So Kris spoke on the parable of the tenants on Sunday and it really made me think about a lot. Here are some of my notes while I was listening. Kris said that even though the Israel listeners would have wanted to assume the vineyard was them ... Jesus was, not so subtly, pointing out that the vineyard was the whole earth and the life of God at work, God's promises and that Israel and now the church are only tenants or stewarts.
He went on to point out that hypocracy cannot stop the life and promise of God. All it leads to is empty hands and hell-bound christian leaders. God will wrench the vineyard from their hands and kill them. But the vineyard will thrive and change the world. Definite wake up call on reality and who is in charge.
If Israel is the tenants and now the church is the tenants ... we are to be caretakers of the life and promise of God in the earth. This connects right back to the beginning. Adam and Eve were stewards and caretakers, leaders on the earth, farming leaders of living things. But when they chose to self-serve and eat what wasn't theirs, the garden (the promise of a blessed world) is wrenched from their hands. It had to be wrenched from their hands, they were killers who would go on to gut the whole world in order to feed their hunger to be God, instead of embracing the reality of being a tenant farmer.
And now Jesus has made another change of hands. The others are all of us, but we must continually remind ourselves that we are stewards, that is reality and what is most profound is that we are stewards who are made in the image of our master ... we are created to follow him and see the life and promise of God go out into the earth.
fishin
About Me
- jaypercival
- Jason Campbell is a full-time accountant and a part-time writer. He has been wrestling with ideas around race, justice, and the American experiment for over twenty years.
2 comments:
Great thoughts, Jason. "We must continually remind ourselves that we are stewards... we are created to follow him and see the life and promise of God go out into the earth." Well put, and to add to that, there's a cost associated with stewardship -- just like the tenant farmers were meant to pay.
As believers, we must pay the cost of stewardship. When we don't, we're no better than the rebellious farmers in the parable. Being good stewards of God's word, the resources he gives us and the earth, to name a few things, may cost us comfort, material possessions or relationships -- perhaps our very lives -- but, ultimately, exercising godly stewardship over them costs less than abdicating our God-given responsibility would in the long run.
The tenant farmers escaped judgment by killing the servants and the son, but they still had the master to deal with.
There is always a cost associated with looking beyond yourself. There is actually a great cost if you are selfish (a dark and distorted soul), but to look beyond your own wants and needs to the wants and needs of those around you or to the earth around you or to future generations, means that you will make sacrifice for others.
Good comment Cam.
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