GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 12:1
Plans Change
It is early in the morning as I write these words; in fact, the sun hasn’t peeked over the eastern horizon yet. I have a general plan for how I want this day to go; however, I know from experience not to cast those plans too firmly. A modern airliner’s autopilot makes dozens of minor course corrections to its flight path between Los Angeles and Honolulu. One writer claims that between LAX and HNL (Honolulu, Hawaii), planes make more than 600 course corrections. Rarely, a plane will have to make a major course change, landing at a different airport or returning to its starting point. Likewise, there may be many “course corrections” on this day between sunrise and sunset.
According to Mark, Jesus presented a parable to the delegation of chief priests, scribes, and elders who had questioned his authority to cleanse the temple courts. His story concerned a man who seemed to make a major course correction. “And he began to speak to them in parables, ‘A man planted a vineyard, and he placed around it a fence, and he dug a wine press, and he built a tower, and he rented it to farmers, and he went away.’” (Mark 12:1)
As I considered this parabolic preamble, I wondered what event in this man’s life prompted him to leave such an enterprise as Jesus described. True, this is a parable, and true, it will have another application. But the amount of work and time invested in this venture was considerable—planting a vineyard, building a fence or hedge around it, building a tower, constructing a wine press—all of which reflect time, effort, and expense. Then, he went away. Why? What happened? It appears that his day, his life, his plans changed.
Maybe the parable’s message to me today is not the major application; it is certainly not the application Jesus intended for his audience, but it is nonetheless a cautionary message: in spite of plans, I don’t know what this day will hold, but I know who holds today.
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