Good morning and welcome to Friday’s podcast. My name is Alan and it has been a pleasure to lead you through this week’s reflections on Matthew’s Gospel and wasn’t it good to hear from Becky Wilson, our Eden team leader on Wednesday. If you’ve not heard it yet, go back and listen, it’s well worth your time. Next week James Brown will take over the reins and lead us through the next two chapters of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life.

REFLECTION:

Today we come to the end of chapter 21. Our reading for the day is from v33. This section of Matthew’s account contains just one story told by Jesus, a parable that was a direct challenge to those who heard it. I’m going to read the passage now rather than at the end. Chapter 21:33-46

‘Listen to another parable: there was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall round 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 in 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.

In the parable, God is the Landowner, the tenants are the nation of Israel, the servants sent to collect the fruit are the prophets…It is a direct message from Jesus to the chief priests and elders of the people, those in the crowd who heard him and sought his death… which is all very well… but what on earth has this got to do with us? We didn’t kill the prophets, we are on Jesus’ side, so surely we get to stand alongside him, point the finger and shake our heads at the failure of others – at the failure of Israel and its leaders

Don’t we!?

Yes, it’s a parable that was spoken to challenge the people of Jesus’ day. Yes, it has direct relevance to those who heard it. Yes, they are the ones who have killed the prophets and who will go on to kill Jesus. Yes, it’s a parable bringing the failure of Israel to light – Israel, a nation who had been chosen to show the world what lives lived for God looked like but had failed time and time again.

Yes Jesus says that he will take the kingdom from Israel and give it to those who will produce its fruit – people like you and me… but can we simply dismiss it as a message for them and move on… or can we learn something about God, about ourselves and about his expanding kingdom?

What we see in Jesus’ words are the pitfalls common to all of us humans. If we have ears to hear, his words will impact us and they will provoke a response.

So what can we learn?

Firstly,