Every day of Lent, Bishop Edward Malesic writes a Scripture reflection for the faithful. Follow the bishop on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Click HERE for the readings.
Jesus tells the story of a group of tenants who want what isn’t theirs. When the landowner sends his servants to obtain his rightful share of the produce from the land, the tenants beat them. When the landowner finally sends his son to set things right, the tenants kill him.
This is an obvious allusion to the way Israel treated the prophets and were about to treat God’s Son by hanging him on a cross. He lays this parable of the wicked tenants at the feet of the chief priests and elders, who are now rejecting him as God’s only Son. Jesus sees them as tenants of God’s kingdom. They see themselves as its owners. And these elders and priests will allow no one will take their domain away from them — not even God’s son.
Then Jesus said to them, “The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” God is always stronger than those who are placed in stewardship over what rightfully belongs to Him.
And we are the people who have received that inheritance — we are the stewards of God’s people, the stewards of his Church. We have also received the requirement to produce its fruit and hand that fruit back to God.
Have we used the blessing of the Kingdom that we have received to bear good fruit for God? Have we changed the world to be more like the values of the Gospel that Jesus proclaimed? Are we grateful for the blessings of faith and the graces of God that we have been given? Do we belong to a Church of our own making, or have we come to realize that we are only tenants for the time we have here on earth? God is the true landowner. And His Son will come back someday to receive the fruits of our labor. May we give him the best.