“Hear another parable. 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. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 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” – Matt 21:33-41

Rejecting Jesus is not a choice without consequences. Rejecting God’s Son means destruction. Those who reject Him will one day pay dearly for it. The parable of the tenants shows an example of those who rejected Jesus as their Saviour, revealing that they misunderstood Jesus’ purposes. They resisted in open rebellion against Jesus’ plan of salvation, and God’s kingdom and power were given to others – to those who responded positively to the message of Jesus Christ. The principle still operates. God is no respecter of anyone. The kingdom and its power will be removed from those who fail to remain faithful to Jesus Christ (Rom. 11: 19-22). Instead, it will be given to people who separate themselves from the ungodly beliefs and behaviours of the world and who pursue God’s standards and purposes above all else.

In our lectionary reading for the week, Jesus tells the striking story of the landowner who planted a vineyard (Matt 21). The fertile vineyard, which stands for Israel, his chosen people, could be broadened to include the world. We are not owners of this vineyard. We are tenants entrusted with caring for it, but everything we have is on lease. Our lives and leadership are not about us but all about Jesus.

This imagery familiar to Jerusalem’s leaders resonates with the church today. They knew they were chosen to represent God to the nations (Exodus 19:5-6). They knew they were tenants, not owners (Leviticus 25:24). The land was God’s planting (Psalm 80), God’s vineyard (Is. 5). Those who recognise Jesus’ leadership are the true tenants in His vineyard.

The most fundamental leadership and spiritual mistake and error is to think that we own the world and act without fear of God or obedience to His Word. Beloved, the earth is the Lord’s and its fullness. ‘We do not own it. We rent a space for a few years, but ownership remains with the one who lives forever,’ Jesus Christ. The security and meaning of our ministry and leadership are in Jesus Christ, our hope, and to whom we belong.

The reflection is, if the whole earth is the Lord’s, why are nations and churches not enjoying their lands as the plantings of the Lord? The answer is simple. Many nations are planted through conquest and war (Gen 10:8-12). Many leaders are intoxicated with a taste for blood instead of the pure wine (Holy Spirit) of divine governance (Rev 17:2,6).

Many churches’ grapes (theology and leadership) are as sour as the nations because they reject Jesus. Through the practice of immoral acts in God’s vineyard, church leadership fails to be true salt and light in giving the nations much of a taste for the divine rule. God sent prophets to warn the church and its leadership that He would end their tenancy if they kept misrepresenting him. We pronounce doom on ourselves and our churches when we do not recognise Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

Indeed, Jesus Christ is God’s love, mercy, and judgment. We are all under his judgment, and ‘in the measure that we reject him or refuse to listen to him, we place our tenancy in jeopardy.’ Are you a tenant persecuting God’s servant, killing another, and stoning another through your actions and inactions? Remember, there are consequences for your actions and inactions. Receive Jesus today?