Dear Luke,
It is not my patience and
understanding that you need! You are
welcome to whatever amounts of it I have, but I cannot make any assurances on
behalf of my Savior, Jesus Christ. He
has promised love and mercy, but he has also promised to judge those who do not
follow him. I can only encourage you to
decide, to set aside your desire to know everything and choose to follow him,
trusting that you know enough and that the rest will be revealed to you in
God’s time. We do not need to be
perfect—I will not claim that I could have stood confidently by Jesus’ side as
the Pharisees and Chief Priests closed in around him, although I, too,
definitely would have joined in the praise songs of him as he entered
Jerusalem. What we might have done back
then does not matter, friend—what matters is what we choose to do today.
The Chief Priests and Scribes
wanted proof, too, although they had an ulterior motive. One day, as Jesus was teaching in the temple,
the same temple where he drove out those doing business, these leaders came and
asked who gave him the authority to say and do the things he was doing. They wanted to hear him commit blasphemy so
they could condemn him to death, but I think they also wanted to know
everything. We all want this—but in
faith, we have to accept that we’ll never know everything.
Jesus, however, opted not to step
into their trap. He could have said that
he had authority from God, but they would have then charged him and killed him
before anyone else could grasp what had happened, but Jesus decided to ask them
whether John the Baptist’s baptism was from heaven or humans?
It’s a tricky question, and the
leaders knew it. They knew that if they
answered that it was human, the people would turn on the religious leaders,
because the people believed that John the Baptist was a prophet. They also knew that if they said it was of
heavenly origin, Jesus would ask them why they didn’t believe John. They realized they were stuck, and so they
answered that they did not know. Jesus,
in turn, refused to answer their question as well. Surely they went away frustrated by the way
Jesus had evaded their well-thought out trap.
Jesus knew that the Pharisees
rejected Jesus Christ’s identity as the Messiah. Jesus challenged their societal power they
had accumulated. They desired to remain
comfortably in power while Jesus challenged them to reinvigorate their faith,
to hand their lives over to God. The
faith of the Pharisees had died long ago—they were using their religious role
to hold onto earthly power and honor.
Their hearts had been removed from their religious roles, and Jesus
challenged them to come back to God. To
this end, he told yet another parable in the hopes of helping them see the
error of their ways.
This story revolves around a
vineyard that was leased to some tenants.
Immediately upon successfully leasing it, the owner left the country for
some time. He did, however, keep track
of the schedule, and when time came for the vineyard to produce its profit, the
original owner sent a slave so that he might collect his share.
The tenants, rather than receiving
the slave with gratitude toward the one who owned the vineyard and was leasing
it to them, rejected the slave, beating him and sending him back to the
owner. Two more slaves suffered this
same fate, causing the owner much consternation. Attempting to believe the best about the
tenants and ready to give them yet another chance, he sent his own son in the
hopes that they would pay him the respect he deserves.
The tenants, however, saw this as a
chance to take for themselves what did not rightly belong to them. They believed that killing the son would
allow them to squeeze their way into the inheritance of the father, taking by
force what was not theirs to take. When
the son came, their hatred for the landowner was on full display when they took
the life of his son.
Jesus concludes the story with the
truth that when the owner returns, surely filled with rage and anger at the
tenants for their abuse of his slaves and the death of his son, the tenants
will not find their way into inheritance but will rather be destroyed so that
the owner may lease the vineyard to new tenants.
The Pharisees, probably shocked at
the actions of the tenants but yet to see how Jesus is linking the tenants to
them, gasped, “Heaven forbid.”
Jesus, wanting to make sure the
point hit home, looked them in the eye when he asked them what the Old
Testament verse means that says that the cornerstone of the building is the one
that the builders have rejected. He goes
on to remind them that the cornerstone will destroy those upon whom it falls,
while breaking those who fall on it.
The minds of the chief priests and
scribes snapped open and they saw that this horrific story was told about
them. In a fury, they wanted to seize
him right then, but the fear of the crowds’ love of Jesus kept them from doing
so.
Luke, the story of Jesus hints at
the fact that many of the Old Testament prophets were ignored when they warned
the people to turn back to God, to pay tribute to his love and generosity with
their lives. The people didn’t listen,
rejecting the message of the prophets and continuing to live as though they
were their own masters. In Jesus, God has
sent his own Son, expecting that the tenants, those whom God has blessed and
put in charge, would listen to him.
Instead, they hated Jesus and sought to control the vineyard for
themselves, to take by force what was not theirs to take. Jesus is threatening that they will lose
everything if they don’t submit to him, and yet they continue to live in
arrogance, believing that they are their own masters.
They will see the error of their
ways in time, I believe, but in the present they are so blinded by their
heartfelt animosity toward Christ.
Jesus’ challenges of their way of life hit so close to home they become
defensive and refuse to change.
Each person who comes to Jesus has
to be willing to lay it all down before him and let him be Lord of all. We can’t continue to be our own masters, to
forget about the owner of the vineyard, the one who rules our lives. We owe everything to him, and he expects us
to live with gratitude toward him. When
we reject his rule in our lives, we are rejecting him.
I hope this is clear, Luke, and I
hope you, too, do not become defensive, but let it be a message by which you
examine yourself. I continue to look
back at my own life, to see how I might be rejecting God’s messengers, so that
I might change my own ways band become more faithful. May we all rise to this challenge.
Sincerely,
Theophilus
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