1 Using parables, Jesus went on to say, “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the wine press and built a watch tower. Then he leased the vine yard to tenants and went abroad.
2 In due time he sent a servant to receive from the tenants his share of the fruit. 3 But they seized the servant, struck him and sent him back empty-handed. 4 Again the man sent another servant. They also struck him on the head and treated him shame fully. 5 He sent another and they killed him. In the same way they treated many others; some they struck and others they killed. 6 One was still left, his beloved son. And so, last of all, he sent him to the tenants, for he said: ‘They will respect my son.’
7 But those tenants said to one another: ‘This is the one who is to inherit the vineyard. Let’s kill him and the property will be ours.’ 8 So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 Now, what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
10 And Jesus added, “Have you not read this text of the Scriptures: The stone which the build ers rejected has become the keystone. 11 This was the Lord’s doing; and we marvel at it.
12 They want ed to arrest him for they realized that Jesus meant this parable for them, but they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and went away.
13 They sent to Jesus some Pharisees with members of Herod’s party, with the purpose of trapping him in his own words. 14 They came and said to Jesus, “Master, we know that you are true; you are not influenced by any one, and your answers do not vary according to who is listening to you but you truly teach God’s way. Tell us, is it against the Law to pay taxes to Caesar? Should we pay them or not?”
15 But Jesus saw through their trick and answered, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a silver coin and let me see it.” 16 They brought him one and Jesus asked, “Whose head is this, and whose name?” They answered, “Cae sar’s.” 17 Then Jesus said, “Return to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
And they were greatly astonished.
18 The Sadducees also came to Jesus. Since they claim that there is no resurrection, they questioned him in this way, 19 “Mas ter, in the Scrip tures Moses gave us this law: ‘If anyone dies and leaves a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife and give her a child who will be considered the child of his deceased brother.’ 20 Now, there were seven brothers. The first married a wife, but he died without leaving any children. 21 The second took the wife and he, too, died leaving no children. The same thing happened to the third. 22 Finally the seven died leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. 23 Now, in the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife? For the seven had her as wife.”
24 Jesus replied, “You could be wrong in this regard because you understand neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 25 When they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry but are like the angels in heaven.
26 Now, about the resurrection of the dead, have you never reflected on the chapter of the burning bush in the book of Moses? God said to him: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 27 Now, he is the God, not of the dead but of the living. You are totally wrong.”
28 A teacher of the Law had been listening to this discussion and admired how Jesus answered them. So he came up and asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?”
29 Jesus answered, “The first is: Hear, Israel! The Lord, our God, is One Lord; 30 and you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. 31 And after this comes another one: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these two.”
32 The teacher of the Law said to him, “Well spoken, Master; you are right when you say that he is one and there is no other. 33 To love him with all our heart, with all our understanding and with all our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves is more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.”
34 Jesus approved this answer and said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” But after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
35 As Jesus was teaching in the Tem ple, he said, “The teachers of the Law say that the Messiah is the son of David. How can that be? 36 For David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit declared: The Lord said to my Lord: sit at my right until I put your enemies under your feet. 37 If David himself calls him Lord, in what way can he be his son?”
Many people came to Jesus and listened to him gladly.
38 As he was teaching, he also said to them, “Beware of those teachers of the Law who enjoy walking around in long robes and being greeted in the marketplace, 39 and who like to occupy reserved seats in the synagogues and the first places at feasts. 40 They even devour the widow’s and the orphan’s goods while making a show of long pray ers. How severe a sentence they will receive!”
41 Jesus sat down opposite the Tem ple treasury and watched the peo ple dropping money into the treasury box; and many rich people put in large offerings. 42 But a poor widow also came and dropped in two small coins.
43 Then Jesus called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all those who gave offerings. 44 For all of them gave from their plenty, but she gave from her poverty and put in everything she had, her very living.”
THE CHOSEN ONES OF GOD
In this comparison, the vine represents the kingdom of God. The Jews were God's people and they came to consider that their own interests were those of God. He had to help them against others. They had confidence that they would be saved and were not concerned about the fate of others who did not recognize God.
God entrusted his kingdom to them; in other words, he guided them throughout the long span of their history, so that they would be an example to others. They were to communicate their experience to others so that all would develop justice, a spirit of responsibility, a sense of community; these were the fruits God wanted to harvest.
God sent prophets to remind them of their debt: they were scarcely heard. Finally, the only-Son of God become human appears and the same thing will happen. He will be cast out of the vineyard, in other words, rejected by his own people. Which is why the kingdom of God will be given to others, to those believers converted from other nation s and gathered in the Church of Christ.
Here ends the parable. It could equally be applied to the Church today if it becomes a religion of one social class, or similar to the other religions, or if we do not find in the Church more obedience to God, more commitment to values that will save the world. What would happen to Christian groups and their leaders if they began to feel they were the owners of the Kingdom and its promises?
POLITICS AND RELIGION - CAESAR
The trap is as follows: they ask about the tax that the Jews are obliged to pay to Caesar, emperor of Rome, for the Jews have been colonized by the Romans and are under their rule.
The Pharisees and partisans of Herod, who are political enemies, join together. The Pharisees oppose Roman domination; the partisans of Herod, on the other hand, accept it. If Jesus says they are to pay, the Pharisees will discredit him before the people. If he says no, the partisans of Herod will have him arrested by the Romans.
Jesus does not condemn Roman imperialism, nor does he justify it. Is it because the problems of justice and peace are not "spiritual things" and do not concern him?
These problems, of course, are important and biblical history reveals that God wants liberty for every person and for nations the possibility to develop culture and national life: that is enough to justify the political commitment of Christians.
But Jesus also knows that people's true liberation goes beyond partisan quarrels and rivalries. In his time the Jewish people were torn apart and divided into irreconcilable factions; these were to be one of the causes of the national disaster during the great revolt of A.D. 66-71. Jesus will invite his adversaries to give political life its true place and not to confuse faith and religious fanaticism.
For the Pharisees, to pay taxes to Caesar, a foreign ruler and pagan, was like denying God, the true Lord of Israel. They identified the Jewish National Party with the cause of God. This carried grave consequences, since they thought that to serve God they must crush those of the opposition party. Since faith asks of us total obedience, people who confuse political militancy with faith begin to justify, little by little, everything their party does, even its lies and crimes.
The Caesar of Rome was not God, although he pretended to be. He had imposed his authority on them and the use of Roman coins, but could not demand the obedience of conscience that was due only to God. Neither was he "the enemy of God," as the Pharisees thought, and to serve the kingdom of God it was not necessary to refuse him taxes and civil obedience.
What is Caesar's can be underestood: "what belongs to Caesar." Rather it means: "the kind of things which fall under his rule." With his answer "to Caesar what belongs to him, to God..." Jesus separates religion and politics in cultures - Jewish and Roman alike - where politics always looked for religious justification. From now on, religion should not be manipulated for political purposes, nor should religion confuse its political opponents with the enemies of the Kingdom.
Mark's intention has been to put side by side the confrontations of Jesus with the two most important parties of the Jewish people: the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Sadducees - the chief priests - are the managers of God's people. They do not believe in the spiritual nor in the resurrection. According to them these are disastrous innovations that weaken the national spirit and the power of the central system. Their Bible is limited to the Pentateuch where much is said of priests and nothing at all about resurrection.
THE RESURRECTION
What is "resurrection"? When Jesus called the daughter of Jairus (Mk 5:21) and Lazarus (Jn 11:1) back to life, they only recovered the life they had before. The daughter went back to her dreams, Lazarus went to work in his garden and after this both had to die again. This was not really resurrection.
Many people think that there is "something" after death and that something in us, called "soul," survives. This belief is partly true but it is not the most important aspect. The resurrection points, not to a survival of "something of us," but to a transformation and raising up of our whole person. This will be through grace and the work of God: we will be reborn of God himself.
We would like to know what we shall be once risen, but that is impossible. If we think back on what Paul tried to make us understand on this subject in 1 Cor 15:35-57, this we must admit: as long as we are in the present world, a world where material things and time are our natural lot, it is impossible to imagine "the new heavens and the new earth" announced by the prophets and by Jesus (Is 65:17; Rev 21:1-4).
Let us come back to Paul's comparisons: if someone has never seen more than the seeds of plants or trees, how could she imagine the plant covered with flowers or the tree fully grown? What common feature is there in appearance between the colorless, lifeless little seed and the plant with its flowers swaying in the wind? Whoever looks at the tree or plant knows well the source of this life which she admires. It is today impossible for us to imagine what we shall become, in the totality of our human being, after this transfiguration to which God calls us. When it has taken place we shall understand the vital link between what we shall be then and what we are today.
With this, we understand the double reproach of Jesus to the Sadducees:
You don't understand the power of God. They only imagine a caricature of the resurrection.
You don't understand the Scriptures. Very few books of the Hebrew Bible speak of the resurrection, but all of them refer to a living God who makes us his friends.
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob (v. 26). If God committed himself to them, could he be indifferent to their death and let them disappear forever, while he enjoys himself in his glory?
TO LOVE GOD
You shall love the Lord, your God. This first commandment is not among the Ten Commandments of Moses, which only speak of "serving God." We do read it in Deuteronomy 6:4.
To love God is not a commandment like others, because the commandments show specific actions that should be undertaken or avoided, i.e., you shall rest on the day of the Lord, or you shall not commit adultery. On the other hand, when it comes to loving God there is no limit.
The commandments of the Bible (especially the Ten Commandments of Moses) merely express in a clear manner the demands of our conscience. It should not be necessary to tell us not to steal, and not to slander others. Nevertheless, it is necessary to teach this to children and to unscrupulous persons. Paul says, "The Law was not intended for the good, but for those who do evil" (1 Tim 1:9).
It is the reason why the love of God is not presented in the New Testament as a commandment, but as the fruit of the Spirit that God gives to his sons and daughters: Rom 8, 15 and 22. God is the first to be loved (Mt 6:9-10; Is 4:17) most specially in the person of his Son: 2 Cor 5:16; 1 P 1:8. There is no authentic love of neighbor without the love of God: 1 J 5:2.
You shall love the Lord, with all your heart. You shall love him more than you love your loved ones. You shall long for him, you shall forget yourself so that, in everything, you search for what he wants most from you.
You shall love the Lord,all your mind. You shall devote the best of your intelligence to knowing him. Looking into your own life, you shall understand how much he has guided you. You shall try to understand how the kingdom of God is coming through world and daily events. Praying and reading the Bible regularly, you shall ask God to give you his own Spirit so that you may understand him better.
You shall love the Lord, with all your strength. Since you are very weak in this, you shall ask for his help and strive to unite with the true servants of God, using the means that the Church makes available to you.
The commandment to love your neighbor as you love yourself comes second, because it cannot be understood or fulfilled without love of God. For God asks for more than solidarity with one's neighbor, or concern for those who are suffering. We should make an effort to look at our brothers and sisters in the same way that the Father does. We should give them what the Father wants for them. Among so many good things we could do for our neighbor, we should select those which the Holy Spirit inspires us to do. All this requires that we first know and love God.
The teachers of the Law were not bad persons. They became teachers of religion because they were interested in religion, but as soon as the teacher stops trying to be a saint, he is only a weak person. The very respect that people show teachers leads them to overlook in themselves many wrongs that in anybody else would be severely censured.
The poor widow was the only one from among so many worshipers who made retribution to God as he deserves. She was the personification of those uncountable poor, who have practically nothing but somehow find a way to give part of the little they have. The humble person is capable of sacrificing part of his paid time to study or participate in common activities in order to help his companions. The small salary he loses is worth much more than the big salary that wealthy people are not willing to lose. God calls on the poor before anybody else, because only the poor give all that they have to live on.