The Lord's complaint against the nation is that He did everything
necessary for the nation to produce good fruit and nothing but wild fruit
came. When cultivating a vineyard the
owner chooses what sort of grapes to produce, very specifically chooses the
stock in order to produce exactly the kind of fruit desired, and that variety
determines what sort of wine will be the end product. If wild grapes take over the vineyard all the
work has gone for nothing if the owner wants a particular vintage rather than
just any old wine. The Lord provided a
perfect environment for the production of a particular people but they have
instead rejected the law and become like the people around them. The only solution is to blow it all up and
start over. Is the church producing the fruit
the Lord desires? He has given us the
Spirit, the Word, and in the US, the freedom to proclaim Him and worship
Him. How are we doing?
Who gets to set the rules?
Jesus compares the generation among whom He lived to be those who sit on
the sidelines and tell others how to play and when the players refuse, they are
roundly criticized and rejected. John's
asceticism attracted one kind of complaint and Jesus' lifestyle another form of
criticism. They, and we, want God to
play by our rules. One side of the
church rejects any talk of sin because they have a fear of legalism and the
other side hates anyone with freedom they don't grant in their world. There is no generation immune from this
teaching. We have a need to pray and ask
the Lord to show us truth and to cooperate with what He is doing. John's job was to prepare people for the
coming of Jesus. We do the same with a
fast prior to Christmas and Easter, we understand that to everything there is a
season.
What a powerful beginning to a lesson, "Since all these
things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives
of holiness and godliness…" When
was the last time we asked ourselves that question in that way? It answers the important question, what
season is this? It is the season of preparation,
the passing away of the things of this creation and the waiting for the coming
of God's kingdom. It is the season of
letting go of these things, the season of waiting for the things to come. Waiting is not a passive activity, however,
we are to be cultivating our lives and cultivating the world, it is a time like
John the Baptist understood, a time to prepare, proclaim and prophesy.
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