Harvest

Matthew 21:35 - "When harvest time came, the landowner sent two slaves to take his share of the fruit."

Harvest time. The fruit the slaves take is the rent the farmers pay. The rest of the harvest is theirs as income. In thinking about this story, it occurs to me that having an absentee landlord is like having an absentee boss. One learns to run things a certain way in such a situation and it can feel weird having the boss back. I once worked for a company that consisted of me and my boss. He had to take trips for weeks at a time. When he came back, it felt as if he was encroaching on my territory, as if he was in my space. I wonder if these tenants felt the same way?

I wonder if we sometimes feel that way about God or Jesus or the Spirit? I do, sometimes. Sometimes I think my life would be immeasurably easier without always thinking about the right thing to do, without knowing what I know about history, especially racial history in the US. We sometimes want to keep Jesus and God and the Spirit at arms' length, limit their influence over our lives to an hour or two on Sunday mornings. We hesitate to give the rest of the week, the rest of our lives to God. Then when Jesus or the Spirit pops up, we are surprised. Maybe we even feel as though our space is being invaded. We feel inconvenienced.

Jesus is inconvenient. He doesn't charge rent; he just asks us to follow him on his way. He enjoys our company. But we recoil when we realize that it's the way of the cross. We're concerned we might be arrested, we might be injured, we might be ridiculed, we might have to give up something we love, we might have to change the way we see the world. We might have to change ourselves. Jesus assures us he'll be with us, but we don't always believe this, do we? We have a hard time trusting Jesus. We have to constantly work at it. Make no mistake, it is hard to trust Jesus. We like going our own way because it's safe; we know the outcome. Trusting the Spirit is scary, because we don't know how things will turn out or where we will end up. It's like jumping into the unknown without a safety harness.

Are you ready? Trick question, we will never be ready! Let's jump anyway.

What am I holding back from God? Why? What would following Jesus look like for me? What keeps me from following, even when I want to?