Are you ready?
They would have liked to arrest him but they were afraid of the crowds, who looked on him as a prophet (Matthew 21, 45)
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, ‘Listen to another parable. There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug a winepress in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad. When vintage time drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another and stoned a third. Next he sent some more servants, this time a larger number, and they dealt with them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them. “They will respect my son” he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him and take over his inheritance.” So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They answered, ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him when the season arrives.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures: It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone.This was the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful to see? ‘I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.’ When they heard his parables, the chief priests and the scribes realised he was speaking about them, but though they would have liked to arrest him they were afraid of the crowds, who looked on him as a prophet. (Matthew 21, 33-43.45-46)
The preconceived aversion to Jesus and the truths he proclaimed led some of his contemporaries to desire his death. This was to silence the tormenting doubts in their hearts that Jesus proclaimed the truth, which if they accepted would have forced them to change their lifestyle. Even today, those who hate Jesus' disciples and try to physically eliminate them or discredit them in the eyes of the world, do so to avoid responding to their conscience knowing they could do better, like the testimony of those who serve the Lord with love. Are you ready to put your faith into practice and face persecutions, more or less violent as they may be?
