"What shall I do? I will send my son."
Monday musical meditations on God's good news
An opening prayer:
My song is love unknown,
My Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take, frail flesh and die?
He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed for Christ would know:
But O! my Friend, my Friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend.
Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.
Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
He gave the blind their sight,
Sweet injuries! Yet they at these
Themselves displease, and ’gainst Him rise.
They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they saved,
The Prince of life they slay,
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes,
That He His foes from thence might free.
In life, no house, no home
My Lord on earth might have;
In death no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say? Heav’n was His home;
But mine the tomb wherein He lay.
Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend. Amen.
Luke 20:9–19
- 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, “May this never be!”
- 17 Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
- “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone’? 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
- 19 The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.’”
Good news questions
- The Father does the unthinkable (like last week): He sends his Son to murderous men. What is the good news for us, would you say, when it comes to his heart? The vineyard? What Jesus all knew in advance?
For others pray
- That God spreads the good news of the kingdom of the Son he loves in Suriname
J.S. Bach's beautiful music for today
- BWV 78 (YouTube, "Jesus, by whom my soul")
- This piece starts by asking Jesus, who suffered and died for me, to still be my help in all distress.
- With all believers, we hurry with weak but eager steps to Jesus, our Lord.
- Sin and death assail us, but in Jesus sweet eternity awaits us.
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