Out Our Way:

Mark  12: 1-12

Out our way, most folks know that livestock needs to be handled with some common sense.  I recently read a novel about a World War I battle in which mules were used for transporting supplies, ammo and the wounded. The men assigned to handle the mules were all from Austrailia and New Zealand and most were "stockmen" - their term for cowboys - but the officer in charge was from England and knew nothing about livestock. He only knew that his rank and breeding put him far above the lowly "cobbers" he commanded. He was a British officer and superior to all other beings in the universe.   Unfortunately, no one had informed the mules.

Strolling into the paddock where the mules were being backed, he began to shout loudly at the soldiers to get a move on. Waving your arms madly about and shouting at the top of your lungs while walking behind greenbroke mules is not the wisest of things to do, and as you would expect, he startled the mules who immediately launched our beloved British officer with several well-placed and extremely painful kicks. A broken arm and cracked skull taught him something about humility.

Hopefully, we don't have to learn the same lesson the hard way, for Christ has certainly tried to tell us about the importance of humility when it comes to God. He told the parable of the great king who owned a marvelous vineyard and hired workers at very generous wages. But after a time, greed began to set in among the workers. The king was far away, and while there were many stories about people meeting him all that was long ago. None of the current workers had ever seen him.

As the parable goes the king sent his servants to oversee his vineyard but as time went on some of the field hands began to get greedy, they began to treat the king's representatives badly, insulting, attacking and even seeking to kill them. So this time, instead of a servant, the king sent the crown prince to the vineyard. But by this time the greed had so blindeed the workers that the insane idea formed that if they openly rebelled against the king and killed the prince, they could take over the vineyard for themselves.

The owner of the vineyard was not a weak old man, but the great king with vast armies at his command. And at his word, the king's troops charged into the vineyard and detroyed the rebellion, casting out the former workers and replacing them with new workers.

Now when Jesus told this parable it was not an obscure story but a powerful warning and prophecy. For as every Israelite knew, the "vineyard," since the time of Isaiah, had always been known to symbolize Israel. The workers represented the people and most especially the religious and civil leaders.

Everyone knew how badly the various prophets - the servants and reprsentatives of God - had been treated in the past. They also knew of how ignoring and persecuting the prophets had lead to God destroying the nation and sending them into exile in Babylon for 70 years, and from that time on kept them under the rule of various foriegn powers.

But now it was happening again and God had declared He would send the Messiah - the Christ, the Anointed Son of God - to the people. In the parable Jesus made it very clear that this prophecy had been fulfilled. He also prophesied that the wicked leaders would not listen, but kill the Son, which is what they eventually did.

And Jeus also prophesied that when they had done this, the wrath of God would fall upon the nation.  Some 40 years after Christ's death and resurrection as Christ had predicted, the nation was destroyed and the people thrown out and other people came to take their place in the land.

For nearly 2,000 years the vineyard, Israel, has been settled and worked by Arab Muslims and Christians we know today as Palestinians.  The Jewish people have been allowed at last to return, but the vineyard is no longer theirs alone. Every neighbor has lifted their hands against Israel as the prophets warned would happen.  

God is not finished with Israel yet, nor is He finished with us, the New Israel. For we, too, are faced with the parable of the vineyard. God has sent His servants time and again to warn us of talking the talk but not walking the walk. Christ warns us of "lukewarm faith" which, he declares, He will spew out of his mouth in disgust. 

In this era some call the "post-Christian" era for our nation and culture, lukewarm is the norm and for many who want to deny God, eliminate Christ and rule the vineyard for themselves, even that is too much.

That there are those who scorn Christ and ridicule the faith is nothing new - but that so many of us who bear His name go along with it is something that cannot be long tolerated.

The agnostic and proud scoffer walks behind the greenbroke mules shouting in his pride and arrogance, and  we who walk meekly beside him may well suffer the same fate unless we back away from following him. Heed the warning of the parable of the vineyard

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John Bruington and Goliath serve Christ  in Havre, Montana. Their book "Out Our Way: Theology Under Saddle" is available at Amazon.com.