From Luke 20:9-18 — “The the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.’”
The allegory is clear — God sends a succession of prophets into the world to call the world back into right relationship with Him. Time and again, the prophets are rejected, beaten, and sent away until, at last, God sends His own Son (that’s J.C.) into the world, sure that the world would respond to the heir’s authority. Instead, the response is even more hostile than before — rejected and beaten, for sure, the heir is also, this time, murdered. And the tenants (that’s the world and you and me) are certain that at last the world will be totally and completely ours — free of the inconvenient demands that come with Christ’s Lordship (e.g. taking care of each other, the world, etc.). The joke is on us, however, as the allegory continues on to reveal God’s Will that the new creation, the Kingdom of God, be built on “the stone that the builders rejected”; that is, the solid form and likeness of Christ, whose clear-cut edges reveal the shape of love that is to support the world forever.
The allegory works strongly enough upon us if we’re able to read ourselves into the story. It’s the form and intent of the allegory that it not require too much elaboration to make its point. So I’ll leave it alone and let it work on us today with little more than a simple thanksgiving: How grateful we are to live with a God whose love for us says ‘no’ to every careless and callous rejection of His desire to be near us — even to the point of sacrificing Himself. A sure sign, once again, that God is faithful — that God is loving — and that God takes risks to make that love known to us.
Keep an eye out today for God coming near you. Look for the subtle invitations to say ‘yes’ to others and to the Christ in them. And give thanks to God who loves us far too much to simply leave us alone as we are!
