Wednesday, February 20

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. When the people heard this, they said, “May this never be!” (Luke 20: 13-16)

In the verses before this reading, the owner of the vineyard sends in servants first to straighten things out. They get beaten up. Then he sends his beloved son who meets a worse fate.

God sent prophets through the years, but their messages were often misconstrued or interpreted to one personal selfish benefit. And, of course, when Jesus came to earth, he was mocked, disbelieved, and murdered.

What messengers are sent our way and what do we hear? We have the scriptures and church worship as guides, but we also have prayer and our conscience. Taking moments in our daily lives to listen to God are today’s messengers. Giving prayerful thought to your conscience before making decisions are today’s messengers. Rejecting scriptures, church, prayer, and conscience makes us like the tenant farmhands in the reading. We can choose to live a self-absorbed life obsessed with material things, or choose to seek His plan and live according to it.

Jesus was killed once – let Him live in us. 

Dave Briggman