Vineyards and Villains
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Asaph was a man that King David had appointed to lead the choirs of Israel. He wrote quite a few of the Psalms, and in one Psalm in particular, he makes a statement about God uprooting a vine from Egypt and then transplanting it in a new place. From this point on, we find that Israel is often called a vineyard in both the Old and New Testaments.
One of the more striking times the vineyard is mentioned comes in Isaiah 5. Isaiah, prophesying more than 200 years after Asaph wrote Psalm 80, states that the vineyard, despite being in fertile soil and having every advantage, is ruined. And therefore judgment would come.
A similar prophecy occured years later under Jeremiah. The vineyard was being trampled by its own shepherds—their leaders. When the people and the leaders heard this prophecy, they ignored it. Much like with Adam and Eve, the warning was not something that came immediately before the judgment. The warning was given, but the fulfillment came down the road, and rather than using that time to reflect and repent, it was used to dive deeper and deeper into sin.
The shepherds, the leaders—whether civil leaders like the kings or religious leaders like the priests—had betrayed their own calling and because of that, they would be judged. And you would think that hindsight would be 20/20, but somewhere along the way, the priests once again forgot their calling from God, and focused on the calling of man. The chief priest was no longer a place for the man of God, but for the man of the governor. Though Caiaphas was probably in the line of Aaron, he was appointed by Valerius Gratus. And he was the fourth appointee to that position. After Annas, Valerius appointed Ishmael ben Fabri who held it for about a year. Then Eleazar ben Arrianus who also held the position about a year. Finally, there was Simon ben Camith who, like the others before him, only held the office for a year. That’s probably why John said, John 11:49
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all.
Caiaphas actually ended up as the longest under Valerius to hold the office as he was pretty good at being a politician. He knew how to play the political games.
As we study Luke this morning, we see what happens when someone (or in this case someones) forgets God’s calling upon his/her life and confuses it with his/her own calling. And what we find are three stages of resistance. The first stage is resistance to God’s servants. The second is resistance to God’s Son. The third is resistance to God’s story.
Resistance to God’s Servants
Resistance to God’s Son
Resistance to God’s Story
And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while.
When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.
And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out.
Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’
But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’
And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!”
But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
Resistance to God’s Servants
Resistance to God’s Servants
In the progression of resistance, there is first the resistance to God’s servants. This is what happens at the beginning of the parable.
And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while.
When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.
And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out.
In this section, we find that the owner of the vineyard, lent it to some tenants. The tenants were supposed to take care of vineyard and were never meant to take ownership of it. Their vocation, which is a Latin word for calling, was to tend to the vineyard and make sure that it produced fruit on behalf of the owner. Now, these tenant farmers represented the religious leaders, the Chief Priests, Scribes, Pharisees, etc. There was an expectation of producing holiness and righteousness among the people. This was what was supposed to be done on behalf of the owner of the Jewish people—the covenant God Yahweh.
Now, let’s stop for a moment and consider the fact that we each have a vocation. God has called us into his service to bear fruit for him. It may be that he has called us to motherhood or fatherhood. He may have called us to be a shopkeeper, an engineer, a fast food worker, a chemist, or some other vocation. As the Reformers would say, we do not just have a job or occupation; we have a vocation—a calling from God. And in that vocation, Luther said that we wear the “mask” of God. The people see our faces, but behind our faces is the very face of God. We do the calling that God has called us to do, yet it is God who is at work to bring the blessings to whom we work.
And lest we forget, we as a church have a calling as well. We are called to exhort and encourage one another, but we are also called to win the lost to Christ. How easy it is to forget God’s calling and confuse it with our own.
But the tenants of the vineyard forgot that very thing. Rather than having a calling from their master, they saw it as their own calling. They placed themselves there. Rather than working on behalf of another, they figured themselves to be working for their own good—their own inheritance. So when the time came to give their master’s fruit back to him, they resisted.
But what we notice is that the longer the resistance went on, the worse it got. That’s not to say that resistance, even in its mildest form is okay. But what starts off as mild resistance can easily grow.
And so the first of the master’s servants comes to collect the fruit that rightfully belongs to the master. And we see that he is beaten and sent away. There is a violent streak in these tenant farmers. Whether it is fear or a lust for the grapes, those who are called to protect the vineyard, fight the very one for whom they worked. The words used here indicate that they struck him—maybe a backhand to the face or even a gut-punch that caused him to bowl over, and then they sent him away—exapostello—it’s where we get our word apostle along with an ex meaning out. So, as we’ve read: they beat him (probably bruised up a bit) and then sent him away as a message to the vineyard owner.
It got worse. The second servant comes and we see that they not only beat him, but they shamed him before sending him away. That word literally means that they dishonored him. To say how he was shamed goes outside the scope of the parable, but the point is apparent; the vineyard owner didn’t get the message and so the tenants are not just continuing to resist, but their growing in their resistance.
Finally, a third servant is sent. This time they wounded him. That word means that they traumatized his body. In other words, he wasn’t just hurt, he wasn’t just bruised. Whatever they did to him would most likely scar him. And then they did not just send him away; they cast him out. They literally threw him out of the vineyard.
How easy it is to go from vocational responsibility to violent resistance. How easy it is to forget that our jobs are not simply jobs but callings, services rendered to people and to the Lord! Rather than finding their identity and worth in the one who has called us to our work; identity and worth begins to come from the work itself.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
God has created us in Christ Jesus for good works, but while we are called to those good works whatever they may be, they are not our source or resource of identity. We are in Christ. We are his workmanship. We walk in good works, but we abide in—live in Christ.
How easy it is for moms to forget their calling of God as a mother, and only see their identity as a mom. And anything that threatens—even God himself—can and will be met with resistance, perhaps violent resistance. Men we are called by God to protect our homes and lead them well, but how easy we forget that it is God’s vocation for our lives and not who we are.
The same goes with any vocation outside the home. Whether it is in the church or in the world. We resist that which seeks to take the fruit of our work or even our work itself. A person comes in and is good at their job and we fear being replaced and so we resist, never thinking that God may have another vocation ready for us. You see, in this case, the servants represented prophets, but God can use anything as his servant: eleven jealous brothers, a donkey, a storm in the sea, a large fish; even Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar were God’s servants. How easy it is to resist God’s servants!
Resistance to God’s Son
Resistance to God’s Son
But how much worse is it to resist God’s Son? That’s the second stage of resistance. We need to be careful at this point that we don’t fully equate what the vineyard owner says to what God says. There are no perhaps with God. He knows the beginning from the end. This is a parable; it’s a story, so we need to be careful about how we view it.
But here are the tenants resisting even the son. And we find that the reason is because they desire the inheritance for themselves. Their temptation is not much different than the original temptation with Eve. They wanted what belonged to God. They saw it was good for food; it was a good inheritance. Rather than accept what God would give on his own terms, they took matters into their own hands.
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
It certainly would eventuate in their own death, but before their own death came, they ended up resisting the Son to the point of killing him. Again James wrote,
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
Here we are in our stewardship of family, of church, of work, of finances, of chemistry or whatever it might be, and we’ve been confronted with God’s servants whether directly or indirectly. We’ve been rebuked and reproved and encouraged and exhorted, but we want to keep going the way we have always done things. But then we hear from the Son of God through his Word and through his Spirit. What do we do in that moment? We have a choice to make. Do we give in, content with the vocation he has given us? Do we trust God to do all things well on our behalf? Or do we resist? The temptation is there to resist is it not? The temptation is to ignore what we’ve read and to ignore the conviction of Christ’s Spirit.
Some even resist to the point of rejecting Jesus outright. Those who have claimed Christ as their own, yet when their very calling becomes an identity and that is threatened they resist unto death. And this can be true not only with our vocation, but any identity that we gravitate to that is outside Christ. When Christ begins to call us away from an identity outside of himself, calling us to identify in and with him, there is great temptation to resist the Son, even to the point of rejecting the very one whom we said we trusted.
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,
and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
or in Hebrews 10:28-31
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
These passages aren’t about falling into temptation that we normally think about. These are serious sins of resisting the Son himself. These are sins of apostacy. And it is easy to sit here and say that we have nothing to fear for surely we would never commit apostacy. We would never deny Christ. But we who resist God’s servants, can escalate to resisting God’s Son in small ways, and can continue to grow in resistance until we reject the very Son of God for the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of our own lifestyles. In essence, the very vocation that God has called us to, if we are not careful, can be our own downfall if we want it more than we want him.
As Jesus told his hearers:
But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
You see, the cornerstone was an extremely important stone. As it sounds, it sat in the corner. But there were two cornerstones. There was the bottom cornerstone that gave alignment to two walls and the foundation itself. And then there was the upper cornerstone that held the walls together. They were often times weirdly shaped. They did not look like the other stones. They did not look like what would be expected and so then, here it is cast aside, whichever one Jesus was referring. It was a stone that the builders rejected. Which is stunning because if anyone should have known what to look for in a cornerstone, it would have been the builders. They should have known better.
So Jesus gave a dire warning. The very stone that was meant for the construction of God’s people, if rejected, meant destruction for them instead. Whether the bottom stone that if fallen upon would break them to pieces or the top stone, if falling, would crush them. The very Son who was rejected would come in judgment.
Resistance to God’s Story
Resistance to God’s Story
This leads us to the last stage of resistance: the resistance to God’s story. In a very real sense, we could put this as the first stage of resistance; we resist God’s servants and Son because we resist God’s story. But generally it only shows itself last. Only after we have seen the resistance to the other two do we come to realize how true it is that we’ve resisted the very story of God in and for our lives. The chief priests and scribes, upon hearing the parable resist it.
He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!”
This is one of those parables that everyone understood. So when Jesus said that he would destroy the tenants the leaders understood he meant them. And when he said that the vineyard would be given to another, they knew he meant the Gentiles. And they said “no!”
The interesting thing is that these people were so resistant to God’s story that they did not even see how they actually fulfilled it.
The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.
They sought to kill the Son and they would have if they could have, but they feared the people! Since they could not yet kill him themselves, they could set events into motion that would have him killed by the Romans. Initially, the leaders tried to depreciate Jesus in the eyes of the Jews. But now they are seeking to incriminate him in the eyes of the Romans. And so amidst a bunch of flattery, he is asked:
Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”
Now if we stop and think about this; the leaders were angry about the parable because they understood the parable. And if the land was taken away from the murderers of the Son and given to others, then if the others became the murderers, would then the vineyard not stay with the tenants? Have the Romans kill the one claiming sonship. All the chief priests and scribes need to do is have Jesus incriminate himself.
This text is often used only for its application of obedience to the government, and it is a good application and good implication. But if all we think about is the application, we miss the truth of the matter; the leaders unable and unwilling to kill the Son of their master, are seeking to change the story. As far as I can tell, this is the first time they try and get Jesus on the Roman Radar. There was always a fear of the Romans, but never the conspiracy to involve them until now.
How easy it is to seek to be technically right while completely wrong. In Sunday School, Quentin has mentioned numerous times how Satan was technically right in his temptation against Eve. They did not die that day. Their eyes were open just as he said. But he sought to twist the truth. So here, the leaders sought to twist the story. Jesus would be put to death by the Romans at the behest of the Jewish leaders, but not the leaders themselves. Technically, they did not kill him. Technically, they didn’t even question him; they sent spies to do their dirty work. But while technically true, it is still altogether evil and just as culpable. The one who hires an assassin is just as guilty as the assassin himself.
How often so we seek to resist God’s story, beloved? How often do we seek to live in the technicalities? Technically it’s not lying. Technically, it’s not bitterness. Technically, it’s not adultery. Technically, it’s not murder. We know what Jesus says about technicalities. Lust being adultery in the heart; anger being murder in the heart. Always seeking to resist God’s story!
But in the end, we are left like the spies.
And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.
No matter what our resistance may look like, God’s answer to it will cause us to marvel and be silent. God’s plan cannot be thwarted.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we close out this section of Luke, we’ve seen how resistance can build. When we start looking at the lucrative business of our vocation (whether it’s money or fame or purpose or whatever it might be) or the identity that we gain from it, rather than the relationship with the owner, we begin to resist the very one who has called us. We resist his servants, his Son, and even his story. We know that doing this did not end well for the Jewish leaders. Rome did come in, besieging the city, then burning it to the ground, along with the temple. The leaders were just as culpable for the death of the Son as the Romans themselves. Even more so as Jesus was not on the Romans’ radar until they brought him to them.
Church family, surely we can see that resistance is not only futile, it’s dangerous. It’s deadly. We must look into our own lives and see where God has called us. Ask ourselves how much we desire that thing? Do we desire it more than God himself? Would we be angry if he took it away? Are we fearful of losing what we have? Because if so, we will seek to control the story. We ought not be surprised if we resist the servants, the Son, and the Story of God.
Let us instead, live in light of God’s goodness and truth. Our hearts tell us one thing but God tells us another. Our hearts are deceitful, but God is truth. Let us put aside any and all resistance and learn from this parable though the chief priests and scribes would not.
Prayer
Our heavenly Father,
It is in our nature to resist what you are doing. It is a part of the flesh. But we know that, as believers in Jesus Christ, we are no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. So may your Spirit have divine power within us and over us so that we no longer resist your servants, your Son, or your story. Strengthen us that we may relinquish control and be content in what you say and what you do. Open our eyes and our hearts to see the slippery slope that resistance can take and may we eschew it with all we are.
We pray this in Jesus’s name. Amen.