October 13th, 2015
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Fruitful Tenants

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Opening Prayer

Everlasting Lord, Your love is beyond my comprehension and Your care beyond my understanding. I come before You.

Read MATTHEW 21:33-46

[33] “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. [34] When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. [35] “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. [36] Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. [37] Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. [38] “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ [39] So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. [40] “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” [41] “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” [42] Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? [43] “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. [44] Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” [45] When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. [46] They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Meditate

Reflect on what it means to you to be a branch in the true vine, Jesus (John 15:1-4).

Think Further

Jesus’ hearers would immediately have connected his parable with Isaiah 5:1-7. They may have warmed to the story as they recalled the love of God for Israel and his care for them–but then Jesus developed the story in a different way. He introduced tenants to the vineyard who are hostile to the owner. The vineyard remains as a picture of Israel, but now the focus is on how the tenants treat the servants and son of the owner. It becomes both an indictment of the leaders of Israel and an immediate prophecy of how they will treat Jesus. Whereas Isaiah complained of a lack of social justice, the rejection of the Son is the sin of the parable. Today we often condemn those who mistreat other people, but we fail to see the great sin of rejecting Jesus.

For Isaiah the vineyard was going to be destroyed, but Jesus has a more hopeful picture for the vineyard, if not for the tenants. God’s people are going to continue, but under new management. Bringing Psalm 118:22-23 into the picture, Jesus speaks of restoration and rejoicing for the people of God. The murdered son has become the rejected stone, but one that is resurrected to become the capstone. It is not the new tenants but the stone that is the final focus. The tenants’ fruit will be through their relationship with that stone. The new people of God include those who are not part of ethnic Israel, but not all Jewish people are excluded; exclusion from the final picture is for those who reject the Savior.

The Jewish leaders saw the meaning of the parable for them. For us it is a challenge to be fruitful tenants who listen to the word of the servants and the Son of the Lord and deny him nothing that belongs to him.

Apply

This parable is full of depth, sorrow and power. See if you can see these qualities for yourself.

Closing prayer

Lord, sharpen my mind, quicken my hearing, clear my vision. I want to hear Your word to me and eagerly obey it.

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