Renters Contract I

Think about the contracts involved when renting a house.  Issues such as caretaking, building care, upkeep – they must all be addressed in the contract between the owner and the renter.  What happens in the owner comes by and the renter has trashed his or her property?  They have a contract to fall back on that states this behavior is unacceptable.  It also states that in return for this care, that rent is paid.  If the rent is not paid the tenants must again face the consequences.

“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 went away on a journey.  When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit,” (Matthew 21:33-34).

So basically, you have a renter and the land owner.  In return for the land, they would be turning over part of his fruit as payment.  It seems like a pretty simple arrangement.  But, that wasn’t how it turned out…

“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third,” (Matthew 21:35).  Beat, killed, and stoned?  WOW!  That is pretty darn harsh for fruit.  Why would they behave this way?  A terribly misguided sense of entitlement, greed, perhaps not addressing issues in the short term; I can think of several things.  But, what a reaction.

Then what happened?

“Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way,” (Matthew 21:36).  No offense to the land owner, but I think I would have opted for call the police long before this point.  Instead, the land owner tried again to have the agreement honored.  But, again the tenants did not abide by their agreement.

Surely this time he will go to the authorities – right?

“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,” (Matthew 21:36-39).

Oh my goodness, they have killed servants, and now – they have killed the son!  Surely the land owner is going to do something now!

“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” The question is raised – what should the land owner do?  What is punishment enough for these terrible acts by a grieving father and a grieved land owner?

“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.”

He is going to react, he will bring consequences.

What in the world does this have to do with Easter?

That is something you have to keep reading to figure out…. Until tomorrow