The Parable of the Vineyard Tenants
By David Weiss
Mark 12:1-5 "Yeshua began speaking to them in parables. “A man planted
a
vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the wine press and
built a
tower; then he rented it to tenant-farmers and left. When
harvest-time came,
he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his
share of the crop from the
vineyard. But they took him, beat him up
and sent him away empty-handed. So
he sent another servant; this one
they punched in the head and insulted. He
sent another one, and him
they killed; and so with many others — some they
beat up, others they
killed."
The Bible makes it clear in other places
who Yeshua is referring to in
this parable of the vineyard owner. G-d is the
vineyard owner and
those servants he sent to check on the vineyard were the
prophets. It
goes on to say in the following verses that after he sent
his
servants, the vineyard owner sent his own son. They killed his
son
with the assumption that now they could take over the entire
vineyard
as their own. And that is exactly what the P'rushim did. They
killed
the Son so they could exercise control over the whole
vineyard.
In Revelation, the Kingdom of G-d is called a vineyard. It says
at one
point during the judgements that people will be trampled in
the
vineyard and that blood will flow out of the wine press. It is
a
somewhat gruesome picture but it shows us how important of a sin it
is
for people to worship idols and to try to control the Kingdom for
their
own desires. G-d is a jealous G-d. He wants the heart of people
for himself
but he will never force people to make the right choice
about walking with
him and worshiping him. It is a simple choice -
worship him wholeheartedly
and live or worship self and face eternal
condemnation. It is a choice we
make a little at a time with each
decision we make.
Will we choose the
right way or will we continue in our aim to serve
self instead? In the
parable, the vineyard workers were given a choice
each time. Each time a
servant was sent they were given the
opportunity to choose correctly. And
each time they made the wrong
choice. It was all about selfishness. It is not
easy to serve G-d and
to trust in him. We serve an unseen G-d. It seems to be
easy to look
at what is in front of us and choose what we can see. But as we
saw
with Avram in B'Resheet (Genesis) he chose to leave his homeland
and
follow G-d's ways. He could not see for sure what was going to
happen
in the future, he only knew he was called to leave. And the faith
that
he showed was credited to him as righteousness.
The Bible tells
us that the truly faithful ones to G-d walk by faith.
We cannot see what G-d
will do for us. We cannot prove to others why
we follow G-d's plans instead
of our own. All we can do is choose to
walk by faith. And that same faith
will be credited to is as
righteousness. Recently my wife was laid off from
her job. It is never
an easy thing to go through. And yet, even when she knew
it was
coming, she chose the righteous way. She chose to believe that G-d
has
a plan for her and that he will not forsake us or leave us. She
chose
to believe that he is in control of it all and that he will show
us
the next step for her.
We all face choices like that each and every
day. When we walk by
faith it is scary. We hope for something we do not see
and we trust in
G-d for the unseen. We trust him to take care of us and to
shed his
light on the path before us. We turn to him as the vineyard owner
and
we know that he sees all that goes on in his vineyard. When he
sends
his servants to give us messages we trust in his message even when
we
do not understand the message. We do not lean on our own
understanding
but we lean on the one who has the plan for our
lives.
Where do you need to trust him more today? Are you facing
a
consequence of life that is scary? Is there something going on that
is
out of your control? G-d does have a plan for each and every one of
his
children. And sometimes when things happen it is tempting to lose
sight of
his plan. Sometimes it is tempting to rely on our own efforts
to take care of
things. Most people like to feel in control of their
own lives. They do not
like to give control over to an unseen G-d. It
is one thing to go to
corporate worship and acknowledge him and it is
another to walk it out each
day. How are you walking? Do you seek to
control things and people around you
or do you walk in trust knowing
that he is in control? No one said it would
be easy, but it is the
right way to live, to walk in trust of him in all
things.
David Weiss
