In the old cartoons, when a character came to some moment of temptation, a sort of moral crossroads, remember how they’d always show that? You’d have a little angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, each whispering into the ears. It’s one of the great classic tropes, from Mickey Mouse to Homer Simpson to modern Disney and Pirates of the Caribbean . So common, because it just works. We can relate. The Bible points to more than a little truth behind that whimsical image; we’ve just heard two conversations with the Devil. Notice they take place in two extreme and opposite settings: Eve in the lush Garden of Paradise, and Jesus in the barren desert wilderness. I’m sure there’s an awesome sermon there somewhere but for now, it at least shows: the devil can bug you anywhere. Just as they have opposite settings, they also have opposite endings. Eve’s story, of course, is the one that goes wrong. A foolish person might take this story as an explanation of who to blame. A wise
Did you notice anything about the Gospels of the last three Sundays? In case you didn’t catch it, that makes three consecutive Sundays of Jesus telling parables about vineyards. Two weeks ago it was the owner who hired people throughout the day, and paid the latecomers the full wage just like the early risers. Last week it was the two sons he asked to work in his vineyard, the first of whom said “no” but changed his mind and went, and the second who said “yes” but didn’t follow through. And now this, making it a trilogy of vineyard parables, all from Matthew 20 and 21. It’s a sort of climax of the three, this bracing story about the tenants of the vineyard who are not just wicked, but bizarrely, inexplicably so. This, the parable makes clear, is the story of the endlessly broken Covenant by God’s people. In the next chapter of Matthew Jesus will say, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill prophets and stone those who are sent to you!” Finally, the owner of the vineyard sends his son, wit
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