Verse for the week of October 2nd:
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.’?’
(Matthew 21:42)
In this verse, Jesus is quoting a portion of the Old Testament. Specifically, he is quoting Psalm 118:22-23. This quote comes at the end of Jesus telling a parable about the owner of a vineyard and is to drive home the point of the parable to the Jewish authorities. This parable seems very clear about the message that it proclaims—that the Jewish authorities were being like the workers in a vineyard that attacked and killed servants of the owner who were coming to collect what was rightly owed to the owner of the vineyard.
Jesus was attempting to get the Jewish authorities to see that they were missing the new work of God right in front of them. That in essence they were rejecting the cornerstone that God had chosen—and that cornerstone is Jesus.
Jesus is saying to them that whether or not they realized it they were rejecting the cornerstone; thus being like the workers who thought that by abusing the servants of the landowner and eventually killing the son thought that they could take over the land. But the reality is that the owner would turn over the vineyard to those who would bear fruit.
I wonder if the Jewish authorities would have been able to see what Jesus was telling them or if they were just offended and thus sought to get rid of Jesus rather than allow Jesus’ message to speak to them. At the time of Jesus, there were some who took for granted their standing as God’s holy people. Some people would have never imagined that their standing as God’s people might be challenged. Throughout the Old Testament narrative, we can encounter this understanding—people who never thought that God would send His people into exile, people who never thought that God would let them be conquered by other nations, are among some of the examples.
Within the parable it seem clear that what God is interested in is those who bear fruit and not people simply being interested in resting upon their laurels. The parable calls the hearers in Jesus’ day as well as those who hear the parable today, to be content with being workers in the vineyard and honoring the owner (in the parable—the owner is clearly God the Father).
How do we work in the vineyard today and honor God?