There is nothing like having a business that is fully equipped from day one. As I redo my kitchen at my house, I realize how much work it is and how many moving pieces there are to finish the project. If I were a business, I wouldn’t be making any money. When new restaurants are getting ready to open, there is so much that happens before day one. Construction, equipment, training, inspections, advertising. So much without making any money.
No matter what business you run, there takes preparation before any profits happen. It would be wonderful to walk into a business and run it, and have everything I needed to make it successful right from the start. I don’t really want a business, but I can imagine the thrill of knowing that everything was there ready to go.
If you are going into the wine business it can take many years to produce the first bottles of wine. Vines don’t grow overnight. And then you have to have all the production capabilities all ready for when the grapes are ready to harvest. If they aren’t ready, the grapes can go bad in just a few days. So what could have been wonderful wine, turns into something barely drinkable. The sugar content has to be just right in order to make the wine taste the way you want it to taste. Without the sugar content, fermentation won’t happen properly. And without fermentation all you have is grape juice!
In Jesus parable, a story about everyday life told to illustrate a spiritual principle, the owner of the land planted a vineyard. He made all the preparations for a successful wine business. The grapes would be there. The vineyard had a state of the art security system, with both a wall to keep out the casual animals that might damage the vines, and a watchtower to prevent thieves from stealing the harvest.
The production facility was ready for stomping of the grapes and extraction of the juice, ready for fermentation. Everything that was needed to make wine, except labor and wineskins or large bottles, was present. All that was needed was the labor.
So the owner rents the fully-functional vineyard to some farmers. Notice that he rented the place. That would imply in a very real sense that the renters owed the owner some of the profit as payment for the rent. Few people have enough money set aside to pay the rent for years to come so that all the current profits would be theirs. We might call this the franchise fee.
And now that the arrangements have been made for the vineyard to be managed properly, the owner moves to another place, content to get his earnings on the investment he made when he created the fully functioning vineyard.
He has the deserved expectation that rent would be paid. God has an expectation that because He paid the price for our sins, that when we obey, there will be fruit for His Kingdom. Are you a good renter?
The Arnold Journey 