Matthew 21:33-46
A Nice (?) Tale
The story is told that one morning a pastor was on his way to do some calling. It was a lovely autumn day, as he cruised along in his deluxe Toyota Camry. Construction was continuing along one stretch of the highway, and signs indicated traffic, was being reduced to one lane. He eased into that lane well ahead of time. The he noticed a white sedan was whizzing past everybody, trying to squeeze in front before the highway narrowed to a single lane. But the final narrowing was just ahead, and so the pastor eased on his brakes to allow the sedan to merge. Just then a “Bam” interrupted his peaceful cruise as a semi-trailer behind crashed into his car. He was stunned. His lovely Toyota Camry was totaled. In an instant, his peaceful journey had turned into a nightmare.
When Jesus started his story that day, it sounded like a nice tale. A landowner plants a vineyard, and constructs a wine press. Vineyards can be quite lovely, and we have noticed that they might be fun to walk through and suspect that some persons make a part of their vacation an opportunity to tour wine country.
I understand that the wine press consisted of two troughs, hollowed out of rock or made of bricks. One trough was higher than the other and connected to the lower by a channel. Grapes would be pressed in the higher trough, and then the juice would run down to the lower. The owner surrounded the vineyard with a dense hedge of thorn bushes.
The owner in Jesus’ story has leased out the vineyard and periodically sends someone to collect the rent. One day, the owner sends his servants for the rent. This is where the story takes a shocking turn. The tenants beat up the servants, killing one of them. Another group is sent, and they get the same treatment. Finally, the owner sends his own son to collect what is due, but the tenants seize and kill him too.
So much for the pleasant wine country tour! The travelogue has become a tragedy, a tale of greed, violence, and sorrow. Jesus’ audience for this story is the chief priests and the elders. As they hear this account of rebellion and disobedience, they become indignant: Why those wretches ought to die!
Then Jesus brings it all home. He says that the owner’s son is like the stone, which the builders rejected, and God made the cornerstone. Suddenly, it dawns on Jesus’ listeners what this story is about. The vineyard is the nation of Israel. The owner is God. The tenant farmers are the religious leaders, entrusted with leading people to faithful obedience. The messengers were the prophets of Israel, who were rejected. The son is Jesus.
Now the spotlight shines on the religious leaders. What will they do with God’s Son, who has come to claim his due? Anytime we are confronted with the reality of Jesus and his claim on our lives, we are summoned to respond. The religious officials grow angry and want to arrest Jesus, but the crowds would never stand for it.
May I suggest that the parable discloses a great deal about humans and quite a bit about Jesus. I believe it tells us about “human privilege.” The landowner furnishes his tenants with a fine vineyard, a wine press, and a lookout tower. It even has a hedge around it. That is how generous God treats us. God entrusts us with talents, possessions, and time, and makes us stewards. Sometimes we forget that everything we have belongs ultimately to God, so that when we are invited to share that with which we have been entrusted, we get defensive. Sometimes, we even get mad. It is reported that a church member once said: “Every time I hear the word money spoken in church, there is a nerve that runs from my pocketbook to my brain.”
Jesus’ story of the vineyard tenants stirred up controversy. Today, we still forget too often that with great privilege comes great responsibility. We are stewards of God for the greater good of God’s realm.
Jesus’ story also tells us about “human answerability.” The beating and the stoning of the landowner’s representatives was not the last word. The owner will come and give the vineyard to someone else. There was a time when preachers would have a field day with the parable. Their imaginations would run wild with vivid descriptions of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” as Jonathan Edwards phrased it in his famous sermon. The primary attribute of God was understood to be holiness; the primary attribute preachers sought to inculcate in their people was fear.
In our time, few sermons treat such themes as holiness or final judgment. Nowadays, I think, we have a domesticated God. We’ve got a kinder, gentler God, who is nice and loving and doesn’t much care what the kids do.
In truth God is both holy and loving. WE are accountable, and a judgment day is coming. God sent Jesus, God’s own Son, knowing full well that the tenants would kill him, but that is not the last word. The rock tossed aside as worthless becomes the cornerstone. The rejected one is the chosen one. God takes the worst thing that could happen – the murder of His innocent Son – and turns it into the best thing that could happen, an act of reconciliation for the world.
That is the last thing we see in Jesus’ parable. It portrays the claim of Jesus upon our lives. Jesus is not just another servant, another prophet. He is the very Son of God who has lived life, died our death, and been raised in triumph.
In the words of the hymn writer Isaac Watts: “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
PRAYER: Merciful God, you send the rain to fall and the sun to shine on the just and the unjust. Forgive us for thinking that we deserve your grace. Yet you have loved us and forgiven us through the cross of your Son. May we ever remember that the ground is level at the foot of the cross! You have given us all we are and have. May we share out of the abundance you have entrusted to us, until the entire world knows! These things we humbly ask through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
