Sermon for February 28

The reading

Mark 12:1-17

Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture:

‘The stone that the builders rejected

    has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

    and it is amazing in our eyes’?”

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

Then they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said. And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.” And they brought one. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Jesus said to them, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him.

 The message

Last week, I mentioned that the Gospel of Mark contains a series of escalating conflicts between Jesus and the religious authorities. This morning, we experience those escalating conflicts getting close to their high point.  Our list of Sunday readings suggested that the scripture for this week would be one of these stories, Jesus parable about the tenants or the religious authority’s question “is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, should we pay them or should we not”.  I decided to look at both of these stories together, since they actually both share the same message.    

Jesus tells a very large crowd a parable which many perceive as directly and blatantly condemning the religious authorities.  In Jesus teaching story, often called the parable of the wicked or greedy tenants, a man planted a vineyard.  In this illustration, God is the man and the vineyard is the world.  The person in the story does everything necessary for the vineyard to grow a good crop and produce great vine.  The vineyard is created, protected, fully provided for and entrusted to tenants for its care.   At this point in the story, we realize that God has provided everything that people needed to thrive, plenty of resources for everyone to have enough, scientific curiosity, a self-sustaining world, laws and guidance for everyone’s joy and  God’s promise to listen and care for us.  This came along with the freedom for people to make decisions and do what we want with it.  

The story moves on to the time when the man who planted the vineyard goes to collect his share of the produce.  As we all know, it’s hard to find good help and this group of people entrusted with the vineyard earn their title as the wicked, greedy tenants.  They refuse to give the vineyard owner his share. They decide to keep everything.  Im sure they had lots of ways to justify this decision, “we did the work”, “we will enjoy it this season and send what is due next year”, “we need a reserve to ensure we survive”, “he has not been here all year, why send anything”.   The vineyard owner sends servants to collect, recognizable, official representatives authorized to collect what the tenants agreed to give. They plan to frustrate and drive the owner away.  Each representative is attacked, insulted, beat or killed by the tenants. The owner decides to send his son, certainly, he will be respected.  The tenants decide to double down on their approach to getting out of the agreement. They kill the owner’s son. They reasoned, we’re committed to this plan by now, eliminating the heir may allow them to keep everything.  The owner is out of patience now, this time, sending forces to destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 

This is the part that upsets the religious authorities so much.  After all, they are the tenants, entrusted to care for God’s world. Like the vineyard owner sent servants and others to collect what is due, God sent many messengers to the world, prophets, kings and messengers to call people back to faith and obedience to God’s law, to care for others, to love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself, to maintain a fair world, to remind everyone it’s time to give to God the things that are God’s, to live like we promised.  Each time, the authorities ignore, reject, beat or kill these messengers and ignore their message.  They want to be in control not in debt, to be important, not just servants, to be praised and honored, not give praise and honor.  

Finally God sends God’s son to the world, certainly he will be respected.  The religious authorities reject Jesus, just like all of God’s messengers before.  Now the kingdom of God will go to others, who will give to God the things that are God’s.     

The religious leaders respond first by plotting to have Jesus arrested.  After giving it more thought, they realized that action would anger the crowds and definitely cause the people to turn on them. I’m sure they remembered a few years earlier when King Herod had significant problems after arresting and beheading John the Baptist. The religious leaders had less power than King Herod and Jesus had a much larger following than John the Baptist. Debate and criticism were fine but any attempt to publically arrest or eliminate Jesus would not end well for them.  They needed to do something to weaken Jesus’ public influence and popularity.  The religious leaders end up responding with a very smart question “should we pay taxes to the Roman Empire”.  It’s virtually perfect.  If Jesus says no, do not pay taxes, they could quietly report him to Rome as a subversive, a crime certainly punished with death, enforced by the Roman Authorities and leaving them free and clear of Jesus and, just as importantly, free and clear of any role in his death. If Jesus says yes, pay the tax, the adoring, growing crowds will turn on him since he supports this extremely oppressive burden on their community. Without the support of the people, they could get rid of Jesus themselves.

Jesus answer, “give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and give to God the things that are God’s”  evades the trap and has challenged and redefined how people of faith live in the world. As much as they hated it, everyone knew that taxes to paid to Rome were an obligation they took on themselves, a deal to maintain their community, a promised part of a fragile peace with a much more powerful empire easily able to crush them should a decent reason appear.  Jesus basically reminds them , “Come on, people you know the story with taxes, the emperor’s picture is even on the coins used for them, give to the emperor that things are the emperors”.  Then Jesus repeats the same thing he expressed in the parable of the wicked tenants, give to God the things that are God’s. Here again, this was something that the religious authorities were not doing, in fact they were so caught up traditions and themselves, they barely even thought of it as an obligation or promise.  Jesus reminds everyone of the agreement they made with God,  to be God’s people, to praise and worship, to remain faithful, loving and obedient to God’s law, to care for others, to love God above all things, to love your neighbor as yourself and to maintain a fair world  (even if it costs you money, safety or status).

In a few weeks, we will see Jesus go the way of the vineyard owners son, to be killed because of  fear and greed.  After that, Jesus will rise again, freeing people from the consequences of sin and death.  God has completed God’s part.  Now it’s time to do ours, to respond with care, grace and love, to give to God the things that are God’s.