Meditationen am Gnadenstuhl - Monday of Laetare (Lent IV)
Monday of Laetare (Lent IV)
Daily Lectionary Readings: Genesis 42:1-34; Mark 12:1-12; (Sirach 21)
Mark 12:1-12 [1] And [Jesus] began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. [2] When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. [3] And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. [4] Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. [5] And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. [6] He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ [7] But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ [8] And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. [9] What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. [10] Have you not read this Scripture:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
[11] this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
[12] And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.
Today's Meditation at the Mercy Seat ties in directly with our meditation yesterday, where Jesus cursed the fig tree when He did not find any fruit to snack on. If you didn't read it and have a spare five minutes, go back and check it out. Here Jesus tells a parable about a wealthy man who plants a vineyard, equipping it with all things necessary to produce a good income for him. He hires out the care of the vineyard to some local tenants and then leaves the country. Mark does not tell us what the master went off into foreign lands to do, but it should be evident to us that he goes to do the same thing in other lands, recalling for us the words of Christ when He said, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”1
God is generous and provides us with everything we need, as was reinforced by Sunday's Gospel reading from John chapter six about Jesus feeding the multitude. Isn't it interesting how all the readings connect? Back to our text for today: God entrusts man with the responsibility and freedom of will to steward creation, just as the master entrusts the tenants with the vineyard to nurture and harvest an abundant crop. And God expects results!
God is not expecting results because the wage for our hard work is eternal life. He has already given that as a free gift to all who believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. No, God expects results because His work is not yet complete. God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.2 God does this through our words and actions, our sharing of the Gospel, and the way we live our lives, so that others may ask, "What makes this person different? Why is she so hopeful? Why is he so content?"
But the tenants beat and killed the servants of the master sent to collect the fruit of the harvest. Even his beloved son. The tenants in the master's vineyard are the Jews of Jesus' time who rejected the Messiah, despite the signs, wonders, and clear fulfillment of prophecy He embodied before their eyes. They had the promise of the coming Christ, belief in whom would save them, just as that same faith redeemed the many generations of the children of Israel of old. They turned Him over to Pilate to be killed. The Pharisees thought they had self-produced everything necessary, including their own works, to be counted as righteous before God. But they lacked the one thing needful: faith. But the whole point of all their religious observances, lifestyles, and culture was to point the way to Christ. Then they rejected Him as an impostor, relying on their own self-importance as sufficient.
What does God do with the impossibly hard-hearted? He destroys them like the master will destroy the tenants. God did just that in 70AD when the temple was destroyed, and Jerusalem sacked by the Romans, just as Jesus predicted would happen.3 The master will give the vineyard to others. The meek. The poor in spirit. The lost. Those who hear the Word gladly and cling to it. The Jews turned their back on God, clinging instead to the false god between their ears. But the Gospel was preached instead to "sheep not of this fold," people in the other country to which the master traveled. Gentiles.
The Pharisees would have stoned Jesus right there, but they were afraid of the crowd. Why? For them, it was all about power and control, playing the bigshot vineyard manager rather than the humble worker striving toward the master's goals. So, instead of repenting – which is our lesson today – they let Jesus alone and went off to plot and scheme, heaping sin upon sin on their heads. This is always the result of those confronted with undeniable truth yet still refuse to believe.
1John 10:16 (ESV).
21 Timothy 2:4.
3Luke 21:5, 20-24.