03.05 | He Gives the Vineyard

Mark 11:27-12:17

‘And he 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.”’ 

Mark 12:1

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A parable about a vineyard may not seem like it, but it’s a really gutsy move.

Because, again, as with yesterday’s reading, the metaphor isn’t a new one. This time the metaphor has echoes of the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah was a prophet who lived nearly eight hundred years before Jesus. He, like Jesus, confronted the dead religion of his day, calling God’s people back to the ways of righteousness and justice and truth. He expressed the grief of God for this disregard for His plans and ways. Among the greatest places of grief, Isaiah declared, was Israel’s stepping back from their call to bring goodness into the whole world. As with yesterday’s fig tree, their failure to keep their eyes in love and devotion on God alone had led them to being ineffective in their mission to spread God’s goodness to the earth.

They had failed their vocation.

In Isaiah 5, he uses the metaphor of Israel as a vineyard.¹

This vineyard, Isaiah said, was carefully planted and lovingly tended. It was kept safe by a watchtower and a strong wall, and a winepress had been dug to turn the grapes of its harvest into wine—a biblical symbol of celebration, life, and joy. God had done everything possible to nurture an environment that would allow good fruit to grow.

And yet, when He visited His vineyard, He found only wild grapes. Sour and inedible. 

The vineyard had been given every chance to thrive, and yet its fruit was bad.

So God, in Isaiah’s writings, says He will destroy the vineyard.

Jesus knew this passage well. So did the Pharisees.

Like I said, Jesus’ use of this metaphor is a really gutsy move.

And, as always with the Pharisees, they confront us too. They confront our tendency to make our religion about something private and introspective. They confront our temptation to make our Christianity about privatised morality or practices done in secret. They confront the trend of making our spirituality centred on me and my wellbeing, rather than recognising that God desires His people to become agents of healing and life for the whole earth. This God doesn’t merely save us so that we can go to heaven when we die; He restores us so that we can bring His heaven to earth while we live.

God’s vineyard, in other words, is supposed to bear fruit.

But there’s one difference in Jesus’ parable: the vineyard doesn’t get destroyed. Rather, it gets put into the hands of new tenants.

His followers. His Church.

Which means your hands, and mine.

Pressure?

Well, kind of. Weighty, for sure.

But on another level, it is the extraordinary trust of a Father who places purpose and authority upon us His people. Who views us not just as the beneficiaries of His salvation plan, but as fellow implementors of it. Who invites us, in the face of all pain and problems that we see, to live as courageous creatives, speaking love and living truth among the fractures of the world.

Because the Father has planted a vineyard.

And in our hands, He has purposed for it to bear wonderful fruit.

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Reflect:

Look at my day.

What opportunities might I encounter to further His Kingdom of life and goodness and love?

Pray for His empowering strength, for His courage, for His wisdom, for His love.

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Pray:

Father in heaven,

So often I come in prayer thinking of what I want you to do,

And yet, Father,

Sometimes I need to come and share with you,

That I am willing too.

I don’t always feel very competent or courageous, 

Gifted or wise,

Confident or compassionate;

And yet, Father,

I trust that you are with me,

And that this is enough for fruitfulness to grow.

And so,

I offer you these hands, these lips, this heart,

And ask that you would anoint them afresh for service today,

That my life may generate beauty and peace and wisdom and healing,

Unto the expansion of your reign

And the honour of your Name.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen

Old Testament: 

For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:

1 Samuel 18-19 | Proverbs 14:1-9

1. Isaiah 5:1-7