I suppose the simplest way to describe my sermon this week is that I will mostly be focusing on a part of Matthew’s Gospel today, though you might notice a bit of all four readings included. I am also of the opinion that maybe this should be a set of readings for Epiphany rather than the Season after Pentecost. So many commentators that I read talked about the passage directing us to manifest fruit worthy of the Kingdom of God, which is certainly one of the lessons from Matthew today, that I was convinced the reading might need to be moved. Good. Some of us are awake and caught the wordplay.
Our lectionary editors did a great job putting these readings together. The Isaiah 5 passage serves as the background illustration of both Psalm 80 and our passage of Matthew. The vineyard planted by God in Isaiah spares no expense and gives the vineyard everything necessary to bear good fruit. The best vines are planted, the plot is cleared of stones, a wall around the plot protects the vineyard from larger beasts and people from passing through the plot and damaging the vines or eating the fruit, a winevat is hewed in the center for convenience, and a watch-tower is built to provide security. God asks the rhetorical question “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?” And, yet, the vineyard is yielding wild grapes rather than grapes.
Isaiah, in case you have forgotten quickly this summer as we have considered the prophetic readings for Year A, served God during the 700’s BC. Isaiah famously encouraged King Hezekiah to resist the Assyrians when they reached Jerusalem. By that point, Assyria had carried the northern kingdom off into Exile. The king of Assyria did not like King Hezekiah’s fortitude in the face of an overwhelming army and predictably threatened the king of Judah. Isaiah’s encouragement to resist is proved right as the angel is sent against the encamped Assyrians and destroys them, pretty much ending Assyria’s threat against all its enemies and ensuring that Babylon will easily conquer it. Good, I see some nods.
Part of Isaiah’s ministry is to exhort the southern kingdom to keep the Covenant with God. They do not want to be carried off into Exile like their northern brothers and sisters. God, of course, knows that the southern kingdom will not heed the lesson of the northern kingdom. Some in Jerusalem will interpret the defeat of Assyria as God being forced to defend His Temple to ensure His strength in the heavenly spheres, much as their neighbors understood such things. Isaiah reminds them that if they reject God, if they fail to produce good fruit to use today’s image, God will remove the hedge of protection, and allow others to destroy the vineyard. Because we are Adventers and read other passages during our patronal season, we know that Isaiah tells Israel that at some point in the future, after they have experienced the carrying off and destruction, God will restore them.
All that is background to Matthew’s passage today. Everyone, but especially the priests and other leaders, would have known the vineyard story as their own. When Jesus tells the parable, they would have heard the prophesy of Isaiah. Keep in mind that prophesy was from the early part of Isaiah’s book. One did not have to read sixty chapters to hear it!
The arrangement Jesus describes is rather normal, except for the fact that the landowner spares no expense building the vineyard. People would have expected the landowner to cut corners where possible to save on cost, much as we expect landlords to do the same today. What happens next would seem as nuts to the original audience as it does to us. The landowner sends slaves to begin collecting the rent. The renters respond by beating one of the slaves, killing another, and stoning yet another. The landlord responds, generously I might add unless you are a slave, by sending more slaves to collect the rents. Jesus says they were treated in the same way. Finally the landowner decides to send his son, assuming they will respect the son.
At this point, Jesus gives the motivation of the renters. They plot to kill the son, because he is the heir, thinking they will get his inheritance. So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. I assume Matthew intends that little detail as a bit of foreshadowing of what happens to Jesus. What will the leadership do with Jesus when the time comes? Yes, try Him and kill Him. But where? Right, Golgotha. Which is where? Inside Jerusalem or outside? Good! We are thinking today. Some in the Church have taught this is both a parable and a prophesy because of that added detail. Plus, who plots to do all that? You got it! The priests and other leadership of Israel.
Now, I want to stop and remind us of an important detail. When this passage is preached, it is often interpreted as judgement on Israel. Specifically, in Christian circles, it is often interpreted as God giving up on Israel and transferring His efforts to the Church. First thing I want to remind us, since we just read it last week, what is God’s character? Does He constantly search and reach for those whom He created, or does He love zapping them? Right. He takes no delight in the death of anyone, as we read last week. Second, who is Jesus in God’s covenant with Abraham? I guess that was a toughie. He is the seed of Abraham’s faith in God. God promises Abraham way back in Genesis 12 that salvation will come through his descendant, that God’s purpose in making a people out of Sarah and Abraham is to create a nation of priests whose calling it is to draw the nations into a right relationship with Him. Good, I see nods of reflection. That means Jesus is the Jew or the Seed or the Messiah, to use capital letters signifying His unique role. To teach that God has divorced Israel, not the country but the people, is simply wrong. Over and over and over again, God renews and redeems His people, just as He over and over and over again renews and redeems His Church. If you have friends or family who heard in church this week that God has abandoned His people, you might want to push back gently. God never gives up on us, even when we give up on Him. And it is His desire that everyone turn to Him.
Plus, there’s that pesky reminder about our role in eschatological judgement. What is our role in deciding the eternal state of another’s body and soul? That’s right! Never! Jesus instructs us that it is His job to judge, that when He comes again He will judge. Yes, the angels apparently get to gather humanity before Him, but He is the Judge. He is the only one whose judgment matters. But that seems just since, you know, He is the One who died on the Cross in accordance with the Will of the Father, right?
Our job in salvation history is to draw others into the loving embrace of our Father in Heaven. You and I are called to live as a redeemed people, a people tasked with representing the character of God in the world around us. That’s it. We are like Jonah. We do not get to decide who is worthy of God’s love and who is not. We serve them all in His Name, trusting that He gives meaning to our thankful service.
Back to our parable. After everyone responds that the wretches will be put to a miserable death for killing the son, Jesus asks the question about the cornerstone. He asks if they have read in the Scriptures, Psalm 118 specifically, about the cornerstone. Understand that in antiquity, cornerstones served at least three purposes. One, and perhaps most important, they helped to make sure the building was using right angles both for the horizontal exterior wall of the building and for its vertical. If the cornerstone was cut correctly, builders could use rope or wood or any number of materials to make sure that the building was constructed properly and not given to falling over. Another purpose was for history. Has everyone noticed our cornerstone and what is on it, even though it was not the cornerstone laid for the foundation of this building? That’s right! Dates. Each date that we began constructing one of our locations is carved into the stone. It reminds us of our history, that we have survived two moves. That tells professional Christians something, too. Few churches survive more than one move. The third purpose was cosmological. I suppose some of us would say it was astrological, but some builders would claim it was astronomical. When building sites were chosen in the ANE, there was a belief that they needed to mirror what was happening in the heavens. We often accept that pyramids and ziggurats and stonehenge and other big monuments were constructed in accordance with the heavens, but we need to understand that arguments over where to put buildings followed that same understanding.
Now, when Jesus calls Himself the Cornerstone, what is He saying? It is really the same thing, right? He is the focus of Salvation History. Our temples, our hearts, are being built based on His teachings and His pattern of living. Remember, Jesus is not only concerned about our eternal destination but also with how we represent the will of the Father who sent Him. We can parrot actual theology all we want, but if we do not live it, we are white washed tombs. When our theology forgets its Cornerstone, we know we have erred and need to knock it down to where our theology was accurate and proper.
Jesus also tells us the history of God’s love for all of us. Way back in Eden, God promised Adam and Eve that He would draw them back to that intimate relationship He intended in creating them. Yes, life will be hard because of their sin, but He will restore them. Everything in Scripture points to Jesus. The prophets announce His coming. The Psalms announce His coming. The histories often point to our need of His Coming. And all of that reminds us that God promises to dwell with us forever. Heck, we all know Isaiah’s famous prophesy of Immanuel, right? And of course, Salvation History is God’s doing. No matter what goes on in the world, God’s purposes in heaven is to draw His people back into that intimate relationship He intended in the beginning.
Then comes the word of judgement from Jesus’ mouth. The one who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls. Yes, Jesus warns the chief priests and Pharisees that the kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to a people who produce the fruit of the kingdom. But Jesus knows the heart, the will, of those with whom He is speaking. They have ignored whichever miracle they thought would be The Sign of Messiah. Healing on a sabbath? Casting out demons? Causing the lame to walk? Curing lepers? Feeding 5000 men besides women and children? Like us, they had their favorite miracles. And Jesus does those miracles as a sign of His identity. Like John the Baptizer, they are expected to understand all the signs and discern who Jesus is by virtue of them. But they reject the signs and the One who does them. In fact, we would say they are the wicked tenants in the parable.
But notice, does Jesus call them the wicked tenants? Who discerns the parable is about them? We would say that the chief priests and Pharisees discern their role in the parable through their own wrestling faith with God. They recognize the signs; they know the people regard Him as a prophet; and they refuse Him of their own free will. In fact, despite all this, they conspire to put Him to death, just like the foolish tenants in Jesus’ parable, reminding us of Jesus’ identity to us yet again..
Had they considered the signs and understood the parable, what should have been their response? That’s right, repentance. Had they repented, what would have been the result? That’s right! Forgiveness. And to carry it a bit farther, what would have been the fruit of their repentance? That’s right, the fruit of the Kingdom of God. Or, to be more accurate, either that or the need to repent again. Sound familiar?
I realized my sermon needed to be both an instruction against the confident declaration that God has divorced His people and a reminder of our work in light of His teaching. You and I encounter people at the gym, at work, at parties, and who knows where else that such is the lesson they are given with respect to the parable. But this parable is just one parable in a string of parables and teachings by Jesus. Consistently, Jesus warns us to give up our selfish ways and death and turn to God and live. And the living He promises is not subsistence; it is abundant living. Again and again He lives the life that God called Him and us to live. And when the time comes, He suffers the betrayal by His friends, the mocking of those whom He came to save, and the death He did not deserve. Time and time again He instructs us that, while we sojourn in this place, we are to pick up our own crosses and follow Him, that the cross is the path to that abundant life offered by God. More challengingly, He teaches us that some will work the whole day, some will work part of the day, and some will work very little. But it is ever His purpose that all should be drawn into His saving embrace, that we are no different than those who turn to Him on their death bed. And with all of the instruction, and fortified by His Body & Blood, we are sent back out into a world that needs to learn that selfishness leads to death and that life built on the Cornerstone leads to abundant living and, eventually, eternal presence with God.
In His Peace,
Brian+
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