WORKING IN GOD’S VINEYARD
During the week before Passover in A. D. 30, Jesus entered the city and wanted some fruit from a fig tree, when he found none, he cursed it and it withered. This was a prophetic sign to the nation of Israel that they were not producing fruit. He taught each day in the Temple area, debating with other teachers of differing beliefs. He was invited to state His opinion on a number of issues, including marriage in the resurrection, the greatest commandment and the question of paying taxes to the Roman Emperor. This was a test question with the Zealots. In their eyes, to acknowledge the rule of a pagan king was high treason against God, Israel's true King. Jesus replied that the coinage in which these taxes had to be paid belonged to the Roman emperor because his face and name were stamped on it. Let the emperor have what so obviously belonged to him, Jesus declared; it was more important to make sure that God received what was due Him. This answer disappointed those patriots who followed the Zealot line. Neither did it make Jesus popular with the priestly authorities. The rebellious spirit in the land terrified them. Their favored position depended on maintaining good relations with the ruling Romans. If revolt broke out, the Romans would hold them responsible for not keeping the people under control. They were afraid that Jesus might provoke an outburst that would bring the heavy hand of Rome upon the city. The enthusiasm of the people when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey alarmed the religious leaders. So did his show of authority when he cleared the Temple of traders and moneychangers. This was another "prophetic action" in the tradition of the prophets of Israel. Its message to the priestly establishment came through loud and clear. The prophet Isaiahs' vision of the Temple--" My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations" [Is. 56:7]- was a fine ideal. But any attempt to make it measure up to reality would be a threat to the priestly privileges. Jesus' action was as disturbing as Jeremiah's speech foretelling the destruction of Solomon's Temple had been to the religious leaders six centuries earlier [Jeremiah. 26:1-6].
This Sunday's gospel finds us again with Jesus in the Temple teaching
about the Kingdom of Heaven. As you recall from last week’s Gospel when Jesus was at loggerheads with the Priest’s and elders and he told them a parable about their behavior when they refused to answer his question about John the Baptist. He likened their behavior to two sons who paid lip service to their father when it came time to work in the vineyard. One was obedient and the other was not. Now he continues the analogy with another parable and this will hit even closer to home.
Jesus said, "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then, he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 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 get his inheritance.' So, they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when 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 lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time." 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 amazing in our eyes'.
Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom."
When Jesus mentioned a vineyard, they knew he was referring to Israel. The Old Testament’s fifth chapter of Isaiah also makes the analogy of Israel to the vineyard. So, Jesus was right in line with the prophets as he told this parable. Psalm #80 also refers to Israel as a vine that God brought out of Egypt and planted. He is the landowner who is looking for a share of the crop as his most justly due. When Jesus said, "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom." The chief priests and elders really got angry because they knew he told the parable against them, There was no doubt in their minds and it was time to get even with Jesus. In the context of the parable Jesus becomes a prophet as he tells what happened to all the messengers of the owner and finally to the son who is killed. It is a prophetic story about what is and what will take place afterwards. It is a story about very bad stewardship by the tenants and how they react in their pride to being asked to produce the fruits of their stewardship. The most immediate point of the story is the fact that the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone from Psalm 118. When we read the parable of the vineyard or the parable of the tenants who killed the son, we see the leaders of the people who had become used to having property that belonged to someone else and then being willing to use violence to keep what they had. They were not willing to admit their responsibility to the owner and tried to act as if it all belonged to them. To secure their ambitions they killed the owner's son and heir, hoping thereby to succeed to the property, but the owner came and threw them out.
When we consider this story from a stewardship viewpoint then we are stewards of riches, which belong to the Lord of creation. Those riches include not only those parts of the natural world, and the life and culture of humanity, which is placed in our hands, but also our own bodies and our very lives. Like anyone put in charge, as stewards, of what belongs to someone else, if we have it long enough, and especially if we have not been called to account, we are easily tempted to imagine that we own it outright and that we can do as we please with it. So, the great error of human pride occurs to let our God given control of what God have given us deceive us into denying that we owe anything to the Creator or displacing onto ourselves the sovereignty of God. It is easy to forget whose we are: that we are clay in the hands of the potter, as Jeremiah saw it. The greed of the unruly tenants in the parable of the vineyard is the natural greed of fallen humanity. It leads to killing the one whose very existence reminds the tenants that they are not the Lord of the Vineyard. The point of the story turns on his death, the death of the son and heir. We who know that Jesus is the son and that God raised him to rule with him also know that 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes' (Matthew 21:42). It is as well for us to remember as well those qualities we share with the rest of humanity, which led to his rejection. To exalt in our knowledge of his becoming the cornerstone without at first confessing our identity with the killers would miss the point of the story. True believers in the Son are those who know how closely they are related to the tenants who killed him, and just like the poor and the lame who were brought in from the highways and byways to the wedding feast of the king which is the story we will hear next week. The gentile church who God called when the Jews rejected the Gospel are beneficiaries of the vineyard after the wicked tenants have been thrown out. But it is not our doing, it is the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes. But, as the inheritors, we also run the risk of being dispossessed of the vineyard through failure to acknowledge its true owner and his messenger. Only by remembering whose we are and keeping our focus on him can we avoid the temptation of falling back into the error of the tenants, which is the general cause of all human failings, namely denial of God. The parable remains good news to those who know they are in need of the grace of God.
In the great bazaars of Istanbul, Damascus, or Cairo, one can see men sitting at their places in the section of the silversmiths. Beside them are piles of American coins. These are melted down, fashioned into little silver charms and sold to the tourists. This is done in the most old-fashioned way. The silversmith drops a coin into the molten silver; in a little while the coin is melted down under the hot fire. Every once in a while, the silversmith takes a sieve and scrapes off the impurities on top. Then he looks intently into the bowl. And if you should ask him, "What are you waiting to see," he would say, "I keep it on the fire until there is no more scum, until I can see myself reflected as in the best mirror."
This is what the Old Testament prophet Malachi means when he writes that "God shall sit as a refiner of silver" (Mal 3:3). God says, "I am going to make my people holy. I am going to keep them in the fire until all the jealousy, the hatred and the self-seeking has been scraped away. I am going to keep them in the fire until all that remains is the pure, shining silver of patience, kindness, compassion, understanding and loving service. Then I will see my face in them and I will know that my people have been made holy.
- Sunday Sermons Treasury of Illustrations, James F. Colainni, ed., Pleasantville, NJ: Voicings Publications, 1982, p. 446
The point Jesus is making in this parable, however, applies to everyone. We are entrusted with the Gospel, and whenever we forsake the Gospel it will be given to others to share. The honesty and integrity of our faith is based not so much on whether we do or do not do certain moral behaviors, but whether we have shared the Good News with others. The judgment of Jesus will be based on the fruits of our faith, not on our personal purity. A young single woman who had a job as a waitress was always bringing friends to church on Sunday. Occasionally they came back and several became members of the congregation. She was wealthy only in that she had a lot of friends where she worked, and she brought them to the place that sustained her spiritually. When Jane died the church was packed with her friends. The celebrant at her funeral connected her goodness to her bringing others to the faith. Someone once asked her, "Jane, how do you do it; you make it seem so simple?" "I don't know", she replied. "I just ask them and they come. I know I need to be here, and I think my friends do too." If the Gospel were really transforming your life, wouldn't you want to offer it to everyone else? Jane did. And she is one of the ways Jesus tends the vineyard. By your baptism you are a vinedresser as well. Jesus is asking you to apply the Good News in your life so that others will see it. Jesus asks you to share it with those whom he has given you as friends.
SERMON SYNOPSIS
A. DOCTRINAL OR TEACHING POINTS
1. The story reflects the conflict between the early church and Judaism. The parable is addressed to the Jewish leaders who understood what Jesus meant from the situation that was occurring in the rural life of Israel. Absentee landlords and sharecropping peasants were common in that day. They peasants paid their rent through a share of the crops.
2. The crop symbolizes good works, the fruits of righteousness. The vineyard evidently brought forth the expected fruit, the tenants just refused to give the owner his share.
3. The slaves sent by the owner are the succession of prophets whom God had sent in age after age, to Israel. But they were treated with disdain and violence. Just read the books of the prophets and kings to see the risks that the prophets faced.
4. The patience and good will of God are seen in his sending of the Son. Jesus is not another prophet but God's own Son, who is put to death outside the Jerusalem (the vineyard) by the Jews.
5. The solution to the owner's problem, which is given by the chief priest and elders, is in fact their own condemnation. Those who reject Jesus find themselves excluded from the vineyard of God, which is then given to the ones who believe and produce the works of righteousness.
B. APPLICATION:
1. God established a church for himself in the world. The kingdom of God upon earth is here compared to a vineyard. The church is the planting of the Lord. The forming of a church is a work by itself, like the planting of a vineyard, which requires a great deal of cost and care. God's church in the world is taken under his special protection.
2. He entrusted the church with the nation and people of the Jews, especially their chief priests and elders. He let it out to them as stewards, not because he had need of them as landlords have of their tenants, but because he would try them, and be honored by them.
3. God's expectation from these stewards, were not hasty; were not high; were not hard; it was only to receive the fruits.
4. The steward’s base attitude in abusing the messengers that were sent to them. See, how God persevered in his goodness to them. He sent other servants, more than the first. At length, he sent them his Son; we have seen God's goodness in sending, and their badness in abusing, the servants; but in the latter instance both these exceed themselves.
5. This episode coincides with the reading from Isaiah when he complains about the vineyard producing "sour or rotten" grapes. There is a play on words in Isaiah where God looked for "judgment" [mispat] and found instead "bloodshed" [mispah]. God looked for "justice" [sedaqa] and found "outcry" [seaqa]. This is like interchanging (.'Rudeness" for "goodness' and "complaint" for "compliance"
6. God has certain expectations of all of us as members of the Body of Christ and the church. What seems to be the point in the story of the Vineyard, the fig tree that was cursed and the Tenants in the Vineyard is that the expectations of God were not met. There has been a disruption in the relationship of God to his people and if they had accepted and received His Son this would have been repaired.
The Rev. Dr. Kurt Miller
18th Sunday after Pentecost-Year A [4 October 2020]
Proper 22 [St. Augustine’s]
Exodus 20: 1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Psalm 19
Philippians 3: 4b-14
Matthew 21: 33-46
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