Passion Week: Tuesday

"Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." Luke 20:18

We've reached the point of Passion Week where the religious leaders of the day are trying to find something with which they can convict Jesus. Jesus has just cleared the temple (Luke 20:45-48) and thus proved to be a threat to the religious leaders of the day. Thus, the religious leaders try to question him that they might find something with which they can convict him. The funny thing is this: they can't fina anything to convict him with. It is in this context where Jesus gives the great parable we are looking at today, that is, the Parable of the Wicked Tenants.*

Jesus tells this parable to those are trying to trip him up: A great and wealthy man planted a vineyard and put several tenants over that vineyard. The man then went into another country, trusting that the tenants would take care of his land. When the appropriate time came, the man sent a servant to the tenants so that the servant might gather some of the harvest and bring it back to the owner. However, the wicked tenants shamed and beat this man and kept the harvest to themselves. The vineyard owner then sent two other servants, and the wicked tenants committed the same crime. "What shall I do?" asked the vineyard owner to himself, "Surely I shall send my own son, for they will respect him." Thus, the vineyard owner sent his own son thinking that the tenants would treat him well, but they did not. They ended up killing him and taking his inheritance for themselves. Jesus then says that the vineyard owner's response to this would be that he would come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. It is surely a trajic story, but one we must take to heart.

So, what in the world is going on here? The wicked tenants in this story are the Israelites and religious leaders in both the Old and New Testaments who disregarded and shamed the prophets who God sent. Furthermore, they are the ones who killed the vineyard owner's son (who clearly represents Jesus in this story). Thus, we can clearly see in this story that the vineyard owner is God the Father, who sent his son who was killed, but in return will destroy the wicked tenants and give the vineyard to others. What does that mean? Answer: the true heirs of the kingdom of God are not those who are self-righteous and kill the Son of God, but those who love, obey, and submit to the Son of God. Sounds pretty simple, does it not? But if we take a step further, we find that this parable convicts us just as much as it did the religious leaders of the day.

The parable leaves us asking this question: What do we do with the coming of the Son of God? John 3:16 tells us, "For God so loved the world, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." God sent his son, and the correct response to this is belief and obedience. But how often do we reject the Son of God in our own hearts? We may not be the one putting him on a cross of wood, but how many times do we reject the commandments that he gives to us and thus treat him the same? How many times do we disregard him and are ashamed of him?

So, the question to consider this morning is this: What have you done with the Son of God's coming? Have you rejected him like the religious leaders of the day? Or have you embraced him in belief and full obedience? For surely those are the only options. I pray you pick belief. Amen!

*I'd like to point out that I may have messed up the dates of what happened on Monday and Tuesday. It is very confusing to distinguish what happened each day given that the Jewish day started in the evening. Thus, part of the Jewish "Monday" would really be our "Sunday," and so forth. Thus, it is very confusing. Most likely, however, something did happen on the Monday of Passion Week, of which I surely missed.