Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

--Parallel verses:
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭5‬:‭6‬
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

Pride has an evil-multiplier-effect on the heart. It corrupts and corrupts and corrupts. It blinds people from seeing the spiritual Oasis of Life and Light, and they are left to wander in the desert.

This parable is about the Prophets of old and Jesus. The point is that the tenants are greedy and will stop at nothing to gain control. The Pharisees, it turns out, fit this bill to a tee.

We are all tenants on this earth that God created. This is our temporary home, and we don’t own it, God does. He also owns all of its resources. But when the tenants think they can try to overthrow the owner’s representatives, then they will be crushed.

When we live life by our own rules, gravitating to comparative righteousness standards and beliefs that make us comfortable, we will be judged in the end.

For these Pharisees, who would come to crucify Jesus, their judgment is set, without complete repentance. Luckily for the Apostle Paul, he did repent. So, it seems, did Nicodemus.

What will I do? How about you? How will we respond to the outreach of God through his leaders and his Son, Jesus? His offer of salvation, his desire to share in life and its fruits with us?

Lord, thank you for your challenging truth here. Many will try to battle the truth. They will try and be their own God. Help me to receive these every day!