Sermon Proper 22A
October 2, 2011
Matthew 21:33-46
Rev. Jeff Springer
Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This week’ s gospel text begins where last week’s ended. Jesus in his parable last week indicates that the really really bad sinners are entering the Kingdom of God before Israel’s religious and civil leaders. This of course does not endear him to this group of unrepentant self righteous. They seem to get harder and harder against the thought that Jesus is the Messiah.
If the first parable does not upset them then this next one will seal the deal. Jesus takes them to a very familiar metaphor, that of the vineyard that the Lord planted represented the nation of Israel that the Lord had set apart. The comparison is quite striking between our Old Testament reading and the Gospel reading. Jesus refers to this metaphor when telling his next parable.
He says, there was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and then went away into another country. (Mt 21:33) So far this sounds a lot like the vineyard described in Isaiah. The vineyard is planted a winepress is dug, a tower is built and a fence is put up around it.
In both cases the Master has planted the vineyard and he has placed protection around His vineyard and after planting He seeks a harvest. He seeks fruit from his vineyard. However, this is where things go awry. In the vineyard mentioned in Isaiah, the choice vines do not yield choice fruit but instead wild fruit. In this case God who planted his people Israel finds instead of peace, bloodshed and an outcry for justice that is not being met.
Similarly, in the gospel reading Jesus’ vineyard there will be violence and bloodshed which is caused by the tenants that God had placed in the vineyard to be its stewards. The chief priests and the elders are the stewards of this vineyard. They are to be respected as authorities for they sit on Moses’ seat. The Master sends his servants to the tenants and the tenant treat them very badly. They beat one, they kill one and they stone one. This could very well be the prophets sent to Israel calling for repentance in this way preparing them for the coming of the Son, prophets such as John the Baptist the last and greatest of the prophets.
After the servants of the Lord are rejected as His prophets, finally we hear, that the owner sent his Son. The Son was sent by the Master to collect the harvest.
However, this is not the fruit or harvest the Son was looking to find. Instead of finding the fruits of repentance, a contrite heart. He is confronted with violence, anger, murderous thoughts, envy, and greed. The tenants believe that they can wrest the inheritance of the Father away by killing the Son.
Jesus was revealing the thoughts of Israel’s church leaders and lay leaders who were arrayed against him. They reject Him. Jesus accurately describes what they are planning to do to Him by the end of the Passover festival. They will take Jesus the Son of God out of the city and they will crucify Him to death.
But instead of inheritance, Jesus warns them that they will receive God’s wrath. As in the first vineyard where the hedges and protection are torn down so that the wild fauna may have their way in the vineyard and it will suffer from drought, in this case the offending agents, the tenants will be removed from the vineyard and the Lord will place new tenants in their place who will give Him the fruits in their seasons.
The church and lay leadership that rejected Jesus will be replaced in God’s vineyard by others. We can see in this the church transitioning from the current leadership to those Apostles and disciples who follow Jesus and manifest the fruits of repentance when confronted with their sin and who confidently hear the gospel of Christ’s forgiveness, for as the Son is being killed outside the gate He is also experiencing the Holy wrath of the Father so that all followers of Christ will not.
Jesus refers them to Psalm 118 verses 22 and 23 where it says, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
The Heavenly Father is taking what the builders, Israel’ church and lay leaders rejected, and has made him the cornerstone of the church. Jesus is the foundation by which the rest of us living stones , His church are built upon. This is how St. Peter later refers to Jesus.
In chapter 4 of the book of Acts, Peter as he goes before the high priests repeats the same promise. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” This is the good news for you, for those who trust in Christ. It gives us confidence that our Lord is an immoveable rock and that He has the ability and the authority to save us. Yes in baptism we have been given His name and are therefore saved.
But for unbelievers He is the immoveable unbreakable rock, which as they fall on Him, are themselves smashed and broken. They will suffer a miserable death outside the vineyard. And when the rock falls on Him they are crushed. This is what happens to the old satanic foe, the serpent in the garden, while Jesus is on the cross he is crushing the head of the serpent and taking from him all his accusatory power.
The chief priests and elders did not repent instead their hearts hardened further. They perceived rightly that Jesus spoke of them and even though the people saw Jesus as a prophet they would not. Ironically God would take Israel’s evil pattern of rejecting God’s servants and place it in the service of good as these Chief priests and elders would sacrifice this Lamb of God for the sins of the world.
Today we should also heed this warning for today we do have God’s Word calling us to repentance. Our sins against Jesus range from not putting him first in our lives to being jealous of our neighbor’s goods. All ten commandments when convicting us rightfully crush the unbelieving old Adam inside us. That old Adam wants to be in control. When it comes to matters of doctrine and especially practice in the church the old Adam wants to tell Jesus what to do. Lord keep us from this. Grant us repentance to turn from our own ideas and to God’s.
Paul in his letter to the Philippians is a man living a life of repentance and hope in Christ Jesus. He lists for the Philippian church all his achievements which he calls confidence in the flesh. He says that he was, “circumcised on the 8th day, of the people of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed , I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God that depends on faith- that I may know him and the power of the resurrection…” (Philippians 3:5-10)
Paul throws his selfishness and his self-righteousness under the bus so that he may attain to Christ and His resurrection. And he continues to press on even though he already has the resurrection through his baptism in Christ Jesus.
This is for you as well for you in baptism you have already attained the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the dead. Turn to him with your sins, confess and He will heal you of your transgressions. Come and share in Christ's rejection by the world. You are a new creature. The wedding feast is ready, come and taste the foretaste of the feast to come you new tenants and stewards of the church. Stand on the cornerstone of Christ Jesus who cannot be shaken or move but crushes the enemies of the church.
Now may the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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