Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-august-22-2023
Mark 12:1-12
The Parable of the Tenants
1Jesus 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 moved to another place. 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 passage of Scripture:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders 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.
The Parable of the Tenants makes up most of our gospel reading for today. But the reading also includes the last seven verses of the previous chapter. And we should probably look back and remind ourselves of what goes on those verses.
At the end of that previous chapter, some of the Jewish religious leaders confronted Jesus, demanding to know by what authority he was “doing these things.” Jesus had just chased the corrupt merchants and money-changers out of the temple, so it seems likely that those are the “things” the religious leaders had in mind.
And as you might remember, Jesus had answered their question with one of his own. He had asked the religious leaders by what authority John the Baptist had preached and baptized. And Mark allows us to listen in on the conversation of the Hebrew religious leaders as they tried to decide how to answer Jesus. And one of the things that’s most striking about their conversation is that the leaders never seem to give a moment’s thought to what John’s authority might actually have been. Their deliberations are based entirely on ‘PR’ – on what answer will be most acceptable to the public. And eventually, they just give up and say they don’t know. So in response to their challenge and their evasion, Jesus tells the parable that’s the basis of our Reflection for today.
In the parable, a man establishes a vineyard and then rents it out. The tenants refuse to pay the owner his share of the fruit, then beat and abuse the owner’s servants, and finally kill his son. It seems to me this parable is intended to represent God’s relationship to the leaders of the covenant people.
It’s probably important to know that the people of Israel thought of themselves as ‘God’s vineyard.’ A vineyard takes a lot of work to establish – clearing the land, planting the vines, nurturing them and watering them and protecting them from wild animals. The people of Israel thought God had done something like that when he established them in the promised land – clearing the land of its previous occupants, planting the Hebrews there, and then nurturing and protecting them.
It’s clear from the things God said in establishing the covenant with the people of Israel that he had always expected them to ‘bear fruit.’ They were always intended to be a blessing to the other nations of the world, and to live by distinctive standards of morality and charity. But instead, they just tried to keep the blessing for themselves – to keep themselves separate as a “holy people.” And they didn’t even do that particularly well.
God also put his ‘vineyard’ in the care of a selected group of leaders – the Levites. But they often seemed to regard the covenant as a meal ticket – as something intended only for their own power and enrichment.
Then, when God sent servants (the prophets) to call the people to be fruitful, many of these servants suffered persecution and death at the hands of the leadership.
Finally, God sent his own Son into his vineyard to call the tenants to bear fruit, but as we know, they would soon reject and kill him, as well.
It seems pretty obvious that this parable expresses God’s take on the history of his relationship with the people of Israel – and especially with their leaders. But it also seems to me to ask a challenging question to those of us who consider ourselves God’s people. And that question is this: Are we bearing fruit for God?
It’s an especially challenging question for anyone who’s engaged in church leadership – pastors, elders, etc. – since it was the religious leadership of ancient Israel that the parable was originally directed at. So it’s probably intended that every church and every individual follower of Jesus should be reflecting regularly on how we’re bearing fruit for God. Because if we’re not, God might just throw us out of the vineyard and turn it over to people who will.
Let’s pray. Lord, by your Holy Spirit, move us to be people who bear fruit for you – both individually and as congregations. Help us to serve others as Jesus served, to live in imitation of him in all ways, and to lead others to become his disciples, too. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalm 119:121-136; II Samuel 18:9-18; and Acts 23:12-24. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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