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Our Patient God

“Then Jesus began telling them stories: ‘A man planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower.  Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country.  At grape-picking time he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop.  But the farmers grabbed the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty handed.  The owner then sent another servant, but they beat him over the head and treated him shamefully.  The next servant he sent was killed.  Others who were sent were either beaten or killed, until there was only one left – his son whom he loved dearly.  The owner finally sent him, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’  But the farmers said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate.  Let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!  So they grabbed him and murdered him and threw his body out of the vineyard.  ‘What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do?’ Jesus asked.  ‘I’ll tell you he will come and kill them all and lease the vineyard to others.  Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?  ‘The stone rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone.  This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous to see.’  The Jewish leaders wanted to arrest him for using this illustration because they realized he was pointing at them – they were the wicked farmers in his story.  But they were afraid to touch him because of the crowds.  So they left him and went away” – Mark 12:1-12 (NLT).

Each night for several nights now I have watched the Olympics on NBC with my wife.  The athletes never cease to amaze me.  They are so strong and so determined to win a medal.  Most of all I am continually impressed at the chiseled bodies of these athletes.  They are all so young and in such fantastic physical shape.  Every muscle of their bodies ripples and every part of their visage rips with power and physical prowess.  I am still in pretty good shape for my age, but compared to these athletes I feel like an old milk sop! 

As I have watched these athletes in all of their physical glory, a continual thought comes to my mind: youth is fading and life is short.  These athletes who are so chiseled and impressive in appearance now will one day have sagging muscles and gray hair.  The sprinters who strut now will some day hobble.  The swimmers who move so swiftly through the water now will one day be confined to bed.  All of their glory and strength and physique and unbelievable muscle tone will be forgotten as they stare age and death in the face.

All must die.  Why?  Because God has decreed that the soul that sins shall die and that the wages of sin is death – and we all sin.  Therefore all humans, including Olympic athletes, melt before his anger against sin and sinners.

Slowly we die.  Imperceptibly we age.  Invisibly our strength decays until one day we realize we are older than before, and after that that we have little time left on this planet indeed.

Yet, if we live a normal life, it takes us nearly 70 or 80 years and perhaps more to die.  Why is this so?

Because God is so very patient with us.  We deserve to die and go to hell immediately after we sin our first sin, but God gives us many long years to turn from our sin and find life in him.

This was so with Israel.  In the story Jesus tells the Vineyard is Israel; the Vineyard owner is God; the beloved son is Jesus; the farmers are the religious leaders and the servants are the prophets God sent to them to try to get them to turn away from sin and back to him.

Over and over God sent his messengers the prophets to Israel to turn them back from self-destruction.  They had forsaken him and worshipped other gods.  Still God was patient.  They embraced demonic witchcraft, but still God tried to win their hearts.  They even sacrificed their children by burning them alive to pagan gods, and still God reached out his hands through his prophets to give them chance after chance to turn from their evil and be saved.

But instead of repenting, they tortured, persecuted, beat, or murdered every single prophet God sent.  Still he sent them – one after another until he finally sent his only beloved Son.  And they killed him too.

As I read Jesus’ story I am deeply humbled by the patience of our loving God.  Time after time he sends his messengers to us to turn us back to him.  Time after time we ignore or reject him and his message.

He tries to get us to change an immoral lifestyle into a holy one; he attempts to win our hearts centered on materialism back to him; he works to divert us from self-centered living to God-centered living before its too late; he woos us with the Good News trying to turn us away from false religions of this world back to him as the only true God and way to eternal life; he sends his Word, his messengers, his church and his Spirit to turn our hearts away from habits or choices that will damn us in the end.

Sometimes we listen, often we don’t.  Just look at America today and you’ll see that, as a nation, most often we don’t listen for we are plunging further into amoral destruction each and every day.

Still God is patient.  His mercy is everlasting.  His grace never ends.  His longsuffering defies explanation and his willingness to give us more chances defies comprehension.

We are young; we age; we sag; we gray; we decay.  Each and every day is a chance to meet our God and know him.  Each hour is a gift from him to turn more fully to him.  Each moment of life is his voice calling to us, beckoning us to come home to him.

Our God is so very, very patient.  Where our patience ends, his only begins.  When we start to feel anger and frustration, he feels mercy and tenderhearted longsuffering. 

I cannot comprehend such love; such mercy; such grace; such longsuffering; such incredible patience.

But I glorify him for it – don’t you?  The only response we should give such patience is our worship and adoration; our obedience and willing compliance.  But Israel refused.  The religious leaders of Jesus’ day would rather plot his death than take his forgiving hand.

I hope we’re not like that.  For our God is a patient God and deserves better - - and, one day, as Jesus declared in his story, he will come back and his patience will be gone.

Oh my!  Who can fathom that?  Who can face it? 

Who would want to?  Turn to him now before it’s too late.