Tuesday, October 06, 2020

Sermon - Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Matthew 21:23-36

“Judgment and Grace in the Vineyard”

Matthew 21:23-36


A couple of weeks ago we had a very different parable that involved a vineyard – the one about the laborers that arrived at different hours of the day – and yet were all paid the same.  It was a picture of the absurd grace of God in continuing to bring workers into his vineyard, and reward them generously.  It was really less about the work or the workers, and more about the grace of God.

Today, a very different vineyard parable.  Today we have what’s called the parable of the wicked tenants.  It is holy week in the temple – and the tension between Jesus and the Chief Priests and Scribes continues to escalate.  Now he’s telling parables against them.  They are, in today’s reading, the wicked tenants.

But not only them.  It’s no accident that Isaiah 5 is our Old Testament reading today – an oracle about the destruction of the Lord’s vineyard.  There the picture is of a man who lovingly and laboriously builds and plants a vineyard.  Only the best – the most fertile hills – the best choice of vines.  He does everything right, gets everything just so.  The perfect conditions for grapes to grow.  Then he waits. 

And nothing.  Nothing good, anyway.  Only wild grapes – not good for making wine, or much of anything else.  The man is more than disappointed.  Rather than just abandon this worthless vineyard, he actually disassembles it – destroys it.  It becomes a waste.  A patch of thorns and weeds.  He even commands the clouds not to rain on it.  And now we see.  This isn’t just any old man who made a vineyard.  This is the Lord’s vineyard.  And the inhabitants are the people of Israel. 

He had gone to great pains to bring them out of bondage in Egypt, parting a sea, sustaining them through 40 years of wilderness, driving out Canaanite enemies before them, and establishing them in the land of promise – the land flowing with milk and honey.  The vineyard of Israel that he established for his people.

But they rebelled.  They tolerated, they toyed with, they even embraced the false gods of the nations around them.  They worshipped the Baals, the Asherahs, the Molechs of the world.  The leaders were corrupt, preyed on the poor, and led the people astray.  Woe to those shepherds of Israel.  And so when God came to the vineyard – when he looked for the good fruit of faith:

he looked for justice,

but behold, bloodshed;

for righteousness,

but behold, an outcry

And therefore he pours out his judgment upon them. 

Here we have what we might call an Old Testament parable.  And Jesus, who was certainly familiar with the Scriptures – more than that, for they are his very own Word – Jesus seems to have Isaiah 5 in mind when he retells a very similar parable.  Many of the elements are the same.  God is, of course, the master and owner of the vineyard.  The people who live in it are simply tenants.  And God’s looking for fruit from them.  But Jesus recasts the story and sharpens it, even.  He shows forth even more the wickedness of the tenants, and the persistent grace of the Master.

In Jesus’ Vineyard story, the master sends messengers, over and over, to try and collect the rent – which is a share of the fruit.  But these wicked tenants will not pay.  Not only do they refuse to pay the rent, they treat the servants shamefully, one after the other, escalating their wickedness each time.

Here we have a picture of the prophets.  The messengers of God throughout the ages who came looking for the fruits of repentance and faith.  The prophets – who were treated shamefully, beaten, imprisoned, and even killed.  And although many of the prophets died in peace, the Apostles of Jesus didn’t have it so easy.  All but John died a martyr’s death.  Today we still say, “don’t kill the messenger”, because so often the bearer of unwelcome news becomes the brunt of the angry reaction.  And sometimes even pastors and preachers face such shameful treatment in the very vineyard of the Lord.

Indeed, it’s not just the ancient Jews who can dishonor the messenger and reject the message.  All of us are tenants – and we are of two natures.  There’s a wicked tenant in there that would shake his fist at the master, rebel against his laws, trash the vineyard, and who shows no gratitude for all the mercy and kindness of the master.  Our Old Adam is a wicked tenant, who’s asserted his own sort of squatter’s rights, and he won’t be evicted until death.

But there’s also another nature in us – a good tenant who bears and shares the fruit of repentance and faith.  The Christian – the New Man – born by the grace of God and persistently renewed by the call of God’s messengers.  Season after season he calls us to labor and produces in us the very fruits he requires.  Fruits not of works, but of faith.  And then the good works follow.  But it wouldn’t be this way for us, had the wise and merciful and persistent master of the vineyard not sent his own Son.

And here is perhaps the strangest part of Jesus’ vineyard parable.  After all the mistreatment of the messengers, after things went from bad to worse.  After the wicked tenants had confirmed their wickedness through rebellion and violence.  Even then – his patience is not exhausted – but instead he takes a drastic measure.  He sends his own beloved Son.  Perhaps they will respect him.

No sane earthly father would ever put his own dear son in the line of fire in such a way.  He might call the authorities.  He might muster an army.  But who would send his son, alone, into the lion’s den of wicked and violent men – knowing that they’ve shown their true colors before.  What did he think would happen?

And here the parable condemns these wicked scribes and chief priests who will soon do the same and worse to Jesus.  They will shamefully mistreat and kill him, and cast him out of the city onto a bitter cross of shame.  They will reason that the vineyard will be theirs – when it never was and never could be apart from Christ.

But the parable also invites us to faith – in a master who is so kind and persistent that he would send his son, even to a scoundrel like me, and you.  That after all we’ve done to him, all we’ve sinned against him.  After all we’ve failed to pay him what is due – our fear, love and trust – our obedience and respect.  After we’ve dragged his name and his creation through the mud, tried to make ourselves little gods in his place.  And yes, sometimes even killing the messenger when he’s tried to correct us.  After all of that – he sends his Son.

That Jesus is killed – that the Son dies – is really a must.  For ironically, now in Christ the inheritance is ours.  But not through our grasping at it, or usurping his kingship.  Bur rather in humble faith in the king of the Jews who rules by serving, making himself last, lowest, and least. 

The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.  Jesus was rejected but in that very rejection he is glorified.  By his cross he conquers.  He turns the tables on his enemies, and on the great enemies of sin, death and devil.   His enemies, more importantly yours.

And then this last little comparison – that the one who falls on that stone is broken, but the one it falls upon is crushed.  A strange little saying.  Jesus of course is the stone.  And no one can stand against him or defeat him.  If we fall on him – that is – if we submit to him, to his word of law – then we must be broken.  We must despair of ourselves, and recognize him as our capstone, our leader, our king.  We must pay him the fruit for which he is looking – the fruits of repentance and faith.

But if we refuse, it is far worse.  For the stone will fall and crush his enemies. Just as the scribes and chief priests couldn’t be rid of Jesus even by a cross – nor silence his gospel by persecuting his followers.  Just as the serpent who bruised Jesus’ heel by the cross is himself head-crushed by the woman’s offspring. 

While Jesus’ comments today end on a rather harsh note of law – this isn’t the last word that the Scriptures have on the topic.  Consider how Peter picks up the metaphor and fleshes it out in 1 Peter 2:

 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,

    a cornerstone chosen and precious,

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected

    has become the cornerstone,”

8 and

“A stone of stumbling,

    and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Thanks be to God for his persistent and amazing mercy to those of us in the vineyard.  May we ever receive his Son, Jesus, who is the capstone, and ever be built up in him, by repentance and faith, to the glory of God and in service to our neighbor.

In Jesus’ Name.

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