Text: Matthew 21:33-46 Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
- 33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
- 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
- ‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;[a]
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’? - 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.[b] 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”[c]
- 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
The theme last week was authority. There are several elements in this week’s lesson – greed figures prominently – but the overarching theme seems to me to be obedience (or the lack thereof).
At the outset, we need to note that this parable is an important one – it’s one of only three that are found in the “Synoptic Gospels” (“synoptic” from the Greek meaning “seeing together”) of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (though, as we will soon see, each of the writers gives it his own “spin”) – so we need to pay attention.
But first, a bit of history. A few weeks ago, in the context of another of the hard sayings of Jesus, I made the point that Matthew’s Gospel was written to address the circumstances of Christians in Palestine at the time it was written, and I think it’s worth talking about that again.
Although Matthew’s Gospel is the first in the New Testament, it was actually not first to be written – Mark is the oldest Gospel; most scholars agree that Mark was written around 70 A.D. It’s important to note that 70 A.D. was also the year when the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, in response to the Judean revolt that had begun four years earlier, in 66 A.D. This revolt, known as the First Jewish-Roman War, lasted until 73 A.D. The tensions between the Romans and the Jews were just as great 10 and even 20 years later, and in fact, the Jews rose in revolt twice more, in the years 115-117 A.D. – this is known as the “Kitos War” – and then again in the years 132-136 A.D., in the “Bar Kokhba Revolt.”[1] Matthew and Luke wrote their Gospels somewhere in the middle of this period of great unrest.
This is the backdrop against which Matthew and Luke were written. They were written independently of each other, somewhere between 80 and 90 A.D., just after the First Jewish-Roman War. As we discovered a few weeks ago, Matthew’s audience was comprised of members of the Jewish community who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Professor L. Michael White of the University of Texas at Austin tells us: “Matthew’s gospel is clearly written for a Jewish Christian audience living within the immediate proximity of the homeland itself. Matthew’s is the most Jewish of all the gospels. The community for which Matthew was written was a Jewish Christian community that was encountering some new tensions in the period of reconstruction after the first revolt. It would appear that they’ve been there for quite some time. They actually show a consciousness of an older legacy of Jesus’ tradition, going back to before the war. But now they’re experiencing new tensions and new problems in the aftermath of the revolt as a political and social reconstruction is taking place.”[2]
And, of course, we can’t emphasize enough that Matthew’s audience was at that very moment in history bearing the brunt of horrible persecutions ordered by the Emperor Domitian. Many of the people who heard Matthew’s Gospel read to them no doubt knew, or knew of, people who had been murdered for their faith. So when they heard that the people who were hurting them would one day get their comeuppance, it was no doubt welcome news that helped them to stand firm in their faith. They were very happy to hear these words: “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,” because they naturally identified themselves as those faithful servants, and identified the Romans and all those who persecuted them as the doomed wretches. Even more than that, hearing the quote from Psalm 118 about the stone that was rejected now becoming the chief cornerstone couldn’t help but give them a sense of validation and a real hope. And hope was in short supply. Matthew writes as a caring rabbi to his audience, and helps them to steel themselves against the storm.
Knowing this background information makes this passage a bit more understandable. On the face of it, it’s hard to reconcile what we know of Jesus with what we read here. We don’t normally associate Jesus with words like “and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” It’s rather jarring, like a wrong chord in an otherwise beautiful concerto.
Within a century or two after Matthew wrote his Gospel, Christianity went from being a persecuted minority religion to being the main religion of the Roman Empire. The days of persecution were gone. Sadly, since that time, passages like this one have often been misused. This passage was quoted frequently throughout the Middle Ages as well as in other periods of history to justify the persecution of others, chiefly the Jews, but others, too. And bad things always came of it.
This is another case where we can profit from bearing in mind that famous quote of Mark Twain that I’ve used before: “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” In other words, be careful of your assumptions and make sure of the validity of your attitudes. It would be the easiest thing in the world for us today to also misuse this passage, and treat it as a kind of self-vindication – “You see! We’ve got the goods! God is on OUR side, NOT yours!” And, sadly, we don’t have to look too far to find examples of people who say exactly that and behave accordingly. I once was shown a belt buckle from a World War II German army uniform which had the words “Gott mit uns” – “God with us” on it. Ironically, our side also believed that God was with us. But the truth is always that God does not take sides, nor did Jesus come among us to be some kind of enforcer for God in defense of one side or the other. This isn’t an “us-or-them” situation. The age-old question – “how are we to live together?” can’t be answered with simple black-and-white answers.
That was the attitude of the Pharisees, after all, which is what caused the problem in the first place!
One of the main things we learn from this story is that God is very patient. He created the vineyard, worked it, made it ready for planting and harvesting – in short, he cared for, he loved, his vineyard. And then he entrusted it to people with the expectation that it would bear fruit.
So, at this point we need to answer the question as to who the new tenants actually are in this passage. You’ve probably already guessed it: We are. All of us who are members of the Church.
God, the owner of the vineyard, showers on us blessing after blessing in his crazy love for us. But that love requires a response from us. It is not nearly enough to just accept these blessings and do nothing else than simply sit back and enjoy them.
There are those out there – and I know some of them – who love to repeat that time-worn phrase “I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior,” and wear it like a badge of honor – but don’t do one single thing in response. Still others I know have the attitude that they’re members of the right, the true, the only church, and the rest of us are just a bunch of delusional also-rans. Maybe they haven’t read Matthew 7:1-5:
“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s[a] eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbor,[b] ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s[c] eye.” (NRSV)
None of us has the right to get all high and mighty and smug: “I’ve got the goods – you don’t!” That just leads to brokenness – broken relationships with others, and a broken relationship with God. That’s what the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees had already given the world, and God had had enough of that. Hearts full of gratitude and willing hands are the proper equipment for working in God’s vineyard.
Jesus came to us and dwelt among us to restore the world to its divinely created order. Everything Jesus did – every act, every parable, every miracle of his ministry – had that as its purpose. We see it everywhere in the Gospels: The sick are made well, sinners are restored, and God is glorified. Jesus brings wholeness to a broken world, providing a glimpse into what he elsewhere calls “the kingdom of heaven.” This is what God’s creation is supposed to look like.
As the new tenants of God’s vineyard, that is our mandate. We will be measured on how well – or how badly – we follow Jesus’ example. So I think it’s a good idea for us to get into the habit of measuring ourselves by that standard.
This is not something to fear. It is something to celebrate. Never forget that we have not been left to our own devices. Never forget that God is also always at work, supporting us and restoring us. Never forget that the vineyard is God’s. We are called and invited to be part of the team. If we do our best, God will supply the rest!
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish%E2%80%93Roman_wars
[2] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/matthew.html