Seventeenth Sunday
after Pentecost (A—Proper 21)
October 1, 2017
Text: Matt. 21:23-32
The question is one of
authority. Who authorized Jesus to do and speak as He did? Who
authorized Him to enter Jerusalem to the shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of
David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in
the highest!” (Matt. 21:10; ESV)? Who authorized Him to cleanse the
Temple, driving out the merchants and the money changers, and calling the
sacred precincts, “My House” (v. 13; emphasis added)? These
are the events just prior to our text. Who authorized Jesus to criticize
and rebuke the Pharisees and Scribes, the Chief Priests and the Elders of the
people? Just who does this Jesus think He is, anyway? And it is an
incredibly important question, that of authority. Because it makes all
the difference between whether Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, the Christ, the
Savior… or a self-appointed, delusional (or fraudulent) maniac. “By
what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
(v. 23). Jesus answers the Chief Priests and Elders with a similar
question. “The baptism of John, from where did it come? From
heaven or from man?” (v. 25). What authority did John have to preach
and to baptize, to call the people to repentance, hear their confession of sin,
and baptize them for forgiveness? Was John’s ministry from God, or from
man? For if John’s ministry is from man, he is a counterfeit
prophet. But if John’s ministry is from God, then you must believe him,
including and especially his testimony about Jesus, that He is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). So the answer to both
questions is one and the same. Jesus’ authority to do and speak as He
does is the same as that of John. And despite the Jews’ inability to
answer the question, the conclusion is inescapable. The authority is that
of the living God, who made heaven and earth.
The question of authority is as important to you as it was to them.
Because you follow the authority you believe to be legitimate.
Unbelievers don’t think Jesus has divine authority. They believe His
authority is from man. So they don’t follow Him. You Christians
believe Jesus’ authority is from the Father in heaven, and from His own nature
and essence as God in human flesh. So you believe His Word and you trust
Him for the forgiveness of sins, salvation, daily help and assistance, and
provision for your every need of body and soul. You trust Him because you
believe He has authority to deliver these things. And so also you believe
that He exercises authority in His Church through the ministry of the
Word. So you believe the Absolution spoken by your pastor. You
believe what he teaches and preaches. You believe what you hear from his
mouth about water being a Baptism of rebirth and renewal, about bread and wine
being Christ’s true Body and Blood. You believe it, not because you
believe in the man under the robes, but because you believe in the Christ who
sent him. You believe in the divine authority of the Words spoken in the
stead and by the command of the Lord Jesus. The question of authority is
vital. Because the forgiveness of your sins and your eternal salvation
hang in the balance. This is a matter of eternal life and death.
The problem comes when we let our own authority trump that of Jesus. Of
course, we have no real authority, but we think we do. And we think
others do. We are so puffed up by our own perceived authority, power,
prestige. We believe we are the judges of good and evil. We say
things like, “I just can’t believe in a God who would…” do this, that, or the
other thing we disagree with or that doesn’t fit our definition of love.
And so we make the same mistake Adam and Eve made in the Garden. You can
just hear Eve saying to herself, “I just can’t believe in a God who would
withhold from us fruit that is so pleasing to the eye, good for food, and able
to make one wise.” And Adam saying, “I just can’t believe in a God who
wouldn’t want me to make my wife happy by eating this food she has set before
me. After all, it’s just a little bite, and how can God be so judgmental
when my wife and I are acting out of love for one another?”
The reality is, though, Adam and Eve had no authority to take and eat.
And the serpent had no authority to speak to them. And the authority Adam
and Eve thought they possessed, was, in reality, slavery to demonic
deception. Just as our own perceived authority is, in reality, that same
slavery to deception. In other words, there is nothing autonomous,
self-determining, about this. It’s all an illusion, a deception from the
evil one. The reality is, too, that our perceived authority is beholden
to the unbelieving world. We pander to the wise of this world, the elite,
the influential powers, the culture, and we shape our opinions
accordingly. We trust in the media. We worship our entertainers,
even calling them idols. We believe our politicians can save us from
ruin, disaster, and death. Because we trust their authority above that of
Jesus! And most of all, we trust ourselves. Why is the authority of
Jesus and His Word such a threat to us? Because it threatens our idols,
and chiefly the idol of self. If Jesus has authority over me, I can no
longer live for myself, for my own pleasure, power, and wealth. If Jesus
is my King, He rules over me by His Word, and my every thought must be taken
captive to Him. If Jesus is my Judge, I must confess I have no
righteousness of my own, but only sin, rebellion, and death. If Jesus is
my Savior, I must give up all thoughts of saving myself. I must admit
that I have been deceived, that I am in slavery to the devil. I must
admit that it takes the blood and death of God to free me from my chains.
If Jesus has the authority, I do not. And if Jesus has the authority, I
must die. I must daily die in repentance and confession of my sins.
I must daily emerge and arise from the waters of my Baptism to live before God
in the newness of life that is the life of Christ, under His authority, in His
Kingdom, with His righteousness, innocence, and blessedness as my own.
The incredible reality is that this Jesus, God in human flesh, the eternal Son
of the Father, through whom all things were made and by whose Word of power all
things are held together… this One who has authority over all things in heaven
and on earth, submitted Himself to us, for us and for our salvation. He
submitted Himself to the Chief Priests and the Elders of the people, submitted
Himself to Pontius Pilate and the Roman Government, to the soldiers, the whips,
the nails, and the wood. He who is without sin submitted Himself to our
sin, bearing its burden. He who is the Life submitted Himself to our
death. He who is the beloved of the Father submitted Himself to the
Father’s wrath. For us. For you. For me. To bring our
sin to justice. To cancel our debt to God. To render the full
payment for our sin by His Blood.
But in submitting to this authority, He takes the authority captive. He
seizes the authority of death by dying. He snatches away the authority of
sin by drowning it in the water and blood flowing from His pierced side.
He crushes the authority and the very head of the serpent by taking the
serpent’s venom into Himself. All of that false authority is at an end in
Christ. He has taken the authority for Himself. He is risen from
the dead. And He leads a host of captives in His train. The tax
collectors and prostitutes go marching into the Kingdom of God (Matt.
21:31). For they believe the preaching of John. They repent.
They recognize the authority of the preaching. They believe the authority
of Christ who forgives their sins and calls them out of captivity to new life
in Himself. And so you. You hear the preaching of repentance.
You believe it has divine authority. So you repent. You repent of
your idolatry. You repent of your self-determination. You repent of
following after every false authority. You confess your sins. And
now you listen only for the voice of Jesus. You take every thought
captive to Him. For His is the voice of forgiveness. His is the
voice of salvation. His is the voice of life.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given by God to our Lord
Jesus (Matt. 28:18-20). It is on that authority that Jesus commands His
Church to make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching. We are
gathered by His authority into one holy Christian and apostolic Church.
And He is with us always to the very end of the age. The question of
authority has been answered decisively in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead. He is the Word of the Father. And with all the authority
of Almighty God, He bespeaks you righteous. In the Name of the Father,
and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Eighteenth Sunday
after Pentecost (A—Proper 22)
October 8, 2017
Text: Matt. 21:33-46
In
the Old Testament, God planted the Vineyard of His people, Israel. With them He established His covenant. He made them His own. Not because they were a big nation, or a
strong nation, or even a holy nation prior to His call, but by grace, because
God’s love does not find its object already loveable, but it creates its object
out of that which is unlovable. They
were His people, because He declared it so.
And He was their own, their God, a God for them and not against them,
who released them from their bondage in Egypt, brought them through the
wilderness by way of the Red Sea, gave them His Word, His commandment, and the
blood of His sacrifices to cover their sins.
He dwelt with them in the Tabernacle, seated upon the mercy seat,
enthroned between the cherubim. He went
with them and led them through the wilderness, in a pillar of cloud by day and
a pillar of fire by night. He saved them
from their enemies with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. He brought them through the Jordan and into
the Promised Land. He drove out the
nations before them and settled them in a good land, a land flowing with milk
and honey, a land where every man enjoyed his inheritance, possessed his own
plot and his own vine and fig tree. It
was a holy dream that puts the American dream to shame. And it all pointed to something even
bigger. From this nation would come the
One, the Promised Messiah, who would save Israel and all people from their
sins.
Yes,
through Abraham’s children, through Israel, through the Promised Seed, the
Savior, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. God expanded His covenant, expanded the walls
of His Vineyard, to include people from every nation, tribe, people, and
language. In the New Testament, Israel
is the Holy Christian Church. She is the
Vineyard. And here you are, seated
comfortably in the pew, planted firmly in the Vineyard. By grace.
God has made you His own. Not
because you deserved it. Not because you
merited it. But because God is
good. And He is your God, a God for you and not against you, who has released you
from your bondage to sin and death and brought you through the Red Sea of Holy
Baptism, given you His Word and Gospel and the blood of the once for all
sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for your forgiveness and life. He dwells with you here, in the Vineyard, in
His Word and holy Sacraments. Jesus
dwells with you here, on the altar, enthroned between the candles. He leads you through the wilderness of this
fallen world into the Promised Land of Heaven and the Resurrection of the
dead! In this Vineyard, Christ is the
Vine, you are the branches. As long as
you abide in Him, you bear much fruit, but apart from Him, you can do nothing
(John 15:5). The Kingdom is yours,
beloved. And here you are in the
Vineyard to drink wine with the Master, His true blood, poured out for you.
In
the parable, the Master of the House is God the Father. The fruit He seeks is mercy and forgiveness
and love for your neighbor, fruit that blossoms out of faith in the Master. The tenants are the religious leaders, the
chief priests and Pharisees. The
servants are the prophets. And that is
something worth thinking about. The
priests (i.e. the Sadducees) and the Pharisees (i.e. the rabbis), do not act
like the servants God has called them to be.
They act like tenants whose only ambition is to make money and live in
luxury. So God sends His servants, the
prophets. He sends them to preach. He sends them to call the people, including
the clergy, back to faithfulness, to produce good fruit in keeping with their
status as the children of God, the fruit of mercy, the fruit of love. But what do they do, these worthless
tenants? They persecute the servants of
the living God. They beat one, kill
another, and stone yet another. They saw
Isaiah in two. They cart Jeremiah off to
Egypt and kill him there. They murder
Zechariah the son of Berechiah between the altar and the sanctuary. Yet God, in an act of unimaginable grace,
sends even more servants than the first.
He keeps sending His prophets, keeps sending His Word. Still, the people do not listen. They plug their ears, kill the prophets, and
stone those sent to them. It’s enough to
make one weep. But God does not give
up. In an act of mercy beyond all
telling, to make the tenants His own once again, He sends not a servant, but
His Son. “They will respect my son,” He says (Matt. 21:37; ESV). And what do they do? Well, you know the story. It is the foundational story of the holy
Christian Church, and that upon which the whole destiny of the world
hangs. They throw Him out of the
Vineyard, outside the walls of Jerusalem.
They nail Him to a tree and lift Him up between two criminals and leave
Him there to die, accursed, writhing in agony, heaving for every breath that
gives Him no relief, but keeps Him alive all the longer to suffer. The stone has been rejected by the
builders. The Master’s Son has been
abused and murdered. His own people have
rejected their Messiah.
Therefore,
what will the Master do to those wicked tenants? That is the
question, and we all have a stake in it, for we are all, according to the
flesh, the wicked tenants who nailed our Lord Jesus to the cross by our
sins. We all have failed to produce the
fruits of repentance and faith, mercy, forgiveness, and love. We all have failed to hear and heed the Word
of the Lord, proclaimed by His prophets, to hold the Word sacred and gladly
hear and learn it. And we… we put Him
there on the wood. We did it. We don’t get to use the old excuse that we’re
innocent by virtue of not yet being born.
It is just as much our sin that nails the Lord as it was the Jews and
the Romans. What will He do to us? How is
God toward us now that we have
crucified His Son?
He
does not do what human justice demands. The
beautiful thing is, our gracious Father in heaven uses that very death of His
Son on the cross, not as a reason to throw us out and put us all to a miserable
death, but to save us. The
incomprehensible mystery of the Gospel is this: The Father sends His Son for this purpose, that He bear our
iniquity and suffer and die as payment for our sin. And that in His death, we receive the
inheritance, the Vineyard, the very Kingdom of God. The tenants were right in this respect: In
killing the Son, the inheritance is ours.
And the stone the builders rejected?
It has become the cornerstone, the chief stone in the building of the
Holy Christian Church. For Jesus Christ
is risen from the dead. This is the Day
that the LORD has made. Let us rejoice
and be glad in it. Your sins are
forgiven. Your debt is paid in
full. The Vineyard is yours. And you reign with the Son of God in the
Kingdom of His Father.
Unless,
of course, you don’t want this indescribable gift. He will not force you. This is the issue with the Jews, the chief
priests, the Pharisees, the scribes.
Even after they crucified the Lord of glory, God sent His servants. He sent the Apostles and Evangelists. To this very moment He sends His
pastors. There is still room for
repentance and faith. But the time is short. For Jerusalem, the time was up in the year
A+D 70. By then the Gospel had been
preached. They had Jesus Himself for
three years, preaching and healing and casting out demons, not to mention
raising the dead. They had all the signs
that accompanied His death: the darkness, the earthquake, the tearing of the
curtain, and the bodies of the saints popping out of their graves alive! And they had the eyewitness accounts of His
own bodily resurrection from the dead.
What more did they need? The
Apostles preached, and the Apostles died.
James, at the very least, died at the hands of the Jews. Stephen was stoned to death with the future
St. Paul standing by, nodding his approval.
And Paul goes to Rome where he will eventually be martyred because of
the accusations of the Jews. At some
point, God gives unbelievers what they want.
He forsakes them. He will not
force Himself on them as a Father. But
He is the only true God, and if they will not have Him in His mercy, they will
have Him in His wrath. Jerusalem serves
as the warning. In A+D 70 the Romans lay
siege. They sack Jerusalem and destroy
the temple. Let this be a solemn warning
for all who persist in rejection of Jesus.
There is a hell. What happened to
Jerusalem will happen to you outside of Christ.
But
you who are in Christ, baptized into Christ, who live and dwell in Christ, and
Christ in you, you who believe the preaching of God’s servants… Yours is the
Kingdom of Heaven. Yours is the
Vineyard. And you are not tenants. You are sons. Yes, even you daughters, you are sons in this
sense: You are the heir. You get the
inheritance. With Jesus Christ, who
died, and who is risen from the dead.
And here we are, beloved, gathered into the Vineyard where the Holy
Spirit has planted us, and the Father spreads His Table before us, where the
Son Himself serves up a Feast, His Body, His Blood, vintage wine and the Bread
of Life. Yes, this is the Lord’s doing,
this Feast of resurrection joy. And it
is marvelous in our eyes. In the Name of
the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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