The religious leaders of Jerusalem were desperate to prove that Jesus was wrong because he threatened their positions of influence and their popularity. They wanted to put him down so that they could regain control. They felt that they were losing control of the people. Jesus was showing them up. No longer were they the ones that everyone looked up to. Everyone was now interested in Jesus. They were desperate, therefore, to find fault in him, so they interrogated him about various matters of theology and law. But, again and again, Jesus showed them up. Moreover, Jesus called their bluff. He knew what they were doing and why. In the parable of the vineyard, Jesus exposes the motives of these religious leaders. Like the men in the parable, the religious leaders had taken over God’s property and were using it to serve their own ambitions. What do you do when you feel threatened by someone? Are you happy to be superseded by someone who is better than you? Or are you desperate to clamour to the top of the pile even if it means denigrating someone else? Our natural tendency is to want to find fault in others to make ourselves feel superior. Life is not a competition. Those who win end up losing because they are playing a game that we should never be playing in the first place. Don’t play that game; don’t enter the worldly competition for recognition and control. The closer you get to winning this game, the more you will lose ultimately, because it is the wrong game.
Reflect on where you have been competing with others. Ask God to bless those people and prosper them.
Read Luke 20:1-39
