Click
here to read the Swift Current version: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/03/mark-1127-1212-mt-2131-46-tenant-farmers.html
Click
here to read the Nipawin version: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/06/matthew-2133-46-john-31617-tenant.html
This
is the Toronto version:
When
Sarah-Grace was about four she played soccer. I was one of her coaches. We
actually won the whole tournament one year. It was good. I`d think of my role,
when I was coaching, as more of an encourager than a coach per sae. I`d like to
try to rally the troops and cheer the team on - celebrate their successes with
them. I find myself often calling out from the sidelines ‘Go so-and-so go!’ ‘Go
score a goal!’ or ‘pass to so-and-so, she’s open’ or more commonly, ‘Goalie
wake up!’ ‘Goalie, don’t lie on the ground!’ or ‘Goalie, stop talking to your
friend and untangle yourself from the net – the ball is coming’… encouragements
like that.
I
remember this one game. Sarah-Grace made an excellent header. The ball came
right to her and she headed it to her teammate – that was really quite
something, particularly at this age, so at the break I complimented her on her
head ball and she, in front all the parents, told me her secret. She said,
‘Dad, you know how I did the head ball? …I saw the ball coming to me but I
forgot to move out of the way’. I like being a dad. It is a lot of fun. And
being a coach of your kids’ teams can be fun and it can be a bit of work too.
Here
in Mark (cf. Mt 21:31b-46, Lk 20:1-19) we read about an employer who, as Jesus
tells us, has a bit of a challenging team working for him. This businessman is
in the grape business. He is farmer of sorts and it is recorded in Mark 12:1
that he put a bit of work into his farm. (He must love it!) It says that he
plants his vineyard, he puts a wall around it, he builds a pit for a wine
press, and he even builds a watchtower (cf. Isa 5:1-7 and Ps 80:6-16). It
sounds like it is a pretty good setup that he has here. It says here that he
could even afford to go on vacation or a family trip or a business trip of some
sort; it says that he had enough time and money that he could leave the
vineyard. This is pretty good especially remembering that all this is happening
in first century Palestine. It says that he could afford to go away and hire
the fields out to some tenant farmers not unlike a number of farmers here in
Canada.
Now
the absentee landlord’s fields, his vines, are doing pretty well. He is still
away doing whatever he is doing – sitting in his big corporate office or on the
beach in Florida or wherever it is that the rich folk spend their time when
they aren’t at home. The landlord is away and it is time to collect his rent.
The harvest is in and he wants his payment so he sends some of his employees up
from the big city (or wherever) to collect the rent and it says in Verses 3-5
that the tenant farmers, the fruit pickers, the contractors working the land,
want to renegotiate their contract or something like that…it says in Verse 4-5
that they seize his employees, they grab his servants and they beat some severely,
wound others and they even kill some. These farmers aren’t very nice to the
landlord’s employees at all.
Now
when the landlord hears about all this, what does he do? Well, what would you
do? What would you do if you owned land and rented out your land for a season and
you pay some property management company to go get the rent and they not only
don`t get your money but they are beaten and killed? What are you going to do?
Call the police, right? Get the authorities. You’re going to want to do
something!
What
does the landlord do? This landlord just keeps sending more of his own servants;
his own employees (12:5). Now I don’t know how keen I would be to head out to
collect the rent after hearing what had happened to the others. Nonetheless these
employees are good employees. The Landlord sends more and more of them to get
the rent from these tenant farmers and just like their predecessors; they are
met with resistance, beatings, and death.
I
don’t know about you but if I were the employer I would be getting quite upset
right now. I have been a landlord before. I know what it is like when your
tenants try to pull the ‘midnight move’. I know what it is like when they don’t
want to pay their rent. I also used to be a magazine publisher and I know what
it is like when your clients give your employees a really bad time and don’t
want to pay them – It isn’t good. After all, good help isn’t all that easy to
come by – and in our story today the tenant farmers are even killing them off.
So what does the landlord do? Does he call the residential tenancy board? Does
he call the police or the SWAT team to storm the compound? Does he act like a
US President and order a drone attack on the vineyard or an air strike on their
families? This landlord is a powerful landlord. He can do the ancient
equivalent to all that. He can literally have their heads but what does he do?
Remember
that Jesus, God’s son, is telling the story. We read that this landlord is a
loving father who has absolute faith in the ability of his son. Verse 6: he
says, ‘they will respect my son.’ They don’t. The tenant farmers don’t respect
his son. Verse 7: “But the tenants said to one another ‘This is the heir. Come,
let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” Verse 8, “So they took him
and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.”
Jesus
stops the story here and he asks those listening to the story, Verse 9, “‘what
then will the owner of the vineyard do?’ He will come and kill those tenants
and give the vineyard to others” He will kill the tenants and give the land to
others who will pay the rent and will give him what is due.
Jesus
is telling this parable to the Jewish leaders who are in the crowd he is
addressing, Mark 11:27: The chief priest, the teachers of the law and the
elders of the people - and Matthew 21:41: the Pharisees - have all asked Jesus
upon what authority he is doing his ministry.[1] This parable is part of his
answer and he tells the elders and he tells the chief priests and he tells the
Pharisees who are present – The Matthew
version of this story is quite specific – he tells them plainly 21:43
“…the kingdom of God
will be taken away from you and given to a people who would produce its fruit.”
Mark 12:12, “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.”[2]
They
knew what he was talking about. Do we know what he is talking about? God, the
landlord, sends his prophets, the servants, to check up on the tenants and how
they are doing at looking after his vineyard and -as we know- the Israelites
and their leaders stoned and even killed many of the prophets of God (cf. 1 Ki
18:4, 13; Jer 26:20-23; 2 Chr 24:21-22; and Matt 23:37; Heb 11:37). God, the
landlord, then sends his own son to the people chosen to tend his vineyard and
the Israelites and their leaders kill him and because they kill him, those who
reject the landlord and his son, those who reject Jesus die outside of the
vineyard and the vineyard is given to others.[3]
You
and I here today, how are we doing with what God is entrusting us?[4] Do we heed his servants when they are sent
with messages or to collect our rent? What do we do when Jesus shows up to tell
us what we need to do? Do we obey him? Do we pay our rent?
This
is an important question. Jesus is the ultimate authority. He is God’s only
begotten son who was killed (and raised from the dead) and if we reject him
like many leaders and other Judeans in the first century, we will not have the
blessing of remaining in the eternal vineyard; we will die. As this is the
case, let us make sure that we submit to our master, that we serve him
faithfully now and forever.
There
is even more to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that God knows that Jesus
is going to die before he ever sends him into the world (Cf. Jn 3,15). We know
that Jesus’ death is necessary so that anyone can live and have eternal life.
We know that He chooses to send His son to die so that we can live. Still some
will hear even this story and instead of concentrating on the authority of
Jesus and the sacrifice of God they will fixate on the fact that God punishes
these farmers and ask how come there is so much death? How come God punishes
some people? In our world today we often hear the question, how can a
supposedly loving God arbitrarily punish people and even condemn some to Hell?”
He
doesn’t. Listen carefully to what I am saying here… Jesus doesn’t condemn
people to Hell (Jn 3:17). Hell is real but Jesus does not send people there.
Those who are going there, like the tenant farmers in our story today who lose
their lives and our removed from the vineyard, they make that decision all on
their own. Those who stand condemned, condemn themselves by denying (like the
Apostle Paul makes clear in Romans 1 and 2) what is plainly obvious to
everyone.[5] I truly believe that God gives us all we need to know in this life
from our experiences and even creation itself (cf. Ro 1:18-24) just like he
sent more and more servants to give the tenants more and more opportunities to
repent and submit to His authority and indeed there will actually still be a
time when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord (Ro 14:11, Phil 2:10) and then some, some who believe in the Lord and obey
His commandments will spend eternity with Him in His vineyard and some, some
who deny Christ (Mt 10:33) and do not obey His commandments (Jn 14:15), some
who simply refuse His love will go off to the hear the weeping and gnashing of
teeth (Mt 25:31ff). This is sad.
This
is particularly sad because we know that God loves us. John 3:16 says that He
loves the entire ‘Kosmos’. He loves us so much that He laid down His life for
us (Jn 15). God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten, his only
natural, his only sired Son to die so that we may live.
I
can’t imagine how much this must hurt God that some of us do actually perish. I
am a father. Many of us are parents here. Can you imagine if you send your child
and he dies to save others but still they decide to perish anyway?
God
sent His Son and His Son died so that we may live but yet some still refuse His
love and some still reject His Salvation. God sent Jesus not to condemn us (Jn
3:17) but to save us but some of us refuse to obey Him. Some of us simply
refuse to be saved. John 3:18: “Those who believe in Him are not condemned; but
those who do not believe are condemned already…” of their own accord because,
John 3:19, “people loved darkness rather than light.”
This
reminds me of some religious leaders (even in our organization!), who try to do
things in secret, confidentially, under
the cover of darkness rather than in the light.
But
today we are each in the vineyard of that parable that Jesus told 2000 years
ago. We are in the privileged position of knowing the truth that the religious
leaders of Jesus day were. We have access to the light. We have knowledge of
our salvation; so, I ask us in our own lives, when Jesus comes back, when God
returns to the vineyard will we experience the same fate as the tenant farmers,
those religious leaders in Jesus’ day? Will we experience the same fate of
those who chose to perish by serving themselves instead of God or will we
accept salvation that Jesus provided and live our life tending to his perfect
vineyard. He is even now standing at the gate. It is time for us to decide.
What will we do? Will we attack, deny, or ignore Him and die; or will we meet
him with open arms, welcome him in, and live? It is time to decide.
Let
us pray.
daily blogs at
---
[1]
M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 409: “by
adding two additional parables [he incorporates] the woes into the full-blown
speech (23:1-25:46).” This parable is
not meant to stand in isolation.
[2]
Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 14-28. (WBC 33B: Dallas, Texas: Word Books, 1995),
612. The purpose of this series of parables then is “the depiction of the
unfaithfulness of the Jewish leaders. It is for this reason Jesus asks the
Jewish leaders for their opinion concerning which of these two sons was the
faithful one.” The religious leaders’ response in the affirmative to Jesus
question is then, through typically parabolic procedure, a self-indictment.
[3]
Cf. NT Wright, “The Law in Romans 2,” Paul and the Mosaic Law, ed. James D. G.
Dunn (WUNT 89; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1996), republished with English
translations of German essays (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001): 136. The
equality of the Gentile to the Jew before God, as expressed by Paul in Romans in
no way negates the primacy of the Jews (cf. Romans 11:7, 11). Cf. Romans
11:12-13, where it is recorded that it was only “through their stumbling [that]
salvation has come to the Gentiles…Now if their stumbling means riches for the
world, and if their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will
their full inclusion mean!.”
[4]
It is important to note as Douglas J. Moo does that, “contrary to popular
Jewish belief, the sins of the Jews will not be treated by God significantly
different from those of the Gentiles.” Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the
Romans (NICNT 6: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1996), 126. Cf. also NT Wright, The Letter to the Romans (NIB
10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 440
[5]
Cf. Michael Ramsay. “Paul and the Human Condition as Reflected in Romans
1:18-32 and 2:1-16”. Available on-line at:
http://www.sheepspeak.com/NT_Michael_Ramsay.htm#Paul%20and%20the%20Human%20Condition
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