Excommunicado: The Stewards Refused
nomen est omne quod superest, sensus non amplius applicat
“9 And he went on to tell the people this parable, 'A man planted a vineyard and leased it to tenants, and went abroad for a long while.
10 When the right time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get his share of the produce of the vineyard. But the tenants thrashed him, and sent him away empty-handed.
11 But he went on to send a second servant; they thrashed him too and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed.
12 He still went on to send a third; they wounded this one too, and threw him out.
13 Then the owner of the vineyard thought, "What am I to do? I will send them my own beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him."
14 But when the tenants saw him they put their heads together saying, "This is the heir, let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours."
15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 'Now what will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
16 He will come and make an end of these tenants and give the vineyard to others.' Hearing this they said, 'God forbid!'
17 But he looked hard at them and said, 'Then what does this text in the scriptures mean: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?
18 Anyone who falls on that stone will be dashed to pieces; anyone it falls on will be crushed.'
19 And the scribes and the chief priests would have liked to lay hands on him that very moment, because they realised that this parable was aimed at them…”
What a parable it was. Both about the past and the future.
The Stewards of the Vineyard have claimed the Vineyard for themselves. It’s really pretty simple. A few good people were sent, they threw them all out. The Son came and they killed Him. That was their last chance.
Dismas literally hung with Jesus sharing the experience, and for his comradery, Jesus promised him heaven. Dismas committed legitimate crimes, and Jesus? The crime of speaking of course. Speaking parables as above.
The problem? Oh, they contained the truth about the Stewards. They didn’t like that.
They don’t want to give back the Vineyard now. It is theirs, they say. A corner-stone is being rejected here.
The first three sent will experience EXCOMMUNICADO. Each will point at the Stewards and their crimes, and demand the return of the property to the Owner, each will be removed and cast out…banished, but this will be no solution for the Stewards. However, the Stewards are now running out of time, because the Son will come the fourth time around. This time there is no escape.
The Stewards of the Vineyard have three chances. They will reject the first representative and deny his charges against them and refuse to return the property. They know a second will come, so they elect EXCOMMUNICADO. Only this becomes clear it is being used as a weapon, not a legitimate rebuke. The first is known to speak directly to the Owner of the Vineyard, therefore they will ban his speech and his language.
The second comes and they treat him more shamefully than the first. For the crime of this speech and language…EXCOMMUNICADO, and what the Stewards hope will be a warning and stop the third from coming. Their ban will not stop the third from coming.
The third presents chalice and bread to the Stewards. They reject it, and become even more violent. Just as before they will ban the chalice and bread, so no further servants can remind them, just as they banned the speech and the language.
But the fourth will be more than a servant. They predict what the fourth will bring to them. They plan to claim that the Vineyard simply no longer belongs to the original owner, and hope to ban any further messages from the owner. They set forth to warn the whole world, if anyone comes to challenge their ownership ever again, they will be killed.
The Son will then come and charge them with witholding, and of this—they are guilty. Knowing that no EXOMMUNICADO can be ordered on the Son, they will have no choice. Having no hope whatsoever in a duel with the Son, they will employ, or attempt to employ a proxy. However, one should know, there’s no reason to hope for a return to the Vineyard, for it is corrupted until it is reclaimed by the Owner. They know that no proxy, no replacement can be found to take their place, so they will call upon all who serve them to hunt and kill the Son before his return. Their failure will be seen when this time, the proxy, and all those who serve them will turn on them. This time there will be no escape.
They will have to run from the Vineyard, for their usurpation is over with, and it will be they who are banished and into shame and destruction they will have to flee. God forbid, they will say, as the Vineyard is then given to those in EXCOMMUNICADO, for it was they who removed those servants, not the original owner.
And which are you? The Stewards? The servants? Those in EXCOMMUNICADO? Those who follow the order of the Stewards, even after they have rejected the first servant of the Owner of the Vineyard?
46 'Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes and love to be greeted respectfully in the market squares, to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets,
47 who devour the property of widows, and for show offer long prayers. The more severe will be the sentence they receive.'
It’s not really their Vineyard, and they can’t excommunicate you, they can play their tricks, but the road they’ve chosen will not end well for them. For every representative they banish, brings them close to the Fourth Representative, and when He comes, they’re finished this time.
They’ll kick us all out before then, it’s currently on the menu, so realize, since they pre-meditate it, it’s their plan, not a response to your actions. They don’t see it, but, a trick doesn’t make it real. Last set of stairs up next, let them show the world what they’re made of, their time is up. Every step they make will not just show you, but the world what they are all about. They’ll probably try to set the Vineyard on fire before they leave of course, but we’ll see, it may only be a season before it comes back in full bloom.