"There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.' And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons." Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: "'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him" (Matt 21:33-44)We all get it, of course. The "master of a house" is God. The "tenants" were the Jews. The "servants" the master sent were the prophets. And the son, of course, was Christ Himself. The story elicits the proper response ... outrage. And Jesus was saying, in essence, before the fact, "Thou art the man!" That is, they were the ones that would kill the Son of God, and they were the ones on whom the Son would fall and crush. Yeah, yeah, we get it.
But there was something I missed until now. If this story is about God and the people of Israel, why did "the master" actually send His Son? Did He send Him to collect? Or did He send Him ... to die? It's an interesting dichotomy, isn't it? God sent His Son to die. He sent Him to die for them. They killed Him. And they bear the load of it. They did exactly what He intended, and they are still liable for the sin. And, of course, it doesn't stop there. We all stood at the cross and nailed Him to that tree.
How terrifying it is to realize that we cost the life of the Son of God! How astounding it is to realize that the Father sent the Son to die. We have earned the wrath of God. The mercy of God should astound us.
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