March 21
Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a
Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
If you have been reading the
reflections throughout the season of Lent you may have been struck as I have
been, how each day we get another concrete lesson on how we are called to live
our lives. We have to work pretty hard to ignore the messages. Today’s lesson,
in my mind, is on rejecting what we know to be right in order to achieve what
we desire. In Genesis it is the brothers of Joseph. In Matthew it is a group of
tenants that act on greed and kill first the slaves of the landowner and then
his son. For those that were listening to Jesus at that time, and for us today,
he asks them to remember Scripture: “The stone rejected by the builders has
become the cornerstone”. The builders are the experts; they are responsible for
building a secure structure. Why would they reject a stone that is so solid, so
true that should be the cornerstone? Of course he was speaking of himself. He
was rejected then and continues to be rejected now. Who was rejecting him? The
end of this reading says that the Pharisee realized that he was speaking about
them. Who are we? Are we the brothers of Joseph, the tenants or the Pharisees?
Although their motives were different they were all rejecting God’s will for us
in this world. Again, in my mind, the cornerstone of Jesus’ teaching is love.
Follow that and we are building a solid structure in our lives.
By Patty Larger
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