Kill the Heir

August 28

(Luke 20:9-16 NIV) ““He went on to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. {10} At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. {11} He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. {12} He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out. {13} "Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.' {14} "But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. 'This is the heir,' they said. 'Let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' {15} So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. "What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? {16} He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When the people heard this, they said, "May this never be!””

In this parable, the vineyard is the nation of Israel. The owner of the vineyard is God. The tenants are the religious leaders of the day who had been left in charge to produce a spiritual crop in God’s vineyard. The servants are God’s prophets. The son is Jesus. The new tenants are Christ’s disciples. Christianity has taught since its beginning that God owns the heavens and the Earth. He created them. It has also taught that God came to Earth in the person of Jesus Christ, to collect his people to Him. But greedy souls would not relinquish control of what really belonged to God and they killed the heir, God’s Son. In this parable, Christ is prophesying His death, the fall of Israel, and the rise of the Church. He warns the Pharisees that it’s not about how religious you are, but about whether or not you honor God’s Son and have a loving relationship with Him. What’s it about for you? -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day