It is so easy to gloss over the gospels, thinking we know the big picture; Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection with a sprinkling of parables and teachings. Yet I am struck time and again as I am journeying through the gospel of Matthew how rich it is and how much there is to take and reflect on and allow it to shape how I live. Yes the gospel is to repent and believe, but in that believing there is much working out and transformation to take place in the way I am a wife, a parent, a friend, a member of church, a work colleague. The gospel is so much more than just about sins forgiven. It is about all of life, all of my life, all of each of our lives.
As with the fig tree the other week, I had my own take on the parable of the vineyard in Matthew 21:33 that needed the Holy Spirit’s illumination and my eyes lifted up. I knew that the landowner is to be God and in no way do I condone how the tenant farmers treat the servants or son, but I had to be honest and admit that I felt sympathy with them. The landowner had rented it out to them (NIV) and then went away; then requested the harvest at harvest time. It brought to mind the children’s story of the hen who asks for the help of other animals to gather, mill and bake the bread. Everyone had their excuses and yet were ready to eat the bread. Part of me rankled with the landowner. If he wanted the harvest then maybe he should have stayed and taken care of the vineyard in the first place.
I was brought up short at the end in v41 where Jesus’ audience reply that new tenants would give the landowner his share of the crop. There was an expectation that the landowner was to get a share of the harvest. He had not sold the farmers the vineyard, He had rented to it them and with that there were expectations of what was to happen at the harvest. The tenant farmers though had different ideas. They had replaced stewardship of that which belongs to another with outright ownership. They had decided what their reward was and had cut others out.
As I considered this then in light of church and church leadership I was reminded that the church is not ours but God’s. If it was of us, it would not have survived the past 2000 years. For all its imperfections and outright wrongs and evils by those in it, the church itself is still of God and is still God’s way of reaching the nations. As believers we do not get to own the church but become tenants (fishers of people), stewards of that which is God’s. We need to hold the harvest with open hands not closed fists. The harvest is people coming to faith, not in our leadership, teaching, programs and community but people coming to faith in the risen Christ.
For those of us in church our inheritance, our reward is not in the harvest, in healthy bank accounts, and thriving ministries and reputation but in Christ. As Paul says in Philippians 3:14 “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.“
We cannot stop there though. We have to heed all the parable and as well as saying that the landowner will get his share from new farmers, he will bring those farmers who have killed and harmed others to a wretched end. (NIV) In Luke 12 we read of Jesus saying that to those whom much has been given much will be expected. Sobering words for those of us who have been entrusted with the stewardship of His church. There is a reason Paul calls us to keep our eyes on Christ, to press on to the goal that God has called us onward to. If we do that it helps us not grab the harvest for ourselves. It enables us to be generous and to share and lift others up. It enables to gospel to be seen and lives transformed by the risen Christ.
Joshua's Tree Rooted 