Boy! Have we had the storms over the last few days! I drove home Friday night from Fayetteville in a storm so strong that you really could not see beyond the car just in front of you. And then Sunday night when we came out of Bible study, the wind was blowing at 30+ miles per hour just before another torrential downpour. And then yesterday still another storm tracked through Riverdale.
Some folks are wondering if the increase in storms might be a sign of the end times. I don’t know … my task is to share the Gospel in hopes of the coming of our Lord – not to predict the ending of the world.
Jesus had a lot of folks who asked him about the coming of the end. Most of the time He refocused the discussion on the mission of Israel. You see, Israel was God chosen people. The question should be “chosen for what”. My answer would be to prepare the nations for the coming of the Messiah.
After Jesus entered Jerusalem, He began teaching in the Temple. As usual, the religious leaders began to question His authority to teach. He kept on teaching anyhow … Below is one of the parables He taught:
Matthew 21:33-45 New International Version (NIV)
The Parable of the Tenants
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’[a]?
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.”[b]
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them.
Footnotes:
a. Matthew 21:42 Psalm 118:22,23
b. Matthew 21:44 Some manuscripts do not have verse 44.
So what was Jesus saying? Well, the vineyard is the world. The tenant farmers are the religious leaders of Israel. The servants are the prophets. And the son is none other than Jesus. Note that when Jesus finished the parable, the religious leaders recognized that they were the object of this parable. And how did they react? By seeking to destroy Him.
You know, we don’t like to find out we are in the wrong anymore than the religious leaders of that day. And often times our reaction is similar to theirs. But the lesson we must learn is that we are not the landowners but the tenants … and are beholden to the landowner for producing a crop.
No … storms, earthquakes, floods, famines … all those point to the future. It is a future we need not fear for God is with us. But it is a future that we can help others plan for by just sharing what Christ has done for us.
Agape’
Mr. Jim
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