St. Matthew, Chapter 21, verses: 34-35; The Vine-dressers I.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Parable of the vine-dressers) Part 2. 

We continue this parable where Christ is telling the chief priest, the elders, and the scribes a story about a topic that they can relate to.  He talks about a householder, a home owner, who remodels his home to accommodate a vineyard.  The owner wants to have grapes that grow and pressed into a wine that he can enjoy.  He is not able to oversee the entire process of the growth of the grapes and the pressing into wine, so he leases the vineyard out to workers who will be paid to manage it for him.

He goes on a long far away journey for business that keeps him away from his vineyard for some years while the grapes are growing and the wine is being pressed.  Christ tells this story because he wants the rulers of the day to understand how it relates to them.  They are the vine-dressers who were supposed to manage the vineyard for the householder.  But when the fruit season drew near, he sent his servants to the vine-dressers to receive his fruits.  And the vine-dressers seized his servants, and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 

Surely this was wrong on the part of the vine-dressers.  They were hired to work the vineyard and to prepare the wine when the grapes were ripe.  They were hired to watch over the vineyard and prepare the fruit for the householder's return.  They were given the charge to provide and protect the householders property for which they were being paid.  Why did they turn on the householder?  Why did they beat and torture the householders servants?  What motive could they have for doing such?

Did they consider themselves in charge?  Did they consider themselves as owners?  Did they desire to have the fruits of the vineyard for themselves, knowing that it belonged to another?  What motive could have persuaded them to take such heinous actions?  We turn around and see some of the same actions today?  Crime is rampant in the streets.  Burglaries, robberies, theft, break-ins, all sorts of actions that indicate the same behavior taken by the vine-dressers of the past are still here today.

Why do we have to steal?  Why do we have to rob?  Why do we have to take by force that which does not belong to us but to others?  We see, we want, and we take, seems to be the motto, irrespective of who it belongs to.  There is the thrill of it all.  And the chase to get away from being caught becomes a thrill to be remembered and repeated until caught. 

If we only knew who we are.  If we only knew what is given to us.  If we only believed that we are already rich beyond our wildest imagination then we would know that we do not have to steal or take that which does not belong to us.  More than anything of value on this earth, Christ has given us life anew and this is the most precious gift anyone can give to us.  The rest is dirt.  All the diamonds and jewels, and money and fame cannot compare to the treasures stored in heaven for those who love the Lord.  Nothing can satisfy the hunger, the want, the desire that burns within, except he who has given us life.  And it is he who has prepared a place for us in his kingdom.  Take not!  Steal not!  Rob not!  Be not that one who believes that he has not when he has all.  Christ awaits with open arms to provide for you.  Christ awaits with open heart to forgive you.  Christ awaits with open spirit to love you with a love that no earthly gift can fulfill.  Open your heart, open your mind, take the leap of faith and he will come and be with you!

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage nd then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ .   The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in. 

St Matthew, Chapter 15, verses: 26, The Lost Children of God: It is unfair.

Our paragraph topic is: (The Canaanite woman) Part 5.   

What are beliefs?  Are they the stuff that our dreams are made of?  Are they the desires of our hearts?  Are they the thoughts that we have about what we want, think, see, feel.  A writer I once read described a belief as a feeling of certainty about something.  The Canaanite woman had a belief.  She believed that her daughter could be cured of the demon that possessed her.  She had an idea and she became certain that she could find a way to restore her daughter to the way that she knew her before being possessed.

She followed that idea up with action for she knew that there was a way.  She consulted all the known cures of the time, met with the best physicians, doctors, healers, sorcerers of the time but found no answer.  Then she heard the word.  She heard of Christ.  She heard of his miracles, she heard how he made the lame walk, the blind see, cured the sick, and made the demons depart from the possessed.  Then the word she heard convinced her, with certainty, that her daughter would be cured.  She had no doubts, she believed with certainty.

She had to find this Christ.  She had to ask him for help.  She had to beg and plead with his disciples that she might see him, get near to him, speak with him that her daughter might be saved.  She knew that she was not a Jew.  She knew that she was a gentile.  She knew that Jews and gentiles did not associate, did not live together.  The former considered the latter less than.  The former did not associate with the latter.  The former considered the latter unclean.  But all this did not change her belief that her daughter could be saved.  All of this did not deter her purpose or change her from her goal, her desire, her belief.  She was certain that she could persuade the Christ to save her daughter.

So she came to him and falling on her knees she worshipped him and pleaded for his help.  And Christ,  he saidin answer, "It is not fair to take the
children’s bread and to cast it to the dogs."

Christ made this statement in expressing the sentiment of the times.  Food was scarce and there were many mouths to feed.  Who got to eat first?  Who would go without food?  Who would make the decision, the judgement as to who would eat and who would not?  For it had come to be, that the scales of fairness played into the decisions of men.  It was not fair, it was not right to take bread from children and give it to the animals.  But the wealthy did.  It was not right, it was not fair that the dogs of the rich eat better than the poor.  It was not right, it was not fair that the poor were taxed out of the food to feed the children and those same taxes fed the dogs of the rulers, the dogs of the wealthy, the dogs of the powerful.

Christ made this statement to the Canaanite woman because he knew that just as strong as her desire, her belief, that her daughter needed help, she had the same belief that her dogs would eat before the poor.  You see the Canaanite woman was a woman of means.  She was a woman of power and influence.  She did not know hunger.  She did not know poverty.  She did not know want.  For she was of the ruling class and was a wealthy person.  And Christ admonished her with the statement that it was not fair for her to think and believe that her dogs should eat and be fed from the wealth taken from the poor.

And where are we today?  Do we believe the same?  Are we the selfish ones who feed ourselves, our children, and our pets while those less fortunate go hungry?  Do we pass up an opportunity to help others, thinking that they are bums or beggars seeking a hand out?  We tell ourselves that they are drug addicts.  We tell ourselves that they are drunkards seeking another drink.  We look down on them from our high position without considering that they too are the children of God created in his image and likeness.  And we even get indignant and angry that they would ask us for help.

They are on every corner.  They are under every bridge.  They are without house, without clothes, without means, without hope.  And we pass them by, avoid them, and yet, feed our pets and our dogs before we would feed them.  It is not fair to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs.  What do you do?  What is your excuse?  What is in your heart?  Judge not and feed the children of God.