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 vinedressers, 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 leave 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 vinedressers, 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."  My study bible explains that in this parable, the landowner represents God the Father, and the vineyard refers to God's people.  The vinedressers are the leadership who are entrusted to care for the people.  Every servant who is sent by the owner stands for an Old Testament prophet who comes to call people back to God, while the beloved son is a reference to Christ Himself.  That the Son is cast out of the vineyard to be killed is understood on two levels:  first, that Jesus was killed outside Jerusalem, and also that Jesus was crucified by foreign soldiers, not by those of His own vineyard.  

"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 leave his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons."   As in yesterday's reading (see above), the leaders convict themselves using their own principles to answer Christ's parable.

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.  This stone is Christ.  St. Chrysostom comments that this saying illustrates the two ways of destruction.  Those who fall on the stone are people who suffer the consequences of their sins while still in this life.  Those on whom the stone falls are unrepentant people suffering utter destruction in the final judgment.  

The Gospels really illustrate for us the pitfalls of self-righteousness.  The leadership is so sure of their own authority that they can't see their own blindness to living holiness in their presence.  They can't understand the authority of Christ.  They illustrate the principle of hypocrisy that Jesus warns us all about in the Sermon on the Mount, when He teaches that we can't possibly correct others properly when we're blind to our own much greater faults, and fail to correct them first (Matthew 7:3-5).  We note once again their fear is of the crowds; their actions are not honest.  John's Gospel tells us that "even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:42-43).   For Jesus, everything comes down to the love of God in the heart.   In the following chapter, Jesus will be challenged by the scribes and Pharisees with a question regarding the greatest commandments in the Law.  He will reply that the first and great commandment is "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."  (The second is like it, He will teach:  "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.")   But it is this love in the heart that puts God first that shields us from the hypocritical blindness to ourselves that comes from self-righteousness, a trusting only to ourselves and a failure to conceive of our own flaws or to presume we have a ways to go before we can properly judge anyone.  To be truly aware of the love of God asks of us the humility to receive it.  It is a strange thing indeed to understand real faith that communicates a kind of love that does not allow us to delude ourselves that there is no room for growth, that always has a powerfully loving way of showing us our flaws and leading us to greater understanding and learning.  Indeed, if we really literally translate the word for disciple from the biblical Greek, we come up with "learner."  The love of God -- a relationship of love with God in the heart -- guides us always into a better way, isn't afraid to show us our flaws (sometimes in painful ways in which we live out our mistakes so that we may see them), but is only possible with the humility and dependency this requires.  It is the failure to understand this guidance that we need in our lives that makes us self-righteous.  St. Chrysostom's distinction between the "two ways" of the stone that Christ speaks about is all-important to this understanding, and yet we hear so little of it.  Perhaps we're too focused on worldly notions of perfection and success as signs of our own goodness.  To fall and stumble in life gives us a chance for change, for repentance (literally "change of mind" in the Greek).  It gives us a chance to see the flaws we're blind to, and to come to a loving God who leads us to a better way.  But without that consciousness of our own fallibility, we are stuck in our sins.  Repentance is an ongoing process of living out our baptism, being open to the surprising "new life" God will lead us to, and letting go of the things we cling to falsely.  Self-righteousness is a way of trusting completely in oneself, holding oneself as judge while being blind to our own faults.  In an atmosphere of condemnation and judgment and finger-pointing, let us understand our first duty to ourselves is humility before God, a need to be shown the way  -- an awareness that, as "learners," we will always have this deeply personal need.