Growing up on a farm in south eastern Iowa, I can relate to the parable in the Gospel. We rented farm ground from others, for hay and extra grain ground. Part of the contract usually involved a share of the grain and bales of hay to go to the landlord. However tenant farming in this parable is more like that of the sharecropper farms in the South. Where the land lord supplied the seed to the tenants, whose job was to plant it, harvest it, and receive a “share” to pay back their expenses for the year.
In this parable the land owner, has come to collect his crop from his tenant farmers. The problem is the tenants have conspired to break their contract and keep the crop for themselves. The land owner sends his own hired hands to enforce the contract, but the tenants revolt and beat up, murder, and execute the employees. Rather than calling the law enforcement, this landlord sends his own son to make sure the contract is carried out. But the tenants have another idea; they feel if they kill the son, the landlord will have no choice but to make them heirs to his land. For the landlord will surely not endanger his self to reclaim his land. What they failed to realize in their greed is that the land lord would lease the land to others and drive the rebellious tenants off.
Why did Jesus tell the Pharisee’s this parable, and what did he mean by his response to their answer? Let me reread Matthew 21:42-44
Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.
He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."
The scripture Jesus refers to is from Psalm 118 verse 22 to be exact. But what Jesus trying to tell his audience. The Pharisee’s were quick to understand the message within the parable. You see the land owner is God, the Father, and the tenants are the Isrealites, while the land owner’s servants were the prophets. You see nearly every time God sent one of His prophets to remind the Isrealites of their “contract” with Him. They would either beat up, stone, or kill the prophets out right.
Now keep in mind a prophet is not necessarily someone who predicts the future. The biblical prophets usually reminded the people of the covenant they had made with God. The prophets revealed God’s promises to these people. Most of the time when a prophet had a warning for the people, they had a choice to make. God never sugar coats the outcomes, and it was eventually the people and the rulers own decisions that sealed their fates. Unfortunately, a number of the rulers whether it was kings or priests felt if they killed or stifled the prophet, that they could remain ignorant of the punishment God had for them. Much like the tenants in this parable who felt that the land owner needed them more than they needed him.
So here we go again, the Pharisee’s probably thought, another prophet. The Pharisee’s did not really want another Jeremiah, or Isaiah, and they most definitely did not what another Elijah or Moses. They were actually happy with the status quo and did not want their apple cart turned over. Do not get me wrong, the Pharisee were not happy with the Roman Government, they were happy with being on top of the Hebrew/Israelite hierarchy. They were happy in the fact, that they had created a religious system that benefited them not only in money, but status. Remember what I said last week, status is even more of a temptation than money. Status for you kids that would be popularity, and in this case the Pharisees and Saduccees were at the top of the popularity food chain in their own world that is. Outside of their circles they were feared and despised.
What Jesus was telling the Pharisees is that God had a covenant/contract with you and you have consistently reneged on that contract. Now it is time for me to make a contract with some else to share my fruits with. You chose to ignore me; you have taken advantage of the Law for your own benefit, and to interpret the contract to meet your personal needs not the needs of the whole nation. So, now I will turn my vineyard over to those who have not known me before in the hopes that they will bring in the harvest and serve me.
Some might say, how could a loving God do this? Why would he break his promise that the Jewish people were his people? God would not cast anyone out of his kingdom. This not the God we learned about today? Others would say this shows that God is wrathful and terrible.
But you know what, those that say God was too wrathful; forget about the patience God has shown towards his people. Remember the covenant was made one thousand and three hundred and seventy years previous to Jesus ministerial days. Secondly, God did not break his promise with the Jewish people, the Jewish leadership and people broke their covenant with God. And like a parent with a difficult child, God disciplined Israel a number of times. God has also taken back his children when they have repented.
I don’t know if you noticed but the vineyard parable has an open ended ending, Jesus does not complete the parable, it is the priests who complete the story with their opinion. What they have forgotten is the patience of the landowner, and that God/the landowner would have forgiven the tenants if they only would have repented and fulfilled their contract. Unfortunately for the tenants/Jewish priests, their own greed and pride would not allow them to do such. So the landowner/God was left with no meaningful option but to cast them from the garden.
Now I do not want any of you to go away from here thinking that the Jewish people are no longer the children of God. We are still supposed to support our Jewish brothers and sisters. One only needs to look in our world history to see what happened to nations that treated the Jews badly and what happened to them.
What does this parable mean for us today though? You see we are the new tenant/sharecroppers of the Lord. God has turned the keeping of the vineyard over to a new people we the Gentiles. And what are we growing or taking care of in the vineyard? Any ideas? What kind of fruit are we called to bear and cultivate? Are we not called to share the Gospel, are we not called to develop our spiritual faith and help others come to our Father’s love and the forgiveness He has given to us.
What many people either forget or never fully understand the depth of love that God has for us. Many of the unchurched and those ignorant in the ways of the Lord, feel that because of the things they have done in their lives God could not possibly love or forgive them. However, God does love them and He will forgive them if they truly ask Him into their lives. It is up to us as the sharecroppers to help cultivate them and bring out their fruits to bear. So that they too can be heirs to the Kingdom.
We need to remember that we are tenants and not privileged landowners. That our inheritance came at the cost of the land owner’s Son as our Savior. It also comes with a contract to each of us, which we are to raise a good crop of spiritual gifts among us as a congregation. If we are negligent in our duties as tenant farmers, if we withhold the spiritual gifts that come from the Father, or we do not share with others the love that God has for them. Or if we think that we can do it alone with God in our lives, then we too will eventually find ourselves on the outside of the vineyard.
However do not lose hope, remember God is not wrathful without cause. Through Jesus, our wrongdoings and our rebellion toward God are forgiven. However it is up to us to not be prideful or arrogant, that we are to acknowledge our weaknesses of the flesh and let God help us to grow out of them and become strong in the faith that through Christ Jesus we are fully saved by God’s mercy and grace.
Here soon we will be taking Holy Communion, today is World Communion Sunday and we do this in connection with all United Methodist Churches as well as other denominations around the world. Let us go into this ceremony in the knowledge and faith that we are reaffirming our covenant with God. That when we ask for His forgiveness, that the meal we share here is a physical representation of the sacrifice His Son and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ made for us. I ask each of you to truly bear your hearts before God, so that when you leave here you leave free from the shackles of sin and can enter into the vineyard a new person. Amen.
