Matthew 21:33-46

Matthew 21:33-46
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Jesus speaks directly to the chief priests, confronting them on their actions -- they're rejecting him, refusing to consider the belief that he might be the Savior they've been waiting for. He spends so much time with them, urging them to see what they are doing, pointing to the Scripture that all point to him.  He wants them to see, to understand, and he knows he needs to confront them to do so.  They continue to resist.
  We need friends like this.  The church should be like this -- willing to confront us about the things we refuse to see in our lives.  The church should be able to confront us in love, and to do so with humility, but we need to be honest with one another, because that's how we move forward.  In our society, it's so easy to not take responsibility for one another -- we are nice and we are polite, but we often don't have relationships deep enough that allow us the trust, the currency, to speak hard truths with love into one another's lives.  The danger of the consumerist church mentality is that we only show up to church to hear what God has to say to us, and we miss out on the chances to build relationships together, to be drawn closer to one another and be honest about our struggles and joys of the road of discipleship.
  It's so important to find a group of people, a community, where you can be honest and where you can hear the things they have to say, the words of affirmation as well as the words that challenge our shortcomings.  In hearing and speaking these things in love, we help see the way sin and idolatry creeps in our lives and we can find ways together to cling to Christ through it all.