Daily Reading: Mark 12
Scripture Focus: 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)
Devotional Thought: in Mark 12, Jesus told a parable that offended and threatened the religious leaders. The parable has some wonderful symbolism.
The man represents God, who is the owner of everything. God created the world to produce a family of love for himself.
The vineyard represents this world which God created – in some sense the physical order, but even more importantly it represents the human race. Through the human race God desires to form and love his family. What a wonderful thought that he made us to love us!
The fence represents the grace of God which preserves our lives in Christ.
The pit and winepress represent the pressures of life that we go through. These responsibilities and disappointments, failures and successes, are shared with us in relationship with God.
The tower is the cross of Jesus, standing above the horizon of human history. This tower reveals the loving perspective of God. It is both a place to see and a shelter under which we can live.
The tenants are people – in particular spiritual leaders, but in essence every person – who are created to help one another discover God and his grace.
The other country represents the fact that Jesus is in heaven right now awaiting the instruction of the Father. One day he will return and take all his children to be with him forever!
As you read this parable, remember to be faithful as a tenant to produce fruit according to God's will. The vineyard is not our own, but our Father’s. He desires that we share his love – in our families, our churches, our communities, and our world.
Prayer: Father, thank you for giving me life in the vineyard. Help me to live and love so that others may find the grace of God that brings salvation. Remove from me selfishness and help me to trust you. Amen.
Psalm of the Day: 14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. 15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. 16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends. 17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High. (Psalm 7.14-17)
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