be ours. We are so foolish. So the farmers killed the son.