ABOUT THIS EPISODE
On this Short Take episode of Comedians with Pastors Talking Bible, Jesus tells a parable about tenants who kill everyone the landowner sends, right down to his son. And the chief priests listening realize, one by one, that he's talking about them.
Are we the baddies?
It's one of the hardest texts in the lectionary to preach well, and one of the easiest to misuse. So we take it slowly: who the parable is actually aimed at, what kind of landlord keeps sending people to their deaths, and whether there's any good news in here at all. Turns out there is, and a comedian finds it.
Join Pastor Bob Schaefer, Pastor Eric Damon, and resident comic theologians Abby Evans (@itsabbye) and Erick Williams (@comicaledubs).
Expect:
- Why this parable isn't a verdict on "the Jews," and why supersessionism is a heresy
- Matthew as an argument inside a family, and what happens when insider material reaches outside ears (with an assist from Chris Rock)
- A landlord who responds to murder by sending more people, then his son. Has God lost touch with reality, or is that just what persistence looks like?
- The tenants' inheritance plan, and why "kill everyone and take their stuff" is an awfully familiar strategy
- A reading of the parable that pushes back on penal substitutionary atonement
- Good news that sounds like bad news, depending on which ears you have to hear it
Also featuring: Hey-Zeus, Yellowjackets season two, the 1900s as a single year, a glittery finger keepsake, and Jesus as the kid in Pet Sematary.
"Even the powerful will fear the crowd."
— Erick Williams, finding the good news
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Matthew 21:33–46 (NRSVue)
[33] “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. [34] When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. [35] But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. [36] Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. [37] Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ [38] But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ [39] So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. [40] Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” [41] They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” [42] Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? [43] “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. [44] The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” [45] When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. [46] They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
Hosted by Pastor Eric Damon and Pastor Bob Schaefer.
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Music: Trickster by Phat Sounds
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/10864-trickster
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Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
