Our Attitude to God’s Love and Provision. Monday 9th Week Ordinary Time

Breakfast with the Word. Monday 9th Week Ordinary Time of the Year

Mark 12:1-12

Our Attitude to God’s Love and Provision.

 

In John 3:16, the scripture proclaims that God so much loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. In 2nd Peter 3:9, the scripture reaffirms that the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some people think of slowness; on the contrary, He is patient with you; for it is not his purpose that anyone should be destroyed, but that everyone should turn from his sins.

This reveals God’s love for us but we, as human beings, often repay God’s goodness and grace with ingratitude, obstinacy, and hardness of heart towards His words.

 

This Passage 

 

In the passage of today which comes from Mark 12:1-12, Jesus tells a parable to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. In the parable, Jesus talks about a man who plants a vineyard and leases it to tenants. 

 

When the time comes for the man to collect his share of the produce, the tenants mistreat and even kill the servants he sends. 

 

Finally, the man sends his beloved son, hoping that the tenants will respect him. However, the tenants plot together, kill the son, and throw him out of the vineyard.

 

Jesus uses this parable to signify that the religious leaders of the time will reject and harm him, the beloved son, but God will ultimately bring justice and give the inheritance to others. 

 

The religious leaders realize that the parable is directed at them, but they are afraid of the crowds and leave Jesus alone.

 

A. Little Interpretation

 

1. The vineyard owner in the parable represents God.

 

2. The tenants symbolize the religious leaders.

 

3. The servants, represent the prophets and God’s messengers who bring the message of salvation to them

 

4. Then, the beloved son represents Jesus. 

 

B. The Message

 

1. Jesus tells this parable as a way to convey a deeper spiritual message and to address the religious leaders of his time. The parable highlights how they continue to reject and mistreat God’s messengers, that God sends to them throughout history.

 

Also, Jesus is using this parable to remind them how God has cared for them but they repay God with their obstinacy. 

 

2. It is also a reminder that what they have is given to them by God to take care of. They are only caretakers and not the owner of the vineyard but invariably, they want to claim ownership of the vineyard.

 

The parable also reveals how God has chosen the Israelites as His vineyard. Remember that the parable tells us how the man planted a vineyard; he fenced it around, dug out a trough for the winepress and built a tower, which means that God provided all the vineyard needed. 

 

He then appointed the leaders to take care of the vineyard, but instead, they repaid the man with ingratitude, wickedness and obstinacy towards His message of salvation. 

 

 

3. Furthermore, Jesus wants to show them that God’s plan for salvation extends beyond the religious leaders of that time. This parable signifies that the message of salvation would be preached to all people, not just to a particular group or religious elite. 

 

4. Finally, Jesus wanted to make them realize that they would face severe consequences for rejecting him and God’s message. 

 

 

 

You May Read

 

 What God expects from His Vineyard

This is my Body; This is My Blood; Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Questioning Jesus’ Authority

Mary Comes With Joy; Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

How to Encounter Divine Healing

 

What We Have to Learn

 

 

1. The first point we have to understand from this gospel is that everything we have in this life is given to us by God. We are only caretakers. Let us not think that we are the creator. We have to realize that we are just mere creatures that must give account of whatever God gives to us. Everything you have, God gives it to you.

 

2. The parable also reminds us that we have full responsibility for the resources and opportunities entrusted to us. We do not live as if nothing concerns us or live in utter neglect. 

The tenants in the parable neglected their responsibility and showed disrespect towards the owner.

 

3.  The parable illustrates the consequences of greed and dishonesty. The tenants in the story were motivated by their desire for the inheritance and resorted to violence and murder. 

 

This is the reason many families and organizations today are having problems and crises. Whenever we are motivated by greed, the end is not always good.

 

4. Despite the wickedness and rejection from the tenants, the owner keeps sending them servants to warn them. 

 

This reveals how God normally has patience for us. But we normally misunderstand this patience and mercy as a weakness or that God does not count our evil deeds. 

 

God can give us time to change and repent, this is not because God is weak, but because He loves us and does not want us to be lost, yet we repair Him with ingratitude and obstinacy. 

 

We harden our hearts and refuse to listen to His words. As the owner in the parable provides for the vineyard, this is how He has continued to pour His love on us but we continue to repay God with lack of time, neglect and hardness of heart towards His message of salvation. May God help us and bless you dearest to keep coming closer to Him.

 

Amen