They realized that he had addressed the parable to them
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The parable of the Tenants reflects the social background of Galilee close to Jesus’ time, with landed estates belonging to absentee owners who were living abroad. This would allow the conduct of dispossessed land-hungry peasants who cultivated the land as tenant-farmers. The absentee owner sends his agents to collect the rent in the form of a portion of the produce. But the disgruntled and hostile farmers do violence to the agents. The owner living in a distant foreign land finally sends his son who, he thinks, will command respect. Seeing him, the tenant farmers assume that the owner had died and the sole heir comes to claim the inheritance. In getting rid of the son, the land may turn “ownerless property,” and the tenants plan to get it as “first claimants.”
This dramatic presentation of a difficult life situation finds allusion to the Song of the Vineyard (Is 5:1-7). Jesus forces his hearers—the representatives of the Sanhedrin—to draw the conclusion that the parable concerns their abuse and their planned attempt against his own life. Without declaring his transcendent sonship, Jesus implies that the Sanhedrin has rejected God’s final messenger (his Son) and that disaster will ensue. Then the sacred trust will be transferred to the new Israel of God.
First Reading • 2 Pt 1:2-7
Beloved: May grace and peace be yours in abundance through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power. Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.
Gospel • Mark 12:1-12
Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey. At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully. He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed. He had one other to send, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others. 10Have you not read this Scripture passage:
The stone that the builders rejected/ has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?”
They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went away.
Source: “366 Days with the Lord 2024,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.