Whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder

 "Hear another parable:  There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower.  And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.  Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedresers, that they might receive its fruit.  And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.  Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.  Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.'  So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.

"Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?"  They said to Him, "He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons."  Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:

'The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the LORD's doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes'?

"Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.  And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder."

Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them.  But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.

- Matthew 21:33-46

Yesterday, we read that when Jesus came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things?  And who gave You this authority?"  But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things:  The baptism of John -- where was it from?  From heaven or from men?"  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'  But if we say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet."  So they answered Jesus and said, "We do not know."  And He said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.  "But what do you think?  A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go, work today in my vineyard.'  He answered and said, 'I will not,' but afterward he regretted it and went.  Then he came to the second and said likewise.  And he answered and said, 'I go, sir,' but he did not go.  Which of the two did the will of his father?"  They said to Him, "The first."  Jesus said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.  For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him."

"Hear another parable:  There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower.  And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.  Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedresers, that they might receive its fruit.  And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.  Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.  Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.'  So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him."   This parable represents God's vineyard:  the vineyard is God's people.  The vinedressers are the religious leaders entrusted with care of the vineyard as "people of God."  The servants are the prophets, repeatedly sent to call people back to the "landowner" and repeatedly treated badly for their message.  The son is, of course, Christ.   That the son is cast out of the vineyard has been interpreted in two ways, my study bible reminds us.  First He was killed outside the city walls of Jerusalem, and also that He was crucified by foreign soldiers.

 "Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?"  They said to Him, "He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons."  Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures:  'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.   This was the LORD's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?  Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.  And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder."  Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them.  But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.    The leadership's answer that the vineyard owner will destroy the vinedressers basically convicts themselves (as in their answer to Jesus' parable in yesterday's reading, about the son who ultimately does the will of his father).  Jesus' quotation is from Psalm 118:22-23.  The "stone," of course, is Christ.  My study bible cites St. John Chrysostom, who comments that the saying illustrates two ways of destruction.  Those falling on the stone are people who suffer the consequences of their sins while yet in this life.  Those on whom the stone falls are unrepentant people who suffer utter destruction in final judgment.  This interpretation is also consistent with Old Testament Scripture.   That the multitudes take Jesus for a prophet, although that is not the fullness of His identity, is in some sense correct:  He is speaking prophetically here.

What does it mean, that some may stumble over this stone, and that it will fall upon others?  In the Old Testament, we can read statements that indicate God's loving correction comes to some, but that judgment comes to others.  To stumble isn't necessarily to fall as a permanent state of being.  Sometimes, indeed, we "stumble" so that we may become aware of something about ourselves we need to take a good hard look at.  Sometimes when we stumble it's a wake-up call.  To be "broken," in Jesus' words here, may mean to be open to change.  The real question is if we are capable of "turning and relenting," so to speak, such as the action Jesus says (in yesterday's reading) these in the leadership failed to do with John the Baptist (see Matthew 21:32).  Again, in some particular way, Jesus teaches us about the use of time.  That is, time as the time of our lives, given to us for the capacity to repent, to reconsider, to turn and relent, in the language of yesterday's gospel reading.  But as we don't know what time we really do have (which of us can say how long our lives will be?), the importance of right now comes into it.  The great temptation is to listen to these words, to read of Jesus' warnings of Judgment, and to think that it has been 2,000 years, and there still has not occurred the Second Coming we've been warned about.  In terms of our lives, we're always on a continuum.  We're always headed in either one direction or another.  The early disciples of Christ in the early church have termed this choice "the way of life and the way of death" (see, for example, the Didache).  We are always going one way or the other.  When we think about this on those terms, we are to understand that we always can turn back.  But further travel along the road or way of death only gets us in deeper, to a place where we may ignore correction, or even to a place where repentance may be far away enough that judgment is the result.  Whatever way we take the parable in today's reading, it invites us to think about ourselves and the state of our own spiritual reality at this moment.  The fact that Jesus is speaking prophetically to the religious establishment, the leadership, underscores that point even more distinctly for each one of us.  What is the way of life?