We are merely stewards

 

In this parable (Matthew 21:33-46) the Pharisees were indignant at the thought that they might not be considered to be as good as they thought they were. After all, “they were entitled” by birth and dismissed anything that might challenge their place in Jewish society. Don’t do we sometimes think that we are entitled…just because we were born into a certain social strata? Let’s face it, as citizens of this great country it’s easy to take our blessings for granted. We live sometimes as though we have somehow earned these blessings. 

As today’s Gospel reminds us, we are mere temporary resident tenants who have been entrusted as stewards of the Master’s property and are expected to return it better than the way we found it. Like the tenants who leased the land, we are often too busy tending to our own agendas and take our minds off the prize. We forget that the landowner is going to hold us accountable for what we have done with his land. It is not our private club.   

The kingdom of God does not work like a marketplace. That is man’s construct not God’s. What we do in His kingdom does not exist to serve our own agendas but rather it exists to serve something much greater than ourselves. His vineyard has nothing to do with returns on investment or quid pro quo.  We have no idea what that yield is or will be. God’s love like a fertile verdant garden, takes what we have and returns it more beautiful than before.  

In Matthew, Jesus describes the violent way the tenant farmers treated the servants and the landowner’s own son.  He then asks them how they think the landowner will treat the tenant farmer.  Thoroughly entrenched in their world’s ideology of violence and retribution, the Pharisees say that the landowner will bring those retches to a miserable end.  Jesus knows that this is not quite the whole story and tells them, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.”  In other words, God is not about to give up.  No matter what violent acts are perpetuated against Jesus, the Father will see that the rejected stone continues to be the cornerstone. 

The kingdom is not ours.  The kingdom belongs to God.  We who live in the kingdom must reside on God’s terms and not ours.  We are just stewards.  This good news is worth sharing!