Covid19 has us stuck at home preparing for Easter… but we can mark each day with this devotion. Click here if you missed a past day’s reading.
All kids are now homeschooled. And parents turned teachers are on the edge of panic… but our school’s teachers are extending grace. With emails of encouragement and Zoom conference calls with their class. Yesterday our family went outside and watched a parade of teachers go by our house. Unfortunately they couldn’t throw candy. I joked that they might throw homework. But my kids were so excited, decorating the driveway with chalk works of love.
The teachers on parade — inventing ways to extend love — is an image of the church.
As the tenants of the vineyard, we share the fruit with others, growing God’s kingdom.
Deeper: After turning over the Temple – God’s house – the Jewish leaders question Jesus “by what authority are you doing these things?” But Jesus doesn’t answer directly, seems to evade, but actually answers with a parable.
The implications are clear: Jesus is the son. The Jewish leaders are the tenants, but not for long.
NT Wright wrote that in the parables of Jesus: “The [original] hearers are summoned to understand that their own present story – the story of Israel’s dream of national liberation – is being subverted and changed into the dangerous and revolutionary story Jesus is telling.” And the parables invite them (and us) “to join Jesus in his new way of being Israel” (Jesus and the Victory of God, 229).
Those who join Jesus are the new tenants of God’s vineyard. Rather than horde fruit, we exist to expand the kingdom. A kingdom not won through violence, but won by the cross. Won through love and sacrifice. So we also extend love – in every way we can.
PLUNGE47 