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Jesus Teaching at the Temple and the Mount of Olives
"The Parable of the Vineyard"
Holy Tuesday
Painting by James Tissot (1836-1902)
| On Monday of Holy Week, Jesus went to the temple. He found it being treated not as a holy place, but as the local market. He threw the traders out of the temple. On Tuesday, he returned to the temple, where he wanted to spend time teaching the people about their God. The Pharisees and Sadducees (priests) were really upset both by Jesus' actions on Monday and the way he had been greeted on Palm Sunday. They plotted together and came up with questions that would prove he was making himself into a false God. He did not fall for their tricks, but they continued to plot a way to be rid of this troublemaker. When Jesus left the temple, he and his disciples went to the Mount of Olives, where he again, through parables and answering questions, explained how God felt about humans, how those who believed should live, and what the disciples should expect in the future. He explained things with many parables, including the "Parable of the Vineyard." In this parable, a man plants a vineyard. He has to go away, so he rents it out. When harvest came, the owner sent a group of his slaves/servants to gather his part of the harvest, but the renters beat the slave up and sent him back empty-handed. A second slave was killed. A third slave was stoned. He sent a second group and the same thing happened. The owner decided to send his son, for surely the tenants would respect and listen to him! The tenants did not. They decided that if they killed the owner's son, they would be able to inherit the vineyard. So that's what they did! Instead of inheriting the vineyard, the owner threw the renters out and found better people to tend his vineyard. The plot didn't work. This parable explains how hard God has tried to make people understand. The vineyard represents the Kingdom of God. The first servant represents the prophet Jeremiah, who was beaten for talking about God in a way that the powerful did not like. The second was John the Baptist, who was beheaded as he tried to prepare the way for the Lord. The third represents all those who had been stoned trying to bring the true word to the people. The renters represented the priests and the powerful who seemed to think they were the owners of the Kingdom, and could decide among themselves who could enter the kingdom and who could not. When faced with the Son of God, the renters decided He was such a threat that they had to kill Him to keep the Kingdom of God for themselves. Jesus said this was not true. The Kingdom of God belongs to God, and only He will decide who is allowed to be a part of it....and it will not include the corrupt and self-serving priests at the temple! Jesus told this parable on Tuesday. He had not been arrested or sentenced to death yet, but this story shows that he knew what was coming. |
| March 2018 | ||||
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