DAILY BYTEMatthew 21:33-43 NRSV
‘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 watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They 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.’
Jesus 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”? Therefore 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.’
This whole week we will be focussing on the above parable, told by Jesus right near the end of his ministry. This is neither a very well known parable, nor is it one that many of us would count as a personal favourite.
Perhaps, it is because the parable is harsh on our ears – it is difficult to hear. Jesus pulls no punches in its telling, and it is far removed from our popular image of Jesus as ‘meek and mild’. So it is not surprising that this vineyard parable ends in anger and judgement (hence the ‘Grapes of Wrath’ title).
Did you know, however, that this parable is only one of 3 that appears in all the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke)? Curiously, some of Jesus best known parables such as that of the Good Samaritan occur only in one Gospel and nowhere else. Only the parables of the Sower, the Mustard Seed, and this one – the Tenants – get repeated in triplicate. It seems the writers of the Gospels felt that no account of Jesus’ life and ministry would be complete without this particular parable being included.
So to ignore it because it leaves us feeling somewhat uneasy would be foolish. God parks it on our doorsteps so insistently for a reason and he will not have us let it go!
This is why we will be spending a whole week wrestling with this unpopular parable. In so doing we may well find that the reason for its unpopularity is because its message is challenging enough to profoundly unsettle us.
Read the parable again, and question exactly how it may challenge your life.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Gracious God, fill us with your Spirit as we wrestle with this parable and open our hearts to humbly hear its powerful challenge. Amen.
