Jesu Juva
“Who Does That? God Does.
For You.”
Text: Matthew 21:33-46
(Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 3:4b-14)
Grace, mercy, and peace
to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.
Amen.
They said to him, “He will put those wretches to
a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him
the fruits in their seasons.”
That’s what we would do. And
for a lot less than the owner of the vineyard. We have, in fact. Someone
wrongs us, we wrong them. You hurt me, I hurt you. Revenge.
Tit for tat. An eye for an eye.
And if not outwardly, then in our hearts. Silently
stewing over the wrong inflicted on us. Plotting a payback
that we might never do, but delight in planning and dreaming of anyway.
Maybe someone at work or at school takes credit for something you did. Someone
cuts you off in traffic. Or, you let someone in and you don’t get your wave!
<Grumble!> Or that time you went out of your way
for someone and you didn’t even get a thank you - like, their royal highness
was entitled to your service! What is it for you? That causes all that
self-righteous indignation to swell up in your heart and make you want to lash
out at such ungrateful wretches?
So, for what these tenants did? Yeah, that’s what
they deserve. The owner gave them so many chances. Too many, maybe we
would say. Sending servant after servant after servant, and
then finally his son. And those tenants just kept getting worse. They
finally pushed him too far. They can go to hell. That’s what we would do . . .
and so we think that’s what God would do too. Or should
do. It even said that in the prophet Isaiah - all wild grapes and no
good grapes? You’re out.
So there is a word of warning for us here, if we
think our sin doesn’t matter. If we think we can produce all the wild and
sinful grapes we want in God’s vineyard. Israel is the example - when they pushed
God too far, what Isaiah prophecied happened: the
armies of the enemies of Israel came up against them, defeated them in battle,
and hauled them off as prisoners of war; they were exiled from the land God had
promised to give them. For it was not their walls of stone and weapons of war
that was their strength and protection - God was their wall,
their hedge, their fortress. And without Him, all wild grapes and no good
grapes, they went down.
So yeah, that’s what they deserve. And truth be
told, it is what we deserve too.
But here’s where this dialogue - between Jesus
and the chief priests and the Pharisees - takes a surprising turn, with Jesus’
answer. For He doesn’t agree with the chief priests and the
Pharisees and their answer and evaluation of the situation. It’s not
that their answer was wrong - we’ve seen already what happened to Old Testament
Israel - it’s just that their answer was incomplete. So it’s almost like
after their answer, Jesus pauses for a moment, a dramatic silence, and then
speaks: But . . . have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The
stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our
eyes’?
You see, like us, the Pharisees knew their Law.
The Law is our native language. It is written in our hearts. It’s the
atmosphere we grow up in. It’s what we know - that it’s a dog-eat-dog world out
there. Like us, they knew what should happen to sinful, ungrateful,
self-righteous wretches. What they didn’t know and needed to learn was the
Gospel. Passages like this one. That God is so utterly unlike us
that we need to rethink everything we thought we knew, and realize how marvelous
our Father in heaven is.
So Jesus quotes these words from Psalm 118. That the
stone the builders rejected, the stone that was not good enough and so
was rejected and thrown out into the scrap heap, God not only takes and uses,
but has made the cornerstone - the most important stone in the
whole building; the stone off of which the rest of the building depends and is
built off of. It is a new life, a resurrection of sorts, for that stone.
And this was the plan all along. What was written in the Psalms was
happening now. Jesus is going to be rejected and thrown out with the trash,
onto the scrap heap of humanity, on the cross, but would then become the
cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, the Psalm said. The plan all along.
Except that doesn’t seem
to agree with the parable, where the owner sends his son thinking that “they
will respect my son.” But here is exactly where the parable
surprises us and begins to change our thinking. For the word Jesus uses here,
for respect, actually has two meanings. It is like our
English word cleave - what does that word mean?
Well, it has two opposite meanings, actually. It can mean to cut apart and
separate, like a meat cleaver. Or, it can mean to join together, like
when a man cleaves to his wife. Jesus’ word here, in Greek, is like that
- it can mean either respect or shame. But which do we pick? Does the
owner of the vineyard really think they will respect his son after all
they had done to the servants he had sent before? Unlikely.
They will shame my son is much more probable, and is, in fact, exactly
what happens.
But who does that? Who sends their son knowing
he will be shamed, or worse? . . . God does. That’s exactly what
God did. He sent His Son to be rejected, to be shamed, to
be thrown out with the trash, in order to take Him from the scrap heap, from
the grave, and raise Him back to life as the cornerstone - the stone upon which
His whole Church is built. God doesn’t do what we would do or think He should
do - He does this! This marvelous, wonderful, work
instead.
And so Old Testament Israel was defeated in
battle and hauled off and exiled - yes - but our marvelous, wonderful God
brought them back again. A new life, a resurrection, of
sorts.
And this is why we read words from Psalm 118 at
the graveside of a Christian - this body that has been defeated in death is not
without hope! For in Christ Jesus there is life from the dead. Resurrection. Hope. The forgiveness of
sins.
But it’s not just for when you die - Jesus is
holding this out to the chief priests and Pharisees and you and me even now.
For, He goes on to explain: The one who falls on this stone will be
broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. The
time for crushing, the Last Day, is coming. That’s what we think should
happen now - to ungrateful, self-righteous wretches. We want to
crush them! Make them pay. But not Jesus. He paid. For us. Now is the time to fall and be broken. To fall down in repentance for our wild grapes, for our judgmental
hearts, for our taking Jesus’ cross-won-forgiveness for granted. To be
broken in seeing that we are, in fact, the very ones we judge! And its not pleasant to be broken. I
remember when I was lying on the ground with a concussion and a broken
collarbone after crashing my bike. It wasn’t pleasant. And you and me, with our sins, are broken much worse than that.
But to those who fall and are broken by the Law,
there is resurrection and new life in Jesus. The forgiveness
of your sins. But again, who does that? Who forgives ungrateful,
selfish, greedy tenants after they sin and kill the son? God does. Now, in this time of grace. Washing us and
our children with the waters of baptismal forgiveness and new life.
Announcing to us the new life and resurrection of forgiveness every time we
broken sinners gather here after another week of wild grapes . . . and we are
absolved. And then even more, not just grudgingly sending us back out as
servants into His vineyard to make up for what we’ve done, but giving us a seat
at His Table, and serving and feeding us with the Body and Blood of His Son. To build you and me on that cornerstone. The One we shamed
honoring us.
Who does that? Your Father does. Once the apostle Paul
realized that, it changed his life. As we heard in the Epistle, he thought he
was somebody. He had out-achieved everybody. He was the top dog in Judaism. He
had accomplished so much. No one could boast more than he could. But once he
fell over Jesus and learned the truth, nothing else mattered anymore.
Everything else is rubbish, Paul said! Everything else is rubbish
once Christ makes you His own.
For that’s what God does, and what He has done for
you. Giving you His Son, giving You His Spirit, that
you be His own. Not to go on sinning and producing more wild grapes! Who
does that? Yes, that’s what we do. But as wretched as we are, we have an
even more amazing, marvelous, wonderful Father, who shamed his Son to honor us.
Who breaks us in order to raise us. That’s what He
does. That we not be crushed in the end, but live in
His kingdom, His vineyard, forever.
The chief priests and Pharisees wanted to arrest
Jesus for speaking such things. Jesus was the broken one, not them! Well, once
again, they were half right. Jesus was broken, for them. And for you. To heal the broken, forgive the sinner,
and raise the dead. So come now and receive all that at His Table, here. That amazing, marvelous love of God for you. That
receiving the fruit of the vine here, the very Blood and forgiveness of your Saviour, you now go with a new life and produce good fruits
too.
In the Name of the Father
and of the (+) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. Amen.
(I am indebted to the Rev. Bruce Keseman for his insight into the respect/shame turn of this
parable.)