Readings for today: Matthew 21:23-22:14, Mark 11:27-12:12, Luke 20:1-18, John 12:37-50
I’ve been thinking a lot about the patience of God. The endurance of God. The perseverance of God. One of God’s great desires is that all should be saved and come to a knowledge of His truth. He’s been working towards this great end since the Fall of humankind into sin. He will never let us go. Never abandon us to our fate. Never stop reaching out to us. Never stop relentlessly pursuing us. Jesus says as much in one of my favorite parables. He talks about a man who planted a vineyard and leased to a particular group of people and then went into a far country, entrusting what he had made into their care. Unfortunately, the tenants got it into their heads that they deserved to keep the fruit of their labor so they rebelled against the master. They beat his servants. They treated them shamefully. They even killed a few along the way. Still the master was patient with them. He kept reaching out to them. Kept calling them back to covenant faithfulness. Eventually, the master sent his son, hoping to convince the tenants to listen to reason and repent of their ways. Tragically, those wicked tenants took the opportunity to kill the heir and secure the vineyard for themselves.
Isn’t this how humanity operates? Our inhumanity to one another knows no bounds. I am ministering in a recent conflict zone over in Ethiopia this week. The people here have suffered tremendously. Their homes have been looted. Their city stripped bare. War crimes have been committed. Attempts at ethnic cleansing have taken place. It’s horrifying on so many levels. The same thing is happening all over the world. It happens in nations like Ukraine. It happens in major cities where violent gangs run the streets. It happens in homes where abusers take out their anger on the innocent and vulnerable. So much violence. So much pain. So much heartbreak. Why doesn’t God step in? Why doesn’t God pour out His righteous wrath and judgment on those who perpetrate such evil? Why doesn’t God lay waste to the wicked tenants of the earth?
According to Jesus, it’s because God is still holding out hope for some of us to turn to Him. It’s why He continues to send servants into the deepest, darkest places on earth to spread the good news of the gospel. I think of the men and women we are training this week. They already face persecution on levels I will never come to understand. They live under constant threat. They face beatings and torture and imprisonment. Some will possibly even die. The wicked tenants of this region are very resistant to God. Not that it’s any different back home where I happen to live. The resistance is just not as obvious. The reality is we are all “wicked tenants” to some degree. Taking what God has entrusted to us and seeking to usurp God’s rightful claim. I know I’ve caused my share of suffering over the years with the things I’ve said and done to those I love. I wish I could take it back. I carry a lot of regrets. I know God is going to hold me accountable when I stand before His judgment throne. Thankfully, however, I did not reject His Son. When Jesus confronted me on the University of Colorado in Boulder in February of 1993, I responded with repentance. I got on my knees and gave my life to Him. The stone I had once rejected became the cornerstone of my life. It was the Lord’s doing and it remains marvelous to my eyes to this day. What about you? Where do you find yourself in this story today? Are you like the “wicked tenants” claiming ownership over your life or have you responded in faith to God’s Son?
Readings for tomorrow: Matthew 22:15-23:39, Mark 12:13-44, Luke 20:19-21:4, 13:31-35