A
Matter of Focus
Monday:
Ninth week of the Year May 30, 2016
Mark
12:1-12. Year
II: 2Peter 1:2-7; Psalm 91:1-16.
After
the confrontation in the temple, Mark’s Gospel presents one hostile
confrontation after another between Jesus and his enemies. We are approaching
the end, when Jesus will come into his glory by being crucified.
Jesus
now presents another parable. Mark specifies that he is “addressing the chief
priests, scribes and elders,” the power structure of Israel, the same ones who
“were seeking a way to put him to death” (11:18).
Up
to now Mark has reported three parables, all concerned with the sowing and
growth of the Kingdom (4:3, 26, 31). This one is about active resistance to the
Kingdom, still presented as a living, growing thing: a vineyard.
The
parable is about a man who “planted a vineyard, put a fence around it… then he
leased it to tenants and went to another country.” He sent one servant after
another to them to collect his share of the produce, but they rejected them.
“Some they beat; others they killed.” Finally the owner sent his “beloved son,”
saying, “They will respect my son.” But they didn’t: they killed him too,
thinking “This is the heir… the inheritance will be ours.” So Jesus asks, “What
then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants
and give the vineyard to others.”
But
the real point of Jesus’ teaching is not the defeat of his enemies. It is the
victory of God. He turns to the promise of Scripture: “The stone rejected by
the builders has become the keystone of the structure.” Jesus is experiencing
rejection. He is going to be killed. But the new temple he has spoken of (see
Friday above, 11:17, 20) is going to replace the old, and he will be its
cornerstone. Instead of looking at his human enemies and what they are doing in
the present, he looks at God and how things will be when he has finished his
work: “It was the Lord who did it, and we find it marvelous to behold.”
Imagine
yourself camped out with Jesus and the Twelve at this time, sleeping next to
him. You are worried by the way things are developing. You hear Jesus stirring
and you ask him: “Are you awake? What is going to happen?” He answers, “They
are going to kill me; probably very soon, during Passover.”
How
would you feel? How would you think Jesus was feeling? How could he sleep? How
could you?
We
know the answer. He gave it when the plot began: “Have faith in God” (11:22).
Just trust.
Initiative:
Give God’s life: Change your focus. When worried, look up and ahead,
not just around.
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