Let’s kill the heir …

Let’s kill the heir…

Ew. Bow. 20, 9-19 presents us with the tragic story of asking for fruit from the vineyard.

When we were buying a house 8 years ago, in which we live, it turned out that there was a good cherry growing on this plot, it gives us a lot of satisfaction, there were years when it did not bear fruit, but now for the third year in a row, the branches are bending with the amount of fruit that grows there, and children can approach and nibble from the yard level as many cherries they want. It is true that such a state lasts about three weeks, then there are less and less cherries, because friends will come to break up, family, and finally the birds eat. The last ones are the best, they are black from maturity, some of them are unfortunately not able to break due to the size of the tree. What a pity, when we see such large ripe cherries, we already feel their taste in the mouth, and here it cannot be done, too high. The tree grows all year round, but it is so amazingly attractive only 3-4 weeks a year.

The ripening time is a special time for our cherries, it must be June, sun, heat, it is also a limited time when you need to use these fruits, otherwise they will fall off and rot. For example, you can’t say to yourself, ah in a month I will think whether I will pick these cherries, or in December for Christmas, they will be so fresh on the table, because then they will not be on the tree for a long time. They can survive in mortars, compotes, etc. But not in the tree. We remember this and look at it every day, as the fruits do not all ripen at the same time, but when some are ripe and some are still green, you have to pick it properly every day, and they are fresh on our table every day. We are also happy to share them with people from the church or with family, if only someone comes and breaks up. There are way too many for us.

There are times when we go somewhere, be it in Wrocław to my in-laws, on vacation or in service somewhere in Poland. Soon I will go to Gołdap and Suwałki. I am very happy that God is giving me such a grace that I can share the Gospel in various regions of Poland. Sometimes we ask someone to come to our house and feed the animals (2 cats and a dog) or water the flowers and other plants. Sometimes even someone lives with us at that time. I try to imagine how I would feel if, after returning from vacation, expecting to finally rent cherries for free, I saw an empty tree, broken branches, lots of pips around. I would probably think starlings, but if I found out that they were our vacationers, I would be very sorry. I would probably never do that again.

When entrusting someone own property, we count on the fact that such a person will respect it, appreciate it, will be reliable, loyal and will not appropriate our property. And when the time for fruiting comes, it will not take our crops away from us. Or, if we agree on a part of the harvest for us, as payment for the use of a given field or vineyard, we will receive it, because it is all ours anyway. The tenants from the parable were not like that, they had usurped the vineyard and did not want to bear fruit, the fruit was abundant, and the farmer could have known it even by the crops of his neighbors or other growers. It is so, that when it is a good year, all our neighbors harvest cherries, and when it is bad in the sense that there were frosts at the time of flowering, no one has a large harvest. So the landlord knew that there must be fruit on the bushes and that the tenants deliberately did not want to give them to him as payment for the lease.

The Lord Jesus knew very well that Pharisees, Sadicaes, and scribes who were listening to Him understand Him, because such situations were so common. Wealthy vineyard owners rented fields and lived off the lease they were entitled to. Like a tenant was failing to fulfill his contract, he replaced him with another, and if he resisted, it was the military or some other means to get him out of there. We also know it from the Polish backyard, where landowners leased the fields to administrators and others, and did not have to deal with the cultivation, but collected the annual lease. And today it was so that a large farmer leases small fields from his neighbors, cultivates them for an appropriate payment and shares what he earns. He does not have to be the owner, it is enough that he leases, has the appropriate equipment, machines, harvesters and it pays off for him.

This parable shows Israel, God has always called His chosen people a vineyard. Ps. 80, 8-13, Iż. 27,2-6 – God’s thirst is especially evident here – “in those days that are coming Jacob will put forth roots, Israel will blossom, shoot and fill the whole world with fruit,” In Jer. 2:21 we read that Israel was a noble vine that God planted. In Ezch. 19.10-11 – God speaks of the greatness of this vine. After all, we read in the NT that Jesus became the vine and the Father became the grower. And that he cleans and cares for every branch that lives in him.

Let’s go back to the parable, we know perfectly well that Jesus told them in the parable that they were the evil tenants who possessed Israel , God’s people and usurped the right to it. When it was time to harvest, the Lord sent prophets to Israel who called for conversion. But the Pharisees and others drowned out that voice of God, just as the damned Nicolaitans in Revelation do, they turned God’s call into their own religion. They became like representatives of God, priests, but in fact they became priests of their own religion, their own image of God, and the purpose of this was to appropriate the fruit.

These fruits were the people’s respect, livelihood, education, importance, management, privileges, even infallibility. We read that all the glory is due to God, but they stripped God’s glory and usurped it. What we can clearly see in God’s last act of desperation, when he sends Jesus, the only Son, to his vineyard, hoping that they will respect him. None of this, they killed Him, thinking that this way they would be the vineyard owners forever. They no longer needed God, they had their own temple, customs, sacrifices, only God was not there.

Oh, how hard can our imagination work now, how many times have we encountered this attitude today. How many times do modern Nicolaitans, instead of seeking God, build their own religion, increasingly separate from God. How much they themselves call themselves gods. On one of the churches in my area I saw a large poster of JP II and a signature straight from the letter to the Hebrews – “You are a priest for ever” … referring to Christ as an eternal priest, but on this poster it refers to JP II, so simple people may think JP II is Jesus!

“He will come and destroy these villagers” – Bow. 20,16 – we hear from Jesus’ lips, and they say – Never! They understood that it was them and they were not going to repent, but preferred to practice their religion, tailored to their needs, without the presence of God. They were never able to humble themselves before the Lord, therefore this whole system had to collapse in ruins. In AD 70, only a pile of rubble was left after this magnificent temple and all that was associated with the cult. Yes, and in our hearts, religion must collapse and Christ must reign. Our rituals, traditions, ideas about God must collapse in favor of a personal meeting with Jesus.

In the end, the rejected cornerstone, , that is the one that should be a model, determinant, this stone firmly embedded in the foundation was rejected . When I remember this poster, I inevitably have such thoughts, Jesus Christ rejected, and a man called by his name. This is where religion leads, no big deal, maybe some mistake, some overzealous Catholic, maybe not, maybe that’s the way it is, that Christ has become an instrument.

Not long ago I was in this chapel at the funeral of a relative, there was nothing good of him, he had been drinking, beating and having a row all his life. His relatives had a terrible life with him. They paid for it with health, enslavement. It amazed me that the one who renounced God all his life, made fun of Jesus and blasphemed everything that had something to do with God, was said goodbye by the priest as an amazing believer. The coffin in the chapel (church), our brother, the temple of the Holy Spirit, is now in my father’s house, we looked at each other with my wife and we could not believe whether this priest had completely lost his discernment, or he did not know him and for the appropriate amount he gave incense to everyone equally, or confused people. This man has never been my brother in Christ, and I am not choosing my father’s house in which he believed all his life. Of course, respect is due to every human being and I would bury every human being, but this is how it is untrue. We all knew who he was because there were no crowds and everyone just smiled in disbelief.

Vineyard, vineyard, served by wicked and stupid tenants, rejecting the Host Son, how long? Establishing their sons instead of inventing their own technologies instead of God’s love letter instead of living relationship with Him, rejecting Him. Do you have to fall over this stone or does it have to fall on you? Let us not throw away the cornerstone, nor the stones that build up into a spiritual home, 1 Pet. 2,4-9 – living stone, not dead. Chosen by God, precious, He is, and we are in Him, also living stones, not dead, thoughtless but alive, building up into a spiritual house, the Lord’s temple.

Let us throw away all lifelessness, let us live for the Lord, every day, every hour, because if we are close to Him, we will also be close to people. Because of our religion, let us not reject the living stones that are built up into God’s house, but let us become them ourselves.

Perhaps others will reject you as an unhelpful stone to build it, but God chose you as expensive, don’t worry , this spiritual building is eternal, the human ones are temporary. The eternal one is God’s, the human ones are only human. Let us not be deceived by this world, glitter, power, importance, money, fame. Rather, let us be humble and modest, moderate and love.

Yours in the Lord KJ

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