Bad Tenants
Good Morning Friends,
Today we look on a story that started in the Garden and goes on in our world today in our rebellion against God and at first it really makes our blood ready to boil. But then it makes us sad and then, as I think of Fyodor Dostoevski’s book The Brothers Karamazov and a chapter entitled “The Grand Inquisitor,” it reminds us of God’s love. I have added an excerpt of Dostoevski’s work with a painting for your consideration. It was brought to my attention by a Catholic friend of mine. It is about Jesus coming back into the world. But how do you think it is going to end? Think again. God so loves us that He sends His Son so we might have it all. So repent for we have been Bad Tenants.
Scripture:
1The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it;
Psalm 24:1 (NRSV)
“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
Matthew 21: 33-46
(NRSV)
32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?
Romans 8:32 (NRSV)
Message: Jesus tells this very interesting and provocative story about a landowner and some farmers to whom he rented his land. In Jesus’ story, the landowner does all the work in the beginning. The land is his, and he plants a vineyard. He digs a winepress where the grapes can be trampled and the juice extracted. He builds a wall and a watchtower so the crop will be protected and guarded. Everything is in order for a great crop of grapes. The bad news is that the story is not just about the Pharisees but the world we live in today as well. It goes all the way back to the Garden. What Jesus is doing is telling the world’s story and predicting his own death due to the rebellion of God’s creation. God is the landowner. He has made the world and everything in it. He planted all the trees and plants that give us food. He gives the world to us, and makes us his tenants. We are renters, not owners. We have been given a good world and a great deal of freedom. The land is fruitful and we are blessed to have been given the privilege of being tenants here. God has been good to us. But a problem has arisen. A rebellion is fomenting among the tenants. We, first of all, want to claim the Master’s land and everything on it as our own, and we want him to stay out of it. We abuse those who come and remind us that this world is not our own. We refuse to recognize God’s ownership of the world. Since the time that he appears to have gone on a journey, we have forgotten him and gotten used to the idea that all of this is ours. And, secondly, we do not want to give to God what rightfully belongs to him. So when God sent the prophets to call the people of the world to recognize God’s ownership and to give him what he is due, we not only became hostile to God, we killed his messengers. This has happened throughout the history of the world, and is still happening now. In many places of the world today, to preach the good news of Jesus openly is to face the possibility of imprisonment or a death sentence. In the story they took the son outside the vineyard and killed him. In Jerusalem they took the Son outside the city gate and crucified him. What do you think will happen when the owner of it all returns?
Pray we not be greedy. Pray
we realize that God owns it all but wants us to inherit it. Pray we produce fruit worthy of God’s harvesting. Pray we become better stewards of this earth.
Pray we stop killing the messengers because we do not like the message. Pray we realize the plan is for everyone to win. Pray we are not afraid of men’s sin but love others in their sin. Pray we love all of God’s creation and the mystery of God in each thing. Pray we not go against God’s purpose. Pray we love the little children and the world they will inherit.
Pray
we realize that Jesus will return.
Blessings,
John Lawson
The Brothers Karamazov excerpt of a chapter entitled “The Grand Inquisitor.”
The setting is Spain, during the terrible Spanish Inquisition where many people were put to death by the church for almost any heretical belief — real or imagined. In the story, Christ decides to reappear on earth during the time of the Inquisition. He comes quietly and inconspicuously, but everyone recognizes him and many are excited about his appearance. He says almost nothing, but people are drawn to him by an irresistible force. He stretches his hand out to bless the people and they are healed as he touches them. Christ is walking by the great Cathedral of Seville just as a child’s little coffin is brought in, with weeping parents who follow it into the church. Inside the casket is a lifeless little girl of seven. The child’s mother implores Christ to bring her back. Without a word he touches the young girl and raises her from the dead. Meanwhile, the bishop is looking on disapprovingly. His face darkens and he orders the arrest of the Stranger. But during the night, the Bishop descends the stairs into the cavern of the Sacred Court building where the Stranger is being held in a dark, vaulted prison. The Bishop, who is the Grand Inquisitor, i.e. the head inquisitor who inquires in order to discover heretics, looks at Christ in the squalid cell and says, “Is it you? You? Do not answer, be silent… Why did you come to meddle with us? Tomorrow I shall condemn you and burn you at the stake as the vilest of heretics, and the same people who today kissed your feet, will at the first sign from me rush to rake up the coals at your stake tomorrow.” But the Grand Inquisitor somehow changes his mind, and the story ends with these words: “When the Inquisitor finished speaking, he waited for some time for the Prisoner’s reply. His silence distressed him. He saw that the Prisoner had been listening intently to him all the time, looking gently into his face and evidently not wishing to say anything in reply. The old man would have liked him to say something, however bitter and terrible. But [the Prisoner] suddenly approached the old man and kissed him gently on his bloodless, aged lips. That was all his answer. The old man gave a start. There was an imperceptible movement at the corners of his mouth; he went to the door, opened it and said to him: ‘Go, and come no more—don’t come at all—never, never!’ And he let him out into ‘the dark streets and lanes of the city.’ The Prisoner went away.”
Daily Devotionals 