Matthew 21:33-46
‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’
Jesus 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 amazing in our eyes”?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
Reflection
This parable reminds me of the expression about getting a new lease on life or just a lease on life. In a sense it's true. We are given a lease on life. I didn't do anything to be given life. God gave me life and he gave you life too. Surely the life we have been given, that took some trouble on God's part to create and bring into existence, has been given to us for a purpose.
This parable seems to lead us to the conclusion that our purpose is to produce fruit for God. But what is the fruit I am to produce? What is the fruit you have been chosen to produce? How do we discover this and how do we go about producing the proper fruit?
I guess I got a little ahead of myself in those questions. First, as the parable suggests, I must be able to think about my life differently. My life is not my own. I don't own my own life. God is the owner. God just gave me the lease on life. God, as the owner of my life, expects me to take care of my life and to nourish my life and God expects my life to bring back something of honor and glory to my owner, God, with my life. So, first, I must get the notion out of my head that my life is my own. It's not my life... it's the life God gave to me to live. Therefore, I live for God and not for myself. This I must understand first and foremost.
If I don't get that the life I live is for God, then I may and probably will become selfish with my life and try to eliminate God from my life so that I can claim my life as my own. And it is here that God sent his own Son in Jesus. God sent Jesus to us because we couldn't see how to give our own life to God.
God has done all that God could ever do for us. God even gave the life of Jesus in our stead so that we could live out our "lease" on life in honor of God and produce the fruit God chooses for us to produce.
This giving of life by God is a done deal. God not only gave us life to live, God gave the life of Jesus for us to live also. God gave us a "lease" on life and then God gave us a New "lease" on life through the life of Jesus. All that we may be free from the power of sin, death and the devil and may produce the fruit that God chooses for each and all of us to produce for God in God's Kingdom.
Once we are free to live are lives for God and not worry about owning our lives for ourselves we will produce fruit. We will grow in the grace of God and before you know it... we will produce fruit! We really don't need to worry too much about the fruit. When we give our lives to God; God graciously cares for us and feeds us and prunes us and we produce the fruit God has chosen for us to produce. We actually get the joy of living for God and the joy of seeing the fruit that God has chosen for us to produce.
Through the giving up of our own desire to "own" our lives and through the New "lease" on life that God has graciously given to us through the life of Jesus, we get the joy of witnessing the fruit of our lives. Perhaps our fruit will be compassion for the homeless. Perhaps the fruit will be riches to give to the poor. Perhaps the fruit will be the hands of a surgeon. Perhaps the fruit will be the ear to listen. Perhaps the fruit will be the voice of a choir. Who knows what the fruit we will produce? But, I'll bet that the fruit each and all of us produce will be in the likeness of and a result of the Love that God has given to each and to all of us through the love that God gave us in Jesus life.
Just a hunch on my part... but I'll bet I'm on the right track. Thanks be to God!
Music- Lost & Found
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm51Vkj7RyQ
Prayer
Lord, I give my life to you. I don't own it... you do. As I live my life for and in you; lead me to love those you give to me each day. Produce in me the fruit that you desire that I may please you... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen
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