Anchor My Faith

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Author: Stephen Weller
603 words, 3 minutes read time

Others Chosen to Do God’s Work

Scripture: Matthew 21:42-43; Luke 20:16-17

In the previous lesson the religious leaders pass sentence against themselves by answering the question Jesus asks them. We begin this lesson with Jesus repeating that answer.

^{Lk 20:16} [Jesus said] “He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. ^{Mt 21:43} Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.”

The religious leaders of Israel have failed in two ways: they have failed to carry out their obligations to God in their personal lives and they have failed to lead the people in the ways of God, and as a result, their privileged role caring for God’s vineyard will be removed from them and given to a people producing its fruit. Any other people, in their minds, would be considered to be Gentile, sinners and unclean and surely will produce a negative response to Jesus.

^{Lk 20:16} When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!”

In their minds they are God’s chosen people and he wouldn’t forsake them and turn to others, but they had forsaken God and not done his assigned work, so God needs to find others that will do the work. I think about this and the work God has assigned to believers in this country. As we forsake God and spend our time seeking pleasure and comfort from the world, our nation slips deeper and deeper into spiritual darkness as disunity and strife spreads throughout the fabric of our society. As we become less of a Christian nation, God has moved to other parts of the world to find a people who will walk with him in obedience.

Consider the following: Without the entrance of evil into the world through sin, we would not have a way of knowing the depth of God’s love and his willingness to sacrifice so much for our salvation. There is so much we would not know about God if he had not allowed for disobedience to bring sin into our lives and the need of salvation. The disobedience of the Jewish religious leaders in not carrying for those entrusted to them and not reaching out to other people with God’s love, prompted God to send his Son to establish a new covenant in his blood and through faith in him produce a new race of people entrusted with the task of reaching all people groups with the gospel.

^{Lk 20:17} But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: ^{Mt 21:42} ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

To their response of “Surely not!” Jesus directs their attention to what was written about him in Psalm 118:22 – 23. There he is there described as the stone that they, as the builders, are rejecting; the stone that is actually the cornerstone of the kingdom of God to contain people chosen by God. The establishment of this kingdom and its population is the Lord’s doing and is truly marvelous in our eyes if we would only take the time and look and become actively involved.

Conclusion

Not only are these religious leaders failing God, they are failing to understand what God has told them about a coming Messiah. As a result, they are rejecting the very one, who stands before them, who can save their souls from eternal destruction in hell.