The Unlistening Vineyard
Mark 12:1-12
This chapter gets pretty tricky for Jesus.
He begins with a parable that seems to be alluding to the people of God not listening to him. And then for the rest of this chapter, different people try to trick Jesus or catch him in some inconsistency or bad theology.
Spoiler alert: It won’t work.
Mark 12:1-12
Jesus spoke to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a tower. Then he rented it to tenant farmers and took a trip. When it was time, he sent a servant to collect from the tenants his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But they grabbed the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again the landowner sent another servant to them, but they struck him on the head and treated him disgracefully. He sent another one; that one they killed. The landlord sent many other servants, but the tenants beat some and killed others. Now the landowner had one son whom he loved dearly. He sent him last, thinking, They will respect my son. But those tenant farmers said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ They grabbed him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
“So what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you read this scripture, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this, and it’s amazing in our eyes?”
They wanted to arrest Jesus because they knew that he had told the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.
Prayer
God,
Thank you for this day. The life that you give is good. Help me to focus on the life that you give. Too many other things have a way of creeping in, so help me focus my heart on yours.
But let me not just receive the life that you give, but may my life reflect it to others as well.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.