There’s a dark side to the Christmas star. We would really rather keep our attention on the twinkling brightness in the sky. But it is important to look at that dark side, for it tells us how great the sacrifice of Jesus coming as a baby really was.
When we get to the later passages of Luke we see the heat being turned up on Jesus by some corrupt religious leaders. These religious leaders were angry and devious, trying to trap Jesus by all kinds of theological arguments. Jesus was not shy in rebuking them outright on other occasions, but on this occasion, Jesus confronted them with a parable—but with a parabolic twist.[i] It is an autobiographical and prophetic parable in Luke 20:9-18.
9 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. 10At 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. 11He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. 12He 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.’ 15So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”
17 Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
“ ‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
Here the identity of the characters don’t need a lot of explaining—landowner = God, tenant farmers = religious leaders, servants = the prophets, son = Jesus the Messiah. But the twist in this parable really comes when we understand the contemporary situation. At that time much of the farmland was owned by wealthy people who wanted their land to be fruitful. They would hire individuals to care for that land. Everyone listening to the story would understand that the landowner had all the power over hiring, firing and inheritance. Very rarely would tenant farmers defy their owners.
Jesus turned that all around to reflect what was actually happening in the religious world. The tenant farmers appeared to have all of the power—even the power over life and death. We can imagine that most of the way through the story the regular folks listening might be cheering. At last, there was some public condemnation of those who abused their power. But then the somber truth of what God would do to those who rejected him hit home. We cannot miss what the general audience did after they heard the end of this parable. When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”
For those who thought they had the power over the son of a carpenter from Nazareth who had been born in a lowly stable in Bethlehem, they would see the dark side of the Bethlehem star—the side where God the Father brings justice to those who would defy him and deny the blessed and holy Son.
Amen
© M.R.Hyde 2022
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