Jesus has a very hard word for leaders: you don’t own, you rent.

A quick overview is in order:

In Matthew 21:33-46, Jesus covers centuries of history with a simple story of a vineyard. A landowner builds a vineyard, rents it out, and goes away. The tenants (who are the religious leaders) mistreat everyone that the landowner sends to get his required share of the harvest. Finally, the tenants agree to kill the owner’s son and keep the land for themselves. The crowd knows that the tenants should be removed and punished.

Jesus is clearly talking to the tenant listeners who are already figuring out how to kill him. But he is also talking to the people who will become the new tenants when the old are replaced.

You don’t own, you rent.

When you start thinking that the responses you are getting to your words are because you are so wise, think about who owns that wisdom you are renting.

When you start thinking that people asking for your help are wanting to steal your glory, think about who might be sending them.

When you starting thinking that the fruit you are seeing, the lives being changed, the groups of people caring for each other, the families being reconciled, the friendships being rebuilt, the addictions being healed, the smiles flitting across the faces of hurting people and then coming back to stay…

when you start thinking that it is happening because of your brilliance and marvelous planting…

remember that you don’t own, you rent.

The landowner built the walls, establishing the boundaries of productivity. The landowner planted the vines, the landowner built the cisterns that would gather the water, the landowner made it possible. The tenants succeed as they follow the design of the landowner…because he doesn’t rent, he owns.