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Laity Reflection: Parables, an instruction for today’s life

One of the ways I learn best from the New Testament is to read and try to understand what Jesus’ parables meant for listeners in his time and for us as we read or hear them today. Sometimes he was speaking to his followers, but sometimes his audience included the temple chief priests and authorities. According to Webster, a parable was meant to be a simple story to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. Jesus often told parables that were not well understood by those who heard them, and he often even had to explain them later to his disciples.

But what do Jesus’ parables mean for us today? Our lives are still instructed by the scriptures in God’s Word, the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says:

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

We use the Bible to learn to follow in Jesus’ footsteps; to become more like Jesus in our thoughts, words, and actions. “The Parable of the Tenants” from Mark 12:1-11 recently struck me as it relates to today’s world, and I’ve chosen it to share with you this week. There are many lessons here, but as you read it this time, watch for the response of the characters to their situation.

“A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, built a tower, leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get some of the vineyard fruit from them. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He still had 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.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What 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 marvelous in our eyes?” (English Standard Version)

When the owner’s servants came to claim what the tenants owed him, they were rejected and treated in many horrible ways, even to the point of killing the owner’s son. The leaders from the temple understood Jesus was telling a story about them as Jewish leaders, the owner – God, and sending his Son, Jesus, to receive the claims God has on His chosen people. Do we understand the claims God has on our lives as well? Do we reject the messengers God sends to encourage us or correct our paths if we have turned away from Him?

This parable reminds us of what it means to live in a covenant relation with God. God expects us to follow His way with perfection. It is something none of us can possibly do – on our own. But God not only gives us His expectations for our lives but also turns around and gives us the only way to live up to them, believing in His Son, Jesus. With Jesus as our Savior, God sees Jesus’ perfection in our lives, Jesus’ death for our sins, and we keep growing into that Jesus-shaped mold all the rest of our days. We learn to respond to the messengers God gives us day by day to speak God’s truth into our lives. Reading the Holy Bible, praying, and listening to pastors, other church leaders, friends, & family all help us grow. They confront and correct us so we can be more like Christ.

God can see whether or not we are producing the fruit caused by his Holy Spirit at work in our lives. Through His Spirit, we respond to his blessings in our lives with the overflow of this fruit. (Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.)

Our job is two-fold. Be an encourager/confronter and always a fruit producer! May this be a fruitful week for you.

Written to God’s honor and glory, Carolyn Moe