Other Tenants (unChosen)

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"...and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." Matt.21:41b NIV

"Jesus said to them [Jewish religious leaders], 'I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you." Matt. 21:31

Many think the evil tenants in Jesus' parable were Jews in general, and the "other tenants" are Christians, but it is not so straightforward. When Jesus taught this parable, he was speaking to the common people, who quite likely would have sympathized not with the rich absentee landowner but the tenants (though they probably wound not have condoned the murder of the landlord's son). But among the crowd were also some religious leaders, many of whom were rich landowners. They were Jesus' target, for they not only oppressed the people with their burdensome and hypocritical religious rulers, but also economically, for many of the priests were wealthy landowners as well. And it was the landowners, not Jesus, who said the landlord would kill the evil tenants and give the land to others. But Jesus parable was aimed not just at the tenants but at the rich landlords as well, for their lack of justice.

Jesus adapted the vineyard parable from Isaiah, which says,

"The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed, for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field, till no space is left and you live alone in the land." Isaiah 5:7,8 NIV

Hanging Trees Last year in London we saw a "hanging tree," where during the 19th century, even children were hung for such small offenses as stealing bread. They stole because the wealthy had "joined land to land" to provide vast fields for their fox hunts, and the landless, starving English farmers moved to the cities, where they huddled in workhouses. Jesus parable was aimed at such injustice--then and now.

Stewardship and Justice. In the parable of the talents, Jesus chose three servants and gave one ten talents, one five talents, and another only one talent. The servant who wasted his opportunity had even the one talent taken from him. He who had been Chosen was then unChosen, just as in Matt. Jesus said the kingdom would be taken from the unjust Jewish leaders:

Jesus said, "Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a people who will produce its fruit. ... When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them." Matt. 41:45 NIV

Stewardship and Justice Jesus said repeatedly that the Kingdom of Heaven is about 2 things: producing fruit (stewardship) and justice. This is the theme throughout the entire old and new testament. We are to do invest our talents, to do business and to make money. But we are to do so with justice, trusting our Father to bless us for dealing fairly with others. Otherwise, He may yet again have to seek other tenants.

These difficult economic times offer us a good opportunity to put our faith to work, and to trust God to bless our just and wise stewardship of His vineyards, which after all are his, not ours, for we are but tenants--for now, anyway.

Note: justice does not mean "blind" redistribution of wealth. Granted, much wealth was ill-gotten, but not all; and some who don't work cannot work--but not all. Simply taking from those who work to give to those who do not is poor stewardship, and those who work will learn that it does not pay, and go on the dole with the rest.

Mao Zedong, in Dec. 1929, fully 20 years before Liberation, wrote the famous Communist slogan, "From each according to his work, to each according to his needs" (Anlao Fenpei 按劳分配). But somewhere along the line someone forgot the "according to work" part of it and they ended up with the Iron Rice Bowl, which failed because they didn't have Iron Teeth to eat from it. We in the West could end up in the same boat (or Bowl) if we do not approach the question of justice with God-given wisdom and common sense, as well as compassion.

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