Reformation Day (Observed)

 Video of Service

Reformation Day (Observed)

October 25, 2026

Text: Rom. 3:19-28

            Five hundred years ago, Father Martin Luther had a son.  Not an illegitimate son, mind you, like so many priests and monks (and even a few popes) may have had.  A son with his lawfully wedded wife, Katharina.  Johannes… Hans… Luther.  Dr. Luther’s firstborn.  

            It is difficult for us to understand how revolutionary this was, and how important for the Reformation of the Holy Christian Church… for the cause of the very Gospel!  We’re used to ministers being married and having children.  At least we Protestants are.  It’s par for the course.  But we must remember that, for much of the Church’s history, and especially in the middle ages, there was this prevailing unbiblical opinion that married family life was less holy… and even, perhaps, a little bit dirty… compared to those “religious” (priests, monks, nuns) who took vows of celibacy.  Marriage had essentially become a Sacrament of concession for those who couldn’t live up to the requirements of Holy Orders (monastic and ordination vows).  Such that, by the time of Luther and the Reformation, it was more or less a given that monastics were far more likely to go directly to heaven when they died, as opposed to married people, who had less holiness, and more sin to purge in Purgatory (and, for the sake of clarity, let me just remind us all that Purgatory is not in the Bible, and is an anti-biblical, anti-Gospel doctrine, that robs Christ of His proper glory as the once-for-all-sufficient Sacrifice of Atonement for our sins.  He alone makes satisfaction!).  So, there was this distinction made between celibate monastics and the common people on the basis of works: Monastics are more righteous and holy before God by virtue of their works (including celibacy).  Married people are less righteous, because they need conjugal relief.  What would St. Paul say about such a distinction?  What does he say in our Epistle?  There “is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”... and that includes you Pharisees, and you monastics… and you good Christian folk (yes, we do it, too, whenever we think our goodness makes us more righteous than people who aren’t so good)… and all your shiny, holy works… you all fall short of the glory of God, “and are justified by his grace as a gift”... apart from your works, whatever they may be… “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:22-24; ESV), and through that redemption alone.  There is no distinction.  All of us are in the same boat.  Sin, and therefore death and condemnation.  And if we are to be saved from that death and condemnation, and justified (declared righteous before God), it is the same way for all of us.  Grace, freely bestowed, by virtue of Christ’s redeeming work for us in His suffering and death on the cross.    

Now, there is no question that virginity is a high and holy calling.  And we’re all called to that unless, and until, we’re married (that is the expectation, beloved… that is God’s design, in spite of our culture-wide sexual brokenness, that we reserve sex for marriage, and keep our bodies, created and redeemed by God, pure).  But what does Jesus say on the subject?  Very few have the gift to remain celibate their whole life long.  When His disciples proposed that it is better not to marry, Jesus responded that not everyone can receive such a saying, but only those to whom it has been given by God (Matt. 19:10-12).  The usual law of nature, as St. Paul points out, is that men and women need to get married to each other, in order to avoid sexual temptation (1 Cor. 7:1-5).  For this reason, husbands and wives are not to withhold conjugal rights from each other, Paul says, unless for a short, agreed upon time, for the sake of prayer (v. 5).  And he says this, maintaining marriage as a high and holy calling of God, even as he holds up lifelong virginity as an extraordinary, albeit rare, gift of God (vv. 6-7).  

            Marriage is good.  We Lutherans don’t count it as a Sacrament, because it doesn’t bestow the forgiveness of sins, but marriage is instituted by God for our good: For mutual companionship and support, for procreation (children are good!), and for enjoyment of God’s good gift of sexuality.  Marriage even predates the Fall, doesn’t it.  God is the first Father to walk a bride down the aisle and give her away to a groom (Gen. 2:18-25).  And that bride and groom are already a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church (Eph. 5:32), as are every Christian bride and groom since, such that Christian marriage is, in itself, a preaching of the Gospel!  High calling, indeed!  

And then, marriage even becomes a picture of the inter-Trinitarian life of love, when that love brings forth fruit… Babies!  Just as God, not out of necessity, but out of love, created.  Created man.  Created us.  In His own image.  To be the object of His love.  So He could love us.  When God gives a husband and wife to procreate (that is the word, by the way… let’s stop saying “reproduction.”  This isn’t a mechanized assembly line)… think about this, and marvel… that husband and wife are given to participate in God’s creative act!  To be instruments of it.  Can there be a higher and holier calling than that?

Now, of course, not everybody receives the gift of marriage.  And not everybody receives the gift of children, even if they are married.  And for some, this is a heavy cross, and so, very important that we say to you who bear such a cross: There is nothing deficient in you.  Yours, too, is a high and holy calling.  It’s not wrong to remain single, and not have children.  It’s also not wrong to pray that God would provide you a spouse and children, if you so desire.  Either way, your calling is to wait upon the Lord, and live fully, and faithfully, and joyfully, in Him.

            What we’re talking about is the doctrine of vocation.  Our callings from God.  We all have many vocations.  Our vocation is not just our job, but every relationship in which God has placed us in our station in life (your station in life is the place and the circumstances in which you find yourself).  Our number one vocation, of course, as Christians, is that of baptized child of God.  But then, flowing from that, just to take myself as an example, I am a husband, a father, a pastor, a son, a brother, a friend, a neighbor, a citizen… and the list goes on.  Same with you.  And one of the great truths recovered by the Reformation is the doctrine that those vocations, those divine callings, are as significant and holy as the calling into the priesthood or the convent.  Because there is no distinction.  Our righteousness comes from Christ.  Our good works do not contribute to our righteousness before God, but are done for the sake of our neighbor, in vocation!      

So again, think what a revolutionary thing it is, living, as he did, in this spiritual/cultural environment of the Middle Ages, that as a confession of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Father Martin Luther took a wife, and they conceived a son.  Because being married, and raising a family, faithfully, according to God’s Word in Holy Scripture, is just as high and holy a vocation as clerical celibacy.  

We should add, by the way, that Rome has taken a higher view of marriage, thank God, since the Reformation (the Reformation was very good for Rome).  Although they’d do well to get rid of the requirement of priestly celibacy and monastic vows, because priests and monastics (as has been amply demonstrated, scandalously and publicly over the years) are all-too-human, and have all-too-human needs and desires.  Beloved, for a masterful treatment of this topic, go read our own Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XXIII, on the Marriage of Priests.  It is phenomenal, and surprisingly relevant to other issues of marriage and sexuality current in our time.  And let me say, here and now, before God and everybody: I thank God I’m a Lutheran pastor, and therefore lawfully (and happily!) married, with children.  And I thank God for my wife, without whom I couldn’t possibly be the pastor I am today, and for my children, who teach me every day how to be a better pastor and father (two vocations which very much go together!). 

Which is to say, that Martin Luther married and had a son 500 years ago, directly and substantially affects my life and ministry, and the life of the Christian Church, which is to say, the life of every Christian… your life.  Because, we can get married, or stay single.  We can have children, if God so blesses us.  And if God does not bless us in that way, we are just as blessed.  Church work is a blessed and holy vocation.  But you don’t have to do Church work to be just as righteous and holy before God as pastors, priests, monks, or nuns.  Every true Christian vocation is as holy as every other true Christian vocation.  Because our righteousness and holiness comes from Christ alone.  “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight… For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom. 3:20, 28).

Martin Luther had a son.  Oh, how he loved little Hans.  A gift of God, given by grace, for the exercise of faith, and faithfulness.  So it is with our vocations.  All praise and thanks to God.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.     

 

St. Luke, Evangelist

 Video of Service

St. Luke, Evangelist

October 18, 2026

Text: 2 Tim. 4:5-18

            “Luke alone is with me” (2 Tim. 4:11; ESV).

            St. Paul is in prison.  He is under the sentence of death.  This letter to Timothy is almost certainly the last writing we have from his pen.  He is already, he says, being poured out as a drink offering, an image that evokes both the Old Testament sacrifices upon which a libation was poured (thus a thing joined to the sacrificial victim), and the imminent pouring out of Paul’s own blood (the self-sacrifice of the Christian, joined to that Sacrifice which alone atones for our sins, the Lord Jesus on the cross).  He has fought the good fight.  He has finished the race.  Now, the waiting.  Waiting to see with his own eyes what, in his present circumstances, he only knows by faith.  The Lord, the Righteous Judge… crucified, but risen from the dead… living and reigning… awarding Paul the crown of righteousness… the righteousness of Jesus Himself, bestowed upon Paul as a free gift… and thus bestowed upon all what have loved His appearing, which is to say, you, who long to see Him (the Lord Jesus), and yearn for His coming.

We know we will see Him soon.  But the waiting can be awfully lonely.  “Luke alone is with me.”  Paul begs Timothy to come to him soon.  His other friends have been called away to ministry.  Crescens.  Titus.  Tychicus.  Or simply deserted him.  Demas was in love with this world, and so presumably scandalized, or terrified, by Paul’s chains.  Paul wants Mark to come, too.  And that is gratifying to hear.  Because this is John Mark, and last we heard, Paul and Barnabas had separated over the issue of whether to take Mark with them, he who had withdrawn from the mission when the going got tough (Acts 15:37-40).  Clearly, they were reconciled, now, before the end, before it was too late.  Let that be an example and inspiration to all of us. 

But now, Paul sits in his dungeon.  Lonely.  And cold.  Apparently winter is setting in.  Timothy, please bring my cloak!  And the knowledge that the time is short.  Bring my books and parchments.  There is work to be done.  And the reflection.  And the hurt.  Watch out of that Alexander, the Coppersmith.  He did me great harm.  God help him.  

And God help me.  He does.  Not even Luke was with me at my first defense.  No one came to stand by me.  Everyone here deserted me.  A little taste, I suppose, of what it was like for Jesus in the garden, when all His disciples fled.  A little taste of what it was like when the Savior stood alone before the Sanhedrin, and Herod, and Pontius Pilate.  And no one goes to the cross apart from the experience of utter abandonment.

“But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me” (2 Tim. 4:17).  Never forget those words, beloved.  When everything has been taken from you… when everyone else has abandoned you… Jesus has not.  He was forsaken on the cross for you, that you never be forsaken.  He stands by you in the time of trial.  He stands by you always.  And not just in spirit, whatever that may mean… as if He’s up in His heaven, far away from you, telling you He’s really rooting for you, and hopes you’ll make it.  No, no.  He is your Immanuel, “God-with-us.”  And He is a God of flesh and blood, so if He is with you, He is with you in the flesh.  You are never alone.  The Man, Jesus, who is Lord and God, and who loves you, stands by you.  Doing what?  Strengthening you.  By His Spirit, who is in you.  Reminding you of His Words.  So that you bear up.  So that, in you, Christ be seen by others.  That you bear witness to Him.  Even as Paul was strengthened to fully proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles… to all who would hear it.  

And He rescues, this Lord who stands by you.  He rescued Paul from the lion’s mouth.  He rescues you, until the time appointed, when your death will bring Him glory, and deliver you to salvation.  He rescues from every evil deed, to bring you safely into His heavenly Kingdom.  That is the Promise.  That is the Lord you have.

But until then, the waiting.  And, yes, the loneliness.  “Luke alone is with me.”  But Luke is with him.  Beloved, the Lord gives us each other.  Do not despise that gift.  No Christian can do it alone.  Our Father sets the solitary in a home (Ps. 68:6).  In a Family.  The Church.  Your congregation.  Everyone around you at this moment is a gift from Jesus, whether you believe it or not.  You may as well believe it, and act like it, and receive them with thanksgiving, because, one day you will know the gifts you’ve taken for granted.  And you’re going to spend eternity with these dear people, and you will rejoice in them.  

So… dear Luke.  Luke is with him.  St. Luke, whose Feast we observe this day.  A physician (Col. 4:14).  Perhaps of the body.  And think how helpful that may have been to Paul, after all the beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, near-death (and maybe even real death and resurrection) experiences.  And now prison.  Hard time.  Doesn’t sound like comfortable house arrest anymore.  So maybe God gave Luke to Paul for the care of his bodily wounds, a worthy Christian enterprise, indeed.  In any case, Luke is a physician of the soul.  An evangelist.  A writer of the Gospel that bears his name, as well as authoring the Acts of the Apostles, the continuation of Jesus’ ministry in the life of His Church.  A careful historian.  He did his research.  He interviewed the sources.  The Apostles and other participants.  St. Mary (who else do you think gave him so many intimate details of the Christmas story?  Who else could tell him what Mary pondered in her heart?  What it was like to be sitting there one day, probably contemplating Isaiah’s prophecy about the virgin bearing a Son, and all at once, there’s Gabriel, saying to Mary, “that virgin is you!”  The head-scratching “how can this be?”  The frustration of no room in the inn.  The terror of losing 12 year old Jesus in Jerusalem.  These are Mom’s stories!).

From Luke, we get so many accounts of healing miracles.  That’s what we would expect from a medical doctor.  And the inclusion… the bringing in… of the outsider: Tax collectors and notorious sinners… women… foreigners (Gentiles).  Luke’s Gospel is actually a Catechism for Gentiles, like Theophilus, written precisely for the purpose of bringing those on the outside, in.  Undoubtedly Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, had something to do with this.  Luke, we need an account of Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection for all these people who are coming to faith from the nations.  Get busy!  Luke was not an Apostle, but he wrote his Gospel under the Apostolic authority of Paul.  Thank God!  

And there is this endearing detail in the Book of Acts that we should never miss.  Luke is writing the history of what happened to others.  Especially Peter and Paul.  When, suddenly, the pronoun switches from the 3rd Person (“he,” “they”) to the 1st Person Plural (“we”).  That is to say, Luke is with Paul.  A companion of Paul.  Given to Paul.  As a gift.  

“Luke alone is with me.”  Because it is not good that Paul should be alone.  Jesus gives Luke to Paul.  A friend.  A brother.  It’s a beautiful thing.

He gives Luke to us, too.  In his ministry, and in the words Luke wrote for us by inspiration of the Holy Spirit (more than one third of the New Testament!).  The physician, doing what he does, and what he is given to do.  Healing our souls by the Gospel.  Prescribing the blood of Jesus Christ as the Medicine of Immortality.  Saving our lives for eternity by immersing us in the death and resurrection of Christ.

And suddenly, it’s not so lonely.  For in hearing St. Luke, we hear the living voice of Jesus.  Jesus is with us.  Standing by us.  Strengthening us.  And the Word goes out.  And we are rescued from every evil, as Jesus brings us safely into His heavenly Kingdom.  “To him be the glory forever and ever” (2 Tim. 4:18).  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.                        

 

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

 Video of Service

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 23A)

October 11, 2026

Text: Matt. 22:1-14

            Who are these, so bold, so audacious, as to tell the King they have better things to do than attend the Wedding Feast of His Son?  The immediate audience for our Lord’s parable is once again made up of the Chief Priests and Pharisees.  This is the continuation of the sermon we heard Him preaching last week.  Only now, he is riffing on this morning’s Old Testament reading (Is. 25:6-9).  “Remember, dear shepherds of Israel, the Mountain of the LORD of hosts from the Prophet Isaiah?  The feast of rich food and well-aged wine?  We all know the Prophet is speaking of the Messianic age.  That is what will happen when the Kingdom arrives, when God’s Messiah comes.  Well, dear friends, guess what?  Here I AM!  And I have sent servant after servant, prophet after prophet, to tell you the Feast is prepared.  But now that it is here, you refuse to come in.  You have no desire.  And, in fact, you seize my servants, treat them shamefully, and kill them.  That’s what you do.  So, fine.  I won’t make you come in.  I won’t force you to rejoice and feast with Me in My Kingdom.  But be warned.  The troops are on their way to destroy you murderers and burn your city,” again, a reference to the coming destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.  “But that won’t stop Me from giving My Feast.  I will invite others to take your place.  And they will rejoice and be satisfied with the good things from My Table, while you find yourself in the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

            So, the original audience was the Jewish clergy.  But the Holy Spirit has preserved this parable also for our learning.  What is the application, what is the warning for us who hear it anew here this afternoon?  Of course, don’t seize your pastor, treat him shamefully, or kill him.  And don’t do that to any of the Lord’s servants, be they preachers of the Gospel, or other Christians who speak the Lord’s Word to you.  There are places in the world at this very moment where that is a very real danger.  And it may be here, too, in time to come.  But perhaps more to the point for us here and now, when you receive an invitation from the King, which is to say, from God, to the Wedding Feast of His Son (and you have, that’s why you’re here!)… don’t make excuses why you can’t come.  “Oh, sorry, business, you know,” or “family time,” or “I’m too tired.  Maybe next week.  I’ll get around to it one of these days.”  Or just, “I don’t want to!”  Whatever it is.  Guys, God invites you to His House to feast with His Son at His own Table.  That is what you believe, isn’t it?  I realize it’s all hidden under the ordinary, and unremarkable, and often downright scandalous, forms of words and water, bread and wine, a sad sack of flesh up in the pulpit, and a bunch of sad sacks sitting next to you in the pews.  But you know that things are not as they appear.  Not in Christ.  So, don’t excuse yourself.  Don’t miss this.  Because you don’t have to come.  God will not force you.  And you know what happens to those who refuse.  So, that is the warning.  Come to Church.  Come into the presence of Jesus.  Come into His Wedding Feast.  This is the foretaste.  This is the appetizer.  This is the vestibule to the Royal Estate.  Soon enough you will see the splendor in all its fulness.  It is just the other side of the veil. 

            And think about this… Who are these others, these tramps on the road, invited, now, to take the place of the original guests at the Son’s Wedding Feast?  These are, of course, the Gentiles, to whom the Gospel is preached, now brought in and included in God’s people, Israel.  Well, that’s you.  See, both Jews and Gentiles, all who do not refuse Him… even, Jesus says, “both bad and good” (Matt. 22:10; ESV), that is, notorious sinners and respectable citizens, these are invited into the Kingdom, into the Feast, by the preaching of the Gospel, that the hall may be filled with guests.  That is, by the way, the program of the Kingdom.  Preach the Gospel to all, without distinction.  Bring in more guests.  All who will come.  Now, whether they come, or not, that’s up to the Spirit, not us.  But we’d love to fill this place to capacity, and then some.  Baptize them.  Catechize them.  Bring them into the fulness of the Feast.  That’s what we’re given to do as Christ’s Body on earth.  That’s why He hasn’t already come years ago and put an end to all of this.  For the sake of those who have yet to hear, and believe, and come into the Feast. 

            The “bad,” though… they are not left bad.  And the “good” must not be left in their own goodness.  One and all must come to see that their own clothes… be they soiled, torn, and tattered (the bad), or brand new, dry-clean-only, designer brand (the good)… their own clothes are insufficient, unsatisfactory, inappropriate for this Feast.  But, not to fear.  In the world of the Gospels, when one was invited to a prestigious wedding feast, the host would provide the appropriate garment for his guest.  The host would cover the guest in fitting apparel.  That is what God does for you in Holy Baptism.  That is what you receive by faith.  The analogy is this: You come to God’s Kingdom with your own garments, soiled with obvious sin, or as clean as human works can get them, it doesn’t matter.  You fall somewhere on the righteousness spectrum.  But it isn’t good enough.  You are a sinner.  You have sin.  You are not perfectly righteous, which is what God demands.  Your clothes aren’t good enough.  So God strips you of your shameful garments, your pitiful unrighteousness, and covers you instead with the spotless robe, the perfect righteousness of His Son, Jesus.  St. Paul puts it this way: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).  And again, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom. 13:14), that is, don’t pick up again your old, ratty clothes.  Even the designer ones are nothing but filthy rags before the Lord.  And the Lord Jesus has taken them away, to be put to death in His flesh on the cross.  Those are clothes of death.  But here are resurrection clothes, robes of righteousness, washed white in the blood of the Lamb, which the Lord Himself freely gives you.  Be covered.  Be cleansed. 

            Well, this explains the man found without a wedding garment, doesn’t it?  It’s not that he wasn’t legitimately invited in, and the Lord even calls him, “Friend” (Matt. 22:12… Reminds us of someone else the Lord called “Friend,” doesn’t it, who had thrown away the Savior’s invitation, to conduct his own business [thirty pieces of silver worth], to go to his own place?  Matt. 26:50).  It is also not that he was expected to have a wedding garment of his own.  The King had provided the garment for him.  So it must be that he cast it off.  Or refused even to put it on.  He insisted on wearing his own clothes.  Like the Chief Priests and Pharisees, like the self-righteous among us, he insisted he attend the Feast on his own merit.  But it doesn’t work that way.  Everyone here is here at the King’s mercy.  Everyone here is here by grace, that is, by the King’s unmerited favor.  Your own righteousness will get you thrown out into the outer darkness.  But Christ’s righteousness, freely given, distributed to one and all alike in His preaching and gifts, will get you a place at His Table at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom which has no end. 

            Rich food and well-aged wine.  Flesh full of marrow, and aged-wine well-refined.  Nothing but the best.  And the Bride in all her blood-bought splendor, which is to say, Lady Church.  And then, the Bridegroom.  He has swallowed up death forever, and all that goes along with it.  All violence.  All sickness.  All sadness.  All pain.  Here He is, our Bridegroom, the Royal Son, present with us at the Feast.  And we join the festal shout: “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Is. 25:9).

            Beloved, to be a Christian is not to balk at the invitation to this Feast, or to list off the reasons why you can’t (or more accurately, don’t want to) attend.  No.  It is to “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4).  “The Lord is at hand” (v. 5), and so, in spite of all that our eyes may see, we are well, and all is good.  Do you know what is true, what is honorable, what is just and pure?  Do you know what is lovely and commendable, what is excellent and worthy of praise?  It is all from the Lord, and it flows from the altar.  Think about these things.  Set your mind on them.  And then, clothed with Jesus, receive them from His hand.  This whole Royal Feast is for you.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.         

 

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

 Video of Service

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 22A)

October 4, 2026

Text: Is. 5:1-7; Matt. 21:33-46

            “What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done for it?” (Is. 5:4; ESV).

            The Master of the House is God.  The Vineyard is Israel.  And the tenants who lease the Vineyard are the leaders of the Jews: The scribes, the Pharisees, the priests… as well as the kings, in days of old… those from whom God should rightly expect fruit.  Faith.  Total dependence on Him.  To the exclusion of all other gods.  To the exclusion of self-reliance and self-justification.  And love.  Love for God.  Love for the neighbor.  Love that therefore lives, and orders the whole life, according to God’s will as revealed in His Commandments.  Love that orders the whole life toward self-giving service to those around you.  Do you see what the fruit, finally, is?  The whole self, rendered to God, not as slave, but as son.  

But the tenants rendered God no fruit.  So, He sent His servants… the prophets.  Prophet after prophet.  To call the people back to Himself.  Back to faith.  Back to love.  Some they beat.  Some they killed.  Some they stoned.  They were rejecting… not just the men God sent… but God Himself.  Rejecting His Word.  Rejecting His right to the Vineyard and its fruit.  And, it’s befuddling, isn’t it?  What should God have done after even one servant was abused, never mind killed? Obliterate those wretches! Fire and brimstone.  Righteous wrath.  But He doesn’t.  He just keeps sending.  Prophet after prophet.  Preacher after preacher.  Calling to repentance.  Calling to faith.  

And, so longsuffering is our God, that finally, what does He do?  He sends His Son.  He says to Himself, “They will respect my son” (Matt. 21:37).  Now, we know how this is going to end.  But the great mystery is, so does He!  But He does it, anyway!  Jesus comes.  The Son of God.  He comes to the tenants, pleading for fruit.  How many interactions does Jesus have with the Pharisees and the Sadducees?  Why all the confrontations?  Because He loves them!  He is calling them back.  He wants them for His own.  

But what do they do?  They say, “This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance” (v. 38).  “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation” (John 11:48).  They’ll take away the inheritance.  Ah, but if we kill Him, the place and nation will be ours.  So… “Crucify, crucify him!” (Luke 23:21).  And that’s what they do.  They lead Him out of the city… they cast Him out of the Vineyard… and kill Him!  Therefore, what will the Owner of the Vineyard… God… do to them?  The Jews themselves testify: “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” (Matt. 21:41).  And so it is.  In AD 70, the Romans come and take away their place and their nation.  Jerusalem is sacked.  The Temple is once and for all destroyed.  

Bad news for the Jews.  But good news for us.  Christ, who was crucified, is risen.  And now the Gospel goes out to the whole world… to the nations.  And all who believe in Him, Jew and Gentile… those who will give Him the fruits in their season: Faith toward God, and fervent love toward one another, which is to say, Christians, who surrender their very selves to God… they get the inheritance!  We get the inheritance.  Because the Son was killed.  Yet, behold, the Son lives.  God will let out the Vineyard to others, the Jewish leaders prophesy.  We are the others.  

Now, a warning here: Don’t let this text (or any text in the Bible) become an occasion for arrogance over against the Jews.  First of all, God loves the Jews.  God chose them to be His holy people in the Old Testament.  As Paul reminds us, what advantage has the Jew?  Much in every way: To them belong the oracles of God (Rom. 3:1-2)... the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises (9:4)… “To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.  Amen” (v. 5).  And “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (11:29).  Second, many Jews came to believe in Christ, including the Twelve and St. Paul and the whole Church immediately post-resurrection, while many Gentiles were included in the killing of the Son: Pontius Pilate, the Roman soldiers… us!  (There is the excruciatingly beautiful scene in Mel Gibson’s, The Passion of the Christ, where the hand that drives in the nails is his own!  That is profound.  We crucified Him by our sins).  Third, we Gentiles must always remember (as St. Paul says, using another illustration from husbandry) that, though some branches of the olive tree of Israel were broken off, that we may be grafted in, nevertheless, the roots are the children of Israel.  And we were grafted in by grace.  By no merit or worthiness of our own.  And if the natural branches were broken off for failing to bear fruit, the same will assuredly happen to the wild olive branches (us!) grafted in if we forsake our God-given faith.  And we pray that those natural branches will be grafted back in.  The Church used to regularly pray for the conversion of the Jews.  Maybe we should start doing that again!  

And the point is this: There is no room in the Christian Church for antisemitism.  Take that deeply into your heart, because antisemitism is a trend these days among people both left and right, and we are so deceived by our political allegiances.  We can argue about policy toward Israel versus the Palestinians, but you are not to hate the Jews, whom God loves.  Jesus Christ is a Jew.  Enough said.

When we hear this parable, we are to marvel at God’s great grace, not only toward the Jews, but toward us!  The Vineyard has been given to us… all Christians, Jew and Gentile.  And now, His longsuffering is directed toward us.  He sends His servants: Preacher after preacher.  The Gospel is proclaimed.  Sinners’ sins are washed away as one-time rebels are baptized into Christ.  The Absolution is declared.  The body and blood of Christ… the fruit of the Vine… the cup of blessing, the wine of joy… these are distributed right here at this Table, and on Altars throughout all Christendom.  We keep sinning, but our Lord Jesus Christ keeps calling us back, in repentance and faith, by His Word and Spirit.  He keeps forgiving.  Keeps grafting us in.  Keeps restoring us to the Father.  

Those who receive His Word, receive Him.  They fall upon the Stone the builders rejected.  Yes, they are crushed to pieces.  But that is to say, they die to themselves in repentance, to be raised up to new life in Christ.  But woe to those who reject this Word.  They join the builders in rejecting the Lord Jesus.  And on them the Stone falls, and crushes them in eternal damnation.

Oh, beloved… let us sing for our Beloved our love song concerning His Vineyard (Is. 5:1).  What more could He have done for her… for us?  “For us… For us… For us…”  “For us baptized, for us He bore His holy fast and hungered sore; For us temptation sharp He knew; For us the tempter overthrew.  For us He prayed; for us He taught; For us His daily works He wrought, By words and signs and actions thus Still seeking not Himself but us.  For us by wickedness betrayed, For us, in crown of thorns arrayed, He bore the shameful cross and death; For us He gave His dying breath.  For us He rose from death again; For us He went on high to reign; For us He sent His Spirit here To guide, to strengthen, and to cheer” (LSB 544:3-6).  What more could He have done?  He does it all.  

And so, here you are in the Vineyard.  How the Lord loves you!  He brought you here.  Never take that for granted.  And, for God’s sake, don’t reject it.  Here, God has planted you.  Here, He tends and nourishes you.  Roots grown deep.  Branches of the Vine.  Life-giving sap flowing to you, and through you, in the means of grace.  And fruit.  Faith.  Fervent love.  Your very self… a son in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  So it is in the Kingdom of God.  This is the Lord’s doing.  It is marvelous in our eyes.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.