Text: Luke
20:9-20
Beatings. Woundings. Traumatizing.
Homicide. The evening news? No. The
parable that Jesus told in today’s Gospel.
The scribes and chief priests who heard Jesus tell the
parable got it. They understood
perfectly well that Jesus was preaching about them and their unfaithfulness as
leaders in God’s vineyard, his people Israel.
They understood that Jesus was telling them that judgment would come
upon them for rejecting God’s one and only Son, the Messiah and Savior of the
world.
This parable is hard to preach to you, beloved baptized. It’s kind of a downer. There’s not much Good News to be found
here. But we need to hear this parable
as a warning to us, today, too. We need
to hear this parable as a warning to not ignore nor reject the way in which God
has worked and continues to work among us.
And therein lies the Good News in this parable … that God is the one who
is doing the work. God is the one who
does the planting. God is the one who in
love sends servants to patiently call his people back to repentance. And God is the one who sends his Son to be
the Savior of his vineyard.
God plants the vineyard.
He calls people together to be his own.
They do not choose him. He
graciously chooses them. He created the
people and the nation of Israel. Today’s
reading from Isaiah describes how God created the nation of Israel and brought
them to himself when he rescued them from slavery in Egypt and “made a way” for
them and “gave water in the wilderness” (Isa. 43:19) … parting the Red Sea,
giving water from the rock. They were
his “chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare
my praise” (Isa. 43:21). He entrusted
his people to the care of leaders. Kings
and priests in days of old. Sadducees
and Scribes during the earthly ministry of the Messiah. They were the ones in charge of worship in
the temple and teaching God’s Word.
These are the “tenants” in the parable … the ones who would soon send
the Son of God to his death.
God plants the vineyard, and then he sends servants. Their task was to see what kind of fruit the
vineyard had produced. These are the
prophets whom God sent to “gather fruit” … the fruit of faith and works that
serve the neighbor in love and mercy.
But Israel was unfruitful. They
had rebelled against Yahweh. And so the
prophets called the people to repentance, to return to the Lord in faith and
trust.
The planter of the vineyard, however, is very patient
with his people. He wasn’t just done
with the tenant farmers after the first servant was beaten. He sent another servant. And another.
Three times he sends a servant to the tenant farmers in the parable. God sent many more than three prophets to
Israel. It’s not three strikes and
you’re out with the Lord. He gave his
people numerous opportunities to turn away from their sin and return to
him.
Finally, the planter of the vineyard sends his son. He assumes that the tenants will respect his
own son. But instead, the tenants treat
the son treacherously and try to get his inheritance by killing him. They drag him outside the vineyard and put
him to death. In the same way, the
religious establishment of Jerusalem sought to kill Jesus. They resented the way he confronted them. They resented the way he accused them of teaching
that one could be righteous in God’s sight by keeping the Law. They handed him over to the Roman authorities
who led him outside the city walls and crucified him.
Do you see the irony here? The tenant farmers seek to steal the son's
inheritance by killing him, but in so doing, they lose everything. Likewise, the leaders of Israel sought to
kill Jesus. In so doing, they lose everything. Judgment will come upon them. Jerusalem will be overrun by the Romans (and
it was in 70 AD). “The stone that the
builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone
will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” The Jewish leaders “fell upon” Jesus, and
they will be broken to pieces in judgment because of their unbelief. The stones of the temple were toppled by the
Romans as God's judgment fell upon the unfaithful nation. The vineyard, God's Kingdom, was handed over
to “others.” Gentiles who come to faith
in Christ inherit the vineyard.
But there is yet more irony in
all of this. It is the treacherous death
of the Son of God that brings life and salvation to the world! It was the disobedience of Israel that
brought the kingdom to people like you and me.
Paul says it this way in Romans 11: “Through their trespass salvation
has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the
world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will
their full inclusion mean!” (Rom. 11:11-12)
In other words, although judgment fell upon Israel, this does not
eternally exclude those who are of Jewish extraction. Both Gentile and Jew alike come to faith now
in the same way, by the power of the Holy Spirit working through Water and the
Word. He plants faith in you. He grafts you onto Christ the Vine in whom you
abide and from whom you draw life. He
places you as fruitful plants in his vineyard, the Church. “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God,
through faith,” Paul writes in Galatians 3.
“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus. And if you are
Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal.
3:26-29). This is the mysterious,
unexpected, almost backward way (backward, that is, to us) in which God works. In that same section in Romans 11 mentioned a
moment ago, Paul breaks out in wondrous praise of God's mysterious plan and
says, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable his judgments and how inscrutable his ways” (Rom. 11:33).
But God's ways are not so inscrutable so as to be
secret. God’s Son was sent for you and
for me. This Good News has been
declared to the world. It's declared to
you every Sunday from this pulpit in spoken Words. It’s given to you from this altar in Body and
Blood. Jesus the Cornerstone was broken
and crushed for us at the cross. Jesus
the Cornerstone crushed the Serpent’s head, silencing his accusing voice. Jesus the Cornerstone breaks and crushes our
sinful hearts and selfish wills. We come
to him broken, crushed, repentant, acknowledging we can do nothing apart from
him. A broken and contrite heart he will
not despise, we learn from Psalm 51 (Ps. 51:17). With St. Paul, we are willing to suffer the
loss of all things, including our pride, our egos, our wills that think that we
have a part in this whole salvation thing.
As the apostle wrote, “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all
things and considering them rubbish in order to gain Christ and be found in
him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that
which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that depends on faith”
(Phil. 3:8-9).
God is the one who plants faith in you. He calls you to be his own. You did not choose him. He chose you.
God is the one who plants you in his vineyard, the Church. You are those whom he has formed for himself
that you might declare his praise (Is. 43:21).
God sends servants to you … pastors who are called to be faithful,
called to speak God's Word. You are
called to hear that Word as if it is the voice of Christ himself, forgiving
your sins, putting you back together again, making you new, making you whole,
aligning you once again with Christ your Cornerstone so you can do the works
which are pleasing in his sight.
God is also so very patient
with us today. He continues to nurture
and nourish us so that we bear fruit in his vineyard. Like the Prodigal Son in last week’s Gospel
reading, he patiently waits for us to return to him when we run away from him. And we can be patient with others when they
do not bear fruit as quickly as we would like them.
In closing, think of Patrick. He must have been a patient man. Born in 4th Century Britain to a Christian family. Kidnapped at 16. Enslaved in Ireland for six years. Escaping to his native land, only to return later as a missionary to the pagan Irish. Think of Patrick’s patience living as a slave. Think of his patience preaching to the people of his former captors. I’m sure Patrick didn’t convert the pagan Irish overnight. But he prayed for them. He preached the Gospel to them. He showed the love of Christ to people with whom the Scribes and Sadducees would have had nothing to do. And he gives us a faithful, patient example to follow today.
Amen.
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