Matthew 21:33b "There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country."

Coming across this parable again, my first thought on rereading it was, "Gosh, that landowner sure went to a lot of work. No wonder he was ready for a vacation out of town." I thought about my gardener husband and all the work he does in our vegetable garden in the spring. He buys just the right varieties that can thrive in our yard. Some of the beds need rabbit fencing to keep the wild critters out. There's a lot of digging. We don't have a watchtower, but the bean tower and the tomato cages have to be mended and set up every year.

Usually when I've read this parable, I figured I must be one of the nasty tenants. I think that was the main point when Jesus told it, because the Pharisees saw themselves as the tenants and were very upset about it. But there are multiple places to be in a parable, and since I was thinking about all the work of planting, then maybe, sometimes, I am supposed to be one of the vines.

The landowner went to a lot of trouble to plant his vines in the right place. But the vineyard needed more. He decided right away that his plants needed protection, so he put up a fence. The vines needed a place for their produce, so he dug the wine press. The fencing wasn't enough, so he put up a watchtower too. ("Will this ever end?" any normal person might have asked.) Then he hired some tenants to take care of his vines and harvest a crop. When the tenants didn't do their jobs, he sent servants, then more servants. Nothing worked, but the landowner was absolutely not going to give up on his vineyard, so for one last, best try, he sent his son.

God is never going to give up on us. In the Old Testament, he tried many things and none of them fully worked. Finally, he sent his Son. To me, that's a pretty good Advent message.

Laura Neff