David Bahn – Reflections

When you invest your money you expect a return. When you spend your  money you expect to receive something of value in return. And while some might want to turn the tables to their advantage, you would not expect long to be in business if you never deliver the goods to the customer.

Why is it that we who have been given the incredible trust of God’s kingdom would ever think that God does not expect a return on his investment in us? God’s love for us does not depend on our performance, nor does our salvation depend on us doing something to gain it. But our love for God is shown in how we act toward others. God’s work in us continues throughout our lives as we “work out our salvation in fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12-13).

Salvation is a no-strings-attached gift of God. It is received by faith alone. But the faith that receives the gift works itself out in ways that honor God, produce the fruits of repentance and are described in the Bible as a harvest of righteousness.

Matthew 21:33-46

“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. ³⁴When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. ³⁵ And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶ Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. ³⁷Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ ³⁹And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. ⁴⁰ When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

⁴²Jesus said to them,  “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

⁴³Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. ⁴⁴And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.