Jesus began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country.”
Mark 12:1, ESV
Jesus often taught in parables. He didn’t do so to make the Gospel easier to understand. In fact, Jesus even told the disciples quite the opposite as they asked Him about it. The Gospel isn’t complicated, but it isn’t something that a person just learns. Believers are taught, and that is the point. In the parable begun above, we find that a message is made clear to the leaders of the Jewish faith that they are being accused of not being faithful in their teaching. It is also given to us as followers of Christ to be reminded of the importance of our faithfulness in what it is that we share. We are not meant to make the faith into something that it is not. The Gospel is only valuable to those who know they are sinners in need of a Savior. If we seek to make someone feel comfortable living in rebellion against God, then we are not being faithful in giving the Gospel but proclaiming something else. God doesn’t excuse our sinful behaviors. He offers us forgiveness through the Son. Forgiveness is a salve that covers a wound that is apparent. If you don’t know you are bleeding, how will you know you need help? The Law given to us by God is the means to show us our need for help. The Gospel is the help that brings healing. We don’t let the wound fester and certainly do not put the point back in. In Christ, sin is removed, and it is meant to remain something that is far from us. Sadly, how often do we misjudge and forgo the healing by reinserting the blade? Yet the Good Physician waits and continues to do the work to heal us of our sin.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.