A Reflection On Matthew 21:33-46

By Diane Bricker

During my reflection on this passage from Matthew, my thoughts keep returning to the word “cornerstone.” The dictionary confirms for me that a cornerstone is something that is essential, a foundation on which something is built. I begin to imagine a sturdiness, a rootedness deep within me, a core of stone that supports everything else.

In the passage, following the parable, Jesus tells us the tenants have rejected the cornerstone God offered them. The tenants kill slaves, not once, but twice who have been sent to collect the produce.  Then when the landowner’s son comes to collect, they kill him too, hoping to get his inheritance

The story is beginning to have a familiar ring. Tenants disobeying a landowner’s rules; tenants killing a landowner’s son.  Is this what life looks like when tenants do not build on a sturdy cornerstone? A life with no gratitude for the vineyard?  A life of greediness and violence?   Jesus then explicitly tells us this type of life is not a part of the kingdom of God; rather the kingdom will be given to people who produce the fruits of the kingdom.

This parable is rich with questions to reflect and meditate on. Who are you in the story? Are you caring well for the vineyard in which you have been placed?  Or, have you rejected the cornerstone you have been offered, either intentionally or out of blindness?

As I close my reflection, I am reminded how crucial it is to build consciously, again and again, day in and day out, on the cornerstone my faith offers me, and to reach outward from this sturdy core. I am reminded that God has placed me in His vineyard in order to bear fruit and return the grace that has been offered to me.  I pray to be a worthy tenant here for the Lord, to be a tenant in whom the Spirit grows and produces fruit for the kingdom of God.

Diane Bricker is a trained spiritual director and covenant partner of Retreat House.

Listen to Rev. Dr. Lil Smith's Guided Meditation for Praying the Lectionary for Matthew 21:33-46

Invitation

As you experience the practice of praying the lectionary, adopt a loving, caring and compassionate stance. If the end of your prayer and meditation time is not pointing to love and hope, there is more work to do. Keep wrestling. God is faithful to your journey. Love and hope will emerge. Be gentle with yourself and befriend any judgment that arises in you.

This excerpt was taken from a weekly meditation. To sign up to receive these, email us.

"So that we may live lives worthy of the Lord and please God in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God."
- Rooted in Colossians 1:10