I've got a buddy who runs a business he's really good at it razor sharp super attentive

everything is so organized products so good atmosphere is great is really excellent at

what he does and part of why he's so excellent at it is that he's great at getting the best

out of youthful employees but every now and then as you can imagine would be the case

when you run a business you've got to let people go and he's told me some of the stories

of why he's had to let some of his teenage employees go and what that process has been

like is tough on him but also it's a pretty simple math equation as he articulates it he

wants everybody he hires to succeed why would he hire them if he wanted them to fail I mean

they're going to be working on his project but if they can't make the thing that the

business makes and serve it to the public in a way that makes the public happy well

then you're not doing the thing that you're there to do and there's only so many employee

spots on the roster and the one who is unproductive unfruitful in their work just has to be replaced

with somebody who is going to be fruitful in their work in order for the big project that

he's responsible for to get going as we get to Matthew chapter 21 we run into a situation

where there is a firing occurring if you're just rolling along through Matthew and you're

not paying close attention it might sound like just one more unfriendly exchange between

Jesus and the religious leadership but that is not the case at all in Matthew 21 Jesus

announces that God is firing this religious leadership and that custody stewardship

ownership management of the metaphorical vineyard that God is nurturing and that he owns and

that he expects to produce fruit that that management is going to be shifted to someone else.

This is a powerfully schismatic moment between Christianity and Judaism and Jesus knows

full well what he's saying here and Matthew knows full well what he's doing here by repeating

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