Too Stubborn - Luke 20
This part of Luke tells of Jesus’ days in Jerusalem immediately preceding His crucifixion. He has numerous conversations with people, including the very ones wanting Him dead. He tells a story about some farmers who leased some land from a landowner. Apparently part of the deal was that when the harvest time came, the landowner would get a portion of the fruit as rent. However the farmers had other ideas. When the servant of the landowner came to collect the rent, the farmers beat him up. This happened three times. And so the landowner decided to send his son to collect. “Surely they will respect him.” Unfortunately his expectations were totally wrong. In fact they killed the son.
Luke relates the reaction of the people listening - astonishment! They said, “God forbid that such a thing should ever happen.” They could not imagine people doing something so heinous. (Little did they know that they would be eyewitnesses to this kind of event.)
The most interesting response came from Jesus’ enemies who were also listening. It says, “. . . they realized He was pointing at them – that they were the farmers in the story.” And it says, “They wanted to arrest Him immediately.”
Have you ever had someone point out something about you that you refused to admit – even though they were right? We use the word – stubborn – to describe this kind of mindset. While Jesus’ enemies were willing to admit they were like the farmers, they refused to do anything about it. Nothing would stop them from getting rid of Jesus.
And so it leaves me wondering: Was it the sin of stubbornness that led to Jesus’ crucifixion? Was it their refusal to change that motivated these men in a conspiracy to kill the Son of God? And is that the sin that trips me up - My refusal to change?