Mark 12:1-11. But those tenants said to one another, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.”
Upon reading this passage for the first time, I had to come to terms with some anger I experienced because of how this passage has often been interpreted. That interpretation goes something like this: God sent his prophets to Israel. The Jews rejected them and killed them. God sent Jesus, his only son, and to God's apparent surprise they killed his son too. So God took favored status away from the Jews, and now the Christians are God's chosen people. Indeed, it could well be that the politically motivated writer of the Gospel of Mark was trying to express just that. Zeal for even a good cause can mislead. And this is when I am so happy to have found the Episcopal Church. We are allowed to question things, not necessarily checking our brains at the door.
As a gay man I've been ultra-sensitized to the tragic phenomenon of seeing the Bible used to scapegoat and exclude groups of people who are different in some way. It is good for me to be reminded that I have a choice to let go of some past resentment. It doesn't serve me or others to hold on to old hurts. But it is a huge challenge.
Can I find myself in the characters of this parable? The first thing I notice is how like the murderous tenants I am. Though I have never gone to the extreme of actually killing someone for selfish gain, I do indeed go about my day with the subtext, "what can I do today to be happy"? My goal is my happiness. Our culture firmly embraces this goal. But Jesus does not. His ministry was about self-forgetting and showing others how to ground themselves in God, the deeper reality, the real Self, and in the oneness and interdependence of all things. True happiness comes only when we seek for good for everyone. How freeing it is indeed when I can let go of my little goals, pay attention to someone else, and suddenly find peace.
I can also see myself in the tragic selfishness and cowardice of the landowner. Even after many servants had been hurt and even killed, he still could not find the time or inclination to take care of the situation himself. How important we often think ourselves to be!
God, please free me from the bondage of self today.
— Charles Rus
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