“This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours” (NRSV, Mark 12:7)

When the Jewish rulers committed themselves to their fateful plan of killing Our Lord, they did so with their eyes wide open, for they had just been told the Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Husbandmen).  This parable was a thinly disguised warning that in rejecting him they would be rejecting God’s own Son, and this rejection would have consequences.

The picture of the Jewish people as the Lord’s vineyard is familiar enough in the Old Testament, and as soon as Our Lord began the parable, “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it…”, his hearers would understand what he meant.  Directly the vineyard was ready for cultivation the owner “leased it to tenants and went to another country” (NRSV, Mark 12:1).  The rent was payable annually, not in money but in kind, and so at the time of the grape harvest, one of the owner’s servants duly arrived to collect it on his behalf.

Safe in the knowledge that the owner was now far away, the tenants beat the servant up and sent him back empty-handed.  The next one was wounded in the head, but still no measures were taken against them and with growing recklessness they began to think they could get away with anything.  And so the third servant to arrive was murdered, and the same fate was meted out to others in their turn.  And still no retribution overtook them.

Meanwhile in that distant land the owner, “…had still one other, a beloved son.  Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son’ “ (NRSV, Mark 12:6).  But when the tenants recognised the son, thinking that it meant the owner had died and that his heir was now coming to claim his inheritance under the terms of the will, they said among themselves, " ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours’.  So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard” (NRSV, Mark 12:7,8).  “What then” asked Our Lord, “will the owner of the vineyard do?  He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others” (NRSV, Mark 12:9).

So Our Lord publicly warned the Jewish leaders, in the court of the Temple of God, that, whereas their forefathers had neglected and killed God’s prophets, in killing him they would be rejecting God’s only Son.

Our Lord’s ministry had now lasted three years, and it was already clear that he had come to his own but his own had received him not.  He contrasted this disregard of his teaching with the enthusiasm with which the Queen of Sheba journeyed and listened to King Solomon: “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!” (NRSV, Matthew 12:42).

He compared their impenitence in the face of his appeals, to the reception given by the people of Nineveh to Jonah.  “The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!” (NRSV, Matthew 12:41).

All that the Jewish leaders of Our Lord’s day wanted was their own independence – to run their lives without any interference from God or anyone else; and when Jesus interfered they tried to stop him by putting him out of their life altogether.   “‘…come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours’.  So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard” (NRSV, Mark 12:7,8).  And, as Our Lord had warned them, that led to their utter ruin.  In AD 70, 40 years later, Jerusalem was wiped out, and the Jewish people were scattered upon the face of the earth.

So now, with the individual, disregard of Our Lord’s teaching, the refusal to repent, and the determination to be independent of God, leads to spiritual ruin – to Hell.  And Hell is a place which individuals choose with their eyes wide open in preference to Heaven.

The happiness of Heaven comes solely from the visible Presence of God.  The misery of Hell comes from the absence of God.  Yet many people today, if they gave the matter a thought, would turn that upside down.  In their eyes Heaven would be completely spoilt if the all-holy God was going to be in it.  For them, that would be Hell.  For just as, in Our Lord’s words, “…what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God” (NRSV, Luke 16:15), so also that which is prized in the sight of God, is an abomination among human beings.

What was the wisdom which Our Lord, the greater than Solomon, came to impart and which the people of his generation rejected?  What are the principles on which he bids individuals frame their lives?  What are the ideals he sets before them to aim at and strive to attain?

They are these: rejection of all worldly and material standards; self-forgetfulness; the complete ascendancy and supremacy of God in one’s own life at home, at work, at recreation and in one’s most secret thoughts; an active kindness towards all in obedience to Our Lord’s commands; and a hunger and thirst after righteousness expressed in a constant striving after perfection by striving after Him who is perfect.

Such an ideal, which provides so compelling an attraction for the faithful soul would for many people be a severe punishment.  And the same is true of repentance, of the complete identification of oneself with the attitude of the all-holy God towards one’s sins of thought, word and deed.  And the end of it all, which Our Blessed Lord holds out, is the complete and living union of the whole soul with the living God in utter dependence on him – and that is eternal life.

But what is God to do with those individuals who will have none of that, who put self first and God nowhere; who desire what God condemns; who love their sins and say “Evil, be thou my Good” (1); who object to God’s interference in their lives and want to be independent of him?  What is God to do with people like that?

All God can do is to let them have their own way and go their own way so that they end up as they wish, with self first and God nowhere; with evil their only good; and living in complete independence of God, so that God is both out of sight and out of mind – and that is eternal death.

We are not robots.  We each fulfil our own destiny according to our own will and choice.  Those who are determined in spite of themselves to cleave steadfastly to God, the source of all goodness, reach the fulfilment of their wish in Heaven.  Those who are determined in spite of God to cleave steadfastly to themselves and to evil, reach the fulfilment of their wish in Hell.

Reference

1. Milton, J. (1674) Paradise lost, Book IV, line 110.  Available from:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_4/index.shtml (Accessed 23 November 2012) (Internet).

Prayer of self-offering after Holy Communion

My Jesus, you have given yourself to me, I give myself to you.  I give you my body that it may be chaste and pure.  I give you my soul that it may be free from sin.  I give you my heart that it may always love you.  I give you myself in life and in death to be yours for ever.  Amen.  (Source unknown)