Sunday October 5, 2008
Lessons
Brothers and sisters
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
"They will respect my Son.." These are the words that Jesus attributes to the landowner who represents God in the parable that we read about in this morning’s Gospel lesson. But looking at this parable in it’s entire context, it really is amazing that would be the thoughts of this landowner. How could this landowner possibly think that these tenants would respect His son? After everything that had taken place, after all the evil that these tenants had inflicted, why in the world would this landowner think that if He sent His Son that His Son would be safe?
It is totally and completely irrational. It was totally irrational that the landowner would send anybody after the tenants had beaten, killed, and stoned the first group of servants that the landowner had sent. That is not rational behavior. He didn’t go after the tenants. He didn’t call the local authorities. He didn’t even evict the tenants. I mean what kind of landlord doesn’t evict tenants after they kill someone sent to them by the landlord?
But, the reason why Jesus tells this parable, as irrational as the behavior of the landlord may have seemed, is because it is a direct reflection of how the Almighty God has related to His people throughout our history. From Moses to John the Baptist, the Almighty God continually and repeatedly sent prophet and servant after prophet and servant, and they were repeatedly rejected, despised and sometimes even killed.
In fact the period from about 900 BC until around 600 BC is considered to be the most wicked period in ancient Israel’s history. There were thirteen prophets sent during that period of time. The more wicked God’s people became, the more prophets were sent. During the exile of Israel in Babylon there were two sent and in the years after the exile there were three until finally John the Baptist.
But the Baptist signaled a breaking point. For John the Baptist came pointing the way to the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John the Baptist marks the beginning of the fulfillment of the words of Isaiah who says that the hedge that has been placed around the vineyard that is the house of Israel will be removed. The Almighty God had hoped that His people would yield good and fertile grapes but instead they yielded only wild grapes. Our Lord expected justice but instead saw only bloodshed and heard a cry.
But our Lord would send One more. He would send the One whom John the Baptist came pointing to. To His people He would send His Son. He would Send His Son. To His people who had shown themselves to be capable of rejecting those servants whom He had previously sent, time after time after time.
So His Son came. He came proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God. He came to bring recovery of sight to the blind, release to the captives and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. He came to announce the arrival of a kingdom that was not of this world. He came announcing Himself as the way, the truth, and the life and that nobody got to the Father but through Him. He came calling people to repent and believe upon Him. He came proclaiming not a righteousness built on good works but upon faith in Him.
But His people wanted nothing to do with that, and so they killed Him. They killed Him and the hedge was removed. They did not respect His Son. They killed Him and now the hedge around Israel was removed. They killed Him and now the house of God would be open not just exclusively to Israel but to gentiles as well.
But lest you think that this is simply about Israel, think again. Lest you think you have no culpability in the killing of the Son who was sent by God, Christ Jesus your Lord, think again. For just as the actions of the landlord are a direct reflection of how the Almighty God relates to His people, the actions of the tenants are a direct reflection of how we relate to our Lord.
This is not a parable that is stagnant in one particular period of time throughout history. The actions of the wicked tenants reflect the actions of God’s people throughout our entire history; from the Old Testament Israelites who rejected the prophets to the chief-priests, scribes and elders who arranged for Jesus’ crucifixion to us today who continue to kill the Word made flesh with our sin and rejection.
For you see, Christ Jesus came not just to teach us about mercy and forgiveness and then leave it in our hands to follow His example. Christ Jesus came to be, bring, and do mercy and forgiveness to us. He came to have mercy on us and to forgive us unconditionally. And this is not merely a concept or an idea for us to strive after, but rather it is His work. It is what He has done to and for us and what He continually does to and for us.
But total and complete mercy and forgiveness is a threat to our way of doing things. It’s a threat to our ego-driven eternity projects. It’s a threat to the sin and pride which we cling to for dear life or in some cases refuse to acknowledge. It’s a threat to the principalities and powers that we seek our hope in.
The love, grace, mercy and forgiveness of Christ Jesus shown on the cross exposes us as the sinners, idolaters, and crucifiers that we are, but then leaves us nowhere to go but to the crucified One. It leaves us nowhere to go but to the One who defeated sin and the devil for us and then ushered in new life for us when He was resurrected. The landowner who represented God the Father did say in the parable from the Gospel lesson "They will respect my Son" and that remains a true statement. It remains true because the One whom we kill with our sin refuses to leave us in our guilt and desperation.
Such was the case with Paul who found himself exposed for the sinner and crucifier that he was in his encounter with the crucified and risen Christ. For as Paul himself reminds us, if anyone had reason to be confident in the flesh he had more. If righteousness could be obtained through the law, Paul was blameless. And yet when he was struck by the living stone whom he rejected, all he could do was regard all of his works-based righteousness as loss. All he could do was to respect and believe upon the Son whom he persecuted and crucified.
And so the innocent and risen Son of God, Christ Jesus continues to come to the vineyard in Word and sacrament being, bringing and doing forgiveness to us the forgiven tenants. The word ‘respect’ can be defined as ‘turn to.’ In other words, one could very easily replace the word ‘respect’ here with ‘repent.’ And that would work because contrition, repentance and faith are primary among those fruits of which our Lord Jesus refers to when He says that the Kingdom of God will be given to a people that produce it’s fruits. In Word and sacrament Christ Jesus calls us to contrition, repentance and faith and produces those fruits in us.
He is the stone whom we rejected and yet remains the cornerstone of our faith as He comes to us in the waters of baptism and claims us as His own and continues to come to us in Word and sacrament as He will in a few moments in the bread and the wine of Holy Communion, creating, nurturing and sustaining faith in us; the faith that frees us to do the work to which we are called to love and serve our neighbor as we respect and believe upon the crucified and risen Son.
Amen
Brothers and sisters
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
"They will respect my Son.." These are the words that Jesus attributes to the landowner who represents God in the parable that we read about in this morning’s Gospel lesson. But looking at this parable in it’s entire context, it really is amazing that would be the thoughts of this landowner. How could this landowner possibly think that these tenants would respect His son? After everything that had taken place, after all the evil that these tenants had inflicted, why in the world would this landowner think that if He sent His Son that His Son would be safe?
It is totally and completely irrational. It was totally irrational that the landowner would send anybody after the tenants had beaten, killed, and stoned the first group of servants that the landowner had sent. That is not rational behavior. He didn’t go after the tenants. He didn’t call the local authorities. He didn’t even evict the tenants. I mean what kind of landlord doesn’t evict tenants after they kill someone sent to them by the landlord?
But, the reason why Jesus tells this parable, as irrational as the behavior of the landlord may have seemed, is because it is a direct reflection of how the Almighty God has related to His people throughout our history. From Moses to John the Baptist, the Almighty God continually and repeatedly sent prophet and servant after prophet and servant, and they were repeatedly rejected, despised and sometimes even killed.
In fact the period from about 900 BC until around 600 BC is considered to be the most wicked period in ancient Israel’s history. There were thirteen prophets sent during that period of time. The more wicked God’s people became, the more prophets were sent. During the exile of Israel in Babylon there were two sent and in the years after the exile there were three until finally John the Baptist.
But the Baptist signaled a breaking point. For John the Baptist came pointing the way to the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John the Baptist marks the beginning of the fulfillment of the words of Isaiah who says that the hedge that has been placed around the vineyard that is the house of Israel will be removed. The Almighty God had hoped that His people would yield good and fertile grapes but instead they yielded only wild grapes. Our Lord expected justice but instead saw only bloodshed and heard a cry.
But our Lord would send One more. He would send the One whom John the Baptist came pointing to. To His people He would send His Son. He would Send His Son. To His people who had shown themselves to be capable of rejecting those servants whom He had previously sent, time after time after time.
So His Son came. He came proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God. He came to bring recovery of sight to the blind, release to the captives and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. He came to announce the arrival of a kingdom that was not of this world. He came announcing Himself as the way, the truth, and the life and that nobody got to the Father but through Him. He came calling people to repent and believe upon Him. He came proclaiming not a righteousness built on good works but upon faith in Him.
But His people wanted nothing to do with that, and so they killed Him. They killed Him and the hedge was removed. They did not respect His Son. They killed Him and now the hedge around Israel was removed. They killed Him and now the house of God would be open not just exclusively to Israel but to gentiles as well.
But lest you think that this is simply about Israel, think again. Lest you think you have no culpability in the killing of the Son who was sent by God, Christ Jesus your Lord, think again. For just as the actions of the landlord are a direct reflection of how the Almighty God relates to His people, the actions of the tenants are a direct reflection of how we relate to our Lord.
This is not a parable that is stagnant in one particular period of time throughout history. The actions of the wicked tenants reflect the actions of God’s people throughout our entire history; from the Old Testament Israelites who rejected the prophets to the chief-priests, scribes and elders who arranged for Jesus’ crucifixion to us today who continue to kill the Word made flesh with our sin and rejection.
For you see, Christ Jesus came not just to teach us about mercy and forgiveness and then leave it in our hands to follow His example. Christ Jesus came to be, bring, and do mercy and forgiveness to us. He came to have mercy on us and to forgive us unconditionally. And this is not merely a concept or an idea for us to strive after, but rather it is His work. It is what He has done to and for us and what He continually does to and for us.
But total and complete mercy and forgiveness is a threat to our way of doing things. It’s a threat to our ego-driven eternity projects. It’s a threat to the sin and pride which we cling to for dear life or in some cases refuse to acknowledge. It’s a threat to the principalities and powers that we seek our hope in.
The love, grace, mercy and forgiveness of Christ Jesus shown on the cross exposes us as the sinners, idolaters, and crucifiers that we are, but then leaves us nowhere to go but to the crucified One. It leaves us nowhere to go but to the One who defeated sin and the devil for us and then ushered in new life for us when He was resurrected. The landowner who represented God the Father did say in the parable from the Gospel lesson "They will respect my Son" and that remains a true statement. It remains true because the One whom we kill with our sin refuses to leave us in our guilt and desperation.
Such was the case with Paul who found himself exposed for the sinner and crucifier that he was in his encounter with the crucified and risen Christ. For as Paul himself reminds us, if anyone had reason to be confident in the flesh he had more. If righteousness could be obtained through the law, Paul was blameless. And yet when he was struck by the living stone whom he rejected, all he could do was regard all of his works-based righteousness as loss. All he could do was to respect and believe upon the Son whom he persecuted and crucified.
And so the innocent and risen Son of God, Christ Jesus continues to come to the vineyard in Word and sacrament being, bringing and doing forgiveness to us the forgiven tenants. The word ‘respect’ can be defined as ‘turn to.’ In other words, one could very easily replace the word ‘respect’ here with ‘repent.’ And that would work because contrition, repentance and faith are primary among those fruits of which our Lord Jesus refers to when He says that the Kingdom of God will be given to a people that produce it’s fruits. In Word and sacrament Christ Jesus calls us to contrition, repentance and faith and produces those fruits in us.
He is the stone whom we rejected and yet remains the cornerstone of our faith as He comes to us in the waters of baptism and claims us as His own and continues to come to us in Word and sacrament as He will in a few moments in the bread and the wine of Holy Communion, creating, nurturing and sustaining faith in us; the faith that frees us to do the work to which we are called to love and serve our neighbor as we respect and believe upon the crucified and risen Son.
Amen
posted by Steve at 6:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home