Mark for Lent 29
For this reading we have the story of the tenants of a vineyard and Jesus’ answer to a question about paying taxes.
Renters of a Vineyard (Matthew 21.33-46; Luke 20.9-19)
1Jesus then told them this story:
A farmer once planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it and dug a pit to crush the grapes in. He also built a lookout tower. Then he rented out his vineyard and left the country.2When it was harvest time, he sent a servant to get his share of the grapes. 3The renters grabbed the servant. They beat him up and sent him away without a thing.
4The owner sent another servant, but the renters beat him on the head and insulted him terribly. 5Then the man sent another servant, and they killed him. He kept sending servant after servant. They beat some of them and killed others.
6The owner had a son he loved very much. Finally, he sent his son to the renters because he thought they would respect him. 7But they said to themselves, “Someday he will own this vineyard. Let’s kill him! That way we can have it all for ourselves.” 8So they grabbed the owner’s son and killed him. Then they threw his body out of the vineyard.
9Jesus asked, “What do you think the owner of the vineyard will do? He will come and kill those renters and let someone else have his vineyard. 10You surely know that the Scriptures say,
`The stone that the builders
tossed aside
is now the most important
stone of all.
11This is something
the Lord has done,
and it is amazing to us.’ ”
12The leaders knew that Jesus was really talking about them, and they wanted to arrest him. But because they were afraid of the crowd, they let him alone and left.
Paying Taxes (Matthew 22.15-22; Luke 20.20-26)
13The Pharisees got together with Herod’s followers. [a] Then they sent some men to trick Jesus into saying something wrong. 14They went to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are honest. You treat everyone with the same respect, no matter who they are. And you teach the truth about what God wants people to do. Tell us, should we pay taxes to the Emperor or not?”
15Jesus knew what they were up to, and he said, “Why are you trying to test me? Show me a coin!”16They brought him a silver coin, and he asked, “Whose picture and name are on it?”
“The Emperor’s,” they answered.
17Then Jesus told them, “Give the Emperor what belongs to him and give God what belongs to God.” The men were amazed at Jesus.
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society
March 31st, 2006 at 6:09 pm
Vineyard story: If we side with the tennants we could say there is some rich exploitive absent landlord who is making life hard for the poor land-less renters. If we side with the landlord we see a battle for authority with people taking by force what is not theirs.
So how do we read it?
This elaborate descriptoin of the vineyard is a clasic from the porphets of the nation as God’s property. It is a prophetic parable that reminds all of the chief preist, national leaders, ‘teachers of the Law of Moses’ that the vineyard / nation is not theirs - there is another owner who despite what evil they do, really has soverignty over it.
When Jesus asks the national leaders (who he has just reminded of how they executed God’s messenger John the baptiser) what the owner will do to the workers who kill the owner’s messenger he is asking them to pass judgement on themselves - Brilliant!
‘The stone that the builders tossed aside
is now the most important stone of all.
This is something the Lord has done,
and it is amazing to us.’
This text reminds us who in Mark’s story the ‘workers’ have ‘rejected’ and ‘tossed aside’. And we are told to expect a miracle, something amazing God does, which is establishing the rejected as the most important. This is the good news of God’s sovereignty!
Emporer’s Coin story: “The Pharisees got together with Herod’s followers…” I say, these are very unlikely coalition partners! Their hatered of Jesus has them compromising their principles all over the place.
We return to the temple money changers. Roman coins had a depiction of Emporer as God on them. That meant they were idols and could not be used in the temple. When Jesus’ opponants challenge him about taxes he traps them with their own actions once more. He asks for a coin and … THEY HAVE ONE. If supporting the empire is such a problem what are they doing with the empire’s coins?
When Jesus says “Give the Emperor WHAT belongs to him.” I can seeing him winking and nodding to those who already belonged to the Emporer and by contrast did not belong to God. It is a bit rich trying to complain about what coins are given to the empire’s purse, when the national leaders are already in the empire’s pocket!