{"id":10731,"date":"2005-10-01T19:49:18","date_gmt":"2005-10-01T17:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theologie.whp.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=10731"},"modified":"2025-07-14T10:52:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T08:52:59","slug":"matthew-2133-46","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/matthew-2133-46\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 21:33-46"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost | October 2, 2005 | Matthew 21:33-46 | Hubert Beck |<\/h3>\n

\u201cHear 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, \u2018They will respect my son.\u2019 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, \u2018This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.\u2019 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?\u201d They said to him, \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus said to them, \u201cHave you never read in the Scriptures: \u2018The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord\u2019s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. (from the English Standard Version)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Rental Fruits of God\u2019s Vineyard<\/h5>\n

Imagine a business CEO who urges his \/ her board of directors as well as all subordinates to simply disregard any facts at their disposal, but simply to plan and perform their duties according to the way they feel about something at the moment. If it \u201cfeels good\u201d to do this or that, they are just to go ahead and do it.<\/p>\n

Imagine a government official who urges all those under her \/ him to perform their duties according to the whim of the moment \u2013 to ask themselves what \u201cfeels right\u201d when called upon to act and then do it without further examination or research, regardless of the surrounding circumstances.<\/p>\n

Imagine God emotionally attached to the world, yet leaving it to fend for itself. Imagine the Lord feeling sorrow and pity for humankind, but doing nothing other than watching the world fall apart.<\/p>\n

Imagine a person going through life being directed by nothing other than sentimental piety regarding God. If a person feels<\/strong> God in what one is doing, that is enough. It doesn\u2019t matter much what one does, so long as one has a warm, fuzzy feeling about God being near. Whether God is near is not of so much importance as whether one feels<\/strong> that God is near. To push the case, if one senses deeply that God doesn\u2019t care much about what one is doing, then it doesn\u2019t much matter what one does.<\/p>\n

Such is the religious life of many around us . . . and maybe even among us!<\/p>\n

It is quite apparent to anyone \u2013 whether a religious person or a person of the world \u2013 that the first two \u201cimaginations\u201d are pure hogwash. No business or government can be conducted with any chance of success or survival merely on the basis of the feelings and emotions of those who run the business or the civic affairs of the world. In business and in government, not to speak of daily life, one must deal with and make decisions on the basis of reality, not of feelings alone; on the basis of the facts that are at hand through which evaluations and decisions can be reasonably made.<\/p>\n

For some reason, though, what seems apparent to anyone about what is necessary for the performance of a business or the running of a government \u2013 or even for everyday decision making \u2013 becomes quite un<\/strong>apparent to many when it comes to their religious life. On that level of life facts and events often become unimportant \u2013 even irrelevant \u2013 in favor of feelings and sentimental emotions.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 parable serving as the Gospel for today insists quite otherwise, however! It is a parable of actions \u2013 not of feelings . . . of reality \u2013 not of phantasy.<\/p>\n

The \u201cGrounding\u201d of This Parable In the Prophet Isaiah <\/strong><\/h5>\n

Nobody around Jesus at the time when he spoke this parable heard it without realizing that Jesus\u2019 basic point of reference lay in an earlier parable spoken long ago by the prophet Isaiah: \u201cLet me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.\u201d (Is. 5:1-7) <\/strong> Jesus quotes the description of that vineyard almost precisely in the opening verses of the parable that he now speaks, enlarging on Isaiah\u2019s version. Isaiah very explicitly says, \u201cThe vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaiah is not speaking about a lack of sentimental piety in Israel when he tells this parable. He is very down to earth, very unambiguous about the problem between God and his vineyard: \u201cHe looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness but behold, an outcry!\u201d In the Hebrew there is an intense wordplay between the words \u201cjustice\u201d and \u201cbloodshed,\u201d between \u201crighteousness\u201d and \u201coutcry.\u201d Isaiah\u2019s condemnation of Israel for its lack of justice and righteousness is harsh and filled with irony, as though he were saying, \u201cWhat should have been is not to be found, and there is no good reason whatever for it to have been lost. But you have lost it.\u201d \u201cNow I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard,\u201d the Lord says, \u201cI will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up.\u201d I.e., Israel\u2019s evil actions or failure to act do not simply make God feel badly about what is happening. He is getting ready to do something about it.<\/p>\n

Those are hard words . . . words of concrete action and a will determined to alter the course of events. They are not mere words<\/strong> of anger, but the promise of angry and harsh reaction<\/strong> to the faithlessness of his people.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 Amplification of Isaiah\u2019s Parable <\/strong><\/h5>\n

When Jesus takes hold of this very old parable through which all his hearers recognized the judgment of God held in suspension over Israel he gives it a new twist, however.<\/p>\n

Once again the owner builds and provides for his vineyard, just as in the parable by Isaiah. But this time he leaves it, fully operational, in the hands of tenants who are to care for that which is already a profitable enterprise. There is quite evidently an agreement between the two that the future profits are to be divided in some fashion between the renters and the owner.<\/p>\n

In the ensuing events it is clear that Jesus refers to the prophets when he speaks of those who are sent to the vineyard by the owner to \u201ccollect the rent.\u201d It is equally clear that without fail the prophets of God are rejected, beaten and even killed. The renters have come to think of themselves as the owners of the vineyard and resent the true owner\u2019s constant insistence on receiving his rightful due and his adamant interference in what they considered their own affairs. They declare their entitlement to the vineyard that once belonged to the owner asking for his rent.<\/p>\n

It seems implausible that the owner would put up for long with such insufferable treatment of the servants sent to collect the rent. Even more incomprehensible is the fact that he sends his son as a last resort, thinking that those who rejected his servants would honor the son. Mark accents this unthinkable action of the Father by saying, \u201cHe had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them. . . \u201c Luke adds a pathetic note: \u201cThen the owner of the vineyard said, \u2018What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.\u2019\u201d Jesus himself says only a short time after he speaks this parable, \u201cO Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not. See, your house is left to you desolate.\u201d (Matt. 23:37, 38 ESV) <\/strong><\/p>\n

Is it possible to imagine God\u2019s long-suffering and patience through the ages, given this mistreatment of both his vineyard and those sent to collect the rent? Or is it possible to imagine God\u2019s willingness to send his son into the midst of this rebel group of workers? Is it not the height of conceit and overconfidence, in fact, when the tenants say, \u201cThis is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.\u201d Then at the height of their smugness \u201cthey took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.\u201d It is an obvious reference to the fact that Jesus was crucified \u201coutside the city gate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Someone (I think it was Flannery O\u2019Connor) once said, \u201cReligion is about a harsh and dreadful love.\u201d So it is with this story. This is a love so enduring that the Father sends his servants out to collect the rent time after time, only to have his servants rebuffed and even killed. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews reports it this way: \u201cSome were tortured, refusing to accept release. . . Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword.\u201d (Heb. 11:35b-37a ESV)<\/strong> Finally he sends his son, \u201chis beloved,\u201d into the dangerous territory of rebel tenants. And he, too, is killed. Is this love not a harsh one so far as his son is concerned? Is it not dreadful to think of a Father who would send his son as a sacrificial lamb into the midst of murderous would-be owners of a land that is not theirs at all, but who will go to any length to claim it anyway? Surely this love of the Father is \u201charsh and dreadful,\u201d but it is also redeeming and wonderful. It is astonishing that the Father, with his immeasurable patience, would give up his beloved for the sake of the vineyard that was already his and which had been taken over by rebel tenants! The parable gives us the smallest glimpse into the grace of God!<\/p>\n

The Summary in the Parable <\/strong><\/p>\n

The parable has a past, a present and a future in it:<\/p>\n

The \u201cpast\u201d is nothing other than the long history of God\u2019s patient calling of his people through his prophets to be faithful, to serve him, to care for the vineyard of which Isaiah spoke with such lament — one that had been claimed for their own by the very ones to whose care it had been entrusted.<\/p>\n

The \u201cpresent\u201d was incarnated in the speaker of the parable. He it was who had come from the Father to claim that which was rightfully the Father\u2019s. He it was who was being rejected — who would be killed \u201coutside the city gates.\u201d He spoke to the tenants, the chief priests and the Pharisees who \u201cperceived 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.\u201d It would be through his suffering, death and resurrection that the \u201cpresent\u201d would be the time for reclaiming the vineyard for the Father and the shaping of the new possibility that only God could make of this vineyard of his creation. The \u201cfertile hill\u201d upon which this vineyard was being built anew was surely none other than Calvary!<\/p>\n

That vineyard, then, was to be the \u201cfuture\u201d of this parable. \u201cThe stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord\u2019s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.\u201d With these words from Psalm 118, equally recognized by all around just as they had recognized the words of the prophet Isaiah, Jesus set forth the future. \u201cI tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGod forbid!\u201d they<\/strong> said. \u201cThank God!\u201d we<\/strong> say. For the vineyard was not destroyed. It was rather given to others who would return to the owner the share of the fruits rightfully due him.<\/p>\n

For it is we \u2013 you and I \u2013 the ones gathered here, who are the \u201cfuture\u201d of which Jesus spoke! It was for us that he was crucified and risen from the dead! It was for the sake of a kingdom no longer bounded by geographical lines or genealogical heritage, but by faith engendered by the Spirit in the saving death and resurrection of the One who spoke this parable, that the events following the speaking of this parable took place. For Jesus spoke this parable in the very shadow of the cross \u2013 between Palm Sunday and Good Friday — during the time between the glad acclamations welcoming the Son of David into the Holy City and the time when the cry \u201cCrucify him\u201d would become the shout with which he was thrown out of the city. There, outside the city gate, death itself would be put to death. There the sin of rejecting this vineyard\u2019s Owner would be atoned for and \u201cother tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons\u201d would be put in charge of this \u201cvineyard on a very fertile hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the Question: \u201cWhat Will We Do With This Vineyard?\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

So we are back to where we started when we implicitly asked, \u201cIs it enough to simply have a \u2018warm, fuzzy feeling\u2019 for God; merely to \u2018know that God is near because we feel him to be near;\u2019 to be content with an emotionally satisfying sense that \u2018surely God must be enough like us that so long as we are reasonably good and moral people he will be satisfied\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

The parable shouts a mighty \u201cno\u201d as an answer to questions like these. To begin with, God was not satisfied to simply sit in the heavens, looking with a kindly, grandfatherly gaze upon his poor wayward creatures, idly sitting by, casually looking on, feeling badly while we took over the vineyard and did with it what we willed. The Lord did not merely \u201clove\u201d us in a theoretical, virtually disinterested way, keeping an arms-length distance from us. Not at all! God was deeply involved with his vineyard at every turn and through all to whom he had entrusted it. The divine patience was extended virtually to the breaking point. Even then the Father pressed the issue through his Son, sending him into the arena of death for the sake of his vineyard. This is no place for sentimental emotion. This is where to \u201cthe rubber hits the road.\u201d This is where what<\/strong>happens<\/strong> becomes the vital center of the relationship between God and those who care for his vineyard. Sentimental feelings must retreat into the background before the harsh reality of the cross of him who was thrown out of the vineyard and killed. From it hope and salvation flow freely to all who put their trust in this Crucified One who will, in turn, emerge victorious over death on the third day. The harsh reality becomes our glorious salvation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.\u201d With these words Jesus places the challenge squarely before his hearers as to whether they will take up their cross in turn and follow him . . or whether they will \u201cstumble\u201d over this cross and be crushed by their unbelief. At this point we are led by the words of Isaiah calling us to be the channels of God\u2019s care for us by the way we care and exercise concern for others as the \u201crent\u201d owed by the tenants: \u201cHe looked for justice and for righteousness.\u201d These are the fruits for which God looked in the vineyard of which Isaiah spoke. (Is. 5)<\/strong><\/p>\n

These are the fruits for which he looks when he calls for the rent in his vineyard today. These are not outdated words. They continue to call us to care for our neighbor in the forms that we call \u201clove.\u201d That is not a sentimentally emotional word about \u201cfeeling good\u201d toward our neighbor; about \u201cwishing the best for those who are suffering;\u201d about \u201cwarm feelings\u201d toward the needy. The \u201cfruits of the vineyard\u201d have to do with the way we live our lives daily in our homes, at our work, in our neighborhood, over against those whose lives have been torn apart and devastated by hurricanes and sicknesses and poverty and troubles of every sort. Perhaps James was thinking of this parable when he wrote, \u201cWhat good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, \u2018Go in peace; be warmed and filled,\u2019 without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.\u201d (James 2:14-17 ESV) <\/strong><\/p>\n

The master still owns the vineyard, you know. And we, the church of today, are the ones to whom the welfare of the vineyard has been passed on. We enjoy some of the profits from that vineyard in our daily life of eating and sleeping, in being clothed and in being cared for in more than abundant fashion. But the servants of the Lord keep coming, asking of us the recognition that God still owns the vineyard and that we are still only the people who have been temporarily entrusted with its care.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it is the Son himself who comes to ask of us that which the Father expects of those who care for his vineyard: justice for the needy and righteousness in our daily life. The Father\u2019s ownership of this vineyard called for a \u201charsh and dreadful love\u201d in reclaiming this usurped estate through his Son. He simply asks of us a glad and joyful return on his investment when the Son comes to claim the rental fruits of the vineyard. Those rental fruits will not be our feelings. He will be seeking the fruits of justice and righteousness, for that is what grows in the vineyard of him whom we call our Master.<\/p>\n

\n

Hubert Beck <\/strong>
\nhbeck@austin.rr.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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