Lenten Reflections on Jesus' Last Week 2

Week Two:  Confrontation:  Mark 12:1-17

Then he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard.”

Jesus’ hearers would know that the vineyard was Israel and that it belonged to God—a common allegory in the Hebrew scriptures.  Ironically, in the lives of the Galilean peasant, they were the abused tenants and the rulers in Jerusalem the absentee landlords.  In the parable, it is the Jerusalem landlords that are reminded of their tenant status before God and their responsibility to care for the vineyard and give the owner rightful dues. 

                When they realized that he had told this parable against him, they wanted to arrest him but they                             feared the crowd. So they left him and went away.

The scribes and chief priests, the rulers in Jerusalem benefited from their collaboration with Rome. We misinterpret this parable if we think that God is taking away the vineyard (a common image for Israel) from the evil Jews and giving it to the good followers of Jesus.  The Jewish people were on Jesus’ side.  It was the scribes and chief priests, the leaders who had tried to take over the vineyard and were about to suffer the consequences. 

The scribes and chief priests were only doing what all subordinate leaders do; keep the peace, maintain the status quo, compromise with the powerful and hope that the oppression doesn’t get too bad. This is a “power to the people” parable.

                 “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Mark follows this parable with the question of taxes from the Pharisees and the Herodians, the leaders and collaborators in Galilee.  Jesus turns the question back to them.  They had to decide whether they would pay allegiance to Rome as represented by the oppressive tax which they collected from the peasant or whether they would give their ultimate allegiance to God and follow God's way. 

Who is Rome in our time?  Who are our subordinate leaders?  What about you? Do you side with Jesus or the status quo? If we are Jesus’ followers, are we ready to go with him all the way even if it leads to Good Friday?  Remember that is not the end of the story.