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Small and lonely grapes
Friday, March 21, 2014
Friday of the Second Week of Lent
Matthew 21:33-40 (summary)
Jesus told another parable (and asked another question): “A landowner planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it to tenants, went on a journey, sent his servants back (who were killed), sent more servants (who were also killed), and then sent his son, who was also killed. What will he do next, and what will he do to those tenants when he comes?”
Parables grow in value when I change perspectives as I hear them. Imagine that I’m the landowner, or a tenant, or a servant. Imagine that God is the landowner, a tenant, or a servant. What is there to learn from those six perspectives?
Wait, there’s more. Could I be a grape? Or could even God be a grape? What could I learn from imagining that God is a grape?
The grape isn’t even mentioned in the parable, actually. But they are certainly in the backstory, budding on the vines, ripening in the sun, pulled off and thrown into baskets to be taken to the press. In the press they get squished. Bare feet turn them into juice, which is poured into kegs and then bottles. In the fullness of time the grapes become wine.
The grapes have nothing to say about this. Their specialty is not consciousness; it is being grapes. And if they fail to become wine – maybe if they fall off the vine too soon or dry out or get eaten by birds, or even are lost off the wagon on the way to the press, they aren’t conscious like we are. Not self-conscious anyway. And they don’t resent these breakdowns of the normal.
In all their grapeness they just come back again the next year. It wouldn’t matter to them if something bad happened every year. They’ll be back again. The grapes will just show up.
God shows up. He isn’t affected by any of the catastrophizing that we do when we discern disaster. He does what God does. He loves us, never leaves us, begins and ends each day with us. Even though he created time he lives with us within it.
You know, as silly as this idea seemed when I started, I’m comforted by God’s grapeness. And I am excited to be drinking that communion wine on Sunday, and thinking of the parable. Thank you for this perspective, Lord. And for having fun along with me.
Lord, I am a small and lonely grape, clutching to the vine, waiting for the day when I’ll become my Savior’s wine … Don’t give up hope, ye heavy laden, you don’t want to be a raisin. There’s a grape grape joy in Jesus, in the vineyard of the Lord.
Thank you, Amy Grant! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uox_Fhv9tHU)
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1250
