Fifth Sunday in Lent
Deuteronomy 18:15-22, 1 Peter 4:12-19, Luke 20:9-18
Rejoice in the Sufferings of Christ
Jesus’ encounters with the Pharisees were always occasions for high drama. I can’t think of one of them, with the single exception of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, where Jesus and the religious leadership of the day didn’t strike sparks when they engaged one another. It is instructive that Nicodemus’ conversation, recorded in the Gospel of John, was a private conversation – unlike what we just heard read in the gospel lesson from Luke, which took place in full view of the crowds that were building in Jerusalem, as the celebration of the Passover was just a few days off.
Nicodemus’ covert meeting with Jesus highlights two things we need to keep in mind as we consider the gospel lesson for today. First of all, Nicodemus, whom John calls a member of the Pharisee party and a leader of the Jews, reveals a startling fact about the Pharisees’ view of Jesus. He opens his conversation with Jesus in the middle of the night with these words: "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." You see, Nicodemus and the other Pharisees were well acquainted with the Old Testament lesson we heard read a moment ago. They all knew that the performance of signs and wonders was one credential – not the only one, and not even the most important one – but, still, one credential of a prophet sent from God. And, they recognized the significance of these signs and wonders which Jesus was performing.
The second thing Nicodemus’ nighttime visit reveals is the fear and loathing which the Pharisees had for Jesus and his ministry. That is why Nicodemus comes at night – he is afraid of the consequences for himself, if it were known that he was consulting with this itinerant preacher whose teaching so profoundly threatened the power and prestige of Israel’s religious leadership.
But now we see in Luke 20 one of the last confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees. There are many different implications of the encounter recorded in today’s gospel lesson. For one thing, Jesus words to the religious leadership show us the moment in time when it became is virtually certain that Israel will be set aside as the national instrument through which God will work in history. At this point, the form, shape, and mission of the Church are still not revealed; but Jesus lays the end of Israel’s mission on the table, for all to see.
This encounter between Jesus and the religious leadership is also rich with opportunities for presenting a gospel message of the "repent, before it is too late" variety. But all of you are believers; and, so I want to provide for you from this gospel lesson something which will strengthen your life in Christ.
Two things in this lesson are pertinent for believers, and I will mention one of them only in passing, before I develop a different idea. Today’s gospel lesson provides a stern warning for those who name the name of Christ -- for the Jews were known for the name of their God. If nothing else, this encounter shows us an application of the warning God attached to the third commandment, which reads like this: Do not lift the name of the Lord your God to vanity, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. The stewards in Jesus’ parable most certainly held the name of their landlord in scorn, repudiating his messengers and killing his son. While Jesus does not explicitly link their crimes to the third commandment, it is not rocket science for us to see the parallels to it in the tale that Jesus tells.
But, beyond the warning for believers in this passage, is there anything hopeful? Anything other than warning? Is there something in this dramatic confrontation which can encourage US? And, if so, under what kind of circumstances? I think there is something encouraging for us here, and that is what I wish to share with you now.
Let’s quickly note the context of the encounter. Jesus has already entered the city during Passion Week. The previous chapter of Luke has recounted how Jesus entered the city, hailed by the crowds as the King who comes in the name of the Lord! [Luke 19:39]. He then went to the Temple, and for the second time in his ministry, he chased out the money changers and the sellers of animals for the sacrifices.
This really got the attention of the Pharisees, for the Passover was just days away, and Jerusalem was filling up with worshippers from all over the Mediterranean basin and for hundreds of miles to the east. Can you imagine what Waxahachie’s leaders would think if someone ran into Getzendaner Park on Saturday morning of the Gingerbread Trail and tore down all the booths and tables of the arts and crafts merchants? Passover for the Temple merchants and money changers was very much like the Christmas season for American retailers – the prime time to make most of the profit that they were going to make for that year.
And, after driving out all the merchants, Jesus remained in the Temple courts, teaching the people, and these were large crowds of people who were arriving for the Passover, and they had no doubt heard about Jesus, and here he was. The Pharisees simply had to do something.
And, so they confront Jesus, demanding to know by whose authority he is doing what he is doing in the Temple. He first gives them a counter-question, asking them to declare whether John the Baptist’s ministry was from God or from men. And next he tells them the parable in our gospel lesson for today.
Parables are amazing things. They can have two different effects. They can be told to reveal things, or they can be told to conceal things. Jesus used parables to do both – sometimes to illustrate something he was teaching; sometimes to hide something he was teaching, so that only those who had the parable explained to them could understand his point.
On this occasion, however, Jesus purpose was clearly to reveal something. And, the leaders didn’t fail to get his point. In the parable, God is the owner of the vineyard, and the vineyard is the nation Israel. A vine and a vineyard are common Old Testament images for Israel, one which the Pharisees would recognize immediately. The stewards are the religious leaders of the nation.
The landlord’s messengers are the Prophets of the Old Testament. And the treatment which the Prophets received would also be well known to the Pharisees. In fact, the treatment they received as they came to the nation from God was so consistently bad that Jesus made a proverb out of it – “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country.” The Landlord’s son, of course, is a reference to Jesus Himself, coming to Israel as God’s true son. And the stewards decision to kill the son, so they could possess the vineyard for themselves reveals exactly what was on the hearts of the Pharisees and Sadducees at this point. They were intent on killing Jesus and putting an end to his meddling in their cozy and comfortable leadership of the nation.
The most striking them about this encounter, I think, is found in the Pharisees response when Jesus said this to them: “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
Luke tells us that when the people heard this, they said, “May this never be!”
This is a surprising reaction, don’t you think? In the context of the parable Jesus has told, the landlord’s judgment sounds imminently reasonable. Why should the Landlord NOT kill the tenants? The tenants had just killed his son, and shown in the clearest possible terms that they were not going to serve the Landlord. Why shouldn’t the Landlord kill the wicked tenants and give the vineyard to someone else? And, yet the people – both the crowds and the Pharisees – say, “Certainly not! May it never be! No way, Jose!!” Doesn’t this strike you as very odd?
It is not very odd, it is instead quite reasonable, on one condition – and that condition is this: everyone listening to Jesus knew exactly what he was meaning by the parable. They didn’t need anyone to explain to them what all the parts of it meant. They knew that Jesus was claiming to be the Son of God, come to Israel, and that the Pharisees were the tenants, determined to kill God’s Son. Given all that, what Jesus says is going to happen amounts to this – Israel as God’s people is over and done with, and specifically the Pharisees and Sadducees and all the Temple administration – all of it, is going to die in a terrible judgment and the ministry and mission it once had will be given to the Gentiles. This was something next to impossible for any Jew to contemplate. That is why their reaction – the reaction of the Pharisees and the people alike – was the same: God forbid! Certainly not! Such a thing is unthinkable!!
Not so, Jesus say. And he points them to a prophecy in Psalm 118, a messianic Psalm. “ 17Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone? 18Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
I told you there was something encouraging for believers today in all this. What do you suppose it is? It is two things: something amazing and important for us to keep always in mind about our Savior, and something to keep in mind about ourselves.
First of all – something about our Savior. Remember, this is the middle of the Passion Week. Jesus is barely three days away from being crucified outside Jerusalem. And, as you observe how he comports himself, as you watch how he deals with the religious leadership of the Temple, it is clear to anyone that he is no victim. He is NOT a victim of either circumstances or powers beyond his control. Quite the contrary. To die for the sins of the world is THE thing for which he has come into the world, as he approaches the climax of his mission, he is in complete and utter control of it. His death is no accident, his death is most certainly no tragedy, as some sentimentally minded folk have often supposed. It is his mission – and we watch it unfold in the gospel accounts of Passion week, we see that his mission is flawlessly and completely accomplished. Jesus wasn’t making it up as he went along. He was leading every one, every step of the way in which he walked. I trust this is encouraging to you as you reflect on the character of the one we own as our Lord.
Secondly, we should be encouraged by this, because of what we were talking about last night in our time of study. The Church is Christ’s body, and he is the head of it. We have, for our head, the one we see in the gospel lesson today – one who is sure, confident, resolute, totally in control of events around himself, even in the midst of persecution, hostility, and murderous enmity. He faced all of that, submitted himself to all of that, and triumphed over all of that in his resurrection from the dead. “We will kill you,” they said. And Jesus said back to them: “Okay. Go for it. Here. I’ll make sure you succeed. And, then we’ll find out what’s next.” From our end, we know what’s next – his death on the cross – and from that event a whole host of consequences, none of them intended by his murderers, but all of them abounding to victory for us who trust in Jesus. And, this is the one who is the head of that body of which we are all members.
How can this encourage you? Here’s how – if we are Christians, it will inevitably, sooner or later, result in our own persecution, our own facing hostility and enmity from the world, and – if it is God’s will – our own martyrdom. Do you remember what we read in the Epistle assigned for today? Let’s look at it again:
“12Dear friends,” Peter writes, “do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.” Painful trials? Why are these not strange? They are not strange because they are what Jesus faced, and we are now members of his body. And so what should we think of trials and persecutions when they come? Peter tells us, “But rejoice,” he says. “…rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” Your suffering is not a persecution of you – it is a persecution of the one whose body you are a member of. It is a persecution of Christ, and that is why you participate in it, because you are a member of his Body.
And, so Peter wrote, “14If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. … if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. …19So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”
A few months after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, Peter and John were arrested for healing a paralyzed man. The same Jewish Council which had sentenced Jesus to die summoned Peter and John and accused them of deceiving the people. Peter took the opportunity to tell this council what Jesus had told the Pharisees in today’s gospel lesson: In Acts 4:10-12 Peter said, “Know this, you and all the people of Israel: it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is the ‘stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Peter wasn’t talking huff and puff here. He not only talked the talk, he walked the walk. And he did so, because he knew was a member of a new Body – the Church, and he knew its head – Jesus Christ. And, he knew that no persecution for doing good could ever overcome him, that no threat of death should ever make him fear. Most importantly, no matter how threatening the persecution should be – Peter was not going to worry about the ultimate outcome. Jesus had already faced the worst the world could offer, and he had overcome it. This is what gave Peter – and all the Apostles – that quality of character that appears to be reckless in the face of adversity and persecution. It was, after all, not recklessness at all. It was confidence in their Savior, and a committing of themselves to their faithful Creator as they continued to do good.
God grant that when we face any adversity for the sake of Christ that we may have the same confidence, the same commitment to perseverance in His service, and the same joy as we anticipate the glory to be revealed in us at his appearing.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
