Lent 5 Luke 20:9 Tenants in the Vineyard

Isaiah 43:16-21 Philippians 3:8-14 Luke 20:9-20

Our Gospel parable begins with the landlord planting a vineyard. He did all the preparation, all the work to guarantee a harvest. The tenants simply had to tend the plants, harvest the fruit, and pay the owner his agreed upon share.

The parable shows us as we really are. We are tenants, not owners. Everything we have is on loan from God. We sometimes imagine that we are the owners that we have somehow obtained ownership of what God has made. I’m sure that you have heard or said, "It's my money and I can spend it as I please." "It's my body and I can do what I want with it." "It's my time and I can use it however I wish." "It's my life and I don't need God, the Church or anyone to tell me how to run it." 

The lie that Satan has successfully spread in this age is that we have the right to live and believe whatever we want.  But the truth remains; God is the owner and we are His tenants. We have a stewardship, a responsibility to use His gifts wisely and faithfully. And God gives His gifts in the hope of finding a harvest.  That harvest is trust in His promises and love for one another that comes when we place our trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

In our lesson, the tenants staged a kind of renters’ revolt. When harvest time came, the land owner sent one of his servants to retrieve some of his fruit. Instead of giving him the produce, they beat him and sent him away empty handed. Again, the owner sent another servant, and they beat him up, added insults and sent him back empty handed. And again he sent a third servant, whom the tenants wounded and sent back with nothing.

You can imagine that the rest of the owner’s servants were very reluctant to go near the vineyard.  And you would hardly blame the landlord for evicting the tenants’ right on the spot. Three times he sent his servants to collect what was rightfully his. Three times his servants returned beaten, bloodied and empty-handed. Just when the average landlord would have taken legal action, this land owner goes one more step, hoping against hope to receive a harvest of plenty instead of hatred.

"What shall I do?” the owner said, “I will send my beloved son whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.” Well, there was nothing to suggest they would. And you have to stop and wonder. What kind of father would send his beloved son to a bunch of people who have already mistreated his servants?

The parable gives us a picture of God's patience, His tireless mercy, and His compassionate will to save us. What sort of father would send his beloved son to a group of murderous deadbeat tenants? The sort of Father we find in the Words of the Bible: 

“God so loved the world that He gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) And “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

And; “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)

While we were still His enemies; cut off from God, turned against Him in rebellion, the Father sent His Son into the world, to take on our humanity, to become one with us, to save the very world that rejected him. And God sent His beloved Son into the world, even after Israel had beaten, stoned, and killed God's servants, the prophets who came to prepare the Son's way.

But that is the nature of God's mercy. He keeps coming back again and again, seeking the fruit of repentance and faith, even when it means risking everything.

When the tenants saw the son, they assumed that the owner was dead. They came up with a plot. "Kill the son, and the inheritance is ours.”  During Biblical times, if the owner of the land died and left no heirs, the tenants could claim title to the land free and clear,  provided, of course, that they could get away with the murder of the son - which is why they killed him away from the property.

The parable was a prediction of what would happen to Jesus very shortly. Within a few days of speaking this parable, the religious authorities of Jerusalem would demand Jesus' crucifixion at the hands of Pilate, on a hill named Golgotha (Skull), outside the city. The parable would become reality. God sent His Son to His vineyard, and His Son was despised, rejected and killed outside the city gates of Jerusalem. 

"What then will the owner of the vineyard do to those ingrate tenants? He will come and destroy those tenants, and give the vineyard to others." This is precisely what happened less than forty years after His crucifixion outside Jerusalem.  The Roman army came and destroyed the city and its temple.

The priesthood of the temple ended. The temple sacrifices ended and the ministry of Word and Sacrament began. The glory of God that once resided in the temple was now in the Church, no longer in a building, but in people gathered around the Word of Christ, the waters of baptism and the Sacrament of His body and blood.

The son is the last chance in the parable. He is the last word from the vineyard owner. Those who reject the son receive nothing but judgment. “In the past, God spoke to his people by the prophets” (but the prophets and the Word of God which they spoke was rejected.) “But now in these last days, God has spoken to us by His beloved Son.” (Hebrews 1:1-2) Jesus is God's last word not only to Israel, but to the entire world. There is no other way to the Father than through Jesus.

There is salvation in no other name but Jesus. There is no other Savior from sin and death but Jesus.  He is the beloved Son of God, who came to His people, but was rejected and crucified. Despite this, the Father received His death as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of all who believe in Him.

To reject the Son is to reject the Father's will to save you. The tenants in the parable were condemned not because they were worse tenants than any other in the neighborhood, or not because their harvest was poor. They were condemned because they rejected the owner's servants, who spoke His Word and most of all; they were condemned because they rejected his Son. It is in the rejection of the Son, and only in His rejection, that final judgment comes.

The parable was a warning to the religious leaders of Jesus' day not to reject His coming and His claim. It serves as a warning to the people of every age not to take God’s Biblical Word lightly.  Do not take God's grace for granted, do not reject the Son who comes to us in the name of the Lord, and do not despise His Baptism, His Supper or His Grace in the words of forgiveness.

God gives His gifts; He sends His Son; He gives the Holy Spirit who delivers all that Jesus died to win for us. God does not force His grace on anyone. In His divine patience, He not does force one to be saved from death and hell.  He awaits a harvest of broken and repentant hearts, who turn in faith to His Son Jesus Christ, and then in humble love to serve one another.

But do not be deceived by appearances. God's servants may appear as the wimps and losers of this world and compared to this world's success stories the real Church may look like a failing institution. Just as the Son may appear weak and just as Israel was expecting a stronger earthbound Messiah, the real strength of Jesus was hidden in His will to die on a cross and rise from the dead to receive eternal power, everlasting riches and glory that is far beyond anything that this world cannot give. So those who remain strong in the faith will also be rewarded with eternal life alongside Jesus in eternity.

Jesus is the rejected stone, the stone the builders of Israel stumbled over in their unbelief, the rejected cornerstone of salvation. But remember, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the capstone."

The full weight of our sinful life rests on Jesus.  Everyone who falls on the stone named Jesus Christ will be broken to pieces. We must be broken, if we are going to be made whole again. David tells us, "A broken and contrite heart, O Lord, you will not despise." (Psalm 51:17) We must be broken daily by realizing our sins and dying to ourselves in repentance, if we are going to live.

The alternative to falling on Christ in repentance is to be crushed by the sheer weight of His perfect presence. "When that rejected stone falls on anyone, it will crush him." You may either receive the forgiveness, life and salvation that Jesus won for you by His death on the cross, and trust in Him, or be crushed resisting and refusing His death and resurrection. Every sin has been spoken for in the death of Jesus.

Every sin is forgivable though Jesus Christ’s work on the cross. Every sinner’s sins have been paid for by His death. Only the sin of unbelief is unforgivable.

Trust in the Son, Jesus, who is now the cornerstone of your salvation. Fall on Him with all the brokenness of your life, for He was broken for you. He will heal your brokenness and restore you with what He has given you to produce an abundance of goodness to those around you. 

Lean on His word for understanding and not your own.  And in times of sadness and weakness, you will find comfort and strength in His arms, today, tomorrow and for all eternity.   In Jesus’ Name, Amen.