“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who
planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and
built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the
season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his
fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and
stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did
the same to them. 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 have his inheritance.’ And they took him
and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore 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 let out the vineyard to other
tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
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 marvelous
in our eyes’?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away
from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on
this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush
him.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables,
they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking
to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
(Matthew 21:33-46)
One of my major frustrations with the “On This Day” format (the box to the left) is editing out or not having room for so many things I wish I could say!
Today, I will
simply add that what we see in our hearts when we hear anything from the Bible
about Jesus is THE thing to focus on.
One way I came to
understand “blessed are the poor in spirit” is by contrasting it with the “proud
in spirit”. I learned more about “blessed are those who mourn” by considering
those who self-justified their sin. I learned about “blessed are the meek” as I
watched the self-reliant never admit they could not make themselves good enough
for God. And I felt the realities of “blessed are those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness,” by identifying the complacency and self-protection of the
religious.
My point is that
whenever we look at the way God is making everything about his Son, we will see
what is in our hearts. And if we will meet God there, we will discover that “the
One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy” says,
“I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and
lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the
contrite” (Isaiah 57:15).
And now you know what
God finds in your heart, and whether your heart wants to find your life in him.
© 2024
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition:
2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News
Publishers.)
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