Matthew 21:33-43 Patience

Matthew 21:33-43 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

33“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. He leased it out to some tenant farmers and went away on a journey. 34When the time approached to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35The tenant farmers seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way. 37Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. 38But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’ 39They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40So when the landowner comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?”

41They told him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. Then he will lease out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his fruit when it is due.”

42Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?

43“That is why I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruit.

Patience

I.

The phone rang beside my bed in the middle of the night. My one-word answer: “hello.” A voice on the other end of the line replied: “flash traffic.” Another one-word answer from me: “ok,” and I hung up. I had 15 minutes to get out of my apartment, into my car, drive to post, open the safe to get the code books, decode the message, encode a reply and send it back.

My military life was the closest post to the East-West German border, right where the Russians and East Germans were expected to cross over in the Cold War. The Russians monitored our flash traffic, as we did theirs. Without the latest code books, they stood no chance of knowing what the message said, or whether it was real, just that flash traffic was flowing.

Until we decoded it, we didn’t know, either. Any message could have indicated that I was to get my team and go get our nuclear artillery rounds to prepare them to launch.

Maybe that’s what makes me astonished at the reaction of the landowner in Jesus’ parable. To me, it seems the appropriate response is some sort of military action.

Again and again and again the landowner sent servants to collect the rent from the tenants of his vineyard. The owner had done all the work to insure success. He prepared the vineyard carefully. There was a fence, and even a watchtower, so that the tenants could see threats like animals or thieves coming, and take appropriate action to preserve the fruit. Before he ever leased the land the owner installed a winepress so his tenants would be all set to process the fruit after harvest. Is it not reasonable that he should expect them to fulfill their obligation and pay the rent?

That was not the response. “When the time approached to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35The tenant farmers seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third” (Matthew 21:34-35, EHV). The aggressiveness gets progressively worse.

No typical landowner is going to stand for such aggressiveness and viciousness against his servants. While he might not have wanted to initially, the typical response would be to go in with more force. “Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way” (Matthew 21:36, EHV). Rather than sending police with arrest warrants, the landowner acts with extreme patience. Give them another chance. He doesn’t want the retaliation of a prison sentence. The tenant farmers are just asked again to pay the rent. But the reaction was the same. Death to the landowner’s servants.

In reading the Gospel for the day, this is where my military background really kicks in. “Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said” (Matthew 21:37, EHV). Are you kidding? What would make the landowner think his son would be treated better than the servants had been?

This is not just patience. This is recklessness.

“But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’ 39They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him” (Matthew 21:38-39, EHV). The results are not surprising, really. This is what logic would expect. If these tenant farmers were so disrespectful to the landowner’s servants, they weren’t going to suddenly reverse course and be kind and considerate to the son, who was the heir.

II.

Who does Jesus’ parable make you think of? Jesus said that when the first batch of servants came, “The tenant farmers seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third” (Matthew 21:35, EHV). Beat. Killed. Stoned to death. These words were designed to call to mind the treatment of many of the Old Testament prophets. The Jewish people of Jesus’ day were very religious. While the greatest attention was paid to the books of Moses, they were also familiar with rest of the prophets. They knew how God’s prophets had been treated. Beaten, killed, and stoned was an apt description.

It wasn’t a stretch for the chief priests and Pharisees to figure out that Jesus was talking about them. In fact, in the verses after today’s Gospel we learn: “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was talking about them” (Matthew 21:45, EHV).

But was he also talking about us? We haven’t literally beaten, killed, or stoned God’s prophets. Of course, neither had the chief priests and Pharisees. But how often don’t we ignore what God says to us? You learned in your catechism classes that God’s Moral Law, summarized in the 10 Commandments, is his will for all people of all time. You learned that God gave these not to be some onerous burden as you try desperately to follow them to please God; he gave them for your good. Following his commands is a great benefit to his people.

Yet, we look at those commands and somehow come to the conclusion that they don’t all apply to us the same way as things used to. Things are different now. Look at the coveting commandments. No one can keep him- or herself from wanting things. God can’t be serious in calling wanting things sin, can he? Once you start rationalizing your disobedience to one commandment, it doesn’t take long to rationalize your sinful actions to all the others.

We beat and kill and stone the prophets every time we ignore what God himself told us through them.

Jesus did not end his parable in the usual way. Rather than writing the ending, he invited his listeners to do that, much like “choose your own adventure” books of today. In such books, the reader is encouraged to make choices which dictate the direction of the story. Jesus asked: “So when the landowner comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?” (Matthew 21:40, EHV).

Maybe some of those listening had military experience, as I have. They didn’t write a happy ending. “They told him, ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. Then he will lease out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his fruit when it is due’” (Matthew 21:41, EHV).

Back to what I said moments ago. We beat and kill and stone the prophets every time we ignore what God himself told us through them. God doesn’t expect us to try really hard to keep his commandments. He expects perfect obedience; every time. He expects fruit; perfect fruit. He expects the rent. We fail to pay.

III.

But... “Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said” (Matthew 21:37, EHV). I said before that this isn’t patience. This is recklessness.

Let me take you all the way back to the beginning of the service, when I read the theme of the day. It said: Tell Us a Story: A story of reckless patience. Reckless patience is what God demonstrates to the human race. He is patient with us even when we don’t deserve his patience.

God didn’t display recklessness, but reckless patience. We didn’t deserve it. We don’t deserve it. Time after time we disobey his Word. Time after time we forget the lessons of the prophets. Time after time we rationalize our own actions.

But in his reckless patience, God sent his Son.

The chief priests and the Pharisees were about to put God’s Son on trial and execute him for crimes he didn’t commit. We play our own part in that execution every time we disobey God’s will.

Still, in his reckless patience God didn’t hesitate to send Jesus. In his own reckless patience, Jesus didn’t hesitate to come. Jesus willingly took the punishment we deserved. Jesus willingly gave us the perfect fruit we didn’t earn. When God the Father looks at us, he sees the deeds of righteousness done by Jesus, not the sour fruit of our own feeble attempts at righteousness.

After the listeners had written the ending to his parable, Jesus quoted Psalm 118. He said: “Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?” (Matthew 21:42, EHV).

He brings the parable to his own conclusion. He is the Son of the parable. By rejecting the prophets of old, who pointed ahead to Jesus, they rejected the very stone that is the cornerstone of God’s plan.

God’s plan all along was to send his only-begotten Son. While the religious leaders of the people plotted and planned to kill him, their plans were all part of God’s plan. Jesus would die, as the son in the parable. But only after he had declared from the cross: “It is finished!” Only after he had completed God’s plan. He rose again on the third day to reassure us that the plan is complete. “This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

IV.

Jesus ends with another warning. “That is why I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruit” (Matthew 21:43, EHV). Eventually, if you ignore God long enough, the gospel moves on.

It’s been many years since I lived in Europe, but I went to a cathedral or two on a Sunday morning. It was nearly empty. People drifted away from the truth of the gospel. They no longer thought the Son was important.

I don’t know what took his place for those people. Entertainment, perhaps. Activities perhaps. Perhaps after rationalizing for so long they no longer even thought about any of their life choices to be wrong at all. God became less and less important until the Father—and his Son—were no longer even thought about.

It seems more and more that way to me in our own country. More and more people find something else to take the place of God in their lives. If they don’t actively kill or stone the prophets, they just ignore them. And the gospel moves on.

Maybe it just seems that way to me because I have gotten older.

God’s reckless patience is still there. God has sent his Son. Your sins have been paid for and forgiven. Echo the words of the Apostle Paul in today’s Second Reading: “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus also took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12, EHV). Amen.