St Matthew 21: 33 – 46
Jesus said: “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvellous in our eyes’?
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
Reflection
Jesus was a master storyteller and a part of his gift was to draw people into his tales with images that appeared gentle, familiar and attractive but then, being parabolic, they’d curve back to bite. I sometimes think of them as ‘boomerang stories!’
Picture their faces at the end of the story of the man beaten and left at the side of the road when the punchline was that a hated Samaritan was the neighbour! Ouch!
And here, the familiar is there to start with. They all know about vineyards and all the hard work involved in preparing, maintaining and nurturing the crop. But even more cunning is that, somewhere in the back of their minds (especially the religious leaders who were already suspicious of him) was something else familiar?
And as the story unfolded, the memory of Isaiah’s prophetic image of Judah as God’s beautifully prepared vineyard … and the dreadful judgement that was threatened (and as they understood, later delivered) if they didn’t follow their God’s ways.
This prophetic Jesus was in the line of wonderful boomerang storytellers indeed – and with no less harsh and threatening a warning being delivered.
And yet, simultaneously Jesus is offering a promise too? That image of a cornerstone is attractive, suggesting that if, instead of rejecting it, there is a foundation stone being proffered, with all the possibilities that come with a new, exciting development, built upon it?
I wonder if we might learn new ways of tapping into the familiar images, memes and/or themes of today to somehow draw in and attract new believers?
What is the modern equivalent of a vineyard and a cornerstone I wonder, that we can use to entice folk to learn of the wonders that are inherent in being a part of our glorious God’s family?
Prayer
Christ who has indeed done what is marvellous, amazing and apparently impossible, we wonder at the foundation stone that you placed down for us to build our relationship and lives.
Teach us new ways to log on to your program as we use the password Jesus-the-Cornerstone. Amen