Monday of Trinity 20

 The Fruitful Vineyard

Matthew 21:33-46 (ESV) Jesus said, “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed 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 let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
 
In the Gospel for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, Jesus tells a parable condemning the legalistic Jewish rulers and everyone who relies on his own righteousness to be saved. He shows that everyone who trusts in his own righteousness actually rejects God’s Son and His bloody sacrifice on the cross. Everyone who tries to save himself is committing violence against none other than Christ Himself.
 
Jesus says, “There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country.” Often in the Old Testament, Israel is depicted as a vineyard and God is the owner. God chose Israel out of every nation to be His vineyard. He said that they were the chosen race from whom the Messiah would come. He rescued them from oppressive slavery in Egypt and promised to be their God. All He asked was that they not chase after false gods but live in faith, under His gracious covenant. Yet time and again the people strayed. The leaders of Israel were no better than the masses; actually, they were worse. They forgot God’s mercy, ignored His promises, and disobeyed His commands.
 
But the Lord expected better; He was looking for the fruit of faithfulness and good works from His chosen people, and that is what Jesus is talking about when He says, “When the season for fruit drew near, [the master of the vineyard] sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.” Apparently the lease payments were some of the fruits of the vineyard. These servants represent one of the Old Testament prophets. The Lord of the vineyard repeatedly sent prophets to call Israel to repentance, to speak on behalf of the Lord and tell the people to return to Him. Their message was simple: “If you repent and return to faith in the Lord, He will forgive you and bless you. If you reject Him and continue to chase after false gods and sin, you will be condemned.”
 
So how did Israel respond to the prophets, God’s servants? In the parable Jesus says, “The tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.” In other words, Israel rejected the message of the prophets and often times beat and killed them to show their rejection. Yet God did not give up on His people after one try. Jesus continues, “Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them.” These servants represent the hundreds of prophets God sent over the centuries. “Repent, repent, repent and the Lord will forgive you,” they cried over and over again. “Return to the Lord because He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast Love,” they pleaded. But all of these prophets, every last one of them down to John the Baptist, was met with rejection, often accompanied by physical violence and even death.
 
Jesus goes on, “Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’” Is the owner insane? Hasn’t He seen what happened to all the other servants? Why would He send His beloved Son to face such evildoers? How could a loving Father place His Son in such grave danger? But that’s exactly what He does, sending His Son to face certain suffering and death.
 
Jesus continues, “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” As we could have predicted, the tenants won’t listen to the Son, but they even up the ante. They say to themselves, “If we kill the one who is supposed to inherit this vineyard, perhaps the owner will give up and we’ll get to keep it for ourselves.” So they threw Him out of the vineyard and killed Him.
 
Within a few days of Jesus telling this parable, He would be led out of Jerusalem, bearing His own cross, and taken to Golgotha, just outside the city. The heir of the vineyard, the beloved, only-begotten Son, Jesus, King of the Jews, Messiah of Israel, was sent to a bloody death by the tenants of the vineyard, the Jewish religious leaders. He was a threat to their authority over the people, and His preaching of grace and mercy undermined their obsession with the law, so they attempted to rip the vineyard from the owner’s hands by force.
 
Yet this was exactly what the Father had planned all along. He used the tenants’ wickedness to bring about the redemption of the whole world. If I were the owner of the vineyard, I would have given up long before sending my son. I would have hired a mercenary force to go in and wipe out those thuggish tenants. But what does God do? He sends His Son to die for the tenants and all other people, to win forgiveness of sins and eternal life for them. Astonishing, inconceivable, profligate love! Yet this is our merciful God! The Letter to the Hebrews says, “Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood” (Hebrews 13:12). He suffered outside Jerusalem in order to satisfy justice. He placated God’s wrath toward sinners. He was the perfect, innocent one who suffered in the place of the guilty. He died for you.
 
In Isaiah 55, the LORD says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways…For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” We often assume that these words mean that God is a lot smarter than we are, so we should not question Him. True enough. But even more, the LORD is talking about His mercy and how He wants to deal with us. He says, “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” When God says He is far above our ways and thoughts, He means that He isn’t interested in following sinful human ideas of justice, nor does He allow people to justify themselves, but that His mercy is beyond what we could ever imagine, for He loves us so much that He gives up His beloved Son into death, to suffer what we by our sins deserved.
 
Prayer (LSB 955):
         
Let the vineyards be fruitful, Lord,
And fill to the brim our cup of blessing.
Gather a harvest from the seeds that were sown,
That we may be fed with the bread of life.
Gather the hopes and the dreams of all;
Unite them with the prayers we offer now.
Grace our table with Your presence, and give us
A foretaste of the feast to come. Amen.