Fruitful servant

This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. (Mark 12:7)

We know what it’s like to second-guess a decision someone else has made. You look at an event after the fact and think about how you would have handled it better. If it were you coaching that football game, you would have called for a pass instead of a handoff. If you had been the presidential nominee, you would have chosen a different running mate. If you were that child’s parent, you would discipline her differently. 

Second-guessing is rarely helpful, and it’s especially the case when we read stories like today’s parable. We can think, “How could these tenants have been so stubborn and selfish? The landlord was just trying to collect his produce. I would never have treated these servants so cruelly.” To make matters worse, we understand that the landlord is God the Father, the servants are the prophets, and the “beloved son” is Jesus. Why couldn’t the scribes and Pharisees see these connections? 

The problem with this approach is that it deflects the message of the parable away from us. Whether we are ancient scribes or twenty-first-century Christians, God wants us to be fruitful. He has commissioned us, just as the landowner commissioned the tenants, to care for his creation. We are stewards of his kingdom, and he wants to know how we’re doing in that regard.

What kind of “servants” will God send you today to check on his fruit? Maybe it will be a friend asking for help or a person needing someone to talk to. It may not be a person at all. It may be a verse from today’s readings—something you sense God wants you to act on. No matter how the Lord comes, you can be sure that he will not ask for something that you cannot give. So don’t reject him. Welcome him instead. Tell him, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” Then, give him the fruit he is really looking for: your heart.

“Lord, help me to receive your word and the promptings of your Spirit today.” 

 from wau.org