OUR FATHER WHO ALONE KNOWS THE TIME AND DAY OF THE END OF THE AGE Part 7

Matthew chapter 25 verses 1 - 13 records another parable that contrasts the end-of-the-age experiences of the servants of the kingdom of heaven who were wise and those who were foolish.

1 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

This parable is another warning that perpetual vigilance is required for all those who would be entrusted with the things of the kingdom of heaven.

The scene is described where ten virgins were tasked with going out to meet the bridegroom as he arrived into town so they could escort him and his entourage to the wedding venue. 

Five of the ten were wise and attentive. They kept their lamps ready and had reserves of oil in case the bridegroom was delayed.

On the other hand, the foolish virgins were not vigilant and fell asleep while they waited fo the bridgroom. When the call finally came that the bridegroom was enroute, they awoke and realized that the oil for their lamps was low and they did not have enough to go out to welcome the bridgegoom.

In a panic, they asked the five wise virgins to share their oil with them but the wise ones knew that they needed all the oil they had and if they split it out, they would all run out and everyone, including the out-of-towners, would be left standing in the dark trying to grope their way to the wedding venue.

The only solution for the foolish virgins was to go out to buy more oil for their lamps from the after-hours oil retailers and at mid-night, while they were gone, the bridegroom arrived and only the five wise virgins were available to meet the bridegroom as they.

The five virgins and the bridegroom and his escorts joined up and they went to the wedding venue and closed the door.

The five foolish virgins finally found an oil dealer willing to open shop for them in the night but by they time they returned, the wedding was already underway. They knocked on the door asking to be let in but the bridgroom did not recognize them and did not want wedding crashers to interupt the proceedings and they were turned away.

The lessons that we can derive from this parable are;

• Stay alert to listen and watch for the signs of the Lordˋs arrival
• Do not be asleep during the time when preparations are being made
• Each person is responsible for and must attend to their own preparedness
• Keep reserves of annointing so that we can endure through delays
• Acquire annointing oil while it is yet day for it is harder to acquire it in the night 
• Going out to meet the bridegroom to welcome him is how he recognizes us. If we sleep and get preoccupied with other things instead of finding him and personally walking with him to the wedding venue, we will not be known.

Have mercy on us O God.

24

OUR FATHER WHO ALONE KNOWS THE TIME AND DAY OF THE END OF THE AGE Part 6

The Lord Jesus, in Matthew chapter 24 verses 45 - 51, advises His disciples to be faithful in carrying out their service so that when their master returned unexpectedly, they would be found going about their Fatherˋs business. Those who are consistent in their service of God would be blessed when they are found occupied by their work in the Lordˋs household when He returns. Such a servant would be entrusted with all that the master had.

On the other hand, a servant, having concluded that his master was not returning any time soon, reverts to a carnal way of living and works to gain dominance over the other servants as though he were their master. He indulges himself in very carnal appetite and sets a bad example for everyone in the household.

45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

When the master returns, the evil servant is caught by surprise and found to have been an untrustworthy steward of his masterˋs business and he is consigned to the outer darkness where there is weeping in deep regret over failing to take the things of his master seriously.

Have mercy on us O God.

24

OUR FATHER WHO ALONE KNOWS THE TIME AND DAY OF THE END OF THE AGE Part 5

Matthew chapter 24 verses 36 - 44 records the Lord warning His followers that His return would be a complete surprise to everyone including the angels of heaven and some manuscripts record that even the Lord Jesus Himself did not know the day or hour of His return.

The Lord compared His return with the onset of the great flood of Noah where people were going about their daily lives eating and drinking and starting families when suddenly, the opportunity to enter the ark was no longer available and the door of the ark was closed and the destruction of the flood carried them away. 

In the same way, people, not believing that the end of the age of grace was soon to arrive, would continue living as they alway had until suddenly, the gift of the free salvation that Jesus acquired for mankind was no longer being offered.

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

The return of the Lord Jesus will be sudden and will have no overt precursors. Life will carry on as normal right until the last second. People working together on farms or in factories will discovery that some people in their midst have disappeared into thin air and realize that they have been left behind.

The Lord Jesus explains that the reason for the secrecy is so that the kingdom of darkness would not be able to anticipate the day of the Lord and make plans to patrol the perimeter with his angels in order to interfere with (or  thwart ) the Son of Manˋs invasion of the earth.

The secret is tightly kept in order to catch the kingdom of darkness off-guard but the Lord advises His followers to be perpetually vigilant so that when the trap is sprung, they would be found to be in good standing in the kingdom of God and be caught up with Him in the clouds.

Amen.

24

OUR FATHER WHO ALONE KNOWS THE TIME AND DAY OF THE END OF THE AGE Part 4

Matthew chapter 24 verse 32 - 35;

32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When it branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

Amen

12

OUR FATHER WHO ALONE KNOWS THE TIME AND DAY OF THE END OF THE AGE part 3

In Matthew chapter 24 verses 29 - 31, Jesus reveals the events that would occur immediately after the great tribulation;

29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

As the end approaches, the persecution on the people of God would intensify as economic pressure and subtle deceptions carried out by the world systems flush believers out of hiding where they are killed. If these days were not shortened, as Jesus said in verse 22, no Christian at that time would physically survive the trials.

When this period ends, distinct signs would occur in the heavens where the sun will go dark along with the moon and not in the form of an eclipse but rather as a general dimming of the sun that will plunge the whole earth into darkness at the same time.

In the spiritual realm, the stars will fall from heaven as their dominion in spiritual places collapses. The spiritual powers that rule over territories and nations will be  shaken by a severe quake in the spiritual realm.

It is then that the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky as a light show of glory and splendor and power. All the people on earth, when they see this sign circling the globe, will know that the King of Glory, whom they had abandoned or rejected, was now returning and they will see Him on the clouds of heaven, no longer as a preacher entering Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey but now as the One of exceedingly great  power and glory.

As the whole world watches the frightening spectacle, a blast of trumpets will reverberate and the Lord Jesus will send His angels to gather His chosen ones from every corner of the earth and all His elect from all the places in heaven that they are.

Have mercy on us O God.

12

OUR FATHER  WHO ALONE KNOWS THE TIME OR THE DAY OF THE END OF THE AGE part 2

The Lord Jesus had just outlined for His disciples, in Matthew chapter 24 verses 3 - 14, a list of general events that would occur as an indicator of the time of His return. He then, in verses 15 - 28, zoomed in on a specific event whose occurence signalled a state of emergency. 

This is an event that was spoken of by the prophet Daniel ( in the book of Daniel 9 v. 27 and Daniel 11 v. 31) and Jesus tells his followers that when they see the abomination of desolation standing in the Holy place, then each person in the south of Israel (Judea) must flee to the mountains as fast as humanly possible because the great tribulation will have began and this event would be more severe than anything that have ever happened or will ever happen.

15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.

This tribulation will be so terrible that if its duration were not constrained by God, no human beings would be saved but for the sake of the ones chosen, the time of the tribulation if shortened.

During these desperate times, with people under immense pressure, there will be words circulating that the Messiah has arrived and it will be very tempting to run out after these false messiahs and false prophets especially when they are displaying supernatural power.

The Lord describes what the deceptions will be like and how to respond. People will hear rumours that the Messiah has touched down in the desert but he warned us not to go out to the desert to see for ourselves.

Others will hear that the Messiah has made an appearance in some inner chambers and secret offices but the Lord warned us not to believe that either.

These are traps that are set to capture people who have even a modicum of hope in the appearance of a Messiah. When people arrive in the desert to see the ˋmessiahˋ, they are rounded up and when they enter buildings to seek the ˋmessiahˋ in secret rooms, they are captured.

23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.

26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

The Lord then tells His followers what the genuine indicator of His arrival would be; As lightning strikes in the east and flashes across the sky to the west, the Lordˋs arrival will be an unmistakable phenomenon of light in the sky that could not be imitated by false messiahs. People claiming to be the messiah who mysteriously appear in the desert and in hidden rooms are false messiahs because the appearance of the real messiah will be overt, public and visible to every person on earth.

Wherever the carcass is, there the eagles (Note, most translations render this word as ˋvulturesˋ instead of ˋeaglesˋ) will be gathered together. This phrase indicates the danger of being misled by the claims of the false messiahs and false prophets. If anyone falls for the deception and goes to the location given, they will be devoured by the vultures who will await them there.

Have mercy on us O God.

24

OUR FATHER WHO ALONE KNOWS THE TIME AND DAY OF THE END OF THE AGE

In the book of Matthew chapter 24 verse 3 - 14, the Lord Jesus, while sitting on the Mount of Olives, was approached by His disciple for a private consultation. They had heard him speak of His return at the age and they were trying to understand how it would affect them.

They wanted to know;

• When the described events would occur
• What indicators would mark Jesusˋ return
• What indicators would mark the end of the age

3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

The Lord answered the last question about the signs that would mark the end of the age first by giving them a list of conditions that would converge that would be the harbinger of the end of the dispensation that His ministry was about to innugurate;

These items were pertaining to the world at large;

• Many false christs will appear claiming to be Jesus
• Wars will proliferate wround the world
• Rumours of wars will be constantly circulating
• Major geopolitical upheavals will roil the earth
• Famines will scourge the earth
• Pestilences will sweep nations
• Major geological events like earthquakes will strike all over the world

These items were partaining to the Church;

• Persecution and murder of Christians will be widespread
• Christians will be hated for the sake of the name of Jesus
• Some Christians will betray one another and hate one another
• False prophets will arise in their midst with deceptions that will capture many
• Many in the church will become lawless
• Many will have their love for God grow cold
• The gospel of the kingdom would be preached in all the world

The Lord gave a guideline to His followers on how to respond if they are embroiled in those times. He said that they would participate in the global effort to  preach the gospel to the whole world as a witness and those who endured through these difficulties with their faith intact even at the end, would be saved.

Have mercy on us O God.

12

OUR FATHER WHOSE SENT HIS SON TO SAVE THE WORLD

In the book of Matthew chapter 24 verses 1 - 2, the Lord Jesus, having castigated the religious leaders in the temple, departed from there and as they went, the disciples were showing Jesus the buildings of the temple in all their glory.

The Lord gave them a grave prophecy by saying that as improbable as it seemed at the time, every one of the massive buildings of the temple would be  torn down to the foundation leaving no stone standing on another.

This prophecy was fulfilled about 40 years later in the year 70 AD when the Roman army, after a long siege, sacked the city of Jerusalem and tore down every stone of the temple.

1 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

With the loss of the temple, the customary and religious practices of Judaism halted and went into a state of dormancy with no temple sacrifies and dedications.

To replace the lost religious functions, the religious leaders of Israel devised a system of traditions that laid out a variety of substitutionary practices that have been observed by the disperate groups of the children of Israel since that time.

However, there are multiple prophetic references to a rebuilt temple and the resumption of the original religious practices that will be one of the harbingers of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHOSE SON WAS SENT TO DIE FOR THE WORLD BUT WILL RETURN IN GLORY

The condemnation of the religious leaders concluded in Matthew chapter 23 verses 37 - 38 with the pronoucement of judgement over the city of Jerusalem for it had been the practice of those in it to kill prophets and stone messengers sent from God.

The Lord Jesus revealed that His desire through the history of the city was to gather all of her inhabitants under His wings but the people of the city were not willing to be subject to their God and as such, struck those who were sent as emmisaries from God.

This track record would continue with the Lord Himself where He would fall into the hands of the scribes and the Pharisees and he would be condemned to death and be crucified outside the walls of the city.

The judgement on Jerusalem was that it would soon be left desolate of spiritual importance and they would not see the Lord Jesus again until they fulfiled the prophecy that they would bless the Messiah who would be coming in the name of the Lord.

When the Messiah came to them on the colt of a donkey as desribed in Matthew chapter 21, the religious class could not be induced to say ˋblessed is He who comes in the name of Lordˋ but the time will come when He returns on a white horse, and every eye will see Him returning in glory and they will say, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

Amen

12

 OUR FATHER ESTEEMS HIS PROPHETS

The Lord Jesus concluded His indictment of the  religious class with a scathing reference to the religious lineage that the scribes and Pharisees has descended from.

They had tried to distance themselves from their spiritual heritage of assaults and murders of the prophets sent by God  by paying hommage at the tombs of prophets who their fathers had killed.

Here, the Lord brings in the concept of spiritual inheritance that bequethed the sins of the father upon the sons when they partake in rebellion against the plan of salvation of God.

Because the scribes and Pharisees had called themselves the sons of those who had persecuted the prophets of old (with the disclaimer that if they had been alive at the time, they would not have participated in the murder of the prophets), the bloodshed spilled by their forebearers all the way back to the murder of the righteous priest Abel by Cain was on their heads. The Lord also mentioned a prophet named Zachariah whom the religious classes murdered in the temple. (This could either have been a prophecy of a murder that did take place in about 60 AD in the temple where a person called Zacharia Baruch was killed in the temple or a reference to Zacharia who was the father of John the Baptist or the prophet named Zachariah mentioned in the Book of Ezra or the book Zachariah. 

Prophetic identification of the Zechariah who was murdered in the temple may be the most accurate interpretation because it would capture the span between the murder of the first righteous priest and the murder of the last righteous priest who was killed in the temple in Jerusalem in 60 AD before it was destroyed in 70 AD as Jesus prophesied. This is speculation but a possible 

Mathew chapter 23 verses 29 - 26 records the final article this way;

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you buid the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. 33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 

34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Have mercy on us O God.

4

OUR FATHER WHOSE KINGDOM IS A KINGDOM OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

The Lord Jesus, in Matthew chapter 23 verses 27 - 28, drew on a metaphor to describe and expose the nature of the religious leaders who were leading Israel at that time;

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Jesus represented the hypocricy of presenting a fascade of purity in public while concurrently living an unclean and predatory life, as tombs that were painted white and made to look aesthetically pleasing but were concealing the remains of corpses and decay.

The indictment here pointed at the deliberate efforts of the scribes and Pharisees to give the impression to their communities that they were ardent followers of all the laws and worthy to be honored and followed but all the while, they were involved in lawless skulldugery.

Have mercy on us O God.

2

 

OUR FATHER WHOSE SON CLEANSES US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS

Matthew chapter 23 verses 25 - 26 continues with the condemnation of the practices of the religious leaders:

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

In this article of indictment, the Lord Jesus used the metaphor of dishes to illustrate the absurdity of the teachings being dispensed by the scribes and Pharisees.

Their fixation on outward appearances was represented by the cleaning of the outside of cups and plates while leaving the inside uncleaned. 

The dishes, representing people who are supposed to be vessels of God, were internally steeped in predatory attitudes while following the creed of self-indulgence.

The Lord Jesus prescribed to the Parisees that they should begin by cleansing the inner parts of the dishes which represented the internal attitudes and intentions.

Once the inner proclivities for abusing other people and being self-indulgent were extricated from the inner lives of people, then the outer appearance would be taken care of. 

This mirrors the teaching of Jesus  in Matthew chapter 15 verse 11 where, in countering the challenge of the Pharisee towards His disiciples for eating without washing their hands, He informed them that ingestion does not make people unclean but rather it is when the internal contents come out in the form of evil words and deeds that causes them to be unclean.

Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

Have mercy on us O God.

12

OUR FATHER WHO WANTS WIDOWS AND ORPHANS CARED FOR

Matthew chapter 23 verses 23 - 24 continues with the charges that the Lord Jesus brought against the religious leaders who prescribed and enforced the religious practices at that time;

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

 The indictment that was being brought against the scribes and Pharisees was that they were overtly following the laws of God that were easily seen and could be quantified such as giving to the temple ten percent of everything that they gained  including small herbs that would grow incidentally on their properties.

They made a great deal over these tiny observances but when it came to the heavy matters of law such as the administration of justice, mercy and faith, they were silent. 

The Lord declared that the religious leaders needed to do the small things but without neglecting the more consequential obligations of the law. He gave the metaphor of screening out the gnats while letting camels through to illustrate how the scribes and Pharisees, when formulating a code of righteousness to live by, emphasized the smallest points of law to live under such as tithing herbs while skirting the eternally important  portions of the law that dealt with the postures of their hearts towards God and their fellow human beings.

As  the book of James chapter 1 verse 27 says,

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Because of this distortion of perpective and priority, they did not highlight the religious practices that God considered to be faultless, Jesus called the religious leaders of Israel blind guides because they could not see the spiritual landscape that the laws they were handling were pointing to and yet presumed to lead the laity in spiritual matters.

Have mercy on us O God.

4

OUR FATHER WHOSE THRONE IS IN HEAVEN

Matthew chapter 23 verses 16 - 22 says this;

16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ 17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ 19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20 Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. 21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. 22 And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

The Lord Jesusˋ indictment of the the religious leaders continued and in this passage, those who held the offices and the status of spiritual guides were shown to be unseeing and unwise.

Concerning the protocols of oaths and vows, the scribes and Pharisees had synthesized a pattern of swearing for the people to follow but because they had no understanding of the spiritual infrastructure that facilitated the interactions between the corporeal realm and the spiritual realm, they had prescribed inverted procedures where the people were swearing by the transient sacrifices and by the thin veneer of gold that coated the temple walls.

These formulations derailed the earnest and consequential vows and oaths that the people were trying to make before God because their swearing was being underpinned by items that were not registered as valid enforcers of oaths in the spiritual realm.

The teachings of the religious leaders led people to swear their oaths on the gold that coated the temple walls because, they said, swearing on the temple itself was of no consequence. The Lord Jesus authoritatively illustrated that these teachings were wrong because the gold was not intrinsically sacred or sanctified but rather it was the temple in which God dwelled that was santified and thus oaths needed to be pinned to the temple itself for it was what confered santification to everything else that was in it.

This was also true of the altar which was officially sanctified. The prevailing teaching was that swearing on the altar meant nothing and so it was necessary to swear on the sacrifices that were on the altar. Jesus showed that the altar, which was the instrument of spiritual santification, was what oaths needed to be sworn upon and not the sacrifices that were inately mundane and only gained sanctification by placement on the altar.

The Lord showed that the religious leaders were leading people astray in the matter of having their oaths registered in the spiritual realm and as such, any credit to be gained by swearing an oath and fulfilling it, was lost.

What the scribes and Pharisee had set up was like a fake credit card that people were using to make purchases online. Without their knowledge, the purchases did not go through and when they made payments, they are not recieved and because there is no purchases and there is no payments registered, their credit scores did not improve.

Deutronomy chapter 23 verses 21 - 23 says,; “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.

As this passage says, there is no obilgation to swear oaths. If a person did undertake to swear an oath, one would incur a risk of failure to fulfill the oath and invite judgement upon themselves but on the other hand, successfully fulfilling oaths in the spirit increased credibility in the spiritual realm. It is this credibility that people are seeking when they make oaths before God and the system devised by the religious leaders deprived the people of this benefit.

Jesus provided a teaching on swearing oaths that would register the oath before God and His recommendation was to swear by heaven because heaven contained the throne of God and swearing by heaven made the one who sits on the throne the enforcer of the oath. This is a fearful position to be in and thus James advises us not to swear in James chapter 5 verse 12 (But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.) but to grow in maturity in the spirit, we must be able to obligate ourselves to tasks and stewardships in the kingdom of God and to have a track record of fulfilling vows made before God increases our standing before the Lord.

So help us O God.

Amen.

16

OUR FATHER WHO SEEKS WORSHIPPERS IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH

Matthew chapter 23 verse 15 continues with the Lord Jesusˋ indictment of the behaviour of the scribes and Pharisees.

15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

This item of hypocricy involves the presentation of the veneer of righteousness and access to God that was made to people from distant lands who were seeking God in distant lands but once these new adherants were inducted into their religion, they were trained in all the practices of pride and greed that the religious leaders were themselves doing.

This grievous effort of the scribes and Pharisees took people who were moderately steeped in wrong doing and instead of leading them towards righteousness as promised, led them into a worse state than they were before.

This besmirched the name of God and turned sincere seekers of God into enemies of God.

Have mercy on us O God.

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OUR FATHER COMMANDS US TO CARE FOR THE WELFARE OF WIDOWS AND ORPHANS

Matthew chapter 23 verse 14 captures the next article of indictment for which the religious leaders of Israel would be condemned for;

14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

As a way of fiancially enhancing their positions, the scribes and Pharisees presented themselves to widows as prayerful spiritual advisors and part of the role they assumed, they ensured that any assets such as houses or lands were bequeathed to them when the widows died and the pharisees would accumulate what the widows left behind.

The Lord Jesus declared that the practice of pretending to be a pious intermediary between the widow and God in order to gain their earthly belongings was going to earn the religious leaders greater condemnation because it was hypocrisy with a predatory angle added to it.

Have mercy on us O God.

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OUR FATHER WHO SENDS SHEPHERDS TO GUIDE OTHERS TO THE TRUTH

In Matthew chapter 23 verse 13, the Lord Jesus began pronouncing condemnations upon the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocritical conduct and culture where they presented themselves one way before the people but lived self-indulgently in private.

13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. 

The first condemnation against them was for locking people out of heaven by ensuring that the means of accessing heaven by faith was obscured from them.

The religious leaders had no interest or understanding of heaven and thus did not care to go there themselves and made no effort to show the lay people how to get there.

Have mercy on us O God.

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OUR FATHER WHO IS TO BE HONORED

The Lord Jesus, having confronted the religious leaders and showed them to be incomplete in their knowledge of the things of the spirit and of the scriptures, issued a scathing indictment of their practices as recorded in Matthew chapter 23 verses 1 - 12,

1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6 They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ 8 But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. 11 But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

The Lord Jesus advised His listeners to heed the words of the Pharisees and scribes because they sat in the seat of Moses and therefore had the authority of Moses confered on them by the office they held but Jesus warned them not follow after their conduct because they talked the talk but did not walk the walk.

These are the things that the Lord told his people not to emulate from the religious leaders;

• They placed heavy burdens on others that they exempted themselves from
• They did all their works to be seen by others to attract admiration
• They wore clothes and accessories to appear pious to other people
• They sought prominent positions and placements at feasts and gatherings
• They sought to be honorably greeted by men in social environments 
• They sought to be called by the title ˋRabbiˋorˋteacherˋ by others

The Lord said that only the Messiah and God had the right to be honored in such ways. All men should treat each other as brothers and should seek to be servants of each other.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO CONFOUNDS THE WISE Part 2

The Lord Jesus, in rapid succession, had crossed swords with the religious and political powers in the temple over topics such as the payment of taxes to Rome, the reality of the ressurection from the dead and the hierarchy of the commands in the law of Moses and He demonstrated to all the people that the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who were posturing as the carriers of Israelˋs religious knowledge, did not have a complete understanding of the scriptures or of spiritual reality.

This doctrinal tour de force finalized in Matthew chapter 22 verses 41 - 44 where Jesus posed a question to the Pharisees on the subject of the Messiah whose arrival was being awaited for by all Israel.

41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”

They said to Him, “The Son of David.”

The Lord Jesus, being the Messiah Himself, asked the Pharisees (who were the custodians of the doctrines and traditions of the people of Israel), whose Son the Messiah would be according to the scriptures.

The Pharisees easily answered this question because it was well understood that the Messiah would be from the lineage of king David and so they said, ˋThe Son of Davidˋ.

Jesus had set His own trap for them to demonstrate to them and to the people that the religious leaders had only a partial understanding of the doctrines established in the scriptures.

When they commited themselves to the answer that the Messiah was the Son of David, Jesus then pointed out a paradox in the scripture that they had no answer for.

If the Messiah was the Son of David, why then did David, in Psalm 110 verse 1, call the Messiah his LORD when a son is never greater than his father?

43 He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:

44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool” ’?

45 If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” 46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

This question was unanswerable by the Pharisees because they did not have insight into the nature of the Messiah as the Son of God and how the Messiah would emerge from the lineage of David through Joseph and Mary as Davidˋs son by the Holy Spirit and so the Messiah would be both Davidˋs Lord and Davidˋs son.

This spiritual and corporeal truth, though apparent to us now that the Messiah emerged and brought salvation to the whole world, was completely opaque to the Pharisees and thus the question completely confounded them and they refrained from asking Him further questions on doctrinal matters.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON

Matthew chapter 22 verses 34 - 40 contains the authoritative summation of the entire book of the law and the prophets by the Lord Jesus. 

Having heard that Jesus had publically discredited the false doctrine of the Saddusees, the Pharisees approached Jesus again to test Him by asking which of the commandments of God was the greatest or the most important or the most crucial. 

34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Lord answered that the Shema (the first commanment) out of Deutronomy chapter 6 verse 4 - 5 as the great commandment which reads as follows;

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

To this, Jesus added that the second most important commandment was the command in Leviticus 19 verse 19 which reads;

18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

Jesus then explained that all the writings of Moses and the prophets were founded on these two commandments.  

The ministry of our Lord Jesus was the culmination of these two commandments where the reconciliation between God and man would be accomplished by Jesus' sacrificial life and death.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO CONFOUNDS THE WISE

The pharisees and the reps from Herodˋs court had come with the question of taxation and after they had left, a contigency of a sect of temple leaders called the Saddusees approached Jesus with a disingenous question. The Saddusees did not believe in the ressurection and yet their question was about who a   woman would be married to  (having been married to multiple brothers as each died and the next married her ) when she ressurected. Matthew chapter 22 verses 23 - 33 records this encounter with Jesus;

23 The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, 24 saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. 25 Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. 26 Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. 27 Last of all the woman died also. 28 Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.”

29 Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. 31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

The questioners presumed that people remained married to each other after the ressurection and so the connumdrum they placed before Jesus was how people who were legally married to multiple people in this life would be assiged to a partner in the ressurected life.

To the questioners, this connundrum was an airtight argument against the ressurection because the legallity of multiple marriages in the earth would cause an intractable mess in heaven after the ressurection when the multiple marriages would have to run concurrently which was not lawful. The question turned on how a fair decision could be made to assign a woman to a particular a man when she was legally linked to other men.

Jesus responded to this question in two parts. First He nullified the connundrum by informing the questioners that their primary point of fact was wrong. Whereas they thought that marriages continued in the afterlife, Jesus corrected their misconception by telling them that at the ressurection, marriages would not continue. He authoritatively told them that human beings, once in ressurected, would be like the ˋangels of Godˋ who neither married nor were given in marriage. 

This information provided a revealing glimpse into the afterlife where men and women, now immortal beings, were no longer legally linked by marital on earth. In marriage, men and women are joined together in one flesh but with the destruction of the flesh upon the resurection, there is nothing that continues to be joined and each individual is a free standing entity in God.

The second part of Jesusˋ response nullified the doctrine of the Saddusees that held that there was no ressurection by using scriptures such as Exodus chapter 3 verse 15, that reads as follows;

God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

“This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.

In these texts, God refers to Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and because this declaration is made to Moses long after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had died on earth, they were clearly in a ressurected state because God is the God of the living and referred Himself as the God of living people.

The clarification that Jesus brought to the doctrinal murkiness of the Saddusees astonished all who heard Him.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO LOOKS UPON THE HEART OF MEN

The city of Jerusalem was now a cauldron of hazards for Jesus and His disciples.

The established religious and political  powers were on their own home turf and they are familiar with all the legal and political tools available to destroy their opponents.

Matthew chapter 22 verse 15 - 22 records the setting of their trap and how Jesus evaded being caught in the vice that they had intended to use to destroy Him;

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. 16 And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. 17 Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

Having marked Jesus as a public enemy number one, the pharisees designed this question that would entrap Jesus in such a way that if He answered one way, the people could be turned against Him and if He answered the other way, the Roman rulers could be turned against Him.

Representatives from both the temple priests and king Herodˋs court approached Jesus falsely posturing as sincere seekers of wisdom. They pretended to regard Him as a genuine teacher and they attempted to flatter Him by saying that they knew He was incorruptable by the opinions of men. They then aired their question as to whether the nation of Israel, under the Mosaic law, was required to pay taxes to the Roman empire or not. 

This loaded question, if answered with a ˋyesˋ, would be used by the questioners to turn the peopleˋs opinion against Jesus because they would accuse Jesus of being a Roman sympathizer who supported Roman taxation over Israel. If Jesus lost the support of the people, the establishment would then be able to do whatever they wanted to Him with impunity.

If answered with a ˋnoˋ, the establishment would rush to the Roman rulers and report Jesus as a insurrectionist who wanted the people to rebel against the Roman by withholding taxes.

The Lord recognized the nature of the test and responded to the questioners in the presence of all the people in the temple;

18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?

19 Show Me the tax money.”

So they brought Him a denarius.

20 And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”

21 They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”

And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

This response disarmed the trap because it laid bare the realities that the political and religious establishments had already accepted as part of their compromises with the Romans and these compromises were what the people were having to cope with.

The people who came to question Jesus were in possession of the Roman  currency that was inscribed with the name and image of Ceasar and so they were in compliance with the Romans as they traded in and stored their own wealth in Roman currency.

This is their hypocricy that Jesus was pointing out to them as He answered the question by telling them that because they had already integrated the Roman currency into their own lives and benefited from the Roman economic system, they were obligated to render to Ceasar what Ceasar had bequeathed to them.

Having done that however, they were still obligated to the God of Israel  and so they were required to render what they owed to God, to God.

The incredibly compact dissection of Israelˋs state of affairs diffused the bomb launched by the pharisee and king Herodˋs reps and they were stunned into silence and they departed.

How perceptive and wise is our God?

Amen.

1

OUR FATHER WHO CALLS MANY BUT CHOOSES A FEW

Matthew chapter 22 verses 11 - 14 is an addendum to the parable that Jesus told in the temple about the wedding feast that a king arranged for his son, only to have the invitees decline to attend.

In the parable, the king responded to the absence of attendees sent out his servants to invite the marginaized people from the highways and byways and they came to attend the feast.

At the feast, the king entered the banquet hall to see the guests and he picked out a person who was not dressed for the occasion and he asked him why he did not dressed appropriately. The man had no answer and the king ordered his servants to tie the man up and eject him into the outer darkness in a state of anguish.

This addendum, extraordinarily difficult to interprete, reads as follows.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

To try to understand what was being conveyed, letˋs deconstruct the story by identifying the various people and elements that appear.

• The king is God the Father
• The guests were those called to join the feast after the original invitees delined
• The man was an attendee who had invited in from the streets or the gentile realms
• The status of this man as per the king was  ˋfriendˋ or a believer in Jesus
• The missing wedding garment was the abscence of the garment of praise or the garment of righteousness which are both referenced in Isiaah 61 verses 10 - 11,

10 I delight greatly in the Lord;

     my soul rejoices in my God.

     For he has clothed me with garments of salvation

     and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,

     as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,

     and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up

     and a garden causes seeds to grow,

     so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness

     and praise spring up before all nations.

• The servants are the prophets of God who can bind and loose 
• The ejection from the feast into the outer darkness is a removal from the light and presence of God
• Weeping and gnashing of teeth is anguish and regret over missed opportunities

The conclusion that Jesus offers to the addendum to the parable is that many are called, but few are chosen.

This points to a sobering reality where people, hearing the gospel, believe it and are saved and they make it to the marriage supper of the lamb of God but when they get there, the lives they lived on earth are missing the praise and righteousness needed to form an appropriate garment. That garment reflects the individualˋs life of the pursuit of an intimate connection with the God. 

The ones who sought a sincere and humble love relationship with God will find that they are clothed with the garments appropriate for a wedding feast and that God reciprocates intimacy with intimacy. Those who forfeit their own lives even unto death for the sake of the kingdom of God out of love for God, will be  included in the ongoing life of God in the same way that a new bride and groom embark on a shared journey and even adventure in their lives going forward together.

Those without the garment are the ones who accepted salvation and recieved it but having been saved, did not inquire into the one who paid so great a price to save them and did not voluntarily pursue a relationship with Him out of their own love for the one who loved them while they were yet sinners.

Those who did not pursue intimacy with God while on earth got eternal life because they believed in the ressurection of Jesus and they were saved by the blood of the lamb but they will then, going forward live apart from Godˋs private presence and always regret that they missed out on being included in Godˋs inner circle because they loved only themselves.

Many are called to share in the goodness of God but when decisions are made to find the ones who genuinely loved God before they knew of His riches and glory, only a few will be chosen to be part of the inner life of God.

Have mercy on us O God.

1

OUR FATHER WHO ARRANGED A MARRIAGE FOR HIS SON

Continuing to speak to the people in the temple, the Lord Jesus told the people a parable that indicted the religious establishment for their opposition to the One who was sent from God. The parable, in Matthew chapter 22 verses 1 - 10 reads this way;

1 And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables aod said: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, 3 and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. 4 Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.” ’ 5 But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6 And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. 7 But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ 10 So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

The King in the parable is God the Father. The kingˋs son is the Lord Jesus Himself.

The wedding feast is the celebration of the reconciliation between God and mankind.

The servants who were sent out to the people to gather people for the feast are the prophets of God.

The people who were invited but refused to come to the wedding feast of the kingˋs son are the religious leaders who had priorities above the honoring of God.

The people who were gathered from the highways and byways were the castaways and gentiles who were being brought into the economy of salvation and reconciliation with God after the subjects of the king rejected the invitation to come to the celebrate the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This parable was marking the change from the Mosaic dispensation to the dispensation of grace and the Lord was telling this parable to the religious leaders of Israel at the very time that they were in the process of rejecting Him and seeking His death.

The death that the religious leaders were plotted for Him turned out to be the very sacrifice that was planned by God from the begining of the world that would pay for the sins of world and thus reconcile our fallen race of men back to our God for those who voluntarily chose to believe and accept the provision that was made for them.

This concept is parallel to what Jesus conveyed in Matthew chapter 21 verses 42 - 43 where He said;

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

‘The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone.

This was the Lord’s doing,

And it is marvelous in our eyes’?

43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

Have mercy on us O God.

12

 OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO SAVE THE WORLD

Matthew chapter 21 verses 33 - 46 records a second parable that the Lord Jesus told the people in the temple regarding how different segments of the population would react to the arrival of the kingdom of God. In this case, the religious leaders, who were ostensibly in place to receive the kingdom of God when it arrived, were the ones who fought the emmisaries of the kingdom in their selfish quest to preserve their status in society. 

However, their dogged resistance to the arrival of the kingdom caused them to reject the cornerstone that was actually the Lord Himself and thus they disqualified themselves from kingdom and it was taken from them and given to another nation that would submit to the kingdom of God and yield fruit in keeping with their seasons. 

33 “Hear another parable: There was a certain  landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 34 Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. 37 Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.

40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?”

41 They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

‘The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone.

This was the Lord’s doing,

And it is marvelous in our eyes’?

43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. 44 And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”

45 Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. 46 But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.

Lord have mercy on us.

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