Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Structure of Mt. 21:23-46

 It looks like two of our last Gospel reading (for Sept. 27 and Oct. 4, 2020 - Mt. 21:23-27 [28-32] and Mt. 21:33-46 respectfully) form a single structural unit. The last one (vv. 33-46) is introduced by the phrase " Hear ANOTHER parable". Which means that "the story" of two sons invited to work in Dad's vineyard should be treated like a parable too. Along with this there is a definite word parallelism between what the High Priests are thinking about John the Baptist and their reasoning behind NOT arresting Jesus (v. 26 and 46). 

A. vv. 23-27, Initial question of High Priests. No action taken (partially) - they were afraid of the crowd who considered John the Baptist to be a prophet. 

  B. vv. 28-32, Parable of the sons invited to work in the vineyard with follow up discussion who will go into the Kingdom.

  B'. vv. 33-44, Parable of the tenants in the vineyard with follow up discussion about the producing of fruits in the Kingdom.        

A'. vv. 45-46, Reaction of High Priests. No action taken because they were afraid of the crowd who hold Jesus to be a prophet.   

If this structure is correct, there is an interesting parallelism between the tax collectors and the prostitutes (vv. 31-32) and people who are producing fruits in the Kingdom (v. 43). The fruits of the Kingdom are not the status in the society or riches, but repentance, believe and change of mind(set). 

No comments:

Post a Comment

PSALM 117

All nations praise the L ORD . Only two lines – but such a deep meaning. Allow me to walk you through. v. 1a. Praise the L ORD , all nat...