The Choice is Yours!

John 20:9-16, “⁹ He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. ¹⁰ At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹ He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. ¹² He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.

¹³ “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’

¹⁴ “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶ He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”

As I read this scripture this morning I was moved by the simplicity of how it relates to the overall bible message. You know if you believe like I do, God planted a Garden and placed man and woman in it. They had all they could want, and then they made a bad choice and had to leave there. God still cared for them and blessed them as they worked the land outside the garden. As time went by future generations did not know the creator of that garden and the land so he sent individuals (Moses and the prophets) to them to help guide them along their way. Many of them were treated just as the servants in the parable beaten, ridiculed, mocked and sent away unheard. But God had a plan to bring mankind back into a relationship with himself; just like they had in the garden, so He decided to send His Son Jesus. He met the same fate as the son from the parable. He was seen as someone trying to take away what the religious leaders had and even the common people turned from Him. So they decided to throw Him out and kill Him. Hoping to live their lives however they saw fit. The thing they did not understand was; that was God’s real plan, He knew what their actions would be. So He used it to give each one of us a choice. When Jesus was raised on the third day He was given the keys over death, and eternal life to all. It  only requires that we choose to follow Him. We are the new tenants and our landlord is Jesus the Son. The choice now is how you will live that life that you no longer own. Will you share the fruits that are produced or will you horde them for yourself like the original renters. The choice is all yours. Me personally I agree with the people, “God forbid!”  I have chosen to follow and share what fruit is produced so that others will come to know my Lord. Have a blessed day. Thank you for taking the time to read this.