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“Game of Thrones” … in Galilee

Matthew 21:33–46

“Hear another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them. Afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

‘The very stone which the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on any one, it will crush him.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. But when they tried to arrest him, they feared the multitudes, because they held him to be a prophet.

The Setup

Jesus and his posse are in Jerusalem. He’s made a bunch of noise cleaning out the Temple and cursing fig trees (more on that later). Back at the Temple, several of the religious authorities start to question him about his authority to speak in public. After playing the “What is in my pocket?” riddle game with them, he launches into a few parables, this being one of them.

What Went Down

When thinking about the disciples in situations like this, I like to remind myself that the Scriptures are two thousand years old. That was way before TV was invented. I can’t even be sure the world was in color back then. (A quick Wikipedia search confirms that the world was in fact in color two thousand years ago. However, I stand by my claim that TV had not been invented yet — although you, dear reader, can change that fact in Wikipedia at any time. (Also, I’d like to point out the work of my long-suffering editor, Mary Beth #notpaidenough, for having to put up with things like multiple simultaneous parenthetical phrases.))

Anyway, I bet as soon as Jesus said, “Hear another parable,” the disciples whipped out a beach blanket and sat down criss-cross applesauce, thinking, “Here we go!” Except for Peter. He got out his notebook so he could keep track of details to misconstrue. Here’s where the reality of no TV is important. This particular parable has a narrative arc, violence, a touch of choose-your-own-adventure, violence, direct references to Hebrew prophecy, and a somewhat cryptic forecast for Israel … and more violence. It’s basically Game of Thrones in Galilee without all the nudity. How could the disciples not be riveted?

Plus, it’s a bit of a smackdown. Jesus is always speaking to multiple audiences, meaning he is talking to the people right in front of him, but he’s also talking to us, the people who will study his words so intently that we will eventually number each sentence in our Bibles. The disciples aren’t worried about countless generations who will be reading their teacher’s words in the future. They are gleefully watching the Messiah drop truth bombs on the high priests who are out to get him. Scripture even says the high priests knew he was speaking about them, but they were too afraid to have him arrested. The disciples must have been having a good time.

The Takeaway

One can argue that almost the entire Old Testament is the story of the Jewish people being chosen by God, doing his will, falling away from him, paying the price for those actions, then coming back to God. Apply, rinse, repeat. Literally every commentary I looked up in my exhaustive research for this section (all two!) note that this whole parable is about God’s interactions with Israel and is predicting what is about to happen to Jesus — his crucifixion.

It also predicts that God’s kingdom will be given to another people. That’s us. That handing over started with the disciples and continues to this day. This is a pretty sobering concept that should legitimately freak us out a little … as all major responsibility should. I’m just glad cluelessness doesn’t knock me out of the running for the inheritance!