The First Reading is the background and context for Jesus' parable of the vineyard and the tenants
Isaiah tells a story of his friend who had a vineyard and, after doing everything right, the crops were rotten
- God is that friend and we are the crops that were rotten
- God has done everything for us, yet we reject Him and sin
- We are deserving of being destroyed like the friend threatened to do
- Yet, we are not!
The parable is of a vineyard whose tenants turn against the landowner and refuses to pay the share of the crops. They end up killing the landowner's servants and even his own son!
- God is that landowner and we are the tenants
- He gave us the vineyard to tend to and, rightly so, expects us to act accordingly
- We have, though, rejected His prophets, witnesses and even killed His only Son, Jesus!
We are the harvest in Isaiah's story and the tenants in Jesus' parable, in both instances we fail.
God has labored to bring about a ripe and abundant harvest. He desires us to be good, juicy and delicious fruit - He has done everything and given us everything to ensure that - but we sin.
Sin and every act against the God who loves us spoils the fruit God desires. We know what needs done, God gives us every faculty and resource that we need - but we bear rotten fruit.
God has offered us the vineyard to take care of and to work on so that we can bring about an abundant harvest and give back to the landowner. We, instead, turn against him and viciously and greedily kill everyone who comes in his name - even his own son!
The message of today's scripture is one of persistence. God is persistent with us. We have, throughout our whole history, been in a back and forth struggle with God. We are with Him and then we are against Him. We love Him and then we hate Him. We obey Him and then we disobey Him. He is our love and then He is our enemy.
We go back and forth all the time in this extraordinary relationship with our God, but God does not!
God is never against us, never hates us and never our enemy - He is always the one who gives Himself wholly and completely while always desiring us to be and bear ripe and abundant fruit.
This, though, does not mean we are saved by default. No, though He is Love, He is does guarantee salvation no matter what - this is the point to remember! Though the landowner desired nothing more than a delicious harvest, though the friend did everything he could to ensure a fruitful harvest - sin prohibited both!
God can only desire and make available every grace and blessing that we need - we are the ones that have to accept them and put them to use to ensure the harvest is ripe and the fruit delicious.
Ultimately it is our choice; are we going to allow ourselves to be the fruit God has desired or are we going to allow ourselves to become rotten?
Are we going to give God what is His and care for His vineyard, or is greed and sin going to corrupt us so much that we kill and destroy everything and everyone that comes and speaks in His name?
God desires...God plants...We accept or We reject
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