Lent 2026 Day 36: Tue 31 Mar
Mark 12:1-12
1 Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey. 2 At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent them another servant, and they struck him over the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still another, and this one they killed. He sent many others; some they beat and others they killed.
6 Finally, having one beloved son, he sent him to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. 7 But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they seized the son, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants, and will give the vineyard to others.
10 Have you never read this Scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 11 This is from the Lord, and it is marvellous in our eyes’?” 12 At this, the leaders sought to arrest Jesus, for they knew that He had spoken this parable against them. But fearing the crowd, they left Him and went away.
Jesus has just told his listeners all about himself. This world is the vineyard, or it might just be the Jewish religion that is the vineyard. Those who care for it, nurture it and see it grow and bear fruit are not themselves the owners but appointees, but their secret desire to take it over for themselves.
Even though Jesus directed this parable at the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, it’s not just them that it relates to, for we see in the history of our faith and in the present-day failures in leadership that have led people astray or betrayed them.
God sent his prophets to warn his people. It’s not a job I’d fancy, and no-one who aspires to be a prophet is likely to be appointed one! When religious leaders, Jewish or Christian, suppress God’s message because it is not what they want to hear they will retaliate by undermining the messenger; accusing the messenger of heresy; silencing the messenger through punishment or through a permanent silencing. God’s prophets in the Old Testament history had a tough time, and so did men and women of faith in Christian times. The most convenient way for Church leaders to “maintain order” was to declare groups like Protestants (or Catholics, depending on the mood of the age) heretical. People great and small died in this country even as recently as 350 years ago which, over two thousand years of Christianity, is uncomfortably close.
God’s final prophet was his only-begotten Son, Jesus. He is the son in the parable. Jesus knows that the son’s destiny is his, too: to be put to death by those who want to steal his inheritance, which for us is an inheritance he freely offers. The bloodthirsty nature of the parable was prophetic.
“Have you never read this Scripture …?” How secure is your knowledge of what the Bible says?
Do words from the Bible spring to mind when you are talking about faith with others?
How do you regard those of other denominations or other faiths?
Who is looking after the vineyard now?
Father God, you sent your Son to die for us so that we may gain the inheritance of the vineyard. Keep us mindful of the gift and its beauty. Amen.
People were martyred for their faith in Ipswich. Pray for the Church if you should pass by Grundisburgh Church or St Margaret’s, Ipswich, or the memorial in Christchurch Park. Remember, too, that believers of other denominations suffered imprisonment, torture, flogging and death because of their belief.
Lord, have mercy. Kyrie eleison. Ya rabbu rham. Doamne miluiește.
Paul