"Now listen to another parable. There was a farmer who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winpress, and built a tower; then he rentes it to tenants ants left. When harvest time came, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the crop. But the tenants siezed his servants -this one they beat up, that one they killed, another they stoned. So he sent some other servants, more than the first group, and they did the same to them. Finally he sent them his son, saying, 'My son they will respect.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance!' So they grapped him, threw him our of the vineyard and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"
They answered him, "He will viciously destory those vicious men and rent out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop when its due."
Yeshua said to them, "Haven't you ever read in the Tanakh
'The very rock which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone! This has come from Adonai, and in our eyes it is amazing'?
Therefore i tell you that the Kingdom of G-d will be taken away from you and given tot eh kind of people that will produce fruit!"
As the head cohanim and the P'rushim listened tot eh stories, they saw that he was speaking about them. But when they sent about to arrest him, they were afraid of the crowds; because the crowds considered him a prophet.
Yeshua continues his assault on the hypocrisy of the cohanim and religious leaders. He delivered two harsh blows in the previous two parts. He called them out on their focus, and then let them know that they are worse off spiritually that tax collectors and prostitutes. A terrible sinner, who for years said every other thing ont he planed except G-ds way, and then reached a point at which they said "I'm done living my life this way, may i suffer the consequences of changing everything", that person is better off than someone raised in a church.
In this second story, we see another reference back to the original question Yeshua posed. Yochanan. Remember the counter-question Yeshua posed about Yochanan's baptism authority. In that question he borough out that the cohanim refused to believe Yochanan. We see that subtly mirrored here in the plight of the servants the landowner sends. Sent as a commector, then as a warning, and in the end, killed. This whole parable is ripe with subtle and not so subtle analogies of Yeshua and Yochanan.
But there is a deepr point to it all. Think of the vineyard as the ream of religion and spirituality itself. These tenants, not merely idiots brought off of the streets, are those who would learn how to used and produce from a winepress. The fact that the landowner expects a crop backs up the idea that these tenants were more than simply living on the land. They worked and developed and struggled over it. With this in mind, look again at their reaction to the servants coming. They had worked the land, they knew it, and they were the ones responsible for it.
Following the analogy to the realm of religion and spirituality, these "tenants" are people who become part of the christian religion. They live it, they breath it, it becomes their identity. In the case of the cohanim this is particularly true. It also makes their response almost reasonable. These "servants", like Yochanan, and eventually Yeshua, came to challenge their place and collect on the righteousness due. The cohanim live for religion, and so to them newcomers pressing them this way was intolerable. It's little wonder why they kill the son, who is trying to take control of the vineyard away from them.
What is ironic as Yeshua finishes the story is how the cohanim actually respond. When asked what the landowner will do, they reply with a noticeable passion. It's almost as though they are trying to display their righteousness by condemning the wrongdoers of the story as harshly as possible, without realizing that they condemn themselves.
The curse of this story is doubled by this response of the cohanim. Yeshua, displaying a brilliant knowledge of old testament hermeneutics, brings out Psalm 118:22 to drive home the point of their rejection of the servants, and in the end the Son. The cohanim, masters of religion, called by G-d to serve as leaders and to build up the chosen people rejected the truth sent to them and for their rejection, for their lack of fruit, will be destroyed and replaced. Remember that even they agreed that the "vicious men" should be punished violently. The irony of that is sad, as though they understood their own downfall but were unable to comprehend it.
Where are we, church. How is our fruit? Notice that the fruit, combined with the message of the last parable, must come from repentance. See, the stagnancy of the fruit of the cohanim comes from their self righteousness. They think they are doing it right, that they are righteous, and thus they are unwilling to accept the challenges of Yeshua. Good fruit, as H'Meshiah is making clear, comes from a heart that sees nothing but evil inside of itself and strives to be cleansed. A person who thinks they are good and likes that good, can do no good; but a person who sees they are evil and loathes that evil can do nothing but turn away from evil. The only thing in the world to turn to when running from the evil inside is the Savior, Yeshua, son of David.
No comments:
Post a Comment