33 “Now listen to another story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country. 34 At the time of the grape harvest, he sent his servants to collect his share of the crop. 35 But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 So the landowner sent a larger group of his servants to collect for him, but the results were the same.
37 “Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’
38 “But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Come on, let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ 39 So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard, and murdered him.
40 “When the owner of the vineyard returns,” Jesus asked, “what do you think he will do to those farmers?”
41 The religious leaders replied, “He will put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest.”
42 Then Jesus asked them, “Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing,
and it is wonderful to see.’
43 I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. 44 Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.”
45 When the leading priests and Pharisees heard this parable, they realized he was telling the story against them—they were the wicked farmers. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds, who considered Jesus to be a prophet.
Matthew 21:33-46
Dear God, once again, it is important to read this parable in context. It all starts with the “triumphant entry” at the beginning of the chapter (and the Pharisees being jealous and also fearful that this could cause problems with Rome), the clearing of the Temple (which made them indignant and defensive), Jesus spending the night in Bethany, and then coming back in the morning to experience the Pharisees’ indignation and “by what authority do you do this?!?” questions. Then he tells the “Parable of the Two Sons,” followed immediately with, “Now listen to another story.”
As I think about you and who you are in this story and try to do my best to see what I can learn about you and your nature, it makes me think about an interview I listened to this morning The Holy Post did with Jemar Tisby. Here’s a link:
I thought about the Christian leaders, university administrators, etc. who were afraid of his message about race in America and the Christian church, and they started to definitely look like Pharisees to me. The thing about you in the person of Jesus and also the person of the Holy Spirit is that you have incredible empathy for us. You have empathy because you came down here and you lived it. You lived in poverty. You lived as a minority immigrant as a small child. You lived an oppressed life without political freedom. You lived with people you might have grown up admiring letting you down and turning on you. You lived with rejection. You lived with betrayal. You have empathy for the human experience that, frankly, I don’t have because I have lived a pretty privileged life.
Father, I have a song going in my head right now by Brandon Heath called “Give Me Your Eyes.” The words I’m thinking about are, “Give me your eyes for just one second. Give me your eyes so I can see everything I’ve been missing. Give me your eyes for humanity. Give me your arms for the broken-hearted, the ones that are far beyond my reach. Give me your heart for the ones forgotten. Give me your eyes so I can see.” That is my prayer this morning. I’m as majority in America as it gets. I’m a big, tall, white male. There is so much about the American experience I don’t understand. Give me your eyes, and give me the humility to see what you need me to see.
I pray all of this under the power of Jesus,
Amen
Emails to God 