Holy Week With the Moderator: Tuesday

Tuesday April 16 2019

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Rev Susan Brown, continues our journey through Holy Week

Tuesday

Pick up your stone again and read Mark 12:1-12:

Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.

“He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all,saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

“But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

“What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:

Think of the stone the builders rejected. Why was Jesus given such a hard time? What was it about him that so infuriated the religious leaders?

Now think of Jesus as the cornerstone of a new creation. What shape might that new creation be? I don’t want to add any more words.

But I would like you to watch a wee film about stones – and as you do, I want you to reflect on what it might mean to let Jesus find points and ways of getting us, as his followers and as the human race, to fit together…