I have been wanting for some time to share some thoughts about Barbara Kingsolver’s amazing novel, The Poisonwood Bible.  I realize that I am very much late to the party in doing so as it was published over a decade ago and has been widely hailed as a modern classic for years.  But though I’m late to the party I did still want to show up for The Poisonwood Bible is one of the most remarkable novels I’ve ever read.  This is not to say that I did not find some aspects problematic.  Rather, I am saying that even in light of these areas I found this to be one of the most well-told, provocative, insightful, powerful, unsettling, and well-written books I’ve ever encountered.

The Poisonwood Bible is about a Baptist missionary family who is taken to Africa by their dominant and domineering preacher husband/father Nathan Price.  The story is told from the perspective of the Price women:  Nathan’s wife Orleanna and their daughters Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May.  We never hear Nathan in his own voice but we do hear Nathan a great deal and, likely, a great deal too much.

How to describe this story?  It is a story of one man’s descent into madness and the demons that drove him, of one woman’s story of survival in the face of her husband and the cultural and geopolitical quagmire that they encounter in Africa and, indeed, the world at large, and of four daughters’ experience of being children (of varying ages) in the midst of these powerful familial, religious, and cultural cross-currents.

Kingsolver’s decision to tell the story through the voices of the Price women turns out to be very effective.  The development of each of their unique characters was nothing short of enthralling.  By the end of the novel you feel that you know the quirks, the personalities, and the hysterical, irritating, and, at times, infuriating (i.e. Rachel) idiosyncrasies of each.  I was especially struck by the character Orleanna, who emerges as a bruised, wounded, but ultimately victorious picture of courage and sheer grit.

I am a Baptist pastor who believes in missions, so the book simultaneously challenged and  irritated me.  It irritated me to think that the character of Nathan will feed into and bolster the worst possible stereotypes that some have of missionaries and perhaps especially of Baptist missionaries.  I want very much to say that I have never met Nathan Price, though I offer two caveats:  (1) I have met people with certain of his traits and (2) I do not deny that creatures like him exist.  The history of missions is too clear to deny his appearance on the stage here and there.  But, in my experience as a Southern Baptist pastor pastoring conservative churches in the South, not only have I never met Nathan Price, but I consider him to be monstrous, I consider much of his theology to be blasphemous and absurd, and I could not personally be in the presence of such a person long without giving voice to this.  The people I know and go on the mission field with would say the very same.

Even so, there is Nathan Price in all of his offensive arrogance:  the complete lack of consideration of the culture in which he was, the thinly-veiled disdain for the people he was, in theory, trying to reach, the maddening belief (seemingly) in mechanical baptismal regeneration, the sanctimony, the stupidity, etc. etc.  I would say this to any who might come across this review after having read the book:  yes, in the two-thousand year history of the Church despicable characters like Nathan Price have emerged far too many times, but please know that most of us are not only not like him but we recoil in horror at the sight of him.  Furthermore, many missionaries over the years have done amazing work and been a great blessing to the lives of those to whom they have ministered.  (And I gather, thankfully, from some of Kingsolver’s interviews, that she would not dispute this.  She was herself the daughter of missionary parents and has made clear that this is not a story about them.)

Even so, I am glad that Kingsolver created Nathan Price.  He needs to be seen.  He is as much a walking cautionary tale as a walking contradiction.  He is religion at its worst.  He is, to put it mildly, anti-Christ, all the while claiming to be serving Christ.  And, on a personal level, the depiction of such a character challenged me to make sure that I never fall into the kind of obscene pitfalls into which he fell.  It also challenged me to try to view the missionary task through the eyes of those to whom we go and to ask, “What might I be doing that communicates disinterest in or disdain towards the actual lives of the people to whom I seek to minister?”  That is not an unimportant question.

There is so much more than could be said about this amazing book.  Its political message is worth hearing and its cultural insights are really fascinating.  But, for me, the characters make the book.  It is a story of a family.  It is a gripping tale.  It gets under your skin and stays with you.

This is a very very good book.  I would say it is also an important book.  In truth, I think it should be read in seminary missiology classes.  Regardless, you really should read The Poisonwood Bible.

Mark 13

²⁸ “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. ³⁰ Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. ³² “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. ³⁴ It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. ³⁵ Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— ³⁶ lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. ³⁷ And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

What do the following dates have in common?

66-70 / 365 / 375-400 / 500 / April 6, 793 / 800 / 799-806 / 848 / 992-995 / January 1, 1000 / 1033 / 1200-1260 / 1284 / 1290-1335 / 1346-1351 / 1370 / 1378 / 1504 / February 1, 1524 / February 20, 1524 / 1524-1528 / May 27, 1528 / October 19, 1533 / April 5, 1534 / 1555 / 1585 / 1600 / February 1, 1624 / 1648 / 1651 / 1654 / 1656 / 1655-1657 / 1658 / 1660 / 1666 / 1673 / 1688 / 1689 / 1694 / 1697 / 1700 / 1705-1708 / 1716 / April 5, 1719 / 1700-1734 / October 16, 1736 / 1736 / 1757 / May 19, 1780 / November 19, 1795 / October 19, 1814 / April 28, 1843 / December 31, 1843 / March 21, 1844 / October 22, 1844 / August 7, 1847 / February 13, 1925 / September 1935 / December 21, 1954 / April 22, 1959 / February 4, 1962 / August 20, 1967 / 1967 / August 9, 1969 / 1969 / 1972 / January 1974 / 1975 / 1976 / 1977 / 1980 / 1981 / 1982 / April-June 1982 / March 10, 1982 / June 21, 1982 / 1985 / April 29, 1986 / August 17, 1987 / September 11-13, 1988 / October 3, 1988 / September 30, 1989 / April 23, 1990 / September 9, 1991 / 1991 / September 28, 1992 / October 28, 1992 / 1993 / May 2, 1994 / September 1994 June 29, 1994 / October 2, 1994 / March 31, 1995 / December 17, 1996 / March 26, 1997 / August 10, 1997 / October 23, 1997 / March 31, 1998 / July 1999 / August 18, 1999 / September 11, 1999 / 1999 / January 1, 2000 / April 6, 2000 / April 6, 2000 / May 5, 2000 / 2000 / 2001 / May 27, 2003 / October 30-November 29, 2003 / September 12, 2006 / April 29, 2007 / 2010 / May 21, 2011 / September 29, 2011 / October 21, 2011 / May 27, 2012 / June 30, 2012 / December 21, 2012 / August 23, 2013 / April 2014 / September 2015 / September 23, 2017 / October 21, 2017

If you guessed, “Those are years in which people predicted the world would end!” you are correct! In truth, this list is incomplete and other dates could be added. Furthermore, the list does not include future dates that have also been predicted. These are just the dates that have been predicted and have already passed.

When you look at that list it is hard not to think, “Why do we keep doing this? Why do we keep trying to predict when the world will end?” But we do indeed do it! Human beings just cannot help themselves.

For Christians, this is utterly inexcusable for Jesus specifically said that we cannot know the exact time of His return. We cannot know the exact time, but we can read the times and live in preparedness. It is very important that we get this right or else we can really get sidetracked, disillusioned, and do injury to our faith. Let us consider what Jesus says about the coming of the end.

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Exodus 32

¹ When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” ² So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ³ So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” ⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” ⁶ And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. ⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. ⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” ⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

Tony Merida has offered some noteworthy comments about the pervasiveness of idolatry in modern life and about the human propensity for idolatry in general.

A few of our pastors and interns took a trip to Boston recently to explore the idea of sending a church planting team to New England. The need for churches in the Northeast is great. One Christian leader there calls the area north of Boston “the desert.” Some estimate that it is currently 1-percent evangelical at best.

As our friends described their culture to us, they pointed out that people actually worship in the Northeast. Some people worship the Red Sox. Others, in the world of academia and research, are slaves to ambition. In Salem, Massachusetts, they statistically have more witches than Christians. The Northeast is really no different from anywhere else in the world. Left to ourselves, we will worship something other than the living God. To paraphrase Calvin, “The human heart is an idol factory.”

Because of this universal problem, we need to understand this subject. Os Guinness and John Seel comment on the how important this topic is: “Idolatry is the most discussed problem in the Bible…There can be no believing communities without an unswerving eye to the detection and destruction of idols”…[1]

He is right, of course. Human beings have always been drawn to idols, be they the Red Sox or the moon above. In fact, so prevalent is this tendency that we are right to return again to a consideration of why idolatry is so dangerous. And we are also right to ask whether or not Guinness and Seel, quoted by Merida above, are correct when they say that “believing communities” must have “an unswerving eye to the detection and destruction of idols.” Exodus 32:1-10 would answer, “Yes! They must!”

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Mark 13

¹⁴ “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁵ Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, ¹⁶ and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. ¹⁷ And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! ¹⁸ Pray that it may not happen in winter. ¹⁹ For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. ²⁰ And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. ²¹ And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. ²² For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. ²³ But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand. ²⁴ “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, ²⁵ and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. ²⁶ And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

As we approach the Table of the Lord this morning I am struck that our text is one of dark foreboding yet also exuberant joy. I am struck by this because, seen from a certain perspective, the symbols here on this table combine the very same elements: the dark foreboding of the violent death of Jesus on the cross at the hands of wicked men yet the exuberant joy that it was in this way that Christ won for us our salvation! Put another way, we are hereby reminded of the darkness of our sins and of the fallen world but only in order that we might proclaim the light of the coming of Jesus into the world and is death and resurrection.

Mark 13:14-27 is a text of darkness and light, of warning and hope, of bitter judgment and beautiful salvation. We have seen that the church stands in the time between the times: that time that is different from ordinary time because Christ has come and the Kingdom of God has broken into the world and is breaking into the world even now. This time between the times is the time between was has been and what will be. We live in the beginning of the end, a beginning end that might last another day or another two thousand years. We do not know. But something has changed now. The church has seen the glory come and coming. We await the coming of Christ who has come and will come again.

In our text, Jesus warns of greater darkness then heralds the victory of the light.

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Mark 13

¹ And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” ² And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” ³ And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴ “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” ⁵ And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. ⁶ Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. ⁷ And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. ⁸ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains. ⁹ “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. ¹⁰ And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. ¹¹ And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. ¹² And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. ¹³ And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

What would you do if you knew the world was about to end? Interestingly, there are numerous places online where some variation of this question has been asked. The comments are telling. Here’s a sampling:

I’d tell everyone who I know exactly how I feel about them. My crush, my brother, friends, everyone who I can contact within 24 hours

Play with my dog for as long as she wants to. Then pet her and hold her close.

I’m a man of simple tastes. I’d steal either a Nissan GT-R or a Porsche 911 Turbo.

I would drive away far away from the havoc that would definitely ensue with friends. I would chill with friends, kayak across that beautiful river I dreamed about kayaking on, hike on that mountain that looks like it has a beautiful view from the top, throw a party, spend the rest of my money on food, drinks and fun, get a bonfire going and chill with all the amazing people in my life and when the sun sets for the last time I’ll be watching it over the mountains with people I truly care about by my side.

Raid, pillage, and plunder to my hearts content. After all, only fools are certain.

get some beer, get some speakers, And sit on my roof drinking the lot whilst blasting out the AC-DC

I guess I’d do my laundry.

Make plans for the following day. Just in case.

And my favorite:

I would place my son in the specially-designed space capsule I have built ahead of time for just this occasion, even though the government and my peers thought me mad. My wife would wrap him in a red blanket with our family symbol on it. We would launch him toward a hospitable planet just as our planet exploded.

Ha! Somebody has seen Superman one too many times!

It is an interesting question, though, and one that is not without merit. What would you do if you knew the world was about to end?

Mark 13 is a chapter that has fascinated and perplexed interpreters over the years. It is a chapter in which Jesus talks about the end and instructs His disciples on how they, and we, should act in light of its approach.

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Mark 12

³⁸ And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces ³⁹ and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, ⁴⁰ who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” ⁴¹ And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴² And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. ⁴³ And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. ⁴⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Adolf Hitler once complained that Germany was an ostensibly Christian nation as opposed to a nation holding to a different religion. Here is what he said:

It’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?[1]

That is telling. Hitler preferred Japan’s exaltation of sacrificing for your country. He even preferred Islam. There was obviously something about it that he appreciated. But Christianity he deplored. Why? Because of its “meekness and flabbiness.” Christianity, you see, exalts the lowly and the weak. Christianity makes much of the unfortunate and those who lack power and strength. But what Hitler wanted was the uberman, the strong man, the man who knew what power was, and the Ubermensch, the master race.

Of course, Hitler was in so many ways simply repeating the mantras of Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote, “Christianity has taken the part of all the weak, the low, the botched; it has made an ideal out of antagonism to all the self preservative instincts of sound life”

Men who like the currency of power, men who like the language of strength, men who act in the theater of the pompous, these men despise Christianity and the teachings of Jesus. In particular, they despise passages like Mark 12:38-44.

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It is a beautiful thing, after this many months of work, to finally see this become available.  I  thank the many people who made this possible in the acknowledgments of the book so I won’t do so here, but I do want to say that without a lot of help from a lot of folks this volume would not be appearing when it has.  My sincere prayer has always been that these volumes will further the great legacy of Dr. James Leo Garrett Jr.  You can order a copy here.

Mark 12

²⁸ And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³² And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. ³³ And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Many of you will no doubt remember the terrifying reign that Idi Amin held over Uganda throughout the 1970s. It is estimated that 300,000 people were killed in Uganda during that period. Amin made certain Christian communities the object of his wrath because of their support of the ruler who proceeded him. Many Christian leaders were also killed. Ronald Kernaghan passes on a story about one Christian leader’s response to Amin that is particularly powerful.

Festo Kivengere was the archbishop of Uganda during the awful days of Idi Amin. Idi Amin was one of the most savage tyrants in recent history. During a brutal reign from 1971 to 1979 the man who claimed to be “Lord of all the beasts of the earth and fishes of the sea” orchestrated the torture and execution of hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom belonged to the Anglican church that Bishop Kivengere led. Before Idi Amin was driven from power, Bishop Kivengere was asked what he would do if he found himself with a loaded gun in the presence of Idi Amin. The bishop replied. “I would hand the gun to the President and say, ‘I think this your weapon. It is not mine. My weapon is love.’”[1]

This is an amazing response and one that stops us in our tracks. In fact, Kivengere went on to publish a book in 1977 entitled I Love Idi Amin. Unbelievable.

What are we to make of this? The unduly and unjustly skeptical might simply accuse Kivengere of grandstanding, but, frankly, that makes no sense. Kivengere almost certainly frustrated some of his own friends by his refusal to blast the trumpet of hatred at Amin. And some might say that this kind of sentiment is actually wrong, that it is wrong to say you love somebody like Idi Amin. Yet there is another possibility and it is one upon which we should give serious reflection. It is this: Festo Kivengere had walked so long with Jesus and had become so filled with the love of Christ that he actually could not help but love his enemies. His life had become so filled with love that it actually spilled the banks and touched all those around him.

I consider this shocking possibility—shocking, because it is so very unusual—and I ask myself whether or not I might come to love like this as well?

In our text, Jesus is approached yet again by a religious leader who wants to ask him a question. Jesus’ answer points to the grand truth that Festo Kivengere actually dared to live out: the essence of life in and with God is radical love, for God first and for our neighbors second, and this is made possible by the fact that we have been loved by God.

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Mark 12

¹ And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. ² When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ³ And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵ And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. ⁶ He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Have you not read this Scripture: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; ¹¹ this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” ¹² And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.

One of my favorite novels is Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain. There is a very interesting scene in it in which a preacher, Monroe, attempts to win a man he considers to be a heathen, Esco, to faith in Christ.

So Monroe had gone visiting, Ada at his side. They’d sat together in the parlor, Esco humped forward as Monroe tried to engage him in a discussion of faith. But Esco gave up little of himself and his beliefs. Monroe found no evidence of religion other than a worship of animals and trees and rocks and weather. Esco was some old relic Celt was what Monroe concluded; what few thoughts Esco might have would more than likely be in Gaelic.

Seizing such a unique opportunity, Monroe attempted to explain the high points of true religion. When they got to the holy trinity Esco had perked up and said, Three into one. Like a turkey foot.

Then in awhile, convinced that Esco had indeed not yet got report of his culture’s central narrative, Monroe told the story of Christ from divine birth to bloody crucifixion. He included all the famous details and, while keeping it simple, he summoned all the eloquence he could. When he’d finished, he sat back waiting for a reaction.

Esco said, And you say this took place some time ago?

Monroe said, Two thousand years, if you consider that some time ago.

—Oh, I’d call that a stretch all right, Esco said. He looked at his hands where they hung from the wrists. He flexed the fingers and looked at them critically as if trying the fittings of a new implement. He thought on the story awhile and then said, And what this fellow come down for was to save us?

—Yes, Monroe said.

—From our own bad natures and the like?

—Yes.

—And they still done him like they did? Spiked him up and knifed him and all?

—Yes indeed, Monroe said.

—But you say this story’s been passed around some hundred-score years? Esco said.

—Nearly.

—So to say, a long time.

—A very long time.

Esco grinned as if he had solved a puzzle and stood up and slapped Monroe on the shoulder and said, Well, about all we can do is hope it ain’t so.[1]

Frasier goes on to say that Esco was a Baptist all along and was just pretending to be ignorant in order to have some fun with the preacher and his obvious assumption that Esco was ignorant! Even so, Esco’s final response might accurately be viewed as the hidden hope of many people living today: “Well, about all we can do is hope it ain’t so.”

The story that the Bible tells us is a story that many hope is not true for it is a story that threatens our idol of radical autonomy, of isolated self-determination, of ego, of pride, and of greed. Nonetheless, the story the Bible tells is the story of the world and is true whether we “hope it ain’t so” or not!

In our text, Jesus tells the story of the world by telling a story about a vineyard. I hasten to add that, in context, the story Jesus tells is clearly aimed at the religious elites with whom He has just clashed. It is, in the narrow sense that Jesus says it here, a story about how religious powerbrokers end up shutting God out of their lives and “ministries.” Yet, it is not inappropriate to apply this story to the world at large, for in it we find the broad strokes of the entire story of scripture. That is what we will do here. We will see in this story the story not only of the few who rejected Jesus at a particular time, but of the world’s rejection of Christ. The world at large rejected Jesus just as these religious leaders did. The story of the vineyard is therefore not only a story about priests and the temple. It is also a story about the world.

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Exodus 30

¹⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁸ “You shall also make a basin of bronze, with its stand of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, ¹⁹ with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. ²⁰ When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die. ²¹ They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.”

Timothy George and John Woodbridge have written of the low view that many people have of ministers.

Most non-Christians are convinced that Christians are inveterate hypocrites. One cartoon in The New Yorker (January 26, 2004) cleverly exploits this widespread sentiment. The cartoon shows a prisoner in a cell turning to another who is sitting on a cot. The first prisoner has apparently just asked the second man why he is in jail. The second responds cryptically: “I’m between congregations.” With a deft touch, the cartoonist had scored Christians – in this instance, a hypocritical clergy member – for not practicing what they preach. What’s worse, the cartoonist assumed that the readers of The New Yorker, so aware of Christians’ flawed reputations, would not need a lengthy explanation to reveal the cartoon’s barb.[1]

It is indeed a damning indictment, and one that should give the church pause. Of course, we might allege that this is simply anti-Christian bias, and that would work if the history books and newspapers were not filled with enough examples of hypocritical and failed ministers to make us blush until kingdom come. No, in point of fact, ministers have usually not needed much help in discrediting themselves.

It is therefore interesting to note that the scriptures call for holy ministers from the very beginning of such a classification of people. Exodus 30:17-21 gives us one more example of how the need for holy ministers was communicated in the arrangement of the tabernacle.

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