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And he began to speak to them in parallels. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some 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.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What 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 marvelous in our eyes’?” And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parallel against them. So they left him and went away. (Mark’s biography of Jesus, 12: 1-12, c. AD30) |
Remembrance Sunday for WW2. Remember of Armistice for WW1. Remember Guy Fawkes. How about remembering AD 30?
See the extract in bold red above. Jesus was asking the Judean leaders to remember. He did that via a “parallel”. In the parallel, he likened those leaders to tenants of a vineyard. To them, as God’s special people, had been entrusted a promised land. But the national leaders, over many centuries, had failed abysmally to be faithful to the LORD God and to follow Him in the way they lived their lives, and in the way they lived and led the people.
So great had been their failures that, in BC 584, the land had been taken from them, first by the Assyrian and then by the Babylonian Empires. After that the Greeks and then the Romans. The national leaders in Jerusalem in AD 30 had no real power. They were tolerated by Rome. Rome had a multi-faith policy throughout its Empire. But that didn’t work terribly well. It isn’t today.
When Jesus asked the AD 30 Jewish authorities to “remember” – via this parallel - he reminded them of their treatment of the LORD God’s “prophets” (messengers) over the preceding six centuries. Jesus even told them – via the parallel – what they intended to do to him! Kill him, so as to own it all.
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Even more surprising is the fact that they did know the meaning of the parallel. Mark records: “they perceived that he had told the parallel against them.”
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Remembering this today, we can also recall that the then national leaders did indeed procure the death of Jesus on a Roman cross (but he rose from the dead). We can also remember that, in AD 70, Jerusalem and its Temple were utterly destroyed by the Romans. Or was it destroyed, ultimately, by the one who owned the vineyard?
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A few weeks after the AD 30 Judean leaders has procured the death of Jesus – 50 days to be exact – the disciples in Jesus preached about the risen Jesus there in Jerusalem. Read opposite what took place at the end of Peter’s first sermon.
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“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. (Acts 2: 36-41)
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Was there forgiveness to all who turned? Yes, of course. Of course.
The wonderful thing about “parallels” is that they can – and do – have multiple occasions where the truth within the parallel can be seen to be applicable. Seen by those who wish to see. Us today, for instance?
Is the vineyard now this earth, this planet? Are we (and this includes our leaders) the tenants? Are we giving to, acknowledging and following our creator and thereby returning fruit to him by living as his son Jesus lived? Or are we killing him? Eliminating him from every sphere of our lives? So as to own it all? We can hack it, can’t we? Will the vineyard owner leave it at that? Or will an end come, not only for the planet but for each one of us?
Thankfully, what Peter preached in Jerusalem still applies. God is love.
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