The parable of the eviction

Which “side” do you take over the Dale Farm evictions?

Is it Christian to insist that the law is applied, that people are treated fairly and so punished when they break it, that lawbreakers shouldn’t get ahead of lawkeepers? Or is it Christian to ask for compassion on the travellers, who are staying true to their own culture and way of life, and who have built their lives on that site and in that area?

Watching the struggle on the news, and the evictions that were inevitable once the bailiffs had moved in, brings to life the shock of the parable of the tenants (or maybe we should call it the parable of the eviction) Jesus told in Mark 12 v 1-12.

And it brings home the shock that the tenants facing eviction are us.

Ultimately, we’re all illegal squatters, living in a world that isn’t ours but refusing to pay our dues to the owner. And we’re all facing certain eviction.

So far, so “kick out the travellers”.

But there’s a greater shock in Jesus’ parable even than the forcible eviction and death of the tenants. “He will … give the vineyard to others” (v 9). Who are the “others” who are given the world to live in? Not the deserving, but the undeserving. Not those who never kicked out the landlord’s son, but those who realized their mistake and asked for forgiveness.

That’s grace. That’s like Essex Council winning all the legal battles, proving the land was theirs and the travellers had no right to be there, preparing the bailiffs to move in with overwhelming force… and then walking in with the deeds to the land and saying to those living there illegally: “Here you are. It’s yours”.

I’m torn between the impulse for the law to have its say and be applied, and for compassion to be extended to the travellers. And I think that’s probably the Christian way to look at it. God is a God of total, unremitting justice; He’s also a God of amazing, undeserving grace. It’s right for us to long for justice; it’s right for us to long for grace; it’s wonderful that in Jesus Christ, the Son who was evicted in our place, we find both justice and grace.