October 2, 2011
Matthew 21:33-46
2000 years ago Jesus told the Parable of the Tenants. To help us understand what it means for us today, we need to study the gthere and then for the here and now.h So, today I want to look at this parable four times, or in four steps. 1 to understand the story as a simple story, looking at the background and customs and history: 2 to understand the first meaning when Jesus first told it to the first audience; 3 to understand the meaning for the church; and then 4 to understand the meaning for the individual Christian today, the meaning for you and me.
1 gThere was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.h The landowner made a big investment in the vineyard. It would cost a lot of money to plant it, protect it with a wall and watchtower, and equip it with a winepress. The tenants were probably a sort of sharecroppers who made an agreement with the landowner. But they were greedy and tried to take advantage of the absentee landlord. Their greed leads to ruthless treatment and murder of both the servants and the landlordfs son. When the son came, they plotted together and gsaid to each other, eThis is the heir. Come, letfs kill him and take his inheritance.f So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.h Throwing the son out of the vineyard was a symbolic act to say that the son had no authority in the vineyard over them. And so what will the landowner do now? gHe will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.h
2 Jesus told this parable in Jerusalem a few days before his death. The chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesusf parables and they knew he was talking about them. They tried to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held Jesus to be a prophet sent from God. Everyone clearly understood that the landowner was God and then tenants were the Jews, especially the religious leaders, the priest and Pharisees. In the Old Testament, the vineyard is the country of Israel. God made a big investment in Israel. The wall and watchtower show that God protected the country from enemies. The winepress was the way to produce the results of Godfs love and protection. The fruit hat God wanted from Israel was love, worship, keeping the Law, and keeping true faith. In the history of Israel, God had sent many prophets and leaders to remind the people to believe in the Lord God and to live according to his Law. A good example is todayfs Old Testament lesson, Isaiah Chapter 5. Sometimes the prophets were respected and the people did change their lives. A good example is the result of the preaching of Ezra and Nehemiah and the reforms after the Exile. But other prophets were humiliated and beaten. Once Jeremiah was put into an underground dungeon (37:16) and another time was lowered into a cistern where he sunk down into the mud (38:1). In 2Chronicles 24:21 we are told how the prophet Zechariah was stoned and killed in the temple itself when he spoke out against idol worship and called on the people to repent. As a result of the sin of Israel, God sent foreign armies, the Syrians the Babylonians, and others, to destroy Israel. When Israel repented, God again blessed his beloved people and set up new leaders that believed in Him. But the pattern had gone on and on for over 1000 years, so God sent His Son, Jesus, to speak out against the abuse and sin of Israel. Jesus called on the people to repent and produce good fruit in their lives, and give that produce as worship and service to God and neighbor. Jesus wanted the people to live according to the Sermon on the Mount and the Lordfs Prayer. But when the chief priest and Pharisees rejected Jesus, they were rejecting the Lord God who had sent Him. They showed that they did not accept Jesusf authority, they showed that they wanted to control things by themselves. They killed Jesus by crucifying him on the hill of Golgotha which was outside the city wall. The parable of Jesus became prophecy, because after rejecting the Son of God, God took way the vineyard from the Jews and gave it to the Christians, even to the Gentile Christians who believed, worshiped, and gave the fruit of their lives to God and to His Glory.
3 The church has become the new tenants of the vineyard, but his parable becomes a warning to the church. The Lord has made a big investment in the church, giving it His Word, the Sacraments, and the Holy Spirit. God sent his servants, pastors, Sunday school teachers, reformers, and the like, to remind the church to give Him the produce of the vineyard. God wants to see the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal.5:22). He wants to see evangelism, he wants to see love. The church must always be careful not to throw Jesus out of the vineyard and kill him again. This happens when the cross and forgiveness of Jesus is not proclaimed or when some teaching or practice is emphasized to the degree that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is not deemed as necessary. This has happened in the history of the church. Before the time of the Protestant Reformation, people were taught that with money you could buy forgiveness and freedom from purgatory. If you could buy it, then Jesus did not need to die on the cross. Sometimes people try to live good lives in order to earn salvation. Sometimes the glory of the Holy Spirit is emphasized so much that the shame and suffering of the cross of Jesus is forgotten. But Jesus warns the church that new leaders will be put in. For another example, the present decadence of the church in Europe and America has been balanced with the growth of Christianity in Africa. The Reformation of the 16th Century is a reminder today that God wants to reform the church of the 21st Century so that it will give the produce of love, justice, and true worship.
4 Finally, there is the meaning of this parable for the individual Christian, you and me. We are tenants in the vineyard and God calls on us to give him the fruit of the harvest. He has invested in our lives. He has given us his Word, his Sacraments, and the Holy Spirit. He has given us talents and skills to use in the world for the benefit of the Kingdom of God for the benefit of our neighbor. God wants us to live lives that produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit and give glory to the Lord, as we love our neighbor. God sends people into our lives to remind us of this duty toward God and these people also help us, enable us to do so. These people are pastors, the congregation, teachers, parents, friends, maybe even people we meet in books, on television or on the internet. Because when people are speaking the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is there to give faith. But when we are selfish and greedy to control our own lives, when we want to live without being bothered in our conscience by God, when we do not think we need Jesus, then in our hearts we are throwing Jesus out of our lives and trying to kill him again.
But the Good News of the Gospel is that God sent his Son into this world in order to create faith and faithfulness. When human messengers were not able to convert sinful human hearts, God sent Jesus. He was rejected by people, but he did not reject us. Jesus took upon himself our sin and forgave it. Then in his resurrection he gave to God what we could not give God. He gave the harvest of his death and resurrection. He gave peace. He gave forgiveness. He gave love. This is the Gospel: that although it is impossible for us to give completely what we owe to God, through Jesus Christ, God gives to us the fruit of Christfs death and resurrection: he gives us eternal life and salvation. And since God has given this to us, now we are able to give God our praise, prayer, and our lives of service as we produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church