THE SONG OF THE
VINEYARD
For the next eight Sundays we are going to be looking at
the final days of Jesus’ life through the eyes of Luke. We want to prepare our
hearts for the gospel event known as the crucifixion of Jesus by reviewing
those days.
Jesus
did some outrageous things. Some would say “crazy” things. When he entered
Jerusalem on a donkey, he received the peoples’ joy at the coming of their
king; Jesus proceeded to the temple where he upset the tables of merchants
selling shoddy products to poor worshipers, saying, “You have made my Father’s
house a den of robbers.” Jesus then set up shop in the temple and began to
teach people about his Father.
These
are outrageous acts of a madman, if you happen to be a devout Jew in first
century Judea. A pauper accepts the title of “king”; he declares God to be his
Father; and he teaches in the temple courts without invitation. Outrageous
stuff. Where does he presume to possess such authority?
That is
the question the leading Jews ask him. “Tell us by what authority you are doing
these things. Who gave you this authority?”
At
first, Jesus doesn’t answer. He asks a question that the Jewish leaders can’t
answer for fear of looking stupid. Jesus says he won’t answer them either about
where he got his authority. But then he tells them a parable.
Jesus
told lots of parables. This one is different. It is the most allegorical of all
his parables. John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s
Progress is an allegory depicting life as a journey. In an allegory every
element represents a reality. Parables don’t necessarily do that. But in this
parable, the vineyard, the owner, the farmers, the servants and the son all
stand for real persons.
What we
have in this parable is the ultimate explanation of Jesus’ death, before he died. Everyone listening to
Jesus that day knew what it meant. And we also know that this parable is a
lively picture of redemptive history of the whole Bible. It is a picture of the
loving God who took the initiative in creating, permitting the fall, sending his
prophets, and finally his Son. We have here the climactic claim of Christianity
that this Jesus is actually God’s own beloved Son. And, after all the blessings
and privileges of God had been given to people, this parable tells how they
killed God’s Son and what will happen to them as a result.
1. God planted a vineyard
To what would you compare your life? A barren field of
weeds, nettles and thorns? Is there nothing fruitful, fragrant or nourishing
about your life? Hasn’t God been abundantly good to you, giving you great gifts
– your intelligence, your years of peace and prosperity, loved ones and
friends? How do you respond to this? God comes looking for fruit – what does he
find?
“A man planted a vineyard…” This is God.
It is an old story – one every Jew knew. The most famous prophecy telling of
this vineyard is Isaiah 5:1-7 (read). The vineyard God planted is the
House of Israel, a spiritual people, a blessed people – but the harvest was
disappointing. God had pruned and watered and fertilized the vines, but the
grapes were small and bitter. You can’t make wine from bitter fruit.
God is
the planter and owner of the vineyard. He owns
it. And he has the right to expect a return on his investment. If the vineyard
represents the people of God, whom he has blessed and nourished with good
things, should he not harvest what he has planted? Every spiritual and physical
blessing we have is a gift from God.
God
comes to us and he looks for some fruit from his goodness to us, the fruit of
acknowledging him as God, the fruit of worship, service, keeping ourselves
holy, keeping our tongues from foul speech and your life pure and your marriage
sacred. What does he find?
2. God sent his servants to look for fruit
According to Jesus’ parable, the owner entrusted the
vineyard into the care of the farmer-tenants. The owner himself went away for a
long time allowing the tenants to work the vines without supervision. They were
their own bosses it seems.
But at
harvest time, the owner sent a servant to collect “some” of the fruit of the
vineyard. God is not greedy or demanding, but he does want to share in the
fruitfulness of the vineyard. He deserves to as the major investor, as the
owner.
What do
the tenants do to the servant? They beat him and humiliated him and sent him
away. He had to return to the owner, bloodied and bruised with torn clothes to
report that the tenants refuse to give the owner what he deserves. In his great
patience and forbearance, the owner sends two more servants, who are likewise
beaten and humiliated.
These
tenants are the Jewish leaders, the shepherds of Israel and this is what they
did to God’s prophets. God entrusted the leaders of Israel with God’s people –
with his covenants, his laws, the feasts and sacrifices – to teach God’s ways.
But instead they led the people astray. They twisted the laws for their own
benefit; they preached ‘peace’ when there was sin in their midst and hostility
towards God. We see this in two places:
When
Elijah stood before the people on Mount Carmel alone against 850 prophets of
Baal, he said, “How long will you waver
between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God,
follow him,” (1 Kgs 18:21). But the people said nothing.
And
secondly, all you have to do is look at this chapter in Luke. The chief
priests, elders and scribes who taught in the synagogues, the same men who were
supposed to nurture faithfulness in Israel and prepare people for the Messiah,
were plotting to kill that same Messiah.
What do
the prophets say these caretakers did? “Many
shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my
pleasant field into a desolate wasteland,” (Jer 12:10).
3. God sent his Son and they killed him
This is the answer to the question the Jewish elders and
priests asked Jesus – “where did you get your authority?”
The
owner, thinking aloud, says, “What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love;
perhaps they will respect him.” Only one person comes to mind when we read our
Bibles and see those words “my beloved Son.” The beloved Son, the
only-begotten, is the most precious of all persons to everyone who believes. We
know who this is!
In this
same gospel, chapter 3:22, at Jesus’ baptism, we read the words God spoke, “You are my Son, whom I love.” So Jesus
tells a parable with a son who is loved – this is Jesus. If you want to know
the most elementary truth about who Jesus is, then this is it: he is the
beloved Son of God. Here too is his authority – he is sent from the Father God.
The
owner of the vineyard sends his son, his beloved son, and here the tenants make
a grave error. Since the owner has been gone so long, they assume he is dead.
Under Jewish law, property not claimed within a specific time could be claimed
by the first party to do so. Here comes the son – if we kill him, they think,
they get the inheritance. Fools! People are fools if they think they can ignore
God all their lives and then when they die they think they’ve won.
Friedrich
Nietzsche is largely responsible for the “God is dead” theology of the last
century. He figured that humankind had killed God with reason and enlightenment
so that there was no more place for God in our world. People go on with their
lives today as though God doesn’t matter. Some might acknowledge a higher power
but ultimately refuse to have a relationship with Christ, God’s Son. In a
sense, they kill the Savior since he is of no consequence to their lives.
The
tenants took the Son and butchered him. Jesus is telling a story about what
will happen to himself in a few short days. Jesus knew that he was the end of
the line – the prophets had come, largely ignored and some killed – and he was
the Father’s last and best Word to the people. That’s why he had the authority
to say the things he said and do the things he did. “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many
times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his
Son…” (Heb 1:1-2).
As we
read this parable we see what is going to happen. We know that the son will be
killed and we want to say to the owner of the vineyard “stop!” God replies, “I
know. I know what they will do to my precious Son, Jesus. But that’s why I have
sent him.” The Father knows. The Son knows. They knew before the creation of
the world
Do you
believe in God? Do you believe in the God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you believe that the Cross of Christ was planned out of love for you
so that Christ would be an offering for your sins?
4. God condemns those who hate his Son
Jesus asks, “What
then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?” Will he shrug and say, “I
don’t judge.” God is love, so he won’t condemn?
What
would you do if someone took your dearly beloved child and murdered him?
Wouldn’t you want to see justice done? I am not saying you should seek
vengeance and gut the killer yourself. No, you would have to trust the
authorities to bring about justice. You have to do the right thing. But you
wouldn’t ignore the crime.
Are we
more loving than Jesus? No. So what did the loving Man say of his Father’s
response to those who killed his Son? “He will come and kill those tenants and
give the vineyard to others.” Jesus wept over Jerusalem when he entered it; he
wept for the people who were blind to his coming; he would have then said this
sadly. But he would say the wages of sin is death. Since we live in a moral
universe with a holy God, we know that a person reaps what he sows. The Creator
who blesses us richly with vineyards also expects us to keep the terms of
agreement of living and moving and having our being in him.
What
Jesus said – God giving the vineyard to others – struck the Jews directly. They
knew he meant that God would give his vineyard to the Gentiles. “God forbid,”
they replied.
So Jesus
looks them square in the eyes and asks, “What do you make of this prophecy? ‘The stone the builders rejected has become
the cornerstone?’” A Jewish proverb put it like this, “If the stone falls
on the pot, alas for the pot; if the pot falls on the stone, alas for the pot!”
(Midrash Esther 3:6). Either way, the pot loses and the stone wins.
Jesus is
that stone. He said, “Whoever believes in
him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because
he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son,” (John 3:18).
The
masons overlooked this strangely shaped stone; it didn’t fit their plans for
the great building. Then one day they needed a capstone on their fine artifice
and this stone was perfect. Christ does not fit most people’s design for
living. He is loving and righteous, merciful and kind, yet full of hard sayings
and talk of judgment and eternal punishment. But he can order demons to be
quiet and still storms; he is the Rock of Ages, the chief cornerstone. He will
either trip you up while you are trying to avoid him, or he will be the chief
piece of your life that you have been missing for so long. That’s how Jesus
ends this parable.
What do you think of this parable? Does it stir you to
thought? Or does it offend you? These are the words of Jesus. And I would think
that the words of the greatest man who ever lived, the man who died and rose
again, would cause us all to stop and pay attention.
Jesus
was killed by the people who were supposed to receive him. In the next eight
weeks we are going to visit the scenes of the murder again, as we tend to do at
this time of the year. We are casual observers of this crime scene, as though
we were watching an episode of Crime Scene Investigation or Law and Order. What
we may be surprised to learn is that when the criminals are caught we will find
that they are “us.”
We
helped put Jesus to death. The strange thing is, we will not be held to account
for the murder of the Son of God if we put our faith in him alone. It is only
those who refuse him who are left with this condemnation of hating God’s Son.
The really peculiar thing about this Jesus is that he wants to shower us with
forgiveness and grace. The real crime is in not accepting his love which he so
freely gives. He is so loving and kind it makes no sense to refuse him.
Will the
Lord find good fruit in his vineyard? Yahweh has been singing the Song of the
Vineyard for millennia. It is near to harvest time and we must get ready.
Amazing
grace to sinners who repent for killing the Son of God.
AMEN
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