The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Matthew, the 21st chapter:
“Hear another parable. 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 went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 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.” Jesus said to them, “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’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Jesus cannot help but keep hitting at those who challenge Him for the right to rule Israel. Last week, we heard that the chief priests and the elders were questioning where Jesus was receiving His authority to do everything, and Jesus made it clear that the sinners of the world were going to enter into God’s rest before they ever would.
And that’s really the thing. People who know that they are sinners, and confess those sins, are absolutely forgiven. Yet, those who grasp onto their sins, or those who deny their sins, or those who do not seek to leave their sins for the sake of Christ, those do not know the greatness of the Lord and His desire to forgive.
So, Jesus tells this other parable today about wicked tenants and a crazy master. I mean, the master of the house with the vineyard is absolutely nuts, right? He keeps sending servants and servants and servants and they keep getting killed by these wicked tenants. So, you expect the master of the house to come with the police, or to come with armies, or to burn the whole thing down, or really to do anything. The tenants are so wicked, there is no good in them for anything. And so, the master should take care of his business. So, what does he do? He sends his son to get his fruit. I mean, surely these tenants would listen right? Wrong!
When Jesus tells this parable, He knows what the answer is for all these people. Everyone is listening to Jesus and thinking that the master is crazy. They know the tenants won’t listen to the son; why would they? They’ve killed everyone else and gotten away with it, what’s one more to them? So, when Jesus says that the master sends the son, they all think that the master’s world has gone topsy-turvy, because there’s no way that is going to work and the master should know that.
So, the amazing thing in all of this is that Jesus is depicting God the Father as the mater of the vineyard. They are one and the same. That tells us that the Father is a little crazy… not crazy as in insane, but crazy in His desire to receive the fruit of His harvest, the people who trust in Him by grace through faith, who are forgiven, who look to the cross of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Father is not insane, but He is completely dedicated to having the Word of God taught to all men that they might believe.
God sent prophet after prophet after prophet to the people of Israel. Led by men like the chief priests and the elders and the scribes, the people treated every prophet of God so poorly. They grumbled heavily against Moses, cursing him. They persecuted Ezekiel. They sawed Isaiah in half. The prophets were never treated well by Israel, and most were led to their deaths by the hands of the people they were sent to serve.
Yet, no matter how many prophets they killed, God kept sending them. Why would He do something so crazy and insane? One reason is so that His words that He gave to them might be written down for our benefit that they might inspire in us, by the work of the Holy Spirit, faith and confidence in God. Another, and I think the former is part of it, is that God so desired His people to forsake their wicked ways and seek after Him. God keeps trying and trying and trying.
Ultimately, this is all leading up to that which the Lord has promised since the fall into sin. Before even the world had begun, the intention of the Master, the intention of the Lord, is that the Son of God would lay down His life in order to bring to the Master the harvest He is owed. By the death of the Son, the Master is able to reap all that He is owed by placing new tenants, better tenants, obedient and servile tenants.
Jesus told this parable that He might convict the elders and chief priests, that they might turn from their wicked ways, and receive the forgiveness of sins. They are the wicked tenants. God kept sending them prophets to preach the Word of God so that they would turn, but they kept rejecting His Word. Ultimately, God’s plan to send His Son to fulfill all His promises, to fulfill the entire Word of God. But, since the leaders of Israel had forsaken all of the Lord’s warnings, all of His Word, all of His promises, they would not treat the Son any better.
And so, for working to convict them of their sins, the chief priests and elders convicted Jesus under blasphemy laws and killed Him. And they answered themselves the question as to what the master’s response would be to that action. The master would finally come and destroy them and get new tenants for his vineyard. It would be the same for the Lord. The Lord will come, destroy them, and plant new tenants in the vineyard, and then He will enjoy His fruits for all eternity.
That is you. God has always wanted you. It’s not to say that He didn’t or doesn’t want the chief priests and elders, He does. Yet, the Lord also has had you in mind, that by the rejection of men, Christ would be the cornerstone of your faith. He has intended to put you in His vineyard, in His Church, that you might bring to the Lord the harvest He wants, the harvest of faithful men and women who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And how does He do that? He takes the kingdom of God away from them. He takes the spiritual kingdom away, yet He also removes them from any connection to it on this earth. He destroys the idolatrous Israel with the Roman armies. He tears down their temple. He flattens their city. He exiles the people. And then He stops speaking to them. He stops sending them prophets. He stops speaking the priests. He stops accepting their sacrifices.
All of this was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and the religious actions that they bound themselves to were no longer what God wanted. He had been pointing them for millennia toward the Lamb who would take away the sin of the world. They hated that Lamb. So, thinking they were doing God a favor, they killed Him. They didn’t know that their work had been foreseen by God, that He had put His plan in place with their actions, and by their murdering of the Son, the forgiveness of sins would be won, even for them. If they would turn, repent, they would be forgiven. And some of them did.
Some of them, just as it is some of us, would be saved. Some would be spared through the destruction of the old guard and be brought in with the new tenants. Some of them, just as it is some of us, will be there at the end. Some will be found faithful.
There is in that both a great hope and great threat. The reality is that we often act like these chief priests and elders. Sure, we didn’t travel back 200 years and actually kill Jesus. But, perhaps we would have. Perhaps we would have cried out for His death. Perhaps we are rejecting Him even now, as our sinful flesh is wont to do, and we seek after our own righteousness, withholding from God anything that is His. So it will be for them that the weight of Jesus Christ, that the death of the Lord will not serve for them as a promise of life, but that which will crush them into the ground. Do not throw your hat in with this group.
Yet, for those who desire hope, for those who desire to follow Christ and all of His works and all of His, who trust in Him for the forgiveness of their sins, the Cornerstone which is Christ will support them as they go forward towards the Day of Judgment. This is for you. Be in this group. Desire that the Lord would forgive your sins, receive that forgiveness through Word and Sacrament, and you will be found faithful unto the end.
It is true that, today, God does not send to us prophets as of old. But He does send pastors, men who proclaim the Word of God. These men serve in the spirit of Jesus, preaching the Word of God, working to keep God’s beloved people, His Church, holding to the promises of Christ. The Master of the house has removed the wicked and vile tenants from the true faith and He has placed you in it. You are in the Lord’s care. And while the Master has gone away for a little while, He will return, and there He will find you faithful in Christ and will raise you up to everlasting life. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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