Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, March 3, 2024
by Madison Johnston, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: In God’s economy, stewardship is more important than ownership. In other words, our charge is more important than our being in charge.
The question the Pharisees and Herodians ask Jesus in the text just following this (Mark 12:13-17) seems a little funny at first. Why would they care what he thought about taxes? Well, the short answer is because they are trying to trick him into saying something incriminating no matter how he responds. If Jesus says it is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, ordinary people who live in oppression under Roman rule will resent him and turn against him. And if he says it isn’t lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, he risks being accused of treason. It would seem here that Jesus can’t win.
In this exchange and in the parable Jesus tells about the vineyard owner, one central question is looming: Who’s really in charge here?
The tenants in the parable assume that they are in charge. They decide that they are entitled to both the people and production at the vineyard, going so far as to kill in the name of wealth. The crowds around Jesus assume that it is Caesar who is in charge. The rhetorical framework they impose on Jesus puts Caesar in the seat of power no matter how Jesus responds to the question at hand.
By refusing to answer the Pharisees and the Herodians directly, Jesus subverts everything they’re implying and cleverly reorients the crowd to his own rhetorical framework—a framework where the only true authority we can know and recognize is God. A framework that paints us as beloved children—the hands and feet of God’s love in the world and the builders of God’s kingdom.
In Jesus’s framework, we do not own God’s kingdom, because we don’t need to. We are not in charge of God’s kingdom, because that’s not our call in a life of faith. God wants us to tap into God’s power and to be transformed by it. To share it. To use it to secure safety and justice and thriving for everyone in our community. If we get bogged down or distracted by trying to own God’s kingdom, our attention and our intentions will stray and make it impossible for us to execute power in the way God envisions. Ironically, if we get too focused on power, we’ll end up either sabotaging it, like the vineyard tenants, or cutting ourselves off from it, like Caesar’s followers.
Who do you walk around assuming runs your day? Who informs your values and shapes your behavior? Whose image is in your pockets? Whose opinion matters most to you and whose worldview do you hold in the highest esteem? The Holy Spirit is telling us today that if we can’t answer any of those questions with “God,” we are running the risk of misunderstanding, confusing and misusing the precious power of God that we are called to steward every day.
