II. Another Interpretation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Parable of the Wicked Tenants found in Matthew 21:33-46 has historically been interpreted allegorically meaning one interprets a story as a series of symbols, each corresponding to another set of referents outside of the world of the story. In this parable, it typically goes something like this: The \u201clandowner\u201d is understood as God, who has entrusted his \u201cvineyard\u201d understood as Israel to a group of \u201ctenants\u201d understood to be the Jews or the Jewish leaders. The \u201cslaves\u201d sent by God were the prophets, who were continually rejected and murdered. Finally, God sent his \u201cson,\u201d interpreted as Jesus, as the last opportunity for compliance with the contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tenants, or the Jews, killed him, too, and thus incurred the landowner\u2019s, or God\u2019s, wrath. Then the vineyard, or Israel, would be given over to \u201cother tenants,\u201d who are often interpreted as Christians or the church. These new tenants will be more honest in providing the fruits of the harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you can see, there are both exegetical and ethical problems in interpreting this parable this way. For example, exegetically the \u201cson\u201d in Matthew is not necessarily referring to Jesus. See the story of the \u201ctwo sons\u201d immediately before this text. Ethically, this allegorical interpretation has generated and under girded central anti-Jewish opinions in Christian history. We do not believe in teaching contempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recent scholars have argued that this parable is not really about God abandoning the Jewish people or Judaism for Christian people or Christianity. The parable is rather a Jewish prophetic attack on the behavior of certain Jewish leaders. Matthew clearly contextualizes this parable within Jesus\u2019 string of conflicts with Jewish authorities: the \u201cchief priests,\u201d \u201cscribes\u201d and \u201cPharisees,\u201d in the surrounding chapters (21:1-24:2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
III. Identifying with the Tenants<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nHow might the parable function if the \u201cson\u201d is not automatically assumed to represent Jesus, or anyone else for that matter? What happens when we find ourselves convicted like the old tenants, having originally agreed to a contract and then were overcome with greed for more? Does the current sub-prime mortgage debacle and economic crisis we have reflect our temptation to greed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sermon Talkback\u2014Oct. 5, 2008 Tending Gardens Matthews 21:33-46 I. Tending Gardens 1. Do you now and have you in the past had a vegetable garden and what kind ofContinue readingTending Gardens Sermon Talkback<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-3132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-ng-sermon-talkbacks","tag-matthew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3133,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3132\/revisions\/3133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}