READ: Matthew 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19; (Isaiah 5:1-7)
PRAY: If you don’t already, find time to pray the Lord’s prayer at least once each day. If you already do this, add Jesus’ commandment from Matthew 22:37 to your prayer time – thank God for the unconditional love given to you, and pray that God help you to love Him better.
WATCH:
DO: Make a commitment to yourself to do something this month that will help you be a better steward of all that God has entrusted you. Stewardship of Life Institute is a good resource for what it means to be a faithful steward. You can also talk to members of our stewardship committee here at church.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
In your own words, define “Stewardship.” (Write your own definition first, then you can look it up in a dictionary if you want to).
How is this parable about “Stewardship”? How is this parable about “Trust”? Do these two concepts overlap? If so, explain.
What has God entrusted to your care?
How have you been faithful (trustworthy) with God’s trust? How have you not?
What makes it difficult to be a “good steward”?
How does God make it easier for us to be good stewards? What resources does God give us?
How does God feel when we misuse the resources he gives us? What is God’s reaction?
Parable of the Vineyard
Matthew 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19; (Isaiah 5:1-7)
From Oral to Written Tradition
What images /characters remain throughout this progression?
How are these images / characters reinterpreted? What leads to these changes in interpretation?
Levels of Interpretation
In Scripture, we have the gift of the preservation of Jesus’ original parable, along with the levels of allegorical interpretation already placed on the text by the Gospel writers. These different levels of interpretation allow us to read the text in more than one way and hear a greater meaning in it.
• An allegory is a story with two meanings: literal and symbolic. What is the symbolic meaning of this allegory?
• A parable is a story that illustrates a lesson: usually moving from the concrete to the abstract, with some personal application. What is a personal application of this parable?
In each instance, what does each character / object represent…
ALLEGORY PARABLE
Vineyard
Tenants
Landowner
Slaves
Son
Reading the Text as an Allegory
The author of Mark’s Gospel account and his original audience / readers already know the end of the story. They know that Jesus was killed by the leaders of Israel and the Roman Government, and that God raised him from the dead. This knowledge gives them the context for a specific interpretation of Jesus’ parable. Retrospectively, they apply this story to the entire salvation history of all of Israel – beginning with creation and the selection of Israel as a chosen nation (similar to Isaiah 5), continuing with Jesus, and ending with the last judgment.
• What is God’s role in this story? What does God intend?
• What is Jesus’ role? What actually happens?
• What is the role of the leaders of Israel? What is the role of the people of Israel?
• What is the role of the apostles and the early Church? What might this have meant to the original audience / readers of these three Gospel accounts?
Reading the Text as a Parable
The early Christian communities added to and changed Jesus’ parable as they retold it, to better reflect the allegorical interpretations. This is particularly evident in many of the changes between the accounts in Mark and Matthew’s account. For example, in Matthew’s account, the Son is thrown out and then killed – most likely, to better reflect the actual events of Jesus’ death outside of the town. A version of Jesus’ parable without these allegorical additions exists in the Gospel of Thomas (an ancient text from about the same time period as Mark’s Gospel account, which for various reasons including overall accuracy was not accepted and retained as Scripture by the emerging church).
• Where are you in this story? With which group(s) do you identify?
• What does this have to say to you personally?
• How does this parable address God’s relationship with us?
• How does this parable address our relation with God? With Creation?
Was Jesus saying that Israel is losing stewardship of his land and their "promise land", instead all followers of Christ, including Gentiles will be Gods people and able to bear good fruits?
I have been studying this parable recently and would love your feedback.
Post a Comment