33“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.34When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” 39So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” 42Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? 43Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. 44The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” 45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
Murder. Violence. Greed. Revenge. Lawlessness.
It’s the kind of story that makes you wonder: what on earth was the owner of the vineyard thinking?
So the story goes that a man plants a vineyard, then moves far away, but leases out the land. The rent? The tenants pay in produce. But since the vineyard owner is far away, he sends his servants to collect the produce… and what do the tenants do? They kill the servants so that they can profit. Not good. And not even logical. So the owner sends more servants (really?) and they, too, get killed. So the owner sends his own son (isn’t he seeing a rather dangerous pattern yet?), and even the son gets killed.
Now this story raises lots of questions, especially related to the owner of the vineyard. First of all, what on earth was the owner of the vineyard thinking? Didn’t he run background checks on these people? Didn’t they have references? Didn’t he learn his lesson with the first set of indiscriminate killings? Why send more servants and not the authorities? Why send your own son?
Looking at this story from 2000 years away, it’s easy to come up with a list of questions related to the actions of the vineyard owner – they just don’t seem logical, do they? And it’s tempting to see the story in simple terms: God must be the vineyard owner, the prophets were the servants sent before and killed, the son was Jesus, and the wicked tenants were the religious authorities and others that rejected Jesus. That means that we are the “other tenants,” right? The ones with the unwritten future, the ones who produce fruit?
Not so fast. While it’s tempting to see this story as an ancient drama, the truth of this story is that it is about us. We are the ones who kill the servants, and we are the ones who kill the son. We are the ones motivated by jealousy, greed, pride, and our own self-interest, and we are the ones who sabotage God’s work in us. And God, in God’s infinite love, patience, and mercy, continues to give us another chance – even when it comes at cost to God. That’s the Good News in this story – the owner of the vineyard does not act rationally, or with good business sense, or with prudence. The owner of the vineyard acts with reckless abandon, hope, and forgiveness.
Questions for reflection:
How are we like the tenants? What are the ways that we kill others out of our own selfishness and greed?
The owner of the vineyard in this story seems irresponsible, risky, and too merciful. How does this change how you understand God?
What does this story mean for the Christian community today? How are we called to act?
This week’s Bible Blog is written by Pastor Mindy Roll, the ELCA Lutheran Campus Pastor at Texas A&M and Blinn. For more information on the ELCA ministry here, see www.treehouseministries.com.
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