The image of the vineyard presented in the reading from Isaiah 5: 1-7 and the Gospel, Matthew 21:33-43, shows us a loving landowner who did all he could to make his vineyard the best. It had all it needed to produce the finest grapes, and in turn, the finest wine. However, the vineyard in Isaiah's parable yielded wild grapes, and the tenants who ran the vineyard in Jesus's story, beat off the landowners servants, and even slew his son. Both vineyards failed to yield the anticipated crops.
The vineyard is the kingdom of God, and even beyond that each individual soul which builds up that kingdom. God is the landowner, or "soul owner", if you will, who offers every opportunity and help for the soul to grown and ripen to full maturity. It is consoling to realize how passionately God wants us to reach our full potential. However, if the soul does not yield its expected crop or turns against the landowner, which it so often does, then it will be rejected. The challenge is to take the unique gifts we have been given, not simply bask in them complacently, but to cultivate them, work at them and put them into action, so that we will bear "fruit that will last."
Bro. Rene
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment