This story Jesus told has been on my heart for a while. You might remember it. It is a story of a man planting a vineyard:
…“A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. 10 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. 13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ 14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” 17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?b]”>
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
(Luke 20:9-18 ESV)
Do you see yourself in this story? Which character are we? Are we one of the tenants? Certainly not! We would never kill the servants God sends let alone his very son! We are the bystanders. We are the ones watching it happen. We always have an opinion about what others are doing. We always have the best ideas on how to serve God. We are always apart of the best church or we know exactly what other Christians should be doing. The certainly shouldn’t be killing the servants God sends and definitely not His Son and it is our job to tell them that.
The reality is we are the tenants of the vineyard and we have killed His son. As the scripture says, if we don’t fall on the Rock it will crush us. As Hebrews 9 writes,
“For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.”
(v. 16-17 ESV).
We want His inheritance, but He is only giving it to those who realize that there is blood on their hands. We have killed Him. If we are just bystanders, Christ is looking at someone else when He says, “Father forgive them…” This call is a call to drop our perfection at the door. We need to realize we are guilty before we can be forgiven. We need to realize we are estranged from the family of God before we can be invited back in. An invitation to the family is awkward for those who think they are already in.
We need to realize we are those tenants of God’s vineyard and we have killed His Son for the inheritance, and because He is merciful He hands us the inheritance anyways. He is just so good.
