Tag: mark 12

The Parable of the Tenants (Mark 12:1-12)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Parable of the Vineyard Workers, from Unknown Artist in the Middle Ages

Then he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went away. 

When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 

And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. 

He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 

What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
    and it is amazing in our eyes’?”

When they realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd. So they left him and went away. (New Revised Standard Version)

Parable of the Wicked Tenants, by Maarten Van Valckenborg (1535-1612)

Jesus was at the temple in Jerusalem. While there, the religious leaders confronted him over his supposed ministerial authority. Jesus, rather than become defensive, took the initiative by telling a parable.

The parable’s imagery comes directly from the second chapter of the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament. It, too, was a parable concerning a vineyard. Isaiah leveled an accusation against the entire nation of Israel.

Jesus picked up the same imagery and directed his accusation against the people in front of him, the Jewish religious leaders. The connection between the parable of Isaiah and the parable of Jesus would not have been lost on those leaders.

In many ways, I can relate to the parable’s setting in the land. I grew up on a farm, and appreciate the deep connection of working the land and caring for it. I know something of owning land and having renters work it, since that it was my family did in my parent’s later years.

Anytime there is a relationship between owners, and renters or tenants or servants, it is an unequal relation. And whichever situation you relate to will affect your perspective of the parable.

If you understand what it means to be a landowner, with all of the rights and responsibilities of that ownership, and with the people who work that land, then you likely resonate with the landowner in Christ’s parable. You also will likely detest what the tenants in the parable do.

Perhaps you relate more to being a renter or a tenant. Having an understanding of what it means to rent from another, you may likely see the how the tenants in the parable think, and why they do what they do.

Having personal experiences on both sides of the owner/renter situation – for both good and bad – I can easily see how the violence in the parable could happen. I have my own stories of justice and injustice when it comes to each, the owners and the renters/tenants.

Much like today, ancient power dynamics were a fundamental part of life for many people. And those relations were, and are, fraught with all sorts of inequality.

Christ’s parable is a rather violent story. It’s not really bedtime reading. Notice that the owner has slaves, whom he sends to collect what is due him. Several of them are beaten and/or killed.

There is no backstory to the tenants situation. Yet, at the time of Christ’s ministry, there were many lower class folk who lost their land to unscrupulous owners, in a system of inequity. It’s possible that some of the men Jesus was talking to owned some land. And the religious leaders in the Gospels are rarely presented in a positive light.

Even today, there are violent struggles regarding land, especially in the Middle East. And the power dynamics and inequities are rife with injustice which is claiming to be justice. There are no easy answers to quelling the constant violence.

Feelings of hatred, anger, and fear are common. The desire to kill too often overcomes the desire for life. A group of people are outraged for being the brunt of murder, killing, and evil. Another group already feels neglected and have been the victims of unjust usury and death. They feel justified in their violence toward those they view as perpetrators.

Imagine how people on this earth, such as Palestinians, Israelis, Native Americans, and Ukrainians – just to name a few – feel about land. Land involves life, because the land has water, the potential for farming, trees, and a place to live. Thus, whoever controls land, in many ways, controls life. Agribusiness owns large chunks of land in the United States – and not the smaller family farms. Ah, but that is a topic for another time….

In Christ’s parable, everybody suffered in some way. Servants died. The landowner’s son died. The tenants were destroyed. Life was permanently altered for all involved.

Is that how any of us really want to live?

If we take a theological perspective, God owns everything. But we think we own the land and its resources. We believe we have the right to do whatever we want with it. And that is where the problem arises.

Until we truly hold to the notion that we humans are a society of equals, and that we are all subject to a God who owns everything, then we will continue to experience the effects of injustice, war, and death.

Can we, at least, change our minds? Yes, we can. And Christians are called to do just that:

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:2-3, NRSV)

The religious leaders of Christ’s day needed to change their minds about Jesus. Yet, no matter what they did, he would still become the cornerstone, if they rejected him as just one of the stones in the edifice of God’s kingdom.

Today, the parable is still meant to speak to people, to you and me. We have the chance to embrace the Prince of Peace, and walk in the way of peace, not violence. We still yet have the opportunity to be peacemakers, and live in a way that promotes human flourishing, and not human carnage.

If, like the parable of the prophet Isaiah, Christ’s parable is meant to speak to everyone, then it is most necessary that we heed the words of Jesus.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, guide the nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them peace, which is the fruit of righteousness, so that they may become the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

You Are Not Far From the Kingdom of God (Mark 12:28-34)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 

Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 

Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 

When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question. (New Revised Standard Version)

Jewish religious leaders in the New Testament Gospels – high priests, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, the Sanhedrin – are typically portrayed in a negative light as opponents of Jesus. However, there are religious leaders in the Gospel accounts who genuinely engage Jesus, and are favorable to him.

Today’s Gospel lesson provides us with a wonderful conversation between Jesus and a scribe (that is, a professional handwriting copier of the Scriptures). This particular scribe is not mentioned by name.

The scribe was impressed by what he heard from Jesus. So, the man presented a question to him. The difference between this scribe and the other religious leaders is that the scribe asked a totally sincere question, with no alternative agenda to entrap Jesus. The guy just wanted to learn from him.

The Old Testament law contains 613 commands. Given the reality of so many instructions, which ones are priority? Are there commands which control other commands? What is the best way to look at the hundreds of divine instructions? The scribe’s question was really designed to discover how to best obey the law and be faithful to God.

There was no pondering or hesitation on Christ’s response. He went right to a foundational text for Jews. The passage serves as both a prayer and a succinct affirmation of faith:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-5, NRSV

Yahweh is honored in this Scripture as the one true God. As such, Israel has an obligation to love and obey God. For Jesus, this is the cornerstone of faith and worship.

But that’s not all. Jesus provided a second commandment, on the same level of importance as the first:

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

Leviticus 19:18b, NRSV

I find it interesting that Jesus did not simply assume that everyone would understand that to love God is to love your neighbor. Christ intentionally gave the second command equal billing with the first.

To make it especially clear, Jesus emphasized that these two commands to love God and neighbor are the greatest commandments of all. In other words, every single command of Holy Scripture is tied to these two basic commands.

Indeed, the Ten Commandments are connected to them. The first four commands (you shall have no other gods; you shall not make yourself an idol and bow down to it; you shall not make wrongful use of God’s name; and remember the Sabbath) all have to do with loving God.

The next six commands (honor your father and mother; you shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not covet) all concern how to be loving to your neighbor.

Jesus intends for pious people to be concerned not only with their relation to God, but also with other people. Religious practices, for Jesus, must not only include devotion directed to God, but also commitments to the common good of all persons.

In order to truly love God, one must also love neighbor. The two are inextricably bound together.

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. (1 John 4:20, NRSV)

To the scribe’s credit, he affirmed the answer from Jesus concerning the commandments. And on top of this, the scribe added a beautiful paraphrasing of God’s law: The command to love God and neighbor “is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

This scribe was talking Christ’s language. Jesus delighted in his words. He commended and encouraged the man by saying, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

Christ’s statement is a positive one, not negative. Jesus was not trying to say that the scribe wasn’t yet in the kingdom, or that he needed to do more. He was affirming the scribe, and encouraging him with the reality that God’s kingdom is so close to us, that we can reach out and put our hand into it.

The kingdom of God is like a whole other world which can be found by some children in the back of a wardrobe; or like a different dimension beyond our three dimensional world. In other words, God’s kingdom is right here, right in front of our faces. The kingdom is here. It’s just a matter of whether we discern it’s presence, or not.

Jesus was right smack in front of the scribe. He could have literally reached out and touched Jesus. The man asked a good sincere question of Jesus, and got a good sincere answer. In addition, the man evidenced a good understanding of the spirit of God’s law.

I believe that Christ’s response concerning the kingdom to the scribe, opened his eyes to that otherworldly dimension:

Jesus is the logical and expected end of every search, and the answer to every question. The kingdom of God is among you.

Our Father in heaven,
    may your name be revered as holy.
    May your kingdom come.
    May your will be done
        on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

If You Ask a Question, Be Ready for the Answer (Mark 12:18-27)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
The Pharisees and Sadducees Come to Tempt Jesus, by James Tissot (1836-1902)

Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children,and the second married the widow and died, leaving no children, and the third likewise; none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For all seven had married her.”

Jesus said to them, “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when people rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead but of the living; you are quite wrong.” (New Revised Standard Version)

Two-thousand years ago, in the first century C.E. (Common Era) the Jewish Sadducees learned the hard way that trying to discredit Jesus in public with silly questions is a bad idea.

Somehow, probably in a back room and perhaps drinking too much wine, they came up with a story designed to show, once and for all, that Jesus was nothing but a hayseed yokel from the bumpkin village of Nazareth who believes in a crazy notion like resurrection.

The Sadducees wanted a very public and definitive display that Jesus was a backward hick, not worth the time of day. So, they concocted a bizarre hypothetical story meant to discredit the supernatural. 

The Sadducees went to the Old Testament, and pointed out in the law that if a man dies without having children, the brother must marry the widow, thus keeping the legacy and land of the dead man in his family. By conjecturing that if this were to happen seven times over, they posed a hypothetical question: Whose wife would she be among all the brothers at this supposed resurrection?

As they were snickering to themselves believing that they had demonstrated the absurdity of resurrection, Jesus turned the tables on the Sadducees. Here are some observational lessons from this Gospel reading for today:

  1. Think again before you try and trip-up Jesus with philosophically ethereal questions.
  2. Consider that you will receive a rebuke from Jesus for being ignorant, mistaken, and wrong, if you try to posture yourself and control how a conversation with him ought to go.
  3. Be aware that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus are all alive. The Sadducees, however, no longer exist.
  4. Realize that Jesus will take the time and attention to listen and give feedback – maybe the kind you weren’t looking for.
  5. Understand that many things we get hung up on, Jesus doesn’t – and what Jesus sticks on, we may act like Teflon and let it slide.

And the lessons could keep coming, because there is always something to learn and discover when being with Jesus.

To deny resurrection is to deny Jesus. Christ died. He’s now alive. Hence, there is a resurrection. More than that, because Christ lives, others live. This is the Christian’s hope. 

I fully understand plenty of people don’t believe in resurrection. That’s their prerogative. I will simply point such a person no further than their own mind and heart. “Search your feelings,” as the Jedi would say, “What do they tell you?” The evidence you need, you already have.

And this was the penultimate lesson of Jesus to the inquisitive Sadducees. They already had the answer to their question for Jesus. It was right under their noses the entire time – right their in the law that they valued so highly. They just plain didn’t see it.

You already have everything you need for life and godliness in this present evil age. There’s no need to play philosophical games with Jesus.

One of the great sages of the last century, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, wisely said:

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.”

Resurrection has always been there because God has always been around – even when we don’t see, perceive, or acknowledge the divine. Just because one may not believe in life arising from death, doesn’t mean it isn’t there or doesn’t exist.

It probably would not be a good idea to procrastinate the inevitable end-of-life scenario that awaits us all. Anytime is the right time to do a bit of personal funeral planning. Yet, if we mire it all with the esoteric hypothetical questions about what would happen in the most far-fetched of scenarios, methinks God is big enough and smart enough to see through our puny charade.

Better to ponder what is truly within your own soul, and how Jesus might already be present within and around all things, without us even knowing it. 

A good place to start in peering within is to give a straightforward honest reading of the New Testament Gospels and discover what resonates deeply with you about the person and work of Jesus.

Feel free to question Jesus about anything you want; just brace yourself for what kind of answer you might receive.

Be Generous (Mark 12:41-44)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
The Widow’s Mite by James Christensen

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you; this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” (New International Version)

Money. Can’t live without it; can’t live with it. *Sigh*

If there’s a litmus test of one’s true benevolence and spirituality, it’s how money is handled and/or mishandled. And it isn’t as cut-and-dried as giving large sums of it away.

In today’s short Gospel lesson, the offerings of rich people were unimpressive to Jesus. To him, their big donations are insignificant.

On the other hand, a poor widow’s measly offering is validated as a rich contribution. In giving everything, Jesus holds up the widow as an example for us to follow.

This raises a natural and interesting question: Does this mean everyone should give everything they have? Maybe. Maybe not. Yet perhaps the very question betrays how we tend to think about money – that it’s ours, we earned it, and we can do whatever we want with it.

But the fact of the matter is that we really own nothing. We are merely stewards, entrusted with using that which has been graciously given to us by God. The Lord is the owner of it all. It was never really ours to begin with.

Taken from this perspective, anything we hold onto and refuse to let go, no matter how large or small, is a form of theft. We have taken something that doesn’t belong to us. We aren’t satisfied with being stewards; we want to be owners and masters.

What you do with your money shows your allegiance to the true Owner of it. If it belongs to Caesar, well then, go ahead and give it to him. And if it belongs to God, then there isn’t an issue in distributing money in ways which benefit humanity and uplift the poor.

The widow knew that her money, what little of it she had, belonged to God. She seemed to understand that God’s values are very different from earthly values. The kingdom of heaven expects us to hold all things, money included, with open hands. Whereas the kingdoms of this world fully expect that people will hold their money with tight fists – which is why we have so many layers of cybersecurity around our assets.

Money is a means to an end and not the end itself. It is the means to ensure the welfare of the common good of all persons. It’s a tool to shape a better society, built not on the backs of the poor, but for the benefit of the needy so that everyone can participate fully in the community.

To build a petty kingdom and become master of a small world is nothing more than stealing from God and withholding resources where they are needed.

And to make things more complicated and challenging, in today’s world, time is money. It’s easy to write a check, transfer some funds, or allocate some resources for others. However, it is never easy to grace people with the gift of time. Relational connection takes time and effort – the kind of time many people believe they do not have. Yet, time also belongs to God, and it is to be stewarded with care, just like our money.

The Poor Widow’s Offering by Unknown artist

Let’s come back to the poor widow. After all, she is our example of true generosity.

In ancient Israel, those in poverty were not required to give. So, whenever the poor did so, they simply gave because they believed in the need to maintain all it took for the worship of God to happen. The widow was under no compulsion to give anything, let alone everything she had. She seemed to understand what the Apostle Paul discovered later:

The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8, NET)

A spirit of generosity is to be ubiquitous throughout Christianity. It is a spirit that doesn’t let the left hand know what the right hand is giving (Matthew 6:3). A generous spirit rightly discerns that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21).

And the guide of altruistic giving is savvy to the reality that the accumulation of money often leads to the love of money. So, the generous person keeps temptation at bay by withholding love toward things so that love can be lavishly given to people. For some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Timothy 6:10)

Like the poor widow, we are to put our hope in God, who richly provides everything for our enjoyment.

Eternal God, we pray that stewardship will be our way of life. We acknowledge You as the source of all we have and all we are.

Loving Creator, help us to place You first in our lives by being prayerful, loving, and caring for our families neighbors in need, and by becoming less preoccupied with material things.

Sovereign Lord, help us to hear your call to be good stewards, caretakers, and managers of all your gifts by sharing them for your purposes. May Your priorities be our priorities. May we have an active and generous faith.

Blessed God, help us to serve the Church, our communities, and our world with Your good and gracious gifts; and with joyful and grateful heart, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.