self-examination

Friday October 7th, Matthew 21: 35 "The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said. 38 "But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. In the beginning was the temptation to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, gain all knowledge and be like God, knowing good and evil and everything in-between. Since partaking of that tree, we have been learning, albeit a bit more on the evil side than on the good side of that equation. Lest this become only history, look back on the times in your life when you rejected those prophets who brought you sage advice about the kingdom from time to time. Think back on the times when the Gospel was similarly shunned, and how even now there are parts of the good news that if not shunned by you and I are at least placed sort of on the back of the shelf. This is not so much a lesson in public or even private humiliation and shame as it is in self-realization. If you and I, who are fully aware that we are children of God and yet upon very little self-examination realize we are not very good at being a child of God and are sometimes even hostile to it, are saved by grace, is it outside of the realm of anyone?