David Bahn – Reflections

Sometimes the tease just isn’t good enough. Sometimes I change the station, or turn off the radio. But if the guest is particularly interesting, and I really want to hear the next segment, I’ll stay tuned – even through an interminably long commercial break.

Trust Jesus on this one: He is coming back, and he is well worth waiting for. In the mean time, moreover, we are not relegated to a life of waiting through commercial breaks. We are called to work in his vineyard (kingdom) and give him his due.

This parable is all about those who think that Jesus is not worth waiting for, or that he is a weakling who has no power to demand justice, or who can be overthrown by human power. They are sadly mistaken.

It is interesting that none of the parables of Jesus ever treat the issue of a too-soft God who shrugs his shoulders at sin or lack of fruitfulness. That idea has crept into modern Christian thought for reasons that escape me. We will never earn a place in the heart of God by our obedience. He has saved us by his grace and merciful choice. But because we are sons and daughters of God we will obey him and produce the harvest of righteousness that honors him.

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.