In Condemnation of Religious Leaders

I was reading in Mark 12:1-12, Sunday during all of the singing.  I really do not care for the entertainment portion of the American church's service agenda.  A whole lot of "me-ism" and too little theism ... as Dutchman's oldest son summarized one of my rants long ago.

So, I am thinking on this passage in Mark and how I remember in Theology school this was correlated with Israel's about to occur trashing at the hands of the Romans.  And yet, as I read it with a fresh mind and considered what Jesus said, it was not Israel that was being condemned.

As the parable goes:
A man buys a vineyard.
Tenants are brought to care for the vineyard.
Servants come to collect the owner's share.
The son comes to collect the owner's share.

Taking in account:
Isaiah 5
Jeremiah 7:25
Ezeikel 38:17
Amos 3:7

We Find that:
God is the owner.
Israel is the tenant.
The Prophets were the servants.
and we know from history that,
Jesus is the slaughtered son.

1.  God is incredibly patient with us!
Think on this, Isaiah wrote circa 800bc centuries before Israel was to be destroyed by the Assyrians and Babylonians!  At any time Israel could have repented ...but their religious leaders failed to turn the people back to God ...

And now, eight centuries later, Israel is right back where they were in Isaiah's time.  Corrupt religious leaders, the people fall away from God and His patience gets tried ... eventually, and then there is no recovery.

2.  We are rotten renters!
Left to our own choices, we are rotten without Jesus!

In the culture and the times, should a landlord not have a heir, then the property became the tenants in the event of his death.  ".. let us kill him and it will be ours ...".

We can live as we want
We can do was we want
And eventually, there is no "god" in our lives due to our disbelief and making ourselves, "god".

3.  Jesus is victorious
... in the end ... surprise!
Jesus tells them he will destroy the tenants and give it to others.

And they got the point ...

Of course, in history we can look back and see that the trashing Israel received under the heel of the Romans was complete and well documented by Trajan, Josephus and others.  It makes for thoughtful reading when you remember you are reading about God dealing with His people and their corruption within the faith He required of them.  He cleansed the land of them ...

But, it was the Rabbis and the Pharisees which were being condemned here - how do I know that?  Because the vineyard was cleared when the curtain, separating the Holy of Holies from Temple - was torn.  The Spirit of God was loosed from dwelling in a Temple of those whom did not even believe in It any longer.  And the Holy Spirit was granted to the new followers of Jesus.  The Temple was replaced by whatever aspect of man was now in-dwelled upon Jesus' resurrection.

And I know in my own heart, I probably would have made a great Jew, back in the day, as would have most of my friends.  Then that trashing would have been ours as well!  Something I think on often - we culturally, spiritually and personally are no more faithful than those whose blood was to run out of the gates of Jerusalem!  And so undeserving of becoming a home for the Holy Spirit ...