Pentecost+19/Proper 22A (Matthew 21:33-46)

What do you desire? Desires motivate us to act. For example, we desire to be happy. This desire for happiness moves us to do anything that would bring us happiness. If we find happiness in family, we will invest our time and resources in family life. If happiness is believed to be found in career success, then being a workaholic is never an issue of self-care but a gift. ​

In the parable of Jesus this morning, we see how the tenants’ desire develops. Initially, they desire to take the entire profits from the landowner. This desire to not share what’s not theirs comes first before hurting and killing the landowner’s messengers. They kill to possess all the profits from the land. Their desire changes when the heir shows up to collect the profits. In their eyes, the heir represents the inheritance that he will receive from the landowner. This covetous desire makes their thinking process far removed from reality. Killing the heir doesn’t make them an heir but senseless murderers. There’s a line in Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil that captures the essence of the parable this morning: “Ultimately, it is the desire, not the desired, that we love.”

An object of desire changes when something better appears. The desire itself continues to remain in the driving seat of the mind. Yet, it is a part of our human nature that helps us sustain. survive, and thrive in life when guided wisely. It’s not something we must or can get rid of. It’s more like a wild horse that needs to be trained first. If not, it can be quite dangerous. One might try to ride on it and fall badly. Without training what to desire and assessing whether what’s desire is wise or not, it’s toxic and harmful to oneself and others as we see in the parable of the tenants. Unskillful desire leads them to destruction and becomes a cause of suffering. 

There’s no need to condemn desire itself. While unquenching thirst or craving creates unsatisfactory results, it can be used for good. All we need is to know “what” to desire. But how do we evaluate what we desire is something worthwhile to pursue? Quite simple. Just ask, “Is what’s desired beneficial to me? If so, is it harmful to others?” In the case of the tenants, what they desire is financially beneficial to them but it is harmful to the landowner, his messengers, the heir, and themselves for the consequences of their misdirected desire. We can make a value judgment on their choice of desire that it is not good. It’s not to be desired. 

Where do we then direct our desire in life? What would be a skillful desire that is beneficial and not harmful? What in Jesus’ eyes would be the intrinsic desire, that which is desired for its own sake? It would be the desire that sets us free from constant craving and clinging. It’s a kind of desire that stops us from desiring. The ultimate desire for genuine happiness is that which puts an end to desire itself. It wouldn’t negate other desires but fulfill them all to the point where all these desires become relative so that any desire that falls on it would be broken to pieces. (Matthew 21:44) They become instrumental desires that are desired to achieve the intrinsic desire. (e.g. desiring to see a doctor is an instrumental desire since it purports to fulfill one’s intrinsic desire to be healthy.) 

Once our eyes are set on the ultimate desire, we become free from other desires. Jesus’ main concern and interest in his ministry is the kingdom of God. It is neither a place to go after death nor a sociopolitical utopia on earth. It’s a symbol, a metaphorical description of God’s inner presence transforming who we become. It’s an embodied process of who we are in that we not only change the way we think and feel by observing them arising and disappearing but also act wisely and skillfully. This desire, this longing for the Presence deep in us transfigures all the desires we had to gain happiness. We become less detached from the desire to control. Let go and let the Presence set us free from a countless number of desires we have been producing and consuming. 

Only from this encounter with the Presence, we can produce the fruits of the kingdom of God. It’s my desire for us all to grow the ultimate desire for the Presence. May the Presence grow within us, transfigure who we become and what we do, and transcend what we desire and what the world desires.