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.
Dear God, the more I read these stories the more I think Jesus was intentionally pushing them too far. And, frankly, I think there’s one part of this parable that might not fit. Verse 37 implies that you thought that Jesus would be respected by the chief priests when he came, but you knew this is how it would turn out. You knew that they would feel threatened by him, reject him, and kill him.
I happen to be writing this on Good Friday. Good Friday is an interesting day because a lot of Christians (including me) treat it almost like we do Memorial Day—for a lot of us it is a day off from work, but we often fail to stop and ponder the significance of this day. Jesus’ earthly mission culminated on this day around 1,980 years ago. Even the parables like this one. He didn’t tell them so that they would repent and change their ways. He knew that wouldn’t happen. I am convinced that he told them so that they would hit their breaking point and kill him. He needed it to happen. Why? Because he knew that I needed it to happen. He knew that all of us needed it to happen.
As a father, I wish there was a magic button I could push to make everything alright for my children. I wish there was some way I knew to sacrifice myself for them to know that they would turn out as people who love you and are submitted to you. As I sit here now, if I knew that there was something I could do, up to and including death, that would be a guarantee for them I know I would do it. But my path isn’t quite as clear. My road is murkier as I try to navigate being a husband, father, son, brother, friend, and employee.
Father, I can’t see the road in front of me, but you don’t want me to see it. You want to keep me in the present. So please help me to be in the present. Love my children through me. Love my wife through me. Even love my enemies through me. Don’t let me do anything that might take away from your glory. Instead, bring glory to yourself through me. Help me to decrease as you increase. And thank you for what you did in this story. You knew where it would lead and you did it for me. Thank you.
Emails to God 