Wednesday in Holy Week - The Conflict Comes to a Head

Text: Mark 12:1-12 (see below)

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Immediately after Jesus has silenced the authorities of the Temple with his question about his cousin John, he launches into a parable about a vineyard. While the story is clearly set in an allegorical vein, any one within earshot of Jesus’ voice would instantly identify with every day life in Palestine and the subversive relationship between the landowner and the tenant farmer. What I so love about Jesus and his storytelling is that he uses real life images for his listeners to respond to. This situation was all too easy and all too real

There is a tremendous tension in this story and the people gathered around Jesus would be most familiar with the players and the politics of that day. I would imagine that the pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem would have reveled at the role-reversal in this story, perhaps with a slight grin on their faces, of demoting the ruling class of the Sanhedrin to the lowly status of the unruly tenants.

Anyone in the Court of the Gentiles that day, who knew the Torah, would have recognized the parallel to the writings of the prophet Isaiah. In the fifth chapter of that great prophecy we read:

Let me sing for my beloved

   my love-song concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard

   on a very fertile hill.

He dug it and cleared it of stones,

   and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watch-tower in the midst of it,

   and hewed out a wine vat in it;

he expected it to yield grapes,

   but it yielded wild grapes.

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem

   and people of Judah,

judge between me

   and my vineyard.

What more was there to do for my vineyard

   that I have not done in it?

When I expected it to yield grapes,

   why did it yield wild grapes?

And now I will tell you

   what I will do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge,

   and it shall be devoured;

I will break down its wall,

   and it shall be trampled down.

I will make it a waste;

   it shall not be pruned or hoed,

   and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;

I will also command the clouds

   that they rain no rain upon it.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts

   is the house of Israel,

and the people of Judah

   are his pleasant planting;

he expected justice,

   but saw bloodshed;

righteousness,

   but heard a cry!

The “vineyard” was a metaphor used by the prophet to identify Israel. God was the “beloved.” The community was “fenced in” by the Law. But the inhabitants were poor stewards of this magnificent possession.

Jesus’ parable has a bit more edge, even though it shares a similar outcome. These unruly tenants first beat up a slave to within an inch of his life and send him away empty-handed. The next slave receives a similar fate. The third slave is actually killed at the hands of this wicked tenants. On and on it goes until at last there is a “beloved son.” This title Mark has already used in his designation of Jesus (1:11 and 9:7) so the reader is already two steps ahead of the action taking place.

Perhaps the tenants, on seeing the son, believed that the owner was dead and that the son had come to claim his inheritance. If the tenants went ahead and killed the son then the land would be theirs because in the first century there was a claim to being first on the spot. Notice carefully that when the beloved son is killed there is no proper burial, the body is simply cast off which would be the ultimate insult. These are indeed greedy and wicked tenants whose only care is for their well being and financial survival. But these tenants guessed wrong. The landowner still was alive! There was a systematic cleaning of the house and the vineyard was given to others.

Jesus was laying it down there on the Temple Mount that day. God’s vineyard was in a dramatic contest for who would care for it. On one side stood the religious authorities who were greedy, cared nothing for the people, and in cahoots with the Romans. On the other, a new community based on the death and resurrection of its leaders who cared for the poor, who believed in the reversal of the earthly principalities and powers, and that union with God was something that could be grasped by all.

The line in the sand had finally been drawn. The authorities now knew that Jesus was a real threat to their very way of life. This rabble rouser from Galilee had to go. But fearing the crowd that day, they waited until an opportune time.

Love One Another – Brian

Another Adventure

Mary Cosby

For those who have entered into life's energies, which very much include love, death becomes one more adventure and discovery. Dr. Edwin Poteet gathered his sons around him years ago, just as he was dying, and said, "Well, I'm off for the great adventure!" My own father said to a dear friend just hours before he died, "Helen, this is a glorious crossing!" To those who have entered into life's energies and know love, death is another adventure and another discovery.

Source: Sermon (April 30 1989)

Mark 12:1-12

Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables. ‘A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watch-tower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But those tenants said to one another, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes”?’ When they realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd. So they left him and went away.