Matthew 21: 33-46

Sunday's Gospel is another parable, a perplexing one about vineyard tenants killing the owner's son. When you hear this parable, you just have to ask yourself: what were they thinking? You can sort of follow them when they resist the first time, maybe even the second, but what in the world made them think they would inherit the vineyard if they killed the owner’s son? It’s another example of those things we read and hear about when company executives cheat companies and shareholders out of millions of dollars. When they stole the first little bit, you can kind of understand how they would think they would get away with it. I mean, I’m sure most criminals think they won’t get caught. But after a while, didn’t they finally realize it had gone too far and they would have to pay up?

Common sense would say yes. But as it turns out, common sense apparently isn’t so common. Even Paul, a saint of the Church and full of dedication and fervor for the Lord, tells his close friends in Philippi, that here at the end of his life, he realizes he has not attained his goal of having Christ be Lord of his life. Elsewhere he says, “I do the very things I should leave undone, and fail to do those things I should do.” For some reason, we just don’t seem to learn from our mistakes. Or at least we don’t learn enough to truly become different. Why is that?

I don’t know. My own tendency is apparently to forget the pain I feel when I realize I have embarrassed myself before God. Then without the reminder, I find myself doing the bad thing all over again. Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, is said while a monk, to have made confession multiple times a day. It was common place for him to rise from his knees having just confessed and then to immediately kneel and begin his confession all over again.
I suppose the point here is that we are and will remain imperfect and sinful people. The good news is that our sin will not inhibit our relationship with God because Jesus has died for our sins. Perhaps we should hear Paul again as he says, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Perhaps we can think of this as, “don’t become bogged down in your past sinfulness, but instead continue to look toward the next opportunity to avoid sin and to do the will of your Lord.”

Taken that way, we can avoid the paralysis of Martin Luther, weighed down with his imperfections and instead look at the life of Paul who was always trying to share the power of God with others, even until the time of his death.

Peace,

Jerry+