Good morning, friends. Some time ago, North Hills launched a satellite campus over in the North Greenville area. That campus ended up closing after COVID.
The first day we launched that big endeavor for our church was not very strategic. It was on daylight savings, in the pouring rain, and the topic was immorality. We didn’t do any type of matching the sermon to the moment.
Today, I’m going to be talking about a story in which people are murdered and a stone can crush you. So, on behalf of all the elders of North Hills, Happy Mother’s Day. There you go. Moms, we appreciate you. We did not craft this topic just for you on this holiday.
Years ago, my kids and I were heavily invested in watching a superhero show called Green Arrow. Sometimes, to watch that program, they would do crossover episodes with other shows, and you had to watch an episode from Green Arrow, then an episode from two other shows, to get the entire story. It was a crossover.
Similarly, this week in Matthew, we’re at the end of a kind of three-part crossover event.
On the April 26th episode, Peter let us see in this story that Jesus refuses to reveal himself to liars.
After the triumphal entry, Jesus comes into Jerusalem. He cleanses the temple. He makes a big scene. Children are singing praise to Jesus. The relationship between Jesus and the spiritual leaders is growing in tension.
The leaders challenge Jesus’s authority: “Hey, where do you get off doing the things you do? Tell us.” Jesus says, “I’ll give you my answer if you’ll tell me where John the Baptist’s baptism came from.”
So they all kind of colluded together, and they say, “Well, if we tell Jesus it came from heaven, he’s going to say, ‘Well, then why didn’t you believe John?’ If we say from man, then all this crowd of people in front of us, they’re not going to like us, and we’re going to lose our status.”
They respond to Jesus, “We don’t know.” They refuse to tell the truth. So Jesus, in response, refuses to reveal to them where he gets his authority.
Last week, on May 3rd’s episode, we heard a story, a tale of a father and two sons. Jesus opens up a dialogue between himself and the religious leaders by telling stories.
In this first story (that’s in a vineyard), a dad asks his two sons to go into the vineyard and work. The first son says, “Nope, I’m not going to do that,” but then thinks about it, changes his mind, and goes out into the field. The second son tells his dad, “I am on it, Dad. Headed to the vineyard,” but then he doesn’t leave his room.
Jesus then asks the religious leaders, “Which of the two sons did the will of the father?” The religious leaders respond very, very briefly to Jesus and say, “The first one.”
So in the application of that story, Jesus looks at the religious leaders and says, “Hey, I want to let you know, when it comes to the kingdom of heaven, you’re not first in line.”
Tax collectors and prostitutes—two groups of people that these religious leaders thought were the worst groups of people—Jesus says those two groups are going into heaven in front of you. Why? Because they changed their minds and believed and followed the message of John.
Jesus even says to the leaders, “Hey, you saw the change of life in these two groups of people you hate, and even when you saw the change, you still didn’t change your mind and believe.”
Today, May 10th’s episode, we have another story. Jesus tells another story, and it’s a vineyard venture ending in multiple murders. A vineyard venture ending in multiple murders.
Jesus tells another story. He uses the exact same structure that he did in the story last week: He invites people to listen, he tells the story, he asks a question about the story, the leaders respond, and then he applies the story. Invitation, story, question, response, application.
Let’s listen to Jesus’s second story. These are Jesus’s words, not mine.
“‘Here another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country.
“‘When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.”
“‘But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.” And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“‘When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.’
“Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes”?
“‘Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.’
“When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet” (Matthew 21:33-46).
So Jesus looks at these religious leaders right after story number one, and says, “Hear another story. Listen to another one.” Jesus maintains his conversational momentum.
Even though he just said a really offensive thing to them (“Hey, people you hate are in front of you in line for the kingdom of heaven”), he goes right into another story, this vineyard venture ending in multiple murders.
Compared to our story from last week, this one is longer and more detailed, and the details in this story really matter.
We could spend a long time on just the details of this story because Jesus keeps referencing things in his story that the religious leaders would recognize much quicker than we would recognize.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been using this metaphor of watching TV, episodes, crossover events… So I’m going to take my TV metaphor and run it into the ground: What Jesus does in this section with the details is like inviting special guest stars to come onto the TV show.
When you’re watching a TV show, sometimes a producer will invite an actor that everybody knows to come in for a one-episode or two-episode run to bolster ratings and add a little credibility to the show. In telling the story the way he does, including the details that he does, Jesus is laying a basis of credibility for these religious leaders to believe in him with these “special guest stars.”
Special Guest Stars #1: Asaph and Isaiah.
Unlike the first story (which is also in a vineyard), in the second story, Jesus describes the vineyard. He says this:
“There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower…” (Matthew 21:33)
Jesus’s language comes from Asaph and Isaiah. Let me see if we can look at that. Asaph is a poet, by the way. He writes Psalms. If we look at Psalm 80:8-9, he wrote this to God as a prayer:
“[God,] you brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land” (Psalm 80:8-9).
God himself made a vineyard by bringing this vine out of Egypt, moving nations out of the way, and planting it so there could be a vineyard.
Who did God take out of Egypt? Anybody know? Just throw out an answer. Israel, his people. The declaration of his love to the world. So there’s our first little echo that we get. We’re talking about Israel in one way.
Isaiah is another guest star, and he says this (Isaiah 5:1-7):
“Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and he hewed out a wine vat in it” (Isaiah 5:1-2a).
Does that language sound familiar? You’re tracking with me. Remember, the people who Jesus is talking to, the religious leaders, they’re like peak level when it comes to understanding the Old Testament. It was their gig, it was their job, their bread and butter. They spent their lives in that book. So they would have heard this Old Testament echo just in the language that Jesus uses.
Isaiah continues with crystal clarity:
“For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting” (Isaiah 5:7a).
Jesus, simply by describing the vineyard, is giving away the story to the leaders. He’s telling them, “My story is about God and God’s people.” So as students and teachers of the law, their ears would have been tingling trying to figure out, “Okay, where’s Jesus going to take this? Why is he talking from Isaiah and the Psalms?”
After that, Jesus describes in the story a rather mundane scenario. This master of a house invests in this vineyard, and loans it out to tenants who are supposed to give him his money when it comes due. Then he sends servants to go get the fruit and money.
Today, this would be like somebody purchasing a house, renovating it, renting it, and giving that out to a property manager to take care of. It’s a business venture.
After the kind of normal situation, though, Jesus includes a lot of insane plot twists in his story.
Insane plot twist #1: The servants are treated with violence and murdered…twice.
The master of the house sends multiple messengers on his behalf to collect his due.
I mentioned the details are important, and here’s another one of those moments where the details were important. I think Jesus is doing the exact same thing by describing sent messengers getting killed as he did by describing the vineyard. He’s once again skillfully appealing to the knowledge of the religious leaders of the Old Testament.
If Asaph and Isaiah tell us this story is about God and Israel, when they start hearing about messengers and servants being killed, what would the religious leaders have thought of from the Old Testament? Are there, again, Old Testament echoes that their ears would have picked up on? And there are.
This is Special Guest Stars #2: The history writers of Chronicles and Kings, the prophet Jeremiah, and the governor Nehemiah.
I’m going to read a lot here. I want you to notice how God’s servants, messengers, and prophets are treated by kings and God’s people. 2 Chronicles 36:
“The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets” (2 Chronicles 36:16).
Notice what Elijah says two times in 1 Kings 10:
“For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10, 14).
“Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people, and said to them, ‘Thus says God, “Why do you break the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.”‘ But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 24:20-21).
Jeremiah records another specific instance of a sent servant being killed.
“There was another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah. And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. Then King Jehoiakim sent to Egypt certain men, Elnathan the son of Achbor and others with him, and they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and dumped his dead body into the burial place of the common people” (Jeremiah 26:20-25).
And finally, Nehemiah, the last book of the Old Testament chronologically. Nehemiah says this in a prayer:
“Nevertheless, [your people] were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies” (Nehemiah 9:26).
Lots of Old Testament words. Why am I reading all of them? Because we have to process this story from the perspective of the religious leaders. We can’t just read it out here on a page and pretend we understand.
Jesus is so skillful in the way he’s talking. He knows his audience. He’s using language to bring them into his story. Jesus is, in effect, resurrecting cultural memory.
God’s people, and even some of God’s leaders, have historically ill-treated and killed God’s messengers. God—the compassionate God, who keeps sending messengers to his people—his people and some of his leaders will kill those messengers.
Jesus is looking at these guys and saying, “Religious leaders, remember your Bibles. How are God’s servants treated?” In effect, Jesus is looking at them and saying, “Hey, how are you going to treat God’s servants when they give you a message? Are you going to listen or kill?”
Which leads us to insane plot twist #2: The businessman sends his son.
“Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son’” (Matthew 21:37).
I have a lot of questions that I want to ask Jesus. One of the questions I want to ask Jesus when I meet him is, “Did you pause after you said the word ‘son’ when you told the religious leaders this story?”
When Jesus is talking to these guys, and he looks at them and says, “They will respect my son,” did he just wait a beat? Did he lock eyes with the senior-most religious leader?
Jesus knew these guys were already plotting to kill him. He was actually giving voice to their hearts, their intent towards him. Just like God’s people and some of God’s leaders have killed the prophets, you’re going to kill the Son.
Jesus then asks them the question, “What’s the master going to do?” When, therefore, the owner of the vineyard comes after all of this has happened (his servants have been killed twice, his son has been killed), what’s he going to?
I think it’s important that we take note of this question and recognize that the owner is going to respond. There’s no doubt that a reckoning is going to come. This is the religious leaders’ response:
“They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who give him the fruits in their seasons” (Matthew 21:41).
They have a very different response in this story than last week’s story. Remember last week’s story when Jesus asked his question, they answered with one word. That’s it. Now they talk a little bit more. They describe what’s going to happen.
Their answer is good, and their answer is lacking. They describe their view of the tenants as wretches. They describe the view of punishment as a miserable death. They describe their view of a consequence: What they have been given is going to be taken away and given to someone who will treat it rightly.
It’s good, but it’s so lacking. They have accuracy without humility. It’s the right answer, but with no consideration of their own hearts.
They gave an external response without internal recognition. They thought about it. “We’re going to answer your question as if it’s an intellectual exercise only. This has nothing to do with me looking at myself in a mirror.”
They were legally accurate while personally ignorant. “That is what should happen.” All the things they described, legally, should happen.
It’s stunning because, even with Jesus standing in front of these leaders, getting all of these special guest stars to make an appearance from the Old Testament to lend credibility to his story, even with that, the religious leaders couldn’t recognize that they were the tenants in the story. They still missed it.
By comparison, I want us to look at another parable in the Bible that has a better response, a response that we should probably mirror.
There’s a guy in the Old Testament named David. He’s potentially, probably the biggest guest star you could ever get from the Old Testament. He was a great poet. He was a shepherd, a warrior, the king of Israel. He was described as a man after God’s own heart, but David was deeply flawed and a wicked man.
One time, he saw a woman and, using his kingly authority, compelled her to come to the castle and got her pregnant.
Her husband was actually one of his greatest warriors. So David, to cover up what had happened, got Uriah sent from the front back home and tried to trick Uriah into going home to be with his wife, hoping that by doing that, he could cover up what he had done.
But Uriah was a man of character who said, “I’m not going to go home and be with my wife when everybody else is fighting in the field.” So he went to sleep right outside the gate of David’s home.
David, to hide his sin, then only had one choice. He sent Uriah into battle and told the commanders, “Hey, when the fighting is the worst, pull away and leave Uriah by himself and let him die.”
Nathan, God’s sent messenger, comes to David and tells him this story:
“‘There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.
“‘Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.’
“Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity” (2 Samuel 12:1-6).
David, like the chief priests and elders, didn’t see himself in the story yet. So Nathan continues:
“Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” (2 Samuel 12:7)
“‘Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword…’” (2 Samuel 12:9)
“David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’” (2 Samuel 12:13a).
David—in the midst of his own evil choices and corruption of power—recognized (finally) the story was about him, and he changed his mind about himself and admitted his guilt.
The chief priests in our story today lacked David’s response. They provided the right answer while probably thinking about somebody else. They made somebody else the tenant, rather than themselves. So Jesus applies his story.
The application is that Jesus reveals to liars the consequences of rejection. “If you want to reject me, if you want to reject the son, if you want to reject my authority, here’s what’s going to happen.”
“Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Matthew 21:42)
This response of Jesus is familiar and peculiar.
It’s familiar because Jesus does this thing that he’s done multiple times to the religious leaders, the spiritual pros when it comes to the Old Testament. He looks at them and says, “Hey, have you never read that? You never read that part of the Bible? You may want to check it out and understand.”
So it’s familiar (he’s done this tactic before), but it’s peculiar because—for me—literally every time I read this story, Jesus’s response to me feels like it comes out of nowhere and has no connection whatsoever to what’s going on in the scene.
By the way, the looks on your faces, let me be clear: I’m not criticizing Jesus there. It looked like some of you got worried. I had multiple faces go, “What is he about to do?” It just doesn’t make natural sense to me when I read it.
We’re talking about vineyards and fruits, and now we’re on to stone and builders. Jesus has changed metaphors. What’s going on?
There are whole books written on this topic of the stone, so I’m going to give us some shorthand stuff to think about, and hopefully apply it well, and ask the Spirit for help along the way. A couple of things:
1. Jesus is quoting here from Psalm 118:22-23, another special guest star.
By the way, this is the same Psalm 118 where, in the triumphal entry, when all the crowds are yelling at Jesus, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” it’s the same psalm. So Jesus is going back to a psalm that was just brought up a couple days ago.
2. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all mention this passage, this idea of the stone and the cornerstone.
3. This stone metaphor is also mentioned in Isaiah, Daniel, Acts, Ephesians, and 1 Peter.
So here’s our first conclusion: Whatever it is that Jesus is doing, whatever he’s referencing, it’s really important. Jesus isn’t confused. He’s doing something on purpose, and it’s important because it’s used a lot. So let’s talk about the stone.
What is the stone? Literally, what Jesus is talking about is a crucial construction material. The cornerstone is the single most important unit in the final build.
If you pick the wrong stone for the cornerstone, your building won’t be level or square, and it won’t be able to support anything. It will eventually collapse and fall flat. You have to have the right cornerstone, the right foundation.
In the Old Testament, in Psalm 118 (that Jesus is talking about), the immediate reference seems to be David as king when he’s rejected by his people for a time. The king would be the cornerstone of Israel, kind of holding it together. When David is rejected by the people, they don’t see him as a suitable stone.
And/or it’s Israel. Israel is God’s cornerstone, the display, the foundation of his love displayed to all the nations through Israel. When Israel is rejected by the nations, it is not found to be a suitable cornerstone.
In neither case does the cornerstone work for those who see it, those who look onto it.
In the prophets, the stone is this promised, future, established kingdom that will abide forever. It’s a kingdom that’s so strong, it crushes other nations. It’s a stone that is a foundation forever, and so strong it crushes other nations.
Then in the New Testament, the stone (Jesus) is the fulfillment and foundation. He is the perfect cornerstone. Jesus is the fulfillment and foundation. He is the perfect cornerstone on which the kingdom of God stands immovable and everlasting.
So it’s construction material, David and/or Israel, and a prediction of a future kingdom. Jesus is the fulfillment and embodiment of all of that. Jesus is the cornerstone upon which every follower builds his life.
In this moment, just like Israel and David, Jesus is being rejected as “not suitable” by the religious leaders. “You are not a suitable foundation for us. We reject your authority.”
So Jesus is, in effect, declaring himself to be the son in the story, and then using Psalm 118 to declare his identity as the cornerstone. He’s telling these guys who he is.
Because they seem to be following in the path of their predecessors in rejecting Jesus, Jesus reveals to them the consequences for rejecting him. “What’s going to happen if you reject me as cornerstone?” Jesus says this:
“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (Matthew 21:43).
Jesus uses their answer to tell them what’s going to happen to them. Again, we have to be chief priests, scribes, and religious leaders in the story and hear that statement.
God has for millennia said that through Israel, the kingdom of God is coming. The kingdom is yours. You are my chosen people. And you, spiritual leaders in the temple, are the ones to lead my people there.
Now Jesus, in the actual temple, is looking at the religious leaders and saying, “If you reject me as cornerstone, if you reject my divine authority, the kingdom of God is taken away from you.” Jesus intensifies his message from his story last week.
Last week, he looked at these same leaders and said, “Listen, if you want to reject me, I want to let you know what’s going to happen: Tax collectors and prostitutes are going to go into the kingdom of heaven before you. They’re going to precede you.” They were at least in line.
This week, they’re not even a part of the kingdom. “I’m going to take it away from you and give it to somebody else who will produce fruits that are consistent with the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus, though, is not even finished with his warning. He continues this way: “And the one who falls on this stone—” So now again, Jesus is talking about himself here.
“And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it [the stone] falls on anyone, it will crush him” (Matthew 21:44).
Jesus is looking at these leaders and saying, “You cannot passively interact with me. One is either broken by the stone or crushed.” There’s not a third option with Jesus. As Morgan writes,
“Fall on it [the stone, Jesus]—and there is a touch of mercy even here—and you will be broken, but the broken man can be healed [there is healing found]. But let it fall on you, and you will be ground to dust, and there is no healing then.”
Jesus drops a devastating truth bomb: “Without me, you cannot possess the kingdom of God. Reject me, and you will be crushed.” Jesus reveals to liars the consequences of their rejection.
Now, unlike last week’s story, there’s a very brief epilogue. I would call it “the perceptiveness and fear of the religious leaders.” Matthew tells us this:
“When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet” (Matthew 21:45-46).
Jesus finishes these two stories, the religious leaders huddle up, and somebody among them is like, “Now, I might be wrong on this, but I think he might be talking about us.”
Even though they still wanted to arrest him, throw him in prison, and kill him, they didn’t. Why? Because they feared the people who gave them their power and status. Their fear kept them from responding to the truth.
After this three-week mini-series, these stories, these episodes, I want us to consider a couple of things together.
Recognize the Son.
If there’s one thing Matthew does so well as a biographer of Jesus, it’s tell us who he is. Then we just have to figure out whether or not we’re going to believe it.
Jesus has divine authority. Jesus, throughout this gospel, is courageous, and he is brilliant. Jesus is still, with people who want to kill him, trying to get them to believe he is God’s Son.
He’s the cornerstone, the foundation of God’s kingdom, the son of David, the son of Abraham. He’s the stone upon which we fall and are healed, or the stone by which we are crushed if we reject him.
We have to recognize Jesus for who Matthew says he is, not who we make Jesus to be.
Secondly, remember that God sent his Son.
Don’t forget that part of the story. It’s kind of the best part, and it’s a really important part.
If you read Jesus’s story about the vineyard, when you get to that part where the owner of the vineyard sends his son, it really is ridiculous. It’s like this story that’s exaggerated just to make a powerful point.
But the reality is this: This story is understated, not exaggerated. The Son is Jesus, God come in the flesh to rescue sinners by dying for them. The story isn’t ridiculous at all. As Hendrickson writes,
“It might be argued that at this point the story goes way beyond the boundaries of reason, that in the ordinary course of life no proprietor whose rights had been so rudely trampled upon would have been generous enough to give the criminals still another chance, and certainly that he would not have delivered over his own dear son to the whims and wiles of those who had bludgeoned his servants. This must be granted. But then, it should be borne in mind that this is a parable. Moreover…it is a parable depicting sin most unreasonable and love incomprehensible! Considered in this light, the story is one of the most beautiful and touching ever told.”
“Jesus is telling a story that would illustrate the way a compassionate and loving God acts towards sinners, not the way a businessman would act to protect his investment.”
Remember, the Father sent his Son for us. And finally, respond to the Son. Recognize the Son, remember the Father sent his Son, and respond to him.
There are only two things we can do with the claims of Jesus: receive and reject. Neither Matthew nor Jesus creates space for any other lane, a neutral lane where we just kind of say “I don’t know” and wait. When you encounter who Jesus is, it’s receive or reject.
I think if Jesus, in this story, were to have brought in one more special guest star, it would have been the writer of Psalm 2. In Psalm 2:12, the poet says this:
“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Psalm 2:12).
There are just two paths. Kiss the Son, recognize the Son, have some type of relationship with the Son that is close, because to reject him has dire consequences. But if you do move towards the sun, change your mind about who Jesus is, and follow him…
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Happy are those who take refuge in him.
Happy are those who take refuge in the Son.
Blessed are those who recognize Jesus’s divine authority.
Blessed are those who fall on the stone and are broken but healed.
Blessed are all those who hailed Jesus as their ultimate King.
Blessed are those who give up all of their lives and suppression of truth and believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Let’s pray. Father, these words are so inadequate to communicate what’s in this story. So I ask that you would send your Spirit to make your word come to life in the hearts of the people in front of me. Whether they have already recognized you, Jesus, and follow you, and have changed their mind and believed, or not, would you reveal to them the truth of who you are? And how you change the course of one’s life. I pray this in your name, amen.
