{"id":22485,"date":"2025-04-01T14:56:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T12:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=22485"},"modified":"2025-04-01T14:56:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T12:56:19","slug":"luke-209-20-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/luke-209-20-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke 20:9-20"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 5th<\/sup> Sunday in Lent, 6-4-2025 | A Sermon on Luke 20:9-20 | by The Rev. Dr. Judson F Merrell, STS |<\/p>\n

9<\/sup><\/strong> He went on to tell the people this parable: „A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a010<\/sup> At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a011<\/sup> He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a012<\/sup> He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a013<\/sup> „Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‚What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.‘<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a014<\/sup> „But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‚This is the heir,‘ they said. ‚Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.‘<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a015<\/sup> So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. „What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a016<\/sup> He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.“ When the people heard this, they said, „God forbid!“<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a017<\/sup> Jesus looked directly at them and asked, „Then what is the meaning of that which is written: „‚The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone‘?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a018<\/sup> Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.“<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a019<\/sup> The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a020<\/sup> Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0New International Version\u00a0(NIV)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holy Bible, New International Version\u00ae, NIV\u00ae Copyright \u00a91973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by\u00a0Biblica, Inc.\u00ae\u00a0Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n

Today in our hearing we once again have a parable from our Lord Jesus.\u00a0 Last week our parable was the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and today we have the Parable of the Wicked Tenents.\u00a0 This is a parable that speak deeply to the history of God\u2019s people Israel.\u00a0 But it is also a parable that serves as a warning for us as we live in the post-resurrection world.\u00a0 With both, the history of Israel and the Spirit-led present, we can look at this parable and see how God was and continues to be active in the presence of his Son as Jesus relates to the then and now.<\/p>\n

Many of the early church fathers, including Cyril of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea, have pointed to this parable as an allegory for salvation history.\u00a0 They have pointed out how it is God the Father who plants the vineyard, the tenants are representative of Israel, who has been given choice land to take care of, the prophets are represented by the servants sent by vineyard owner, and the beloved Son is none other than Jesus.\u00a0 Luke using that title, \u201cbeloved son\u201d, makes us recall how God the Father spoke at both the baptism of Jesus and his transfiguration: \u201cThis is my Son, the beloved.\u201d\u00a0 Surely, after all the prophets have been ignored, the world will respect the beloved son.\u00a0 We know that not to be the case.<\/p>\n

We are so blessed in that we have the Word of God that not only points to the historical nature of God\u2019s people, but also to how God related to them.\u00a0 Time and time again God showed grace and mercy by sending a prophet.\u00a0 The call to repent exists far more than God invoking the curses of the covenant.\u00a0 You may remember a few weeks ago our first lesson from Ezekiel 18 reminded us that God doesn\u2019t desire the death of the wicked.\u00a0 Instead, God is pleased when they turn from their ways and follow him.\u00a0 This parable that Jesus told is a reminder to those that were seeking to kill him that Israel had been down this path before.\u00a0 God has sent prophets and they too were rejected and the outcome did not work out in Israel\u2019s favor.\u00a0 They were exiled into Assyria and Babylon.\u00a0 Even then though, God did not abandon them.\u00a0 He preserved a remnant of faithful people who returned to Jerusalem.\u00a0 They once again began living as a people faithful to the covenant.<\/p>\n

Recalling this history through this parable, Jesus then turns the parable to himself.\u00a0 He references Psalm 118:<\/p>\n

21<\/sup> I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. 22<\/sup> The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 23<\/sup> the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. (Psa 118:21-23 NIV)<\/p>\n

We could also make the argument that Jesus is referencing Isaiah 28:16:<\/p>\n

16<\/sup> So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: „See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. (Isa 28:16 NIV)<\/p>\n

What we lose in our English translation though is a play on the words \u201cson\u201d and \u201cstone\u201d.\u00a0 In Hebrew, the word for \u201cson\u201d is \u201cben\u201d and \u201cstone\u201d is \u201ceben\u201d.\u00a0 We lose that wordplay in English, but in the Hebrew and Aramaic that Jesus was speaking, those that heard him would have picked up on it.\u00a0 The \u201cSon\u201d is the \u201cStone\u201d and the Beloved Son is the Chief Cornerstone.\u00a0 He is the sure foundation, the visible work of God, and the foundation of salvation for the world.<\/p>\n

In this post-resurrection world this is our faith.\u00a0 We know the history, we give thanks for the mercy of God and the sending of his Son.\u00a0 As a people living under the covenant made with us in baptism, we live in the time between the death of the vineyard owner\u2019s son and the coming again in judgement of the Lord of the Vineyard. We have folks who still look for ways to persecute God and the church, but that is ok.\u00a0 There is a day of reckoning coming.\u00a0 The owner of the Vineyard will return and make things right.\u00a0 This is the day we long for, because we know it will be a day of great rejoicing at the power of our God.\u00a0 In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\u00a9The Rev. Dr. Judson F Merrell, STS<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 judsonmerrell@bellsouth.net<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 St. Peter\u2019s Lutheran Church<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Lexington, SC USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 5th Sunday in Lent, 6-4-2025 | A Sermon on Luke 20:9-20 | by The Rev. Dr. Judson F Merrell, STS | 9 He went on to tell the people this parable: „A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. \u00a010 At harvest time he sent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,157,853,108,110,235,869,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-22485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lukas","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-current","category-engl","category-judson-f-merrell","category-kapitel-20-chapter-20-lukas","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22488,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22485\/revisions\/22488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22485"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=22485"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=22485"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=22485"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=22485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}