Read Mark 12: 1-12
The parable of the vineyard is the name that has been given to this story Jesus tells. The story is very straightforward and the if you read the passages that come right before you find that Jesus and the Pharasees are arguing about where he gets the authority to teach and cast out demons and do all those other amazing things that he is doing. This is why the story ends with ”Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them.”
The thing is though, the parable waas not just a cleverly concealed jab at the Pharisees or anybody else in the moment. The parable was also an indictment of all of us collectively. The parable is about the attitude of humanity towards God.
Take another look: “A man planted a vineyard… then he rented the vineyard out to some farmers.” Often times in Jesus parables “a man” equals God. This is not always true, but certainly makes sense in this case. The man in the parable sets up a vineyard (a lush place of life that will bring forth bountiful blessing) and then intrusts it to some hired folks (stewards) while he goes away. Does this sound familiar? If you had flashbacks to the story of the garden in Genesis you are hearing this parable the way I think Jesus intended us to hear it.
The Man sends repeatedly emissaries to bring in a portion of the harvest (Moses, King David, and various prophets come to mind) and all of them are treated mightly shabby. Beaten or killed. Finally the man decides to send his own son to reclaim the garden. ”surely they will respect my son.”
Instead the men decide to kill him. But look at there reasoning: ”This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.”
In the garden, what posesses Adam and Eve (representative of humanity) to break God’s law in the first place?
“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. ”For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4
“And you will be like God. “
“The inheritance will be ours.”
And there it is at the root of our problem. We want to be a law unto ourselves. Although we don’t always realize it, much of what we do is centered on our wanting to have control over our lives and the world around us. We almost subconsciously put ourselves (individually and together) in the place that God alone gets to occupy. This attitude is at the very heart of sinfulness. It is a self-centered outlook that leads to a break down in our relationship with God and with others.
A lot of our personal pain and societal pain can be related to people looking out only for themselves.
God of course shows us a different way. Living for others and (opposite from what we would expect) finding a more abuindant life.
The parable does end with a solid reassurance. The action that the people take backfires in the end because of God. Jesus quotes a psalm reminding people that those things which people intend to thwart God can always be turned by God into something beautiful.
” ‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
11the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
It is indeed beautiful in our sight. We who would reject Jesus, including those people then who cruified him, are utlimately made whole by the very action we sought to use against God. In the resurrection Christ Jesus conquers sin and death for us all. The evil unleashed in the garden has its moment of great triumph (the death of God) reversed and robbed of all its power. The new creation has begun. All of its benefits now and in the not yet are ours to experience through faith by the Grace of God in Jesus Christ. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes!
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