Thursday, March 25

Prayer:

Take a few moments to thank God for a new day; to praise him for who he is; and to ask him to speak to your heart through his word.

Read once again Jesus teaching in Matthew 21:33-44
“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 went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

“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.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

“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.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.’”

“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from your and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken into pieces, but he who on whom it falls will be crushed.”

Now read the conclusion to the story:
Matthew 21:45-46
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

This is an example of a “Jesus story” that does not end well. Many Jesus stories end with a person being healed or putting their faith in Jesus for salvation – but not this one. This story ends with resistance, anger and fear. These men knew that Jesus was not only talking about them – but that he was telling the truth about their pride and sinfulness. But instead of responding with humility and repentance – they chose to respond with defensiveness and vindictiveness.

This story reminds us that there is room for only one god in the human heart. That god might be ourselves with all our pride, power and accomplishments; that god might be money, with all it can do for us; or that god might be the creator and redeemer of all things – but there is room for only one.

Consider for a moment the people and concerns that compete for God’s role in your life. Who, or what, is the driving force in most of your decisions? Who, or what, occupies most of your thoughts during a typical day.

When we stop to really think about it – if we are honest – we can all identify a whole room full of people or concerns that compete for the “God-place” in our hearts. Yet only one God is worthy of that place; only one God is capable of keeping all the other candidates in their proper place in our lives.

Close your time with God by giving him permission to take his rightful place in your life – and to remind you often of his gracious authority.

Brian Coffey