Good morning and welcome to Thursday’s podcast. I hope you are having a good week and hearing God speak through the podcasts each day.

In today’s reading (Luke 20:1-19) we find Jesus being questioned and tested by the religious leaders of his day. They hope to catch him in his words so they can accuse him and have him put to death. But Jesus has wisdom way beyond them and he is able to repeatedly turn their questions back upon them.

REFLECTION:

Reading from v9…

[Jesus] went on to tell the people this parable: ‘A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.  Then the owner of the vineyard said, “What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.”  But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. “This is the heir,” they said. “Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.’

Now this is a direct condemnation of the religious leaders who questioned Jesus. The nation of Israel had long been referred to as God’s vineyard (Isaiah 5:7) and God’s prophets had also been called his servants (Amos 3:7). The Son stands before them, he will be rejected – thrown out; and killed on the cross and the vineyard turned over to others: you and me.

This is a story that Jesus told that had direct relevance to the following week of Jesus’ life. But what can we learn from it today?

It comes down to fruit. The servants came looking for fruit but the tenants either refused to hand any fruit over or they had none to give.

In many places Jesus uses the same analogy of bearing fruit, but what is the fruit that Jesus refers to? And are we, the new tenants in the vineyard, fruitful?

Well, we know from Galatians 5 that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. But we also know that by summoning up all our energy and resolve we cannot work our way to being more good, or kind, or patient. Rather, this fruit is the result of a change of heart, a response to God’s love touching and transforming us.

So, do we sit back and wait for this to happen or is there anything we can do to position ourselves to receive all that God has for us?

John the Baptist gives us the biggest clue when he challenges the Pharisees and Sadducees at the start of Matthew’s gospel. He says, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8).

Repentance means turning back to God, it is recognition that we often get it wrong. Unless we recognise that we are not always right, then God has nothing to work with. Our hearts are hardened and closed off to the love and grace of God.

Just before writing this I went home for lunch. My children were there and had cooked for themselves. They had done a good job but had left me a bit of mess in the kitchen.

Now that got me thinking. Imagine that I had come home to burnt food and children who had managed to make themselves ill by eating their culinary creations. As a loving father I would love to draw alongside and teach them to cook properly but if they refused to admit that they had done anything wrong or that there was anything bad about the food they had cooked, no matter how hard I try they are not going to grow in their abilities in the kitchen.

It is the same for us in life. I am not perfect and I would hazard a guess that you are not perfect either. Then why is it that we spend a lot of time and energy...