Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
(Proper 22A)
October 8, 2023
Text:
Matt. 21:33-46
There are at least three
perspectives from which we should hear and consider our Lord’s parable this
morning.
First, we should hear it from the
perspective of the Chief Priests and Pharisees, the original target audience,
who perceived that Jesus was speaking the parable about them (Matt. 21:45). How so?
The Chief Priests and Pharisees know that they have been entrusted with
the care of the Vineyard. They are the
tenants, the husbandmen. And they know,
because they are well acquainted with our Old Testament reading, Isaiah’s Song
of the Vineyard (Is. 5:1-7), that the Vineyard is Israel. The Chief Priests and Pharisees, the clergy
of Israel, are charged with tending the Vineyard in such a way that it produces
fruit for the Master, which is to say, God.
And they understand that Jesus is accusing them of stealing the Vineyard
and keeping the fruit for themselves; disregarding the Master’s Word and
killing His servants, the prophets; and now murderously opposing the Son of the
Master, the Heir, that they might have the inheritance for themselves.
This is a Word of warning, first of
all, to all Christian clergy. God has
established His Vineyard. He has done all,
provided all that is needful for the flourishing of His Vineyard. He planted it, put a fence around it, dug a
wine press in it, built a tower for it.
Even as He planted His people of old in the Promised Land of Canaan, so
He has planted His Church in the world. The
fence, we may say, is His holy Word, which the preachers are to preach. It is for the protection of God’s people from
all that would harm them, the devil, the unbelieving world, our own sinful
flesh. It keeps the enemies out
of the Vineyard, and keeps the people of God in. The wine press, we might say, is the Spirit,
who brings forth the wine of joy. And
the tower… This is the watch tower, the pulpit, from which the clergy are to
shout, “The Master is coming, O people of God!
Prepare! Rejoice! And bring forth your fruit in faith and love!”
When the clergy fail to do that…
When they are in it only for their belly’s sake, or for the honor or prestige,
or simply as hired hands trying to make a living… When they let the fence fall
to ruin, failing to guard against false teachings, which are demonic, and the
wickedness and perversion which are the fruit of unbelief… When they seek to be popular with the world,
sell out to the world, compromise the holy Word of God in favor of the world… When they do not press the grapes for the
sweet wine of the Spirit, or allow the wine to become polluted… When they fail
to watch for the Master and herald His coming… What will happen when He does
come? The Chief Priests and Pharisees
get it right: “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; ESV). So, let the clergy
be warned.
But this is also a warning to you,
O people of God. He has planted you here
in His Church, where, by grace, He has provided all that is necessary
for your flourishing. Do not leave
the Vineyard. Do not go outside
the fence. That is the outer
darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And do not refuse the pressing in the wine
vat, which is repentance leading to the joy of forgiveness and life in
Christ, and the precious and holy cross laid upon you, which are the sufferings
of God’s people for the sake of Jesus, leading to eternal reward. And do not despise the heralds upon the
tower, the preachers who announce the Master’s coming and prepare you for
His Advent. Do not despise God’s holy
Word. He comes, our Lord and Master,
expecting fruit: Faith toward Him, and fervent love toward one another. Let us all repent and prepare. So, let us be warned.
Second, we should hear our Lord’s
parable from the perspective of the faithful servants sent to gather the
fruit. God sent prophet after prophet,
and He never promised them it would be easy.
They were compelled to go.
The love of Christ compels us, as Paul says (2 Cor. 5:14). In fact, many of the prophets were told to go
(though they didn’t want to), and God promised them the people would not
listen. For example, at one point,
Jeremiah is told, “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will
not listen to you. You shall call to
them, but they will not answer you” (Jer. 7:27). There is a seeming futility in it all. And then, you can look forward to horrendous
suffering, and likely, a martyr’s death.
How about that, dear prophet?!
Depart in peace, and in the joy of the Lord! Go to the Vineyard and collect My fruit. There you will be tortured, mocked, flogged,
and imprisoned, stoned, sawn in two, killed with the sword, made to go about in
skins of sheep and goats (a nasty method of execution where the animal skin is
sewn around your body, and as it dries, it squeezes you to death), destitute,
afflicted, mistreated… this is how the writer to the Hebrews describes the
prophetic life (Heb. 11:36-37). Dear people
of God, preachers and lay confessors alike, you can expect such treatment at
the hands of the world, and even from ungrateful and apostatizing Christians.
But then there is a word of
comfort. The Lord knows. He sees.
He hears your cries. He counts
your tossings, and stores up your tears in His bottle (Ps. 56:8). And He will not leave you in this
distress. Again, the writer to the
Hebrews: “God had provided something better for us” (11:40)… “Therefore,
since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,” namely, these
servants, the prophets, and our forefathers in the faith who have suffered for
Christ, “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely”…
repent!... “and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated
at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:1-2). Looking to Jesus, who suffered for us, and
surrounded by those who suffered for Him and now bask in His risen and
glorious presence, let us speak faithfully now, love faithfully now, suffer
faithfully now, in hope, for the sake of the joy that is to
come. The grapes are being pressed, that
the wine of joy may flow.
And that leads us to the third
perspective from which we should view this parable. God’s.
Look at His great love for His people, for Israel, for us. See how longsuffering He is. He sends us His servants. Prophet after prophet after prophet. Apostles.
Pastors. Christian family members
and friends. Brothers and sisters in
Christ. He sends and He sends, in the
face of great mistreatment. Even
violence and murder. And then, as the
climax of it all, He sends His Son.
His Son, the Heir, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thrown out of the Vineyard. Led in captivity outside the walls of
Jerusalem. Killed on a hill across the
way. Crucified, dead and buried. For God so loved the world, He gave His
only-begotten Son (John 3:16). But
He is not done. Having shed His blood in
atonement for the sins of His murderers, Jesus Christ is risen from the
dead. And He comes. God sends Him, even now. Not in wrath.
Not in vengeance. In
compassion. In love. For you. To make you His own. To plant you in His Vineyard. Still looking for fruit. Still providing everything for your
flourishing. Building you into a holy
House, the Stone the builders rejected, now the head of the corner. It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous
in our eyes (Matt. 21:42; Ps. 118:22-23).
It is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense for many (Rom.
9:33). It will break all who stumble
upon it, and crush all those upon whom it falls (Matt. 21:44). But “whoever believes in him will not be
put to shame” (Rom. 9:33). God so
loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, “that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). What wondrous love is this, O my soul? O love, how deep, how broad, how high! Love unknown, my Savior’s love to me. Love to the loveless shown, that they might
lovely be (LSB 543, 544, 430). God sends
His Son.
But the Son is it! There are no more after, or apart from, the
Son. He sends His Son to you, here and
now, in Word and Supper, in Baptism and Absolution and the mutual conversation
and consolation of your brothers and sisters in this Christian congregation;
that is, in the divinely appointed means of grace. Have Him now, and you have Him forever. And He Himself will bring forth fruit in you. But you don’t have to have Him, and
this is the warning. If you will not
have Him as He comes to you now, you will stumble upon, and be crushed by, this
Stone.
For, understand, He is coming
again. He is coming to judge. As your preacher, and as His herald, I am on
the Vineyard tower, and I see Him, now, on the move. He is coming, beloved, to gather the
grapes and enjoy the sweet wine. Greet
Him not in bitterness and fear, grabbing up whatever you can and fleeing the
Vineyard. Greet Him with joy and with
praise upon your lips. Prepare. Rejoice.
Receive Him, and all that is His.
And bring forth for Him the fruit of faith and love. This is the Son. And here is a great mystery. He has been thrown out of the Vineyard and
killed. But now He is risen. And the inheritance is ours. Why? Because
He gives it to us. In the Name of the
Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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