Sermon - Pentecost 19 - Matthew 21:33-46

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants.

This parable of Jesus is sometimes slightly misinterpreted.  At first, it might seem like he's telling us, his people, to be good tenants and that if we are bad tenants like the ones in the parable, he will destroy us.  But a careful reading shows that's not quite right.  For starters, Matthew tells us at the end of the passage that Jesus told this parable - not against people, or Christians, or believers in general - but against the religious establishment that rejected his ministry:  "When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them."

And so, a better approach is more specific.  Consider first, the context.  Jesus told this parable on Tuesday of Holy Week.  He had triumphally entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to the adulation of the crowd.  “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

Now, he also draws a crowd as he teaches in the temple.  He had cleansed the temple, overturned the tables and driven out the money-changers.  He had clearly gotten their attention.  And just as evident, he couldn't be tolerated.  They would have taken him away right then and there, if they weren’t afraid of the crowd.

Jesus knew that by the end of the week he would be going to the cross.  He must have had this in his mind, even as he confronted his opponents and preached against their wickedness.

And so he takes a sort of Old Testament parable from Isaiah 5, and puts a new spin on it.  It’s a poem, a song, really, about the vineyard of the Lord. 

God’s vineyard is beloved to him. He lovingly plants it and prepares it and cares for it. It’s hard work. Do you know how much work goes into planting and preparing a vineyard?  The ground must be tilled. The vines are planted in carefully spaced rows. The branches are expertly pruned and manipulated so that new branches can grow and produce flowers from which grapes develop. During the growing seasons, the leaves must be thinned out so air can flow between the leaves and the developing fruit. This reduces the chance of any fungus growing on the plants and ruining the harvest. Later, the sugar and acid levels in the grapes are tested by a winemaker. When the sugar and acid levels are just right, the grapes are harvested and the winemaking begins.

There, in Isaiah’s version of the parable, the problem was the wild grapes that were brought forth when he planted choice vines.  The people themselves were wicked and were destroyed.  This, of course, happened many times in Israel's history, throughout the time of the judges and the kings.  But now, Jesus re-tools the parable to condemn the Jewish leaders, the tenants watching over the vineyard. 

If the Chief Priests and Pharisees are the tenants, the people of God are the Vineyard. The leaders and teachers are to tend to the vineyard, as a shepherd tends to a flock.  The owner of the vineyard, of course, is God himself.  And he establishes this vineyard with great care.  He leaves nothing undone, but removes the stones, plants a hedge, builds a tower, provides a winepress.  The vineyard has everything it needs.

One lesson here is that God builds his church, and gives her everything she needs.  He has called us by his Holy Spirit, gathered, enlightened and sanctified us with his gifts.  No detail is left to chance, no requirement is left unfurnished.  He knows what he’s doing.

It’s not the Master’s fault, in Isaiah 5, that the choice vines he planted bear wild grapes.  Nor is it the Master’s fault in Jesus’ parable that the tenants are wicked.  But just like the garden that God planted in the first week of creation, sin comes and destroys the blissful paradise.  Sometimes it is the sin of the people.  Sometimes it is the sin of the leaders.

Historically, the leaders of God's people didn't do so well, on the whole.  And so he would send servants, messengers, prophets to call those leaders and the people who followed them to repentance.  Beginning with Moses, and Joshua, through the times of judges and kings Isaiah, Jeremiah, even into Babylon with Daniel and Ezekiel, and yes, even after the return from exile.  God sent messenger after messenger to call for the fruit of repentance and faith.  He was patient.  For over 1500 years, our Lord and master sent servant after servant.  They were ignored and ridiculed, abused, beaten, and killed. 

In Jesus’ parable, the master may seem insane to keep sending messengers into this lion’s den of a vineyard.  But it just shows how patient God is with his people.  Slow to anger.  Abounding in mercy.

Finally, the master says, “I’ll send my son.  They’ll listen to him”.  Which seems even more insane, but of course is God’s plan all along.  The seed of the woman must come to crush the head of the serpent.  But first his heel is bruised.  In the parable they throw him out of the vineyard and kill him.  In reality the Jewish leaders handed Jesus over to the Romans, who crucified him outside the city walls.

It was hard work, what Jesus did for us. Don’t think for a moment that his work was easy. Yes, Jesus is true God, but he is also true man who came to truly suffer more than any of us can ever imagine with the weight of the world’s sin laid upon him. At the cross, God the Father looked for justice, and saw bloodshed, the blood of Jesus shed on the cross which satisfies God’s wrath for the wild grapes that our hearts have produced, our bitter, unsavory sins. He looked for righteousness, and saw it in the life of Jesus, his righteous life, his perfect obedience, the good fruits of his holy, sinless life credited to us.

Jesus’ stern words of warning are for these wicked tenants, the Jewish leaders, who sadly reject the Christ.  For them, as we read later in Matthew’s Gospel, a harsh judgment would soon come – as less than 40 years after this, the Romans would destroy beloved Jerusalem and raze her temple to the ground.  Jesus weeps for Jerusalem as he looks forward to that day, and what unrepentance brought upon them. But the law also warns us about wickedness and rejection of Christ.  And we should pay heed.

For them, it meant the kingdom is taken from them and given to others.  The new tenants, we might say, are the apostles, and all who follow in their teaching.  New workers for the vineyard by whose ministry the church would bear fruit for the master.  And what is the ministry of the Apostles but to point us to Christ?  So also, faithful pastors and teachers today do the same. 

And now, finally, we come in. When sinners hear the law, and repent, and believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, fruit abounds.

You might say, even, that the vineyard is expanded.  No longer is it only, or even primarily the Jews who bear the fruit of faith.  But now a multitude from east and west come to the kingdom.  The Gospel is preached to the ends of the earth.  And people from every tribe, nation, and language call upon the name of Jesus.  So this parable teaches us of God’s patience, of his care for his people, and that he will provide messengers to call them to repentance and faith.  But ultimately, it shows us Christ, and the culmination of God’s redemptive plan.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  Here Jesus picks up on an image from Psalm 118.  Of course, he himself is the stone that the Jewish leaders rejected.  But in so doing, he creates something new, builds something new.  A cornerstone is laid at the foundation of a structure, and we see Jesus as the foundation of his church.

He certainly established it.  He continually builds it.  With all the care of the master who built the vineyard, and included the tower, the winepress, good soil and choice vines.  So does our Lord, by his Spirit, build his church.  And we have, here, everything we need.

He calls faithful pastors to tend to the vineyard, pruning and watering, sowing and harvesting in season. 

The good seed of his word, which is planted in us continually.  The font of baptism, by which our sins are washed away and our souls refreshed daily. The feast of his table – the body and blood of Christ, rich food and choice wine indeed. 

So, dear Christians, repent and be forgiven, and bear the fruit of faith, giving thanks to your patient master.  In Jesus’ name, amen.