Dear Lord, thank you for your word and bless me today I pray,
in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen.
On the surface, the Parable of the Tenants appears to be
simple if you have a good understanding of the Bible. God is the one who plants
the vineyard and rents it out; the Old Testament prophets are the messengers he
sends to collect the rent, and the son who is killed by the tenants is Jesus
himself.
It does, however, reflect the socioeconomic circumstances of
the time, when rich landowners chose a Roman-style life of leisure to
cultivate their property themselves. But it's not just a doom-and-gloom prophecy
about death and judgment. ' "What will the vineyard owner do then?"
Jesus inquired. "He'll come and kill those tenants, then give the vineyard
to others" (verse 9). That is the story's logical conclusion. Then he
throws in a twist: "The stone that the builders dismissed as worthless
turned out to be the most important of all" (verse 10). To put it another
way, the story's conclusion is not the end, for God will raise Jesus from the
grave. The 'tenants' aren't destroyed either. 'They were extremely distressed
and said to Peter and the other apostles, "What shall we do,
brothers?"' when Peter tells the crowd at Pentecost what they have done by
their culpability in Christ's murder (2.27, GNB). The answer should be
'Nothing; it's too late,' according to the story's logic. They are, however,
given the opportunity for repentance and a new life.
As a result, rather of being about condemnation, this
narrative turns out to be about mercy. God is far more kind than we realize —
and far more generous than we deserve.