diff --git a/content/bible_journal/luke_20:9-18.md b/content/bible_journal/luke_20:9-18.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aff3ad4 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/bible_journal/luke_20:9-18.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ ++++ +title = "Luke 20:9–18" +date = "2023-01-23" ++++ + +### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Lk20.9-18) + + +Having met the challenge to His authority, Jesus teaches a parable about a +landowner and wicked tenants. The landowner sends slaves to get his portion of +the harvest of the land from the tenants, but the tenants refuse to hand it +over. Instead they beat the slaves and send them back to their master. Three +times they are sent and three times they are beaten and turned away. + +In real life, after the first time the tenants refused to pay, a landowner +would likely send soldiers to enforce the agreement he had with the tenants. In +this story, though, the landowner sends his son whom he loves, thinking the +tenants may respect him. However, the tenants see an opportunity to muddy up +the legal waters. If the heir to the land is dead, then who might it pass to +when the owner dies if not themselves? So they take the heir outside of the +vineyard and kill him. + +At this point, Jesus tells the people that the landowner no longer has mercy on +his wicked tenants, comes back to his vineyard, kills the tenants, and hands +over the vineyard to others to manage. The reaction of the crowd is +interesting, I think. "Surely not!" they cry (_v. 16_); a vehement rejection of +what Jesus said. They understood that the parable was about God's relationship +with Israel, where He sends the prophets to the people, who reject them. +Eventually He sends His own Son, and He is killed, so they are thinking that +Jesus says God will replace Israel as His chosen people. + +They have forgotten that God had already done that before, way back when they +were about to enter the Promised Land for the first time. A whole generation of +Israelites died in the wilderness except for Joshua and Caleb because of their +unbelief. God's promise to Israel can't be broken, even by Himself, but the +individuals within the group can be changed. + +Jesus is then very direct when He quotes Psalm 118 to them. The verse He +mentions comes in the section celebrating God's victory over evil in the last +days. Altogether He is linking the landowner's son with the rejected stone that +brings about final victory, crushing those who stumble over it. + +* * * + +Let us rejoice and be glad in the Day of the Lord, when You prove Yourself the +ruler of all the earth.