17th Sunday after Pentecost, 10/05/2014

Sermon on Matthew 21:33-46, by Pari R. Bailey

Matthew 21: 33-46, NRSV

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. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

This is a strange story that Jesus tells in today's Gospel lesson. Ridiculous, even. What businessman would protect his investment in such a crazy way? What renters would act as these tenants did? But of course, as with all the parables of Jesus, things aren't as they first seem. Instead, there are many levels of meaning here.

The first thing we know is that Jesus is talking about the Pharisees and the chief priests. He has just ridden into Jerusalem in triumph on a donkey, and he has come straight to the Temple to confront the religious leaders. They are the ones who have refused to listen to the messengers sent by God--the prophets--and think instead to take the inheritance for themselves. The Pharisees say they do the will of God, but they don't. They are supposed to look out for all of Israel, but they don't. They also are the ones who will seize God's Son Jesus just a few days after this parable is told, and put him to death on the cross. So we can look at this parable as a story about how God will take the kingdom of Israel, and by extension, his heavenly kingdom, away from the hard-hearted religious leaders and give it to those who listen to Jesus, and produce the fruits of righteousness and peace.

But what else is going on here? Is this only about a religious and political struggle two thousand years old? Hasn't God also given his heavenly vineyard to us? Hasn't God given us promises in our Baptisms and made us heirs of his kingdom?

If Jesus had come to us today, we might kid ourselves and think that we would have recognized him for what he was--the Lord's Son--and honor him, but I'm sure we would have done the very thing they did 2000 years ago--kill him. Kill him because he was different, not religious in the right way, a wacko, dangerous. He didn't fit in, and he said uncomfortable things about good religious people just like us. He hung out with the wrong kind of people. He wasn't respectful enough to the way things are supposed to be done. He made demands on people that they didn't want to hear.

Jesus means for this parable to be heard as a condemnation of people not only in a specific place or time (like the religious leaders of 2000 years ago), but of all of us who reject the Chief Cornerstone, who refuse to acknowledge who's really in charge of our lives, who refuse to build on the rock that is Christ. This story is about all of us who refuse to acknowledge that the Lord is the owner of all we have, the master of all that we are.

But there's more. This story is often called "The Parable of the Wicked Tenants." It would better to call it "The Parable Of the Long-Suffering God." In the parable, the owner keeps sending people. He keeps on trying to get through to the bad tenants. He keeps trying to reach them, finally sending his son. It's the same with God--that's the good news in this harsh and strange story. God does not give up on us--he keeps trying to reach us, even when we don't listen, when we ignore his messengers or assault them. God keeps on after us. God sent the prophets and all the law to his people, but finally sent Jesus, who was rejected and killed by the very people he was sent to save! And through this rejection, he became the most important thing in the whole world. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone!

God sent Jesus, knowing that he would die, and that by his death on the cross he would rescue us from sin and death and the power of the Devil. Jesus, who was rejected and condemned--the Lord's own Son!--met anger with kindness, violence with love, death with life.

We have a God who did not spare his only Son, sending him even to death, so that he could get through to us. He did not give up, even when we were ugly and violent and sinful. Instead, God sought us out, meeting our anger with peace and our sin with love. Because of that lavish love for us, we are able to produce the fruits of righteousness. We are able, as Paul says, to press on toward the goal of the heavenly call of God. We are able to share in the resurrection of the dead because we have been baptized into the death of Christ, even as these two boys are baptized today.

And there's even more. God has lavished his Son on us, he has sought us even when we rejected him, he has given his Son to die for us, he has baptized us into his life and marked us with his name, and he expects that we will produce good fruit. Not through our own works-remember Paul saying all the good things he has done he regards as rubbish because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ. No, not by ourselves do we meet God's expectations, but instead through Christ who strengthens us. We bear good fruit because we are planted in the Lord's fields. Because we are the branches connected to his vine. Because we have the faith that he has given us. Because Jesus died for us.

Let your light so shine before others, we say as we present the candle at Baptism, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. From the day of our Baptism onward, God calls us-keeps after us-to move beyond ourselves and our preoccupation with our lives and our stuff, to see others with the compassionate eyes of the God who planted the vineyard and will not let it go to ruin. To bear fruit-fruit that has the name of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, generosity, faithfulness and self-control. The fruits of the Spirit. In this way, are our priorities reordered. In this way are we given new hearts. In this way, do we become the faithful servants and tenants waiting eagerly for the return of the Lord, pressing on toward the goal of eternal life, ready with the overflowing harvest of righteousness. Amen.

The Reverend Pari R. Bailey
Belview, Minnesota
E-Mail: revsbailey@redred.com

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