One of the parables of Jesus Christ, quoted inThe Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, narrates about evil wine growers. In the presentation of all three authors, it sounds almost the same, with only a slight difference in details. Jesus Christ told this parable in the temple, being there the day after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Let us recall its text, because it has a deep meaning, which has not lost its relevance in our days.
Parable, the survived time
In the parable of the husbandmen it is said that a certainthe owner, planting a vineyard, took care to encircle it with a fence, erect a tower and arrange a grindstone ─ a tank for grape juice. Having entrusted further work to his workers ─ wine growers, he retired. When it was time to harvest, the master sent servants to the vineyard to bring him the fruits of the labors of his workers.
But the wine growers, according to Jesus, beat themwith stones and disgracefully expelled. The master tried to send other servants, but the same story happened to them again. Finally, he sent his beloved son to the vineyard, hoping that they would be ashamed of him and act properly. However, instead, the evil vine-growers killed him, hoping that, having disposed of the heir, they themselves become masters of the vineyard.
Having completed the parable of the evil husbandmen, JesusHe addressed a question to the people gathered around him, among whom were the high priests and elders. He asked what they thought the landlord would do with these workers, and received an answer that he would betray the villains with fierce death, and the care of the vineyard would be entrusted to more worthy servants.
Interpretation of images of the master, vineyard and fence
Many Christian theologians and holy fathersthe churches dedicated their works to the interpretation of the above parable of the husbandmen. On the basis of their work, it has become a tradition to vest the images used in it with the meanings disclosed below.
Under the master of the vineyard, Jesus meansGod is the Creator of the world and everything in it. The vineyard is nothing more than the Jewish people themselves, to whom the preservation of faith is entrusted. In the future, the image of a bunch of grapes or vines firmly established in Christian symbolism, becoming the personification of the community of people who composed the earthly Church of the Lord.
Fencing is the Law of God, receivedthe chosen people through Moses. At the very beginning of the forty years of wandering through the wilderness, the Lord on Mount Sinai informed His prophet, who led the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, a set of prescriptions concerning religious and social life.
The image of grindstone, tower and wine growers
Sharpening is the altar, and the grape juice is ─the blood spilled on it. The ancient Jews traditionally sacrificed various animals and birds, whose blood was believed to help purify people from committed sins. In this case, the interpreters of the parable see a prophetic prediction about the blood spilled by Jesus Himself on the cross.
The tower is nothing but a temple built inJerusalem. At the time when Jesus was uttering the parable of the husbandmen, the Second Temple was built in the capital of the Jewish state, the erection of which began in the period that followed the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity (516 BC), and ended only two decades before Christmas Of Christ. The first temple was built by King Solomon in 950 BC. e. Its destruction in 598 BC. e. was the beginning of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, which lasted almost 60 years.
Under the husbandmen Christ meansthe chief priests and all the elders of the Jewish people. It is to them that He draws his accusatory speech. On the pages of the Gospel they are called scribes and Pharisees and are characterized as people, although they possessed the knowledge of the Law of Moses, but for the sake of their own interests reduced service to God only to the formal execution of orders, while ignoring the essence of the doctrine. Subsequently, the word "pharisaism" became a common denomination, meaning hypocrisy and hypocrisy.
The symbolic meaning of the absence of the master, his servants and the fruits
The absence of the host, in the opinion of the commentators, ─The time has elapsed since the Lord brought forth his chosen people from Egyptian slavery. According to the Holy Scripture, this historical event dates back to about 1400 BC. e. Therefore, in the parable, the Lord has in mind a time span of almost a millennium and a half.
Servants sent to wine growers are prophets,which, as you know, were persecuted by the high priests or killed. Throughout its history, the Jewish people and their rulers have repeatedly retreated from the fulfillment of the Law given to them by God, and even more than once fell into paganism. In these cases, the Lord singled out from their midst the most worthy people (prophets) who, with their mouths, revealed the iniquities that were being committed. Many of them were killed or subjected to various persecutions.
The fruits that the owner expected to receive from hisworkers, are the spiritual growth of the people and their knowledge of God. Coming out of Egyptian captivity, the people of Israel were full of relics of paganism, and the duty of priests was to educate him in the spirit of the Laws of Moses.
The image of the master's son, his murder and subsequent retribution
Under the son and heir, Jesus undoubtedly hasIn view of Himself, sent by the Father of heaven for the salvation of people. One of the fundamental tenets of Christianity is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which represents the three hypostases of the One Deity. In it, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit unite and unseparably united. The incarnation of the second hypostasis is Jesus Christ.
Killing a son is a prophecy of His ownthe impending execution on the cross, which He had to endure for the redemption of all the people of the world, affected by original sin and as a result doomed to eternal death.
The arrival of the master himself is interpreted as the Secondthe coming of Christ, when every man will be rewarded according to his deeds. On this day the archangels of God will sound the trumpet and call the people to the Last Judgment of the Heavenly Father.
The meaning of the parable of the husbandmen
As mentioned above, this evangelicalmany theologians dedicated their works to the subject. From the interpretation of the images given in the parable of the evil grape growers, it becomes clear that in his words Jesus Christ denounced the corrupt and unruly high priests, elders and all those who were entrusted by God with the care of preserving and multiplying the faith. Giving out his own words for the supposedly revealed will of God, these people beat and killed the prophets sent by the Lord for their admonition. Having done their own black deed, they planned a reprisal against the Son of God Himself.
It is characteristic that, having heard from the mouth of Jesus the parable ofvine-growers, priests and elders present at that, understood its meaning, and nevertheless unwittingly denounced themselves that exclamations that the workers, who were entrusted with the vineyard, were villains. In this way, they themselves pronounced the verdict, speaking of the imminent retribution that the Lord would bring upon them.
Note that in most of the interpretations of the parable ofevil vine-growers contain an indication that, speaking of the anger that the master will bring upon his evil workers, Jesus predicts in a meticulous way the destruction of Jerusalem, committed in the year 70 by the Roman armies, and the incalculable disasters of the Jewish people that have caused it.
Sermons on the Feast of Pentecost
Like all other excerpts from the Gospel, this parablesounds during the services, and then explained from the church pulpits. According to the tradition established many centuries ago, a sermon on evil wine growers is usually read on the 13th Sunday after Pentecost.
So that there are no mistakes in understanding thisdating, we note that in the Church Slavonic language the word "week" denotes not a seven-day period from Monday to Sunday (it is called "week"), but only a Sunday. It is the seventh in a row, and its ordinal number, as is known, is not divided into anything, except for itself or by unit. Hence the word "week". Therefore, it should be understood that the sermon on evil wine growers sounds from the church pulpits on the 13th Sunday after the Trinity ─ a holiday, also called Pentecost.
The Birth of the Church of Christ
The holiday was established in honor of the descent onthe Apostles of the Holy Spirit on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Since this is traditionally considered to be the birth of the Church of Christ on the earth, it is important for all its members to ponder once again this day the meaning of the parable about evil wine growers.
Paintings and engravings created on this plotvarious artists, help to more clearly present the story told by Jesus Christ in the walls of the temple the next day after His Entry into Jerusalem. Some of them are presented in our article.
