Time for Action
How much abuse can you take before getting angry? How much before you take action?
When I was young, I was taught to avoid a conflict at all costs. If someone is bullying me, I should walk away. If someone calls me names, ignore him. Don't return anger for anger or fist for fist.
One can endure a good amount of ridicule that way. But the saving grace in this is that I believe it is the right thing to do, to take the high road and be slow to anger. After all, we have a forgiving and loving God, right?
What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. - Mark 12:9
In the parable of the vineyard owner, Jesus tells us that the owner endures great pain and suffering before taking action against the tenants who beat and killed the slaves sent to collect the rent they owed. It wasn't until they killed the son that he was moved to retaliate against them.
Is this a glimpse of God or of man?
This type of punishing authority is like the God we read about in early Scripture, the books of The Bible we know as the Old Testament. Yet, despite many references to similar judgment actions in parables from Jesus, we tend to look beyond these stories at the man who told them and say, "God isn't like that."
Is it right to think there will be no retribution for our actions, that all will be forgiven if we act horribly toward God or each other?
It is an interesting paradox, the idea that we should lead good and worthy lives, yet we are already saved, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
How can that be? Aren't we like the angry tenants who need to be punished for our bad decisions?
The way Mark tells the story of Jesus and the temple priests and scribes, we get the idea that this isn't about us at all, but about failing to live up to the bargain.
Jesus is telling the religious leaders that they are the tenants, the ones who have lost respect for the owner and now have so little concern for him that they kill his slave and son.
The reference to what will happen to him is clear, but the power of the parable is that it can apply on so many levels to so many situations, including ours.
What are we doing that is like that? How are we acting as though what God has given us is rightfully ours?
What does it mean to live a just life, to do the right thing, to be good? Is it solely our doing for ourselves, or are we living our lives in thankfulness to God for what and who we are?
When I am tormented or ridiculed, it is nice to think that God will take care of it, that, like the tenants, there will be hell to pay at some point. On the other hand, I could think the parable is telling me that I can be justified to take actions in my own hands when after several attempts to set things right, the abuse continues.
The latter is more likely the way many of us interpret this, but neither approach solves the problem, and that is the problem we must face. No matter what we do, we can't fix situations, people or attitudes. We can only find a way to live with them and deal with the good and the bad that comes our way.
So, the lesson may be that those of us who do what we please without concern for the impact we have on others may find at some point that all we have is lost or taken from us, and that is a just end. But that doesn't mean it will happen that way. The challenge is to know when to walk away and when to stand firm. That decision is a personal one, and one we will probably find ourselves justifying on our own.