Leo Tolstoy Archive
Written: 1908
Source: From RevoltLib.com
Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff
Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021
And Jesus told another parable about how people should live. He said: “An owner has planted a garden, tended it, done everything for the garden to give as much fruits as possible. And he sent workers in this garden to work, collect fruits, and pay him a share. The deadline came, and the owner sent an employee to collect fruits, but the workers forgot that it’s not them who planted and arranged the garden, and they drove the messenger of the owner away with nothing, and lived in the garden as if they were owners, without thinking that the garden is not theirs and that they lived in it by the mercy of the owner. Then the owner sent another, senior, servant to remind the workers about the payment. The workers chased this one away, too. Then the owner sent his son. But the workers thought that if they would kill the owner’s son, then he’ll leave them alone. And they killed him. What else can the owner do? There is nothing left rather than to kick the workers out and to bring others.
The owner is the Father; the garden is the world; the workers are people; the payment is the life of spirit; the messengers of the master are the holy people who remind the rest people that they must live not for the body but for the spirit. The lost people think that life is given to them for their bodily pleasures rather than for the fulfillment of the will of the Father, and they kill the life of the spirit in themselves, and therefore lose life. (Mark 12, 1-9)
Questions:
1) What parable did Jesus say?
2) How did the owner arrange the work in the garden?
3) What did the workers think and do?
4) What can the owner do?
5) What does this parable mean?