The retold Parable of the Tenants
Retelling a Parable – Choices
The major change in retelling this parable is the change from ‘vineyard’ to ‘house’. The parable of the tenants that Jesus tells (Matt. 21. 33-46, Mark 12.1-12, Luke 20.9-19) is set in a vineyard, probably because Jesus is drawing on the Old Testament image of the land of Israel as God’s vineyard. Changing that to a ‘house’ loses that direct link to the Old Testament imagery.
However, the imagery of ‘vineyard=Iand of Israel’ will only be instantly accessible to an audience who are already familiar with the Bible, familiar with the Old Testament or have done some kind of Bible Study (even if only staying awake during sermons discussing biblical vineyards). For people coming fresh to the parable, a vineyard is just a vineyard. In the UK, especially, vineyards are rare.
So by keeping the vineyard we’re moving away from the parable Jesus told, set in the everyday life of the people listening. The parable has shifted slightly – from the strangeness of taking everyday life and moving it into the Kingdom of God, to the strangeness of an exotic story set in a far-off land and from a far-off time.
So how do we replace ‘vineyard’ with something that is firmly based in everyday life? When I was making notes, I tried out ‘a business’ (the vineyard was a business) ‘a brewery’ (vineyards are part of wine-making) and then finally ‘a house’. Houses have nothing much to do with literal vineyards, but they do tie into the imagery of ‘vineyard = land of Israel’. The land of Israel was the place where God’s people were supposed to live as God’s people and a house is a place where people live.
Once that decision is made, the rest of the parable falls into place. The landlord of the vineyard becomes the landlord of the house. The improvements to the vineyard can become the kind of improvements that a modern landlord would make. The servants become the house-agents a modern landlord would employ while working abroad. The impossible and unlikely forbearance of the landlord (who keeps sending agents until finally his son is killed) remains the same.
Most importantly, I think, by moving away from a modern paraphrase to a modern retelling, the parable becomes not just more accessible, but hopefully starts to bring up the same kind of questions the original listeners might have had.
House or Church?
The three gospels that record this parable all agree that Jesus told the Parable of the Tenants in the Temple in Jerusalem, while he was teaching there. Matthew and Mark both record that the Temple hierarchy took this parable personally, as directed against them.
So, a question to ponder. Suppose we replaced ‘vineyard’ (or even ‘house’) in this parable with ‘church’. How would we feel if Jesus was telling this parable about the landlord of a church?
Next parable: The Tree, the Fruit and the Gardener
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