Matthew 21:33-46
Intro
The last couple of weeks have dealt with passages that, if you didn’t know the context of what was being said, you would have been completely lost. Today is a complete 180 of that trend as what we have before us is so frighteningly and blatantly obvious that you might think that you’re missing something. Don’t worry; you’re not.
This morning’s passage takes place not long after the cleansing of the Temple where Jesus created a ruckus and a half by driving the moneychangers out of the Temple in Jerusalem. This act set Jesus in direct conflict with the Pharisees, who were, essentially, the owners and operators of the Temple, which meant that they set the terms by which worship took place and as they had crafted the Jewish religion, all those moneychangers that Jesus had just said were interlopers in the House of God, were necessary.
You might think with that sort of a negative profile that Jesus might take it easy on specifically the Pharisees, but more generally speaking all those who considered themselves to be children of Abraham. He does not. Our parable puts that on vivid display as Jesus not so delicately describes the Pharisees as tenants in a vineyard that is not theirs, doing everything they can to rebel against the actual owner, including the murder of the owner’s son. From our perspective on this side of the crucifixion we are able to recognize that Jesus is foretelling his fate on the cross, and the Pharisees culpability in what will be his death.
However, there are too many times where that is where we stop in our understanding of this passage. I think that we need to go farther. I think that we need to recognize the tendency that so many of us have in thinking of ourselves first, and God only later, if at all.
It is with this in mind that I ask you this question, to whom do you belong? To whom do you pay your loyalties? Many people would answer that question by saying they answer to no one but themselves: that they are the arbiters of their lives; that they are the one in charge of all things relating to self. How about you? The scripture reads this way.
Matthew 21:33-46
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; 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. 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."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."The Vineyard of God"
Those of you who keep track of the baseball scores know that right now I am a very happy camper as the team that I route for, the Philadelphia Phillies, are actually playing some rather good ball. I was fortunate enough to be able to get down to the first two games of their series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday and Thursday as my brother, being as much of a fanatic as I am, and living just outside of Philly, has season tickets.
Obviously, we were excited as all get out to watch the games, but as I sat there on Wednesday night I ended up paying almost as much attention to the conversation that was taking place right behind me between two financial brokers who worked somewhere in the Delaware Valley. They went back and forth for several innings before one of them, clearly agitated, said, "I mean I can’t believe what the House did down in Washington yesterday. I was sitting their at my desk, and I was watching as the votes for the Bailout Bill were being counted and I’m thinking, ‘this isn’t going to pass’, and bam, the stock market starts to collapse and my phone starts to ring. It didn’t stop ringing the rest of the day. I mean, I’m as much a fan of free markets as anyone, but if you do something or, as the case may be, don’t do something that messes with my money, well, I’m going to get angry. I don’t care what you think, or what your constituents are telling you to do, don’t mess with my money! It’s my money, don’t you try and take it from me." He didn’t care how the crisis had gotten to the point that he did, he didn’t care how the bailout would affect the country right now let alone in the future. This guy only cared about himself and in specific the coin that he was able to accumulate in his pocket. That was all he cared about. I sat there in my seat just allowing what he said to wash over me. I couldn’t help but feel sad for him, and not for the reasons that you might think.
The following morning I was able to visit with Mandy as she attends college down that way and she ended up telling me about her macroeconomics professor who told his class the following, "The only thing that lasts, the only thing that matters, the only thing I care about is money. You can pass, you can fail, I don’t care because every other week I get a paycheck automatically deposited into my savings account." My reaction to that statement, especially as it sat on top of the conversation that I overheard the previous night was, "and my guess is that he’s miserable." To which Mandy replied, "he hates everything."
The thing that both of these individuals have in common is that their priorities are completely out of whack. They, like the tenants in our passage this morning, look at the creation that God has granted them and all they see are the ways that the creation can satisfy their wants and needs. There is no consideration given to anyone else other than themselves, let alone the God who gave them the opportunities in the first place.
In the passage we hear how the master, how God, had built a vineyard, a world, that would be able to meet all of the needs (and many of the wants) that the tenants, that’s you and me, could ever have. All God is looking for is for us to recognize who we are and who God is and give of ourselves to God as we should.
Instead, what do we do way too much of the time? We look at the creation and begin to think about us and us alone. We don’t think about God. We don’t think about our neighbor. We think about ourselves, and only what we want.
What Jesus was saying through the parable to the Pharisees, but absolutely to each of us is, "look around at the amazing opportunity that God the Father has given to you. You did nothing to create this or earn this: it has been given to you. Now give back to God first and all of the needs that you have (not necessarily the wants but definitely the needs), will be met. Give back to God first and you will continue to be cared for. If not, if you selfishly put yourself first, then in due time, in God’s time, God will come and take away that which you think is yours, that which was never really yours in the first place."
Jesus is longing for us to see the creation as what it is: a gift from God. And if it is a gift from God then we should set our priorities in such a way that this truth is exhibited. We should order our lives so that we give back to God first.
Our world, or at the very least our American culture, has walked away from acknowledging to whom we belong. We have walked away from lives that exhibit God as the creator of all that we know to existences that show to everyone that we think that we are the master of our own universes. The Pharisees lived that way. That bankers at the ballpark lived that way. Mandy’s teacher lived that way. Too often we live that way. Too often the church lives that way. We put ourselves at the top of the priority list acting as if we were responsible for anything that we know. We’re not! These lives that we have been granted are gifts from the Creator of all, gifts from God, and our lives should reflect such a reality.
As individuals, we need to ask the question, first and foremost, "am I serving as God would have me serve?" If you can answer that question with a yes, then you’re on the right path. As families, we need to ask the question first and foremost, "who are we living our lives for? For ourselves, or for God?" If we can begin to answer that question by saying God, then our lives will become so much more fulfilling. As a community of faith, as a church, we need to ask the question first and foremost, "what is setting our priorities?" Our wants? Our fears? Or God, the God who loved us so much that he was willing to send His only son to die for our sake? If we can answer the question of what is setting our priorities by looking to God, then the needs that we have will be met, and beyond that many of our wants as well.
But we’ve got to have our priorities in the correct place. We’ve got to have God at the heart of our lives. I have been consistently amazed at the people whom I have met who are the most content, because in each and every case, those people have set God at the heart of their lives. They have recognized that they have been given the opportunity to live in the vineyard of God, and their lives reflect that sentiment. They put God at the heart of their lives, and they are blessed with lives that are truly fulfilled, truly happy. They might not be living lives that are easy by the standard of the world, but they are living lives that recognized how blessed they truly are.
Each of us have been blessed to live in this creation, to live in the vineyard of the Lord. We have everything that we could ever need if we are willing to live lives that recognize how much God has blessed us. Live your life with God as the top priority and you will begin to behold how blessed we truly are.
After Sermon Prayer
God, You have blessed us! Help us to live lives that reflect this reality. Help us to live lives with You as our first priority. It is in Jesus’ name that we do pray. Amen.