This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours

 

 Then He began to speak to them in parables:  "A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower.  And he leased it to vinedressers and went to a far country.  Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers.  And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.  Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.  And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.  Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  But those vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'  So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.  Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do?  He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.  Have you not even read this Scripture:

'The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone.

This was the LORD's doing,

And it is marvelous in our eyes'?"

And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them.  So they left Him and went away.

 

- Mark 12:1-11 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus and the disciples again came again to Jerusalem, the day after He had cleansed the temple.  And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.  And they said to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things?  And who gave You this authority to do these things?"  But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things:  The baptism of John -- was it from heaven or from men?  Answer Me."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'  But if we say, 'From men'" -- they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed.  So they answered and said to Jesus, "We do not know."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

 

Then He began to speak to them in parables:  "A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower.  And he leased it to vinedressers and went to a far country.  Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers.  And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.  Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.  And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.  Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  But those vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'  So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.  Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do?  He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others."  My study Bible comments that in this parable, the man who planted the vineyard represents God the Father, and the vineyard refers to God's people.  The vinedressers are the leaders of the Jews who are entrusted to care for the people.  Each servant who is sent by the owner stands for an Old Testament prophet who comes to call people back to God.  The beloved son refers to Christ Himself.  When the Son is cast out of the vineyard to be killed, my study Bible says, this is understood on two different levels.  First, that Jesus was killed outside of Jerusalem (Golgotha, the place of crucifixion, was outside of the old city gates).  Second, that Jesus was crucified by foreign soldiers, and not by those of His own "vineyard."  The others to whom the vineyard will later be given are the Gentiles brought into the Church.  

Have you not even read this Scripture:  'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.  This was the LORD's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?" And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them.  So they left Him and went away.  Jesus quotes from Psalm 118:22-23.  It is the same Psalm from which the people shouted as Jesus entered into Jerusalem (Psalm 118:25-26), with the verses repeated on the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of the Coming Kingdom.  My study Bible comments here that the stone is Christ.  

That Jesus quotes from Psalm 118, a Psalm significant for the Feast of Tabernacles, and from which the people shouted as they welcome Christ into Jerusalem as Messiah, is highly significant to the chief priests, the scribes, and elders to whom He speaks.  They know, the text tells us, that He has spoken this parable against them.  As they have just questioned His authority to cleanse the temple, Jesus is now clearly speaking of the power of His true authority, the heavenly authority to which He pointed in asking them about the authority of John to baptize (in yesterday's reading, see above).  Jesus' parable explains the stark and absolute power of God to work in the world, and puts it into the context of the entirety of the Old Testament and the work of the prophets who came before John the Baptist.  "The stone" who becomes the "chief cornerstone" has the power and authority to crush and to destroy.  Indeed, elsewhere Jesus adds, "Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder" (Luke 20:18).  Jesus is reminding these religious leaders that God the Father, the vineyard owner and planter of the vineyard, expects particularly of them a kind of return for their work as those who tend the vineyard, the people of God, or Israel.  But the parable illustrates something essential for us today, as faithful believers.  Not only do we have to keep in mind our own attitude of dependency and gratitude to God, of turning to God the Father so that we know how best to steward ourselves and our world and build our lives in the image He desires, but we have to understand that we are not the true "owners" or possessors of this vineyard.  When it comes to the Church, and the spiritual truths that came through Judaism and are given to us through the Incarnation of Christ and the Church in the world, these things are actually possessed by none of us.  Although our spiritual lives, and the truths and history of the saints and our faith are all passed down to us as treasure, as pearls of great price, or gems, these are things that none of us actually possess.  We are rather stewards of these things, bound like the vinedressers to cultivate the vineyard's beauty and productivity.  Nobody "owns" spiritual treasure, so that it can be used as a possession, altered in appearance to please a false owner, or used for purposes at odds with the true owner.  None of us "owns" the Church, and none is authorized to use the Church for our own selfishly-directed purposes.  But in this parable, Jesus says that the vinedressers plot to do just that, to kill the Son so that they might get their hands on the vineyard and take its profit and its goods solely for themselves.  We, today, are given a lesson in true ownership, the proper attitude toward our lives and all that we are given to make of ourselves, our lives, our Church in the world.  We are stewards of the things we only appear to possess, and as such we have a responsibility to the true owner and planter of this beautiful vineyard.  That translates into a duty of gratitude, of cherishing what we have for its true worth, so that we live and cultivate our lives and all of our resources in the ways in which God would teach us and guide us to do.  This gives us a true picture of the reality of our lives, and when we fail to understand our position in the cosmos as those who are given great gifts (even of our lives and resources) and who are at the same time responsible for their good stewardship, this sets us aright in terms of our disposition and outlook on life and what we do in our lives, and with our resources.  The treasures we're given, especially the spiritual blessings in the Church, are just that:  they are treasures.  But they are also extended in meaning and potency far beyond a self-centered attitude that would lock them up and exploit them for personal gain.  They are the treasures of a cosmos, meant for all posterity, for a creation far beyond what we know and understand -- and this should be our awareness in our lives.  We don't know who will benefit from our prayer, and lives lived in obedience to the goodness, truth, and beauty of God.  We don't know the reach of the blessings we are capable of building up through our own good stewardship of life we're given, and treasures we're meant to expand upon and build up, even as they bless our lives.  But we do know we have a loving Father who has sent His Son to be one of us, to help us and nurture us and set us in the right direction, to be there when we call, to hear our prayer.  It's up to us to make of our lives something beautiful and nurturing and good, something true and blessed with meaning -- or to squander what we're given with a selfish attitude that understands nothing of our capacity for building the vineyard and being stewards of its beauty and truth.