I think it is helpful to put our gospel reading in context today.
The day before Jesus enters the temple to teach this parable, he walked into the temple with the disciples and sees the temple courtyard filled with money changers and dove sellers. He sees that instead of being a place where people come to connect with the Divine, it has become a den of robbers. I think what he saw was another way the relationship between humanity and God had broken down and he got mad. So It’s probably fair to remember that when people today ask you “Well – what would Jesus do?” Sometimes the answer is that he would get righteously angry and flip some tables.
However, as you might imagine – his actions in clearing the temple might have upset some people. So when he shows up to teach again, the temples elders and the pharisees were in a bit of an uproar. Jesus has shown up again to challenge their authority and to top it all off, he refused to answer questions about where his own authority comes from.
So this is the scene that Jesus is teaching in – when he entered the temple, the priests and elders have tried to call him on the carpet in front of the assembled crowd asking by whose authority he teaches by and he has shut them down. So now in front of the gathered crowds, Jesus starts to teach the congregation. The pharisees and temple leaders stick around to listen.
Jesus starts teaching with the parable of the two sons and when he finished that one I think he saw that people were still confused so he says “Listen to another parable”
Our text today is the second parable that Jesus taught that day in the temple. In the parable Jesus describes a landowner who built a vineyard, built a fence around it, dug in a winepress and built a watchtower for it. There is some thought put into this place. But then the landowner has to go away on business and so he hires tenants to care for the vineyard that he has built.
While the land owner was away, the harvest time came. So the owner sent his slaves to collect his produce. The tenants beat and murder the owners slaves. So the owner sends another group of slaves – a larger group – and they are also beaten, stoned, and murdered. Finally the owner sends his beloved – he sends his son thinking that surely they will respect the rightful heir.
Instead – in their arrogance the tenants commit murder and the son’s blood cries out from the ground.
Having said all this – Jesus then asks the pharisees what will happen when the landowner returns. They responded:
“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.”
Jesus looks at them and calls them out
“Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?
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. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
With those words the priests and pharisees realised that Jesus wasn’t speaking in general nor was he being ambiguous talking about the whole of Israel. He was talking to them directly and calling them – the priests and those in power – the tenants – those who were responsible for the murder of the slaves and the son.
This language of vineyard and landowner comes out Isaiah 5 and would have been familiar to the gathered congregation. Jesus is speaking to the gathered crowd and the pharisees in language they would have understood. In this parable God is the landowner, the vineyard is the kingdom of God, the slaves are analogous to the prophets, and the son is analogous to Jesus. In teaching the crowd that day, Jesus was saying to the all the gathered people – this – the way all this culture and society is set up and running – this is not how the kingdom of God is supposed to be.
Throughout the Hebrew scriptures every time humanity has driven the kingdom off track, God has sent a prophet. And the people responded. So God sent another prophet, and the people responded. After a few rounds of this – God decided that someone with real authority would need to come and show humanity what the kingdom should look like, So God sends God’s own self as Jesus. And humanity responded.
When we read this scripture we see leaders that should have known better who were complicit in killing God. So when Jesus calls them out saying – “ this shall be taken from you” he isn’t calling out the whole of the Jewish people. Rather, he is calling out those in power – the leaders – the priests and pharisees who felt their own power being threatened.
So where does that leave us?
As members of the kingdom of God and caretakers of creation It is important to remember that in this parable – and in general – nothing here is ours. We don’t own the earth – at best – we lease it for a short period of time before it returns to God – its owner and creator. So no matter where we are in this parable – priest, pharisee, or person in the crowd – it is important to remember the earth and all that is in it, belongs to God.
At the core – what Jesus is calling the priests and pharisees out for is a rejection of responsibility – the rejection of the responsibility of tending to the kingdom of God.
When we read or hear scripture I believe that among the many questions we ask should is what does this mean to me today? Where do we stand In this parable? When Jesus is calling out the priests and Pharisees for their complicity, where are we also complicit in the actions that keep the kingdom of God from being fully realized?
I argue that when we sit and don’t hear the cries of our neighbors who are hungry, or when we build walls to separate us from each other, or when we refuse to hear the voice of those that dream of a better life we are working against the kingdom. When people are shot at concerts in public, the kingdom is under attack. When there is more interest in destroying creation to exploit natural resources, than in preserving nature for future generations, the kingdom is under attack.
We don’t own this place. We are just given stewardship for a while. Jesus reminds us that our work is to follow him and build the kin-dom of God – to hear the voices from the margins and not silence their cries.
In his book “Christ the Center.” Bonhoeffer argued that: “Christ is at the center of the church’s life, but Christ is found at the margins. Therefore, the church’s center must be the margins.”
In this parable and in the gospel we see that those in power would rather kill the son rather than follow him to the margins. If the Word of God is spoken most clearly and loudly in the margins, those at the center who are in power will do everything in their power to silence it. If and when we find ourselves eager to silence those voices from the margins that call us to account, then we also need to recognize that Jesus is talking about us.
God has a plan for humanity – This isn’t a plan in the predestined sense where every move of your life is mapped out in advance and you are just a puppet that is going through the motions..
God’s plan is for us to love our neighbors and love to God.
It’s all that easy and it’s all that hard.
In Exodus 20, God gave Moses the 10 commandments – Which i like to think of as a baseline – this isn’t the full measure of what God wants for us, but this is a good place to start.
I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.
Do not worship idols
Do not misuse the name of God
Remember the sabbath and keep it holy
Honor your mother and father
Do not murder
Do not commit adultery
Do not steal
Do not bear false witness against your neighbor
Do not covet
The 10 commandments are the basic plan for loving God and loving neighbor. It is a place to start and as we grow and learn to understand God’s love better, the commands become more explicit – we are to love our neighbors and to care for the stranger, the widows and children. Jesus sums it up saying
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Our responsibilities as the tenant caretakers of the vineyard is to love God with all our heart mind and soul and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. When we assume power and try and hold it, we are rejecting the responsibilities that we were given. When we reject those responsibilities by not caring for our neighbors – when we find boxes to put them in that dehumanize them or make them less than us, we are complicit in the rejection of God – just like those pharisees.
In the parable, the owner sends his slaves to remind the tenants of their responsibilities and they kill them. Throughout the history of Israel, God sent the prophets to remind the people of their responsibilities to the kingdom. Over and over God sent prophets to God’s people to remind them of their responsibilities as tenants. It is important to note that God is not absent in this – after all God sent the prophets and jesus to bring the tenants back into right relationship. God is allowing us the wherewithal to determine our own path – to determine our own successes or failures. God risked physical violence through the prophets and finally through Jesus himself to continue to be in relationship with humanity.
This is the good news.
Sisters and Brothers in Christ, What do we believe?
We believe that in life and in death, we belong to God.
Matthew Messenger 