Exploration
Have you ever entrusted a piece of property to another person only to have them use it to their own advantage or worse yet, even destroy it? Maybe it was a car, or a piece of computer equipment or an article of clothing. Perhaps it was a piece of property or a house. That is the nature of the parable Jesus taught his last week before his crucifixion.
Judy and I have been absentee landlords for her mothers house in Denver. I thought about that fact as I read this parable. When her father died and we moved her mom here, we had lots of work done on the house to make it a more attractive rental and then we rented to seminary students as renters there. But what if there had been people who not only didn't want to pay the rent, they also wanted to take over the property as their own.
Fortunately, we have really nice renters there. The couple upstairs is in seminary and the two women in the other units are both nice sweet Christian women.
This parable is a difficult one. It makes us squirm a little in our seats when we read it and have it explained. At first glance it would appear that if the landowner in the parable represents God, then it portrays a God who is rather severe with those who reject the servants he sends to collect the fruit from the vineyard . In fact many of the commentaries call this the parable of the cruel vinedresser. We don't like to hear about wretched sinners and the wretched end to which they come. We would much prefer a happy ending.
Just what is Jesus driving at here by teaching this parable? Was his primary focus on a severe and judging God. Or was he pointing to a God who lovingly desired to provide for and save those called his own.
First we must look at who he is speaking to here. In the context we see that Jesus has finally arrived in Jerusalem for Passover week. He has entered triumphantly to the praise of the vast throngs of people. Wasting little time, he goes to the temple where he casts out the money changers and then goes on to heal the lame and the blind. For this he is questioned by the chief priests and the teachers of the law (Pharisees).
They want to know from where he has gotten this authority. "What are his credentials. Just who does he think he is?"
In answer to that question, Jesus teaches two parables. Both are intended to serve as mirrors for those self righteous and so called religious leaders. Bruner calls them the senior ministers and the serious ones.
The parable begins and ends with the loving provision by the landowner.
Of this passage Lloyd Ogilvie says that God's love knows no limits. First we see the loving care of someone who really wants to develop a plotof land properly. Even though he knows he is going away, he lovingly plants the vines. Cultivates the soil, builds a watchtower to protect it from marauding theives and vandals. He wants those who tend this vineyarrd to experience success and prosperity. He provides all the necessary things to make it so.
Yes, as owner, God wants and deserves the share of the fruit and so sends a messenger. But even in that there is a patient love evident. When he hears that the servant has been killed, he sends another, larger group of servants. But notice! It is not an army or the police. These are servants; messengers; bringing word of the owner and delivering back to him the rightful share of the fruit.
It is a picture of a gracious and patiently loving landowner, not a tyrant. He wants to give the tenants every opportunity to comply with the agreed upon conditions of the lease. Yes, they have done the work, brought in the crop, even made some improvements. But the land is not theirs and they owe the owner his cut and they know it. They agreed to it. It was an agreement probably settled on a word and a handshake. But they knew it.
They not only commit murder, they do so hoping to cover up their own selfishness and greed.
Finally, the landowner sends his own son...the rightful heir whose vineyard it will one day be. The owner thinks that surely the tenants will have enough decency and honor to listen to and receive the son but they are even more infuriated by this. They think that if they kill the rightful heir, the land will then revert to them. The law of squatter's rights will be in effect. So they take him outside the vineyard wall and kill him.
The sending of the son though is another sign of patience and love on the part of the landowner.
Represented by the resistance of the tenant farmers to give a portion of their earnings to the owner of the land even though it had been previously agreed upon.
Seeing only the possibility that if all rightful heirs to the land were dead it might become theirs by virtue of squatters rights, they kill all those who are sent. This reflects the degree of their sinful rebelliousness. They didn't just lock them up or beat them and send them back with a message. They went all the way and they killed the servants and the son.
So intent on their own wants and desires were they, they lost all sense of propriety and honor and became nothing more than animals.
We are reminded of Joseph and his brothers. They sold him out to line their own pockets. Betrayal and murder are really only symptoms of a deeper problem and that is the problem of selfish rebellion and greed. Perhaps the best word to describe it is sin.
We have referrred to the son already. But it is important to notice that he seems to take center stage in the story. It becomes the bullseye in the center of a target. When the farmers kill the son, it is the last straw. All the previous parts of the story lead up to the coming of the son and all the subsequent parts issue from the killing of the son.
It is the fulcrum upon which the love and the justice of God is balanced. Remember, the landowner could live with the fact that his servants were killed. That was bad and it warranted a response. But in love and patience the owner decidees not to retaliate for that. He is slow to anger. The reponse is to send a part of himself as it were. Not just an emissarry but his own son.
Be sure not to miss the truth of this parable here. Jesus is pointing to the centrality of his role in God's plan and he is also clearly teaching that he is God's only son and rightful heir.
The center of the Gospel is Jesus Christ. Christ must also be the center of the Gospel that we preach.
When his own son is murdered, he finally takes action and casts the tenants from the land and he says a wretched end will come to those wretched people. F. Dale Bruner in his commentary translates it thus. He will utterly destroy those vicious men. The picture is of swift and sure retribution.
There is no question. This is hard stuff. The owner didn't want to have to take these steps but it was not to his blame. Wouldn't we agree the tenenats brought this on themselves. Is not God's judgement justified.
This, of course then has reference to the spreading of the Gospel to the gentile and their inclusion as the people of God. Peter, the Apostle who had perhaps the most difficult time accepting this says once yuo were not a people but now you are God's people.
Their actions have been selfish, arrogant and rebellious. In essence they have rejected every messenger that Gof has sent to them and have killed a great many of them.
But now, Jesus the Son of God is even more keenly aware of their rebellion and rejection for he sees the cross that awaits him outside the city wall.
In quoting the Psalms he is giving as clear a statement as to his identity as there is in the Gospels. He is saying that he is the capstone of the temple or Israels religion. But is also the building stone that the builders have rejected. Bruner has another great translation here. The senior ministers and the serious ones. In essence they have sought to establish their religion on their own terms and have thrown away the one true capstone. Eventually it will cause them to trip and fall and hurt themselves.
But there are others who will receive it gratefully for it is indeed good news. Imagine, being granted a vineyard, a proftitable piece of ground. The only price you have to pay is to give a part of the crop to the owner when he returns.
The new tenants are seen to be the people of faith in Jesus - namely the church. The church is charged with the same responsibility as the nation of Israel. The church is to give the master of the vineyard a portion of the fruit from that crop for it rightfully is his.
It is important to make sure that we do not interpret this text anti-semitically. Historically, great abuses have been wreaked upon the Jews for it was thought that they were Christ killers. The truth is that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. You and I are as responsible as anyone else for Christ going to the cross. REmember that when you take the sacrament today.
And the even sadder truth is that we are no different than Israel in that we rebelliously defy the master and rejest the messenger he sent. We fail to recognize his loving provision of the vineyard and his lordship over it.
Lloyd Olgivie says that this text takes on an esxistential intensity that few others do. For just as Jesus taught this parable to the religious leaders of his day as a frightening introduction to themselves, so we read it again and again and it is a frightening introduction to who we are. Wretched sinners awaiting a wretched end if it were not for God's amazing grace.
Suddenly we begin to see that the vineyard is actually the life that God has granted to us and for which we are responsible. At some point we began to act as though the vineyard were ours and that we hold clear title to it when in reality we are merely tenants taking care of it for God until he returns.
We feel that somehow our tireless effort, our keen insights, our sharp intellect and our good looks have ammassed a great crop. No one else can take credit for it and no one else gets a piece of it. Life plans, future, loved ones, family, image, career, church accomplishments and trophies
Be careful not to say, "See this is the result of my work My hand has gotten me this"
The father who loses his son because he somehow felt he could control him and make him accomplish what he had not been able to do in life. He pushes, controls and manipulates untill once the son is finally grown, he doesn't want anything to do with his father
The investment broker who selfishly hordes his money, thinking it is completely in his control but loses it all because he is unwilling to divest any of it.
What are the vineyards of your life.
I need to be very frank here. There are many today, even some in this room who have rejected the landowners own son. Thinking that they have claim to their own life they ignore or even reject Jesus as being only for weak and emotionally disabled codependants.
Jesus is God's ultimate sign of love for you. But Jesus is also the ultimate claim upon your life as well.
But I would say that there is another layer here as well. It seems to me that this is a stewardship text. It reminds us that all that we have has been lent to us to take carae of and to use for our well being. But we dare not forget that the fruit of it all belongs not to us but to the one who made uis
We have heard many patient loving pleas to respond and give God what is due. How many messengers have been sent to remind us that God asks for the first fruits of our labor as his own before anything else.
In love he sent his son to carry this message in person and in example. But there is a more serious note to that in that the son claims lordship. He is the heir. The allegiance is owed to him. To ignore that claim is to reject him.
To withold the fruit of yuor crop from God is in essence to selfishly and defiantly reject the rightful claim of the son over your life.
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| Pastor Fred D. Davis: | 2025 North Valley Drive |
| Revdavis@aol.com | P.O. Box 2042 | |
| Fred_Davis.parti@presby.org | Las Cruces, NM 88004-2042 | |
| (505) 526-4907 | Fax:(505) 526-8276 |