Matthew 21:33-40 (The Parable of the Tenants
“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
Matthew 21:45
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.
Tag: Stealing God’s Honor is the Highest Sin
We can’t rank sin. Sin, no matter the “level” or “type” is egregious against God and separates us from God and our fellowship with God. However, in the above passage we see an example of a sin against the first commandment: You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me!! In the above parable we see that Jesus is really speaking about the Pharisees. In the parable the Pharisees are represented by the “tenants.” When the owner of the land (God) sent His son (Jesus) to reclaim the vineyard (mankind), the tenants (Pharisees) thought to kill the son (Jesus) to claim the vineyard (the praise and worship of mankind) for themselves. This is exactly what the Pharisees were doing. In fact, in verse 46 we see that they don’t want to “take” Jesus because they feared the crowds:
Matthew 21:46
And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
These religious leaders were so desirous of worship by mankind they couldn’t even, at this time, take their rival out, because they didn’t want those they wanted to worship them (the crowds) to be disrupted. Mankind was meant to worship God. God sent His son to repair the barrier that was between God and mankind, so that man could return to worship God. However, when religious leaders “steal” the worship of man so that they can be praised, honored and “worshipped,” they attempt the take “the inheritance” due God. When pastors, priest and church leaders refuse to speak truth in order to have man praise them, they steal God’s inheritance. When we refuse to speak truth because we don’t want mankind to be made at us, what we are actually doing is stealing the worship (inheritance) due God and taking it (their worship) for ourselves. When we want the praise of men and fear mankind and disobey God in the process, we are, in essence, stealing God’s inheritance and that is the most egregious of sins!!
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