6 October 2002 St. Athanasius Lutheran Church
Pentecost 20 Alexandria, VA
Jesu Juva
“The Folly of Sin and Grace”
Text: Matthew 21:33-43 (Isaiah 5; Philippians 3)
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. Amen.
The Parable of
the Tenants in the Vineyard that we heard as the Holy Gospel this evening is a
parable that is both easy to understand and hard to understand. On the one hand, it’s a pretty easy story to
grasp. A man with a really nice vineyard
was going on a journey, apparently for some time, and needed people to take
care of his vineyard for him while he was gone.
So he hired some tenant farmers, which was not an unusual arrangement,
and as the owner he would get a certain percentage of the fruit as rent, and
the workers would keep the rest as their pay.
It really was a win-win situation.
But somewhere along the line the workers got other ideas and wanted it all. And the problems began.
Now that’s the
easy part of understanding this parable; the hard part is trying to figure out why
everyone did what they did! As far as
the tenant farmers are concerned, talk about “Biting the hand that feeds
you!” Did they really think they
were going to get away with it? Did they
really think that by killing the son they were somehow going to become the
inheritors? The man was still alive and
so nobody was going to inherit anything yet, and even if he wasn’t, what made
them think they would get it? And so
they take a good situation – good work in a good vineyard with a good return –
and mess it up completely. It’s hard to
understand what they were thinking.
But then there’s
the owner of the vineyard too. What was
he thinking? For, as expected, he sends
some of his servants at harvest time to collect his share of the fruit as
rent. But they got more than they
bargained for! “The tenants took
his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.” Now after something like that, who in their
right mind would send more servants to these ungrateful wretches? Well . . . the owner does, and the same thing
happens again! Now, you think it’d be
time for the owner to go in and “kick some . . .” . . . well, you know! For he’s not only losing his rent and control
of his vineyard, but he’s lost a bunch of good servants! . . .
But what does he do? He sends his
son! “They will respect my son,”
he thinks. But I don’t know why he
thinks that! And sure enough, they
don’t. . . . It’s hard to understand what this owner was
thinking.
But perhaps this
“hard to understand” stuff is part of the point of this parable. That sin doesn’t make sense, and that the
grace, mercy, patience, and perseverance of God also doesn’t
make sense. Or, if you
will, the “folly” of sin and grace.
For consider
sin. The sin that we see around us in
the world, the sin that we do, and the sin that is in us. Why do we do what we do? Why do we sometimes do what we know is
wrong? Why do we “bite the hands that feeds us?”
Because that’s really what we’re doing, isn’t it? Taking what God has given us and trying to
keep it for ourselves? Taking good
things from God and using them for sin, for evil? Thinking that what I have – “my body and
soul and all things” – is mine, and so I can do with it whatever I
want? Isn’t that the attitude of our
world today, that has even infected us? . . .
It doesn’t make sense, does it?
We heard in the Old Testament reading from Isaiah what a wonderful
vineyard, a wonderful creation, what wonderful blessings God has given us and
showered upon us. And yet the sad
lament, right in the middle of those verses:
“What more was there to do for my vineyard, that
I have not done in it? When I looked for
it to yield good grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?” It just doesn’t make sense.
Oh, we think it
does! We think it makes perfect
sense – that’s why we do it! But it is
the twisted words and lies and empty promises of Satan that we’re listening to,
that we’re following, that make it seem to make sense in our minds. But when we do that, do you see? We’re listening to the one who hasn’t given
us anything instead of the One who has given us everything! And that’s what doesn’t make
sense. . . . Why do we think the wisdom of the world is so
wise? How many people don’t know what
God has said in His Word, but sure do know what Oprah and Dr. Phil said last
week! . . . Why do we think this vineyard is ours and we
can do whatever we want with it?
But now consider
God’s response to all of this. His response of such grace and mercy and patience and perseverance. To His people in Old Testament times, He sent
His prophets. And not
just one or two, but many. Over and over and over again. And you know the names: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Elijah, Elisha,
Hosea, Joel, and more. And what happened
to them? They were beaten, killed, and
stoned. And the last Old Testament
prophet, John the Baptist, he was beheaded.
But still God did not give up. .
. . We would have! We would have tossed such ingrates long
before that! Why God puts up with so
much sin and rebellion, really doesn’t make sense does it? Maybe that’s why so many people “can’t” come
back to church . . . thinking that they’re unworthy and have used up God’s
patience. . . . But no, that’s not the case, because there’s
one more step that God is willing to take, and that is to send His Son.
Now didn’t the
owner of the vineyard know what was going to happen? Did He really think they wouldn’t kill His
Son after killing all the servants who came before Him? . . . “ ‘When therefore 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
that indeed is what those wretches deserve, isn’t it? That is indeed what all of us wretches
gathered here today deserve too, isn’t it?
For we are accomplices in this murder, aren’t we? We even admitted it earlier, “We justly
deserve your present and eternal punishment.”
But here is
where this parable takes an unusual turn, a Gospel turn. For there is a prophetic statement in this
parable, that when it was said was meant one way, but which God then turns on
its head, and makes it come true in a wholly different way. For example, when during Jesus’ trial
Caiaphas said, “It is better that one man die for the people than that
the whole nation perish.” That was prophetic – even though Caiaphas
meant it one way, and God made it come true another way. And so also here. When the tenant farmers “saw the son,
they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ ”
And while they meant that one way, God made it
come true another way. For it is indeed
through the death of the Son that God sent, Jesus Christ, that we wretched and
rebellious sinners become the heirs, the inheritors of the Kingdom of
God and eternal life. But not because it
was our sinful plan, but because it was God’s plan. “The stone the builders rejected has
become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s
doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”
And we see once
again that God can use the evil that we do, that is in our hearts, that really
doesn’t make sense, and turn it around and use it for His own good. A demonstration that He is indeed the
Almighty One. A demonstration of His
love, because God wants us to have the vineyard! He wants us to live in His wonderful
creation, with His wonderful blessings, and ultimately to live in Heaven with
Him forever. He doesn’t want to take
that away, even from us who are sinful and rebellious. . . .
I think sometimes we forget that, thinking that Heaven is a place that we
want to be and forgetting that God wants us there with Him too. So much so that He did the unthinkable, and
sent His Son to us wretches, knowing what would happen. Knowing that His Son would die. But so that in the death and resurrection of
His Son, we too might become sons, leaving behind our subversive and sinful
ways and living a new life, no longer as tenants, but as children, members of
the royal family.
And so we have
become the heirs after all, and the Kingdom of God has been given to us. Given to us here as we hear the Word of God,
the family story, and we become a part of that story. Given to us here as we are born again and
adopted into the family in Holy Baptism.
Given to us here as we have a seat at the Table, eating and drinking the
holy food, the holy body and blood of the Son who came and died for us. . . .
And established in our place in God’s family, we produce the fruit that
God is looking for; the fruit that He
desires most of all. The fruit of
repentance. For that is indeed what
the prophets continually came looking for and proclaiming to the people. God’s not really interested in your money, or
your things, or that you do without – no, He wants you to enjoy what He has
given to you. What He wants is you. And that is indeed what repentance is all
about. Repentance is not just saying
your sorry for what you did so you can get away with it – it is returning to
God. It is returning to our place in the
family, for when we sin we are not acting as sons, but as rebellious tenants.
Now, if we want
to be just tenants, if we want to live and act as if all that we have in this
world and life – my body and soul and all things – is mine and I can do
whatever I want, we can do that! And
many do. As we heard in the Epistle
earlier, “For many . . . walk as the enemies of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their
belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” But if you want to be a tenant, know that you
will receive the tenants reward: “Therefore
I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you . . .”
But that is not
who you are! Because in Christ
you have been changed. In Christ, you
have been made a son, a child of God, and an heir. In Christ, “your citizenship is in
Heaven.” In Christ, the Kingdom
of God has been given to you, and you, in turn, produce its fruit. The fruit of repentance. The fruit of faith. The fruit of lips that confess His Name. . . .
But that’s not the end of the story, for the story goes on. For now it is in you, that God is still
sending His Son into the vineyard, as Christ lives in you and you go and live
your life in the world. And perhaps for
that you also will be rejected, beaten, killed, stoned. And when that happens, we sometimes think, “Didn’t
God know that would happen?” . .
. Oh, He knew. Just as with His only-begotten Son, God sends
you, places you, uses you, knowing what will happen. And we know that even if evil should befall
us, that God can use evil for good, and that even should we die at the hands of
tenants, that what awaits us is resurrection and life, and our inheritance in
Heaven.
And knowing
that, we have freedom. Knowing that, we
have confidence and boldness. And
knowing that, we can identify with St. Paul, who wrote in our Epistle: “Not that I have already obtained this
or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus
has made me His own. Brothers, I do not
consider that I have made it my own. But
one thing I do: forgetting what lies
behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for
the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
In the Name of
the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of
God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.