4 October 2020 Saint
Athanasius Lutheran Church
Pentecost 18 Vienna, VA
“The
Grapes of Wrath?”
Text:
Matthew 21:33-46; Philippians 3:4b-14; Isaiah 5:1-7
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God
our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
T |
he master of the house,
the man who planted the vineyard in today’s parable is not God. I mean, he is,
but he isn’t. For the man in the parable is the poster child for
what a fool looks like, and the very definition of insanity - doing the same
thing over and over and expecting a different result. And God is neither insane
nor a fool.
And yet what the man did is
what God did. For God did send His servants, the prophets, to His people time
and time again. To call them to repentance. To seek
the fruits of repentance - lives of mercy and justice, of faith and love. What
you would expect from children of a merciful, just,
faithful, and loving God. What you would expect from those who got to live and
work in the wonderful vineyard, the beautiful Promised Land, that God had given
them and planted them in.
Now sometimes - sometimes
- the people listened and repented. But most of the time they did not. But
this didn’t surprise God. In fact, very often, when He sent His prophets,
He told them before they went that the people were not going to listen
and would, in fact, lash out against them - verbally and physically. And that’s
exactly what happened - throughout the Old Testament and in the
parable. Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel met with stiff resistance
and were beaten, stoned, and killed.
And then God sent His
Son. And while the man in the parable thought that perhaps things would be
different with his son, and vengeance for killing him is how the
world works . . . here’s how God is not, is different, than the
man in the parable - God knew the result would be the same. God knew
that sending His Son would mean His death. And that’s the very reason He
sent Him! To be rejected by men, but by whose very rejection - by
whose death! - He would be the cornerstone on which God would build His Church.
That
is the surprising turn in this parable. The killing of the servants, the
killing of the son, isn’t really. Murder is the first sin we’re told about
after the fall of Adam and Eve. Hatred, greed, selfishness, rivalry, revenge .
. . all is par for the course for sinful man. But look what God is doing, Jesus
says! Look at what the Scriptures say! He would send His Son to die at the
hands of sinful men. That in His dying be your
salvation.
Now, some would say God
really is a fool and insane for doing that! In fact, all the
other religions of the world say that! That God would never do what Christians
claim and send His Son to die - if He even has a son at all! Salvation
is by you not being like that. By you changing.
By you giving God what He demands. And if you don’t . . . then yes, you wretches
deserve a wretched death.
And if God ran things
like the world runs things, that would be right. But
if God is not like us - which thankfully is true! - then
maybe He doesn’t do things as we do them. Maybe our way is the
foolish and insane way. Maybe sending His Son to die is exactly who God is and
His plan from the very beginning, when He didn’t demand that Adam and Eve shape
up and do better, but instead promised them a Saviour.
That there might be hope for them. And hope for us.
Hope like what the
apostle Paul received. For he was one of those wicked
tenants. He wasn’t around when the prophets were sent, but he was
one of the ones who rejected the Son of God. He was persecuting and arresting
followers of Jesus until Jesus came to HIM - and in that moment, when the voice
of Jesus and the blinding light of His glory threw the man then named Saul off
his high horse and cast him to the ground - in that moment Saul was - as Jesus
said - crushed by the very stone he had rejected. Just as the death of
the Son was for the life of the world, so too the old, wretched Saul had to be
slain so that a new man named Paul could arise. Which
happened three days later when he was baptized (Acts
9).
And
now you. Maybe you’re a lot like Saul. Not that you’re
persecuting and arresting Christians! (At least, I hope not!) But like Saul,
most of you were born into a good family. A Christian family.
Like Saul, you were educated in the church; you were catechized and confirmed.
Like Saul, you are active in the church and doing all those things you think
you’re supposed to be doing. Like Saul, most people would look at you and they
would say: There goes a good Christian! And maybe you even believe it.
Saul did. He thought he was doing everything right.
But he needed to be
crushed. And so do you. So do I. For (to put it in the
words of Isaiah, one of those prophets God sent): why does God see so many
wild grapes in your life? Good grapes you can eat and make good wine. But
wild grapes only use up space and good ground and are good for nothing. Like
some of the words you say. Like many of the thoughts you think. Like actions
you do that hurt others, or how you fail to help with your inaction. Like when
you use the life God has given you all and only for yourself, not helping
others but coveting - and then trying to get! - what
others have for yourself. And maybe you do all those things and even look good and
wise in the eyes of others. But God knows. And so He asks you,
through His prophet today, When I looked for [you] to yield [good]
grapes, why
did [you] yield wild grapes?
It’s a rhetorical question. He knows why. He asks to get you to look at yourself
and your life . . . and crush you.
But those God crushes He
does to raise! For that’s what God
wants. For nothing else than His Son to be the cornerstone of
your life. That you live a new life. A life that grows from and in Jesus.
For that stone is going
to crush everyone. Did you catch that? Jesus said that the one who falls
on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will
crush him. Those are the only two alternatives! The question,
then, is when? Will you be broken and crushed now in the day of salvation? Now in this time of repentance and forgiveness? Now when the
water of Christ is here to wash you and raise you, the Word of
Christ is here to absolve you when you fall, and the Body
and Blood of Christ is here to feed you and strengthen you? Or when it is
too late for all of that? When all there is left is judgment?
That’s the road Saul was
on until the Lord crushed him. Tough mercy! But mercy
nonetheless. And then he had nothing but praise for God. Some would say he
lost an awfully lot in this world and life - his place, his prestige, his
honor. But as Paul said, that? That was all
rubbish! Compared to Christ. His
righteousness, honor, prestige, what he thought he was achieving, was garbage!
Sure, it looked good at the time. But now? It stinks! Compared to the righteousness of Christ and all that Christ has
given him.
And
the world? The world thought Paul a fool and insane for the
change in his life! They didn’t see this change as good at all - in fact, it
was a giant step down. And Paul paid dearly for it - he went from hunter to hunted; from persecutor to persecuted; from throwing others
in prison to being thrown into prison himself. Bad career decision Paul!
the world said. But Paul knew better. He now
had a life that meant far more than the life he had before. And
a life that would last longer, too. Like, forever.
And that is the life the
master of the house, the owner of the vineyard, your heavenly Father, has for
you, too. The world may think you foolish and insane for how you live and what
you believe. But you know, like Paul came to know, that the master of the
house, the owner of the vineyard, your heavenly Father, sent His Son for you,
to die for you. And a God who would do that for you?
Well that makes all the difference in the world.
So while the world looks
at us like we have less life as Christians, we know it’s not so -
we have far more life than before. The world says: take the vineyard now! Do
what you want, live like you want, now! Don’t listen to that stodgy old master!
He just wants to take from you. Keep it. You’ve earned it. What’s true and good
and right is what’s true and good and right for you. You be the master of your
life! And maybe that looks good and feels good . . . for a while. But as Paul
learned, the way of the world, what it thinks is good, what it lives for . . .
it’s all garbage. Rubbish. And it’s a life that won’t last, but ends in death.
Far better is life in
Christ. For that is a life that not even death can end. The Chief Priests
and Pharisees who heard Jesus’ parables perceived that He was speaking about
them. And He was. But not because He was against
them. He was for them, too. They needed to be crushed so they could be
raised, just as we do. And Jesus wanted to. He hung on the cross for them, with
their sin, too. He was God’s gift for them, too.
And when you realize this
. . . that unlike the world’s gods, that the true God is not sitting up
in heaven and demanding that we shape up and improve and give Him what He
wants, but instead came to die for us and give us a new life . . . then you
know the psalmist is right: This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous
in our eyes!
And if the true God isn’t
so bad . . . and isn’t a fool or insane
after all . . . then maybe the life He
gives isn’t either. Maybe it’s all those things the world keeps chasing after
and trying and saying is normal and right and good . . . Maybe it’s all those
things that are foolish and insane . . . And then . . . with this new life and
new way of thinking, with such a good and gracious and marvelous God . . .
maybe there will be a few less wild grapes and a few more good grapes in
your life. Ya think?
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.