Monday, December 17, 2012

Parable Of The Vineyard


12:1 Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard.  He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
“He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
“But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.10 Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
11 the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.



Mark observes that Jesus begins to teach in parables.  Parabolic teaching has not been a centerpiece of Mark so far.  While Luke and Matthew abound with parables, Mark seems to primarily orient his gospel around the parable of the soils.  Certainly, there are very few parables with extended narratives.  It seems that this extended parable may serve the same function as the one about the types of ground.  Just as the parable of the soils is told to interpret Jesus ministry, the parable that will follow is told to interpret the passion narrative that will follow.


An unidentified man plants a vineyard.  This is an effort with a large up front effort for a later pay-off.  Not only must the grapevines mature, the vineyard also is at risk from nature and from mischief.  The vineyard owner knowing this builds a wall around his project.  He digs out a pit where the juice of the grapes will be pressed to make wine.  Finally, he puts up a tower so that someone can be constantly on the lookout.


For whatever reason, the owner decides to go away.  Having already invested so much, it is no surprise that he finds farmers to care for his ground.  When the time for harvest arrives, he sends a servant to collect some of the fruit.  Perhaps the workers wages are paid with the fruit that is to be left behind.


The workers, however, are unwilling to part with any of the fruit of their labor.  Rather than give the servant what he has asked for they seize him, beat him and send him away with nothing.  Just verses earlier, the Jewish leaders have been asking about authority.  Clearly these vineyard workers reject the authority of the master and believe they are the ones who have authority.  They take the masters proxy and treat him like a thief who has come to take what does not belong to him.


The master behaves with an odd forbearance that strains credulity.  Another servant is sent and rejected with an emphasis that he is struck on the head.  This calls to mind the alternate meaning of the word for "head" that can also mean source.  It is clear that these tenants are striking out against not the servant but the authority that he represents.


The farmers continue to escalate against the series of messengers as they move from assault to murder.  The owner's patience is inexplicable in any human terms.  Why does he continue to send anyone other than the police as the workers essentially claim ownership over the vineyard?  Is he fair to the servants he continues to send?  Is he asking for volunteers?


The land holder continues with his unreasonable approach by finally deciding to send his son.  Why does he think that the treatment will be any different?  He convinces himself that this is a good idea by believing that the renters will respond to clear authority.


They do not.  In fact, they see the arrival of the son as their golden opportunity.  Their irrational thinking leads them to believe that they will become the vineyard's rightful owners.  Do they believe that the owner has died and the son is claiming his inheritance?  If that is the case, killing him will revert the land to those who have been present on it.  


Whatever the case, the son is killed and his body is not treated with any respect and is thrown outside the wall of the vineyard.  The rhetorical question is asked about what the vineyard owner will do.  Finally, Jesus tells us, the owner will act, kill the tenants and get some new ones.  The very action that the renters believe will make the property theirs is the one that removes it from their control and brings their demise.


This calls to mind part of Psalm 118 to Jesus who suggests that these tenants have rejected the stone that will be used by God to be the capstone to hold the span that crosses the gap between God and humanity.  Like those who have been entrusted with the vineyard, the Jewish religious leaders have shamefully treated all of God's true messengers and soon will kill even God's son in their attempt to wrest control of the world from God.


The religious leaders seem to miss most of what God is revealing, but they have 20/20 vision when it comes to the people.  They do understand that Jesus speaks the parable about them, but their fear of the crowd leaves them fuming and planning in private about how they will get Jesus.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Have Faith


12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.  14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
19 When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.
20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.

Following his brief sojourn in Jerusalem the night before, Jesus returns ready for action.  Mark tells us that on the way he was hungry.  This is the first time that the gospel has described Jesus with this human need.  The final action taken at Jesus' crucifixion in Mark is the crowd giving him a sponge with liquid.  In a way, these bookmark the story of the corruption of Jewish piety that provides neither spiritual food nor drink to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Jesus sees a fig tree in the distance.  It is green and leafy as the growing season would be just beginning in Israel in April.  Not able to discern if their are early figs present because of the leaves, Jesus is disappointed upon reaching it to find that there are no fruit present.  This was not the season for fruit, Mark tells us, so we wonder why Jesus expected any.  Does Mark want us to recall the struggles that Jesus has faced so far with the leaders of Israel in the gospel who have all of the appearance of devotion but no fruit of faith?  Jesus pronounces that no will eat of this particular fig tree and is overheard by his disciples.  This is the first record of a curse from Jesus.  Although it may be that like the demons he has driven out before, it is a miracle that is destructive to the oppressor and freeing for the ones who suffer.

Jesus enters the Temple and drives out those who are buying and selling.  The Temple courts were open to both Gentiles and Jews.  The courts had become a marketplace where people did the business that kept the temple running.  The buying and selling likely consisted of priest-approved animals for sacrifice.  The priests had to approve an animal to be sacrificed as blemish free, so a thriving business consisted of priests (for a fee) approving animals (whether they were blemish free or not) and then being sold to religious pilgrims at a premium.

He also overturns the money changers tables.  These tables were set up for convenience so that people could bring Roman money (which was used everywhere) for Temple money which was only valid in the Temple.  A thriving Temple business grew based on selling the Temple money which was given to the Temple treasury and then sold back to other pilgrims the next day in a perpetual cycle.

Jesus anger would be very understandable.  What often is misread here is that Jesus criticism of them as robbers refers to what is going on at the tables.  But Jesus calls the Temple a "den" which is where the robber's live and count their ill-gotten gains, not where they practice their thievery.  The Temple has become the place where people go to get forgiveness for their sins so they can go out again and sin some more.  It is a tree without the fruit (of repentance).

Which is the point Mark drives home as Jesus leaves the Temple.  Those he has exposed as hypocrites are understandably angry and anxious to get their revenge, so the plotting begins.  They are thieves planning their next crime.  But, we are told they fear public action because the populace at large seems to agree with Jesus diagnosis of what ails the Temple.

On their way back into town the next day, the disciples and Jesus pass the fig tree from the previous day.  It is Peter who notices its withered condition that goes all the way to its root.

Jesus tells the disciples that with belief anything can be accomplished even throwing mountains in the sea.  There are no conditions except certain total faith, which is in its own way a significant condition.  True faith aligns itself with God's will.  Jesus is not saying that perfect belief will put a Ferrari in your driveway, but that perfect faith will remove all the obstacles that keep a person from bearing fruit even when it is not the season for figs.


Monday, December 3, 2012

The Triumphal Entry


As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”
They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.



With Bartimaeus healed, Jesus and his followers begin their final approach to Jerusalem.  They arrive at Bethany where Jesus will be anointed with perfume at the house of Simon the Leper prior to the Lord's Supper.  Mark also places them at the Mount of Olives which is where Jesus will be arrested.


But with these events still to come, Jesus stops now to make preparations for his entry in Jerusalem.  He sends two disciples (oddly unnamed) into a village to find him an animal to ride as he enters the city.


He asks them to find an unridden colt which is a reference to a Hebrew Bible prophesy from Zechariah that the Messiah will come in on the foal  of a donkey.  The disciples are to take it and tell those who ask that the Lord needs it and will return it.  


The disciples go off and find the colt as promised.  And as one might imagine those around wonder why these unknown men seem to be stealing the animal.  The explanation that Jesus has offered the two disciples is enough to mollify them.


In an action that reminds us of Bartimaeus, the disciples throw their cloaks on the back of the animal for a saddle.  Others cast their cloaks on the road as Jesus passes.  It is almost as if they, like Bartimaeus, have decided that they should give everything to Jesus.  They also spread branches from the field as they cover the road to pave the way for the Christ.


The crowd that joins Jesus on his approach also shout out to him.  "Hosana" (which means "save us now") they shout.  The mob declares Jesus to be coming both in the name of the Lord and bringing the renewal of David's kingdom (the second reference to this idea as Bartimaeus has earleir referred to Jesus as Son of David).  Their shouts echo the words of Psalm 118.

It is not surprising that Jesus' first destination is the temple.  It has the dual function of being the center of Jewish devotion but also of corrupt religious practice.  Mark tells us that Jesus looks around at everything.  And the implication may well be that he sees with the same spiritual sight that he has been trying to impart to the disciples.  He not only sees, he sees and in so doing understands the reality of the temple.  In the book of Maccabes, found in the Appocrypha (a collection of books written concerning the time between the final prophet and the coming of Jesus included in some translations of the Bible), a procession is held with branches being laid when Simon enters Jerusalem triumphantly to restore the temple.  A person with familiarity with this tradition would not at all be surprised that Jesus heads to the temple.

But, Mark tells us it was already late so Jesus returns to Bethany.  This seems like a particularly odd detail for Mark to include.  Why doesn't Jesus delay his trip so that he can arrive early in the morning?  If it is so pressing that he begins his journey when he does, why does he not stay and do his work regardless of the hour?  Were those who proclaimed his entry disappointed at his lack of action?  Could this relate to the delay the church experienced regarding Jesus triumphant return at the end of time?  All that can be done is speculate.