entitled or entrusted?
“He leased it to tenant farmers.” —Mark 12:1
How much the Father loves us! He plants a vineyard for us, provides everything necessary for success, and invites us to be His stewards (Mk 12:1; see also Is 5:1-7). He even entrusts His potential fruit to us! (see Gn 2:15) God asks: “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I had not done?” (Is 5:4)
Tragically, we forget that we are God’s tenants and stewards. We are not the owner; rather, we are the owned. “None of us lives as his own master…while we live we are responsible to the Lord” (Rm 14:7-8). “You are not your own. You have been purchased, and at a price!” (1 Cor 6:19-20)
We may think we are serving God, but whenever we refuse to bear fruit that He has a right to receive, we are like those rebellious tenants in Jesus’ parable. Perhaps we have refused to bear fruit for the Master through contraception, sterilization, or abortion. Possibly we are living for our own pleasure rather than using our talents for reaping the Master’s harvest. Perhaps by laziness or procrastination, we resemble the sluggard who skips the hard work of plowing and bears no harvest (see Prv 20:4; 24:30-34).
Will we choose to be entitled tenants or entrusted servants? The Master loves us so much that He sent His Son to collect the fruit. But that Son is not only a Fruit Collector; He will also help us plow by yoking Himself to us (Mt 11:29-30). Let us humble ourselves before the Lord, repent deeply, and spend our lives as grateful servants working in the vineyard for our Master.
Prayer: Help us, Lord, to bear fruit abundantly for You. May we never reject Jesus, the Cornerstone (Mk 12:10).
Promise: “He has bestowed on us the great and precious things He promised, so that through these you who have fled a world corrupted by lust might become sharers of the divine nature.” —2 Pt 1:4
Praise: St. Justin was the first Christian philosopher.
Reference: (This teaching was submitted by a member of our editorial team.)
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