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Proper 22 Trinity Lutheran Church
5 October 2008 Murdock, NE
+ Jesu Juva +
St. Matthew 21:33-46 (heavily borrowed from Dr. Norman Nagel)
Vineyard planted. A hedge set around it. A wine press dug. And a tower to watch for thieves and mobsters. So far so good.
Then the owner makes his first mistake. He lets it out to tenants. He’s asking for big trouble. He should keep the vineyard for himself. Keep all the joy of the vineyard, grapes and wine for himself.
Then the owner makes another blunder. He decides to go off to another country. Take a trip. An extended vacation. Idiot. Everyone knows that if you want things done right you have to do it yourself. You’d better watch over the tenant’s work otherwise they’ll take advantage of you.
What does this owner expect? Is he crazy? Must be! After all, he expects the tenants to do their work well. He expects the tenants to rejoice over the harvest. He expects them to generously give him his portion of the grapes and then to enjoy the wine together.
“No way in . . . !” is the tenants’ response. They will not share any of the harvest with the owner. That means less for them. And why should they? Who’s going to make them? An owner who takes vacations in another country isn’t able to do much about it.
And so the tenants “take his servants, beat one, kill another, and stone another.”
You’d think the owner would get it by now. Nope. “He sends other servants, more than the first, and the tenants do the same all over again.”
And then the owner makes the most lame-brained move of all time. “What is he thinking? DON’T DO IT MR. LANDOWNER! We warn you! If you do, there will be no bail out or rescue package for you from the Congress!”
“He sends his son to them saying, ‘They will respect my son.’”
Not these tenants! This is their big chance. An absentee landowner is nobody to worry about. And if they get rid of the son, then all their problems are solved. The vineyard will be theirs for keeps. So they do the unthinkable. “They take the son. Throw him out of the vineyard and murder him!”
Then the big theological question. “When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
What do you think? He’ll clobber them! He’ll pay them back! Wouldn’t you?
Dr. Luther puts it very well. “As you believe, so you have.” In other words, if you treat God as one who is interested in getting things out of you, who deprives you of what you believe you have coming, who takes what is his, demands his rights and pays back evil for evil, then that is the God you have. If you treat God as one who can’t be trusted to care for your good, if you treat him as a threat, as an enemy, then that is the God you have.
The evil you think of God, you will receive from him. A man’s evil toward God returns upon him in judgment. There is nothing capricious about God’s judgment. It acknowledges what is the fact with a man and deals with him accordingly. “He will bring these wretches to a wretched end,” is the people’s answer. They expect God to act as they would. Selfishly. Tit for tat. Quid pro quo. As you believe so you have.
The crowds who hear the parable don’t get it. The chief priest and Pharisees do. So clearly they understand what Jesus is saying that they want to kill Him.
The owner of course is God. He’s a generous giver. His is an incredible again and again generosity. Giving His vineyard, that is, His kingdom over into our hands. His giving makes not less for us but more. So that we may share His delight in giving and sharing. So much so that He gives His Son Jesus Christ even if that means He goes into death.
Call it crazy. Call it reckless. But that’s God’s way with sinners.
There is no reason why you should get what you deserve as a sinner -- unless, of course, you insist on it. And that would be a hellish disaster. If you treat God as a threat or as an enemy, then that is what He will be to you. But that is not what God wants. He wants to share His vineyard, that is, His kingdom, grapes, wine, and the joy of the harvest.
On the cross God’s Son Jesus Christ took your sin in His Body. What you had coming, what you deserved for your sins, Jesus took in your place. Your sins can condemn you no more. You are forgiven. You are restored with Him at His table now and in the fullness of His Kingdom.
So, “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Christ’s death. The ultimate horror of history – for your sins.
If you can face that, then there is nothing in this life you cannot face. There is no misery that goes deeper than the cross. The crucified Jesus is there and deeper down still. Everything that would destroy you Jesus has faced. It did not destroy Him. And so neither you who are His.
“Until he comes,” that is, when He will drink of the fruit of the vine in His Kingdom. And Jesus doesn’t like to drink alone. And so His words to the disciples and to you: “that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom.”
So you in the vineyard. How goes the digging? The watering? The weeding? What of the harvest, the grapes, the wine?
Are you living in a vineyard or a penitentiary?
The answer is given when you confess who God is. When you say the Creed. Or how your life is lived.
Jesus didn’t fit the scribes and Pharisees idea of God. And so to preserve their idea of who God is, they plotted to kill Jesus. And they did it. They got it done!
They meant it for evil. God used that Friday for your good. Your salvation good. And now He gives you wine. And with the wine Christ’s Blood poured out on the cross for your sin. What joy! What vineyard / kingdom / harvest home joy!
In the Name of Jesus.
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