Matthew 21:33-44 v.2

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who refuse him.
Goal: To exhort the people to obedience and service to God.
I. The Vineyard of Creation
II. The Vineyard of the Church
III. The Vineyard of You
When the scripture passage today speaks of tenants, we understand this. You have either been a tenant or you have had tenants.
The whole process of renting isn’t unusual to us. We can rent anything from movies on your t.v., homes to live in, to land you can farm.
People have rented land since the earliest days of civilization. On the surface, Jesus simply tells us a story about some tenants or renters that are a nightmare to any landlord or owner. Yet, it is more than just a story. These words are in the in the form of a parable or allegory. An allegory is a story within a story. It is like a candy cane with a barb on it like a fishook. The candy cane looks so simple and appealing on the outside, but before we know it, we are hooked by the story. The story teaches us a lesson, shows us our guilt, or brings us a new awareness about a situation that we had either taken for granted or had never thought of before.
On the surface, when Jesus told this story he offered the Pharisees a candy cane. This was a simple story of laws being broken. Jesus’ audience, the Pharisees, were experts at moral law. This story of obvious injustice was right up their alley. When Jesus asked them what would happen to the tenants, the Pharisees were quick to wag the finger and they emphatically stated, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end.” Unknowingly, the Pharisees swallowed the candy cane and the hook was set in their mouths so firmly that they would not be able to free themselves.
Jesus speaks of a landowner who built a vineyard. A landowner had the power to develop and form the land as he saw fit. The landowner equipped the vineyard with the necessary equipment and then employed tenants to tend the land.
When the time came for the harvest, the landowner sent servants to collect the rent. The tenants then did something inexcusable. Not only did they refuse to pay the servants the landowner’s share, but they also stoned, beat, and even killed one of the servants.
Maybe at one time or another you have owned property on which you had tenants. Perhaps they were late one time or another, you frowned upon this, and perhaps even fined them a bit for being late. Yet there may have been some tenants who moved into your property and then not only neglected to pay, they refused to pay.
As a result of this refusal, you were and well within your rights to give a notice of eviction to these tenants. By refusing to pay the rent, they had broken their lease. After a certain amount of time they could be evicted. If any of them had threatened you, physically harmed you, or even worse tried to kill you—they would have been out of the door and in the custody of the police.
Not so with the landowner of the story. After the first incident he sends another group of servants and the same result happens. They are treated the same way. As the Pharisees heard this story, I wonder if they were thinking of the saying, “The first time—shame on you, the second time shame on me.” The tenants were bad enough, but wasn’t the landowner a little foolish? He could have called the police the first time, and those tenants would be in jail.
Yet the story doesn’t end there. The landowner sends his own son to collect the rent. “They will respect him,” he says. The tenants don’t see someone who they think they should pay. Instead, they see an opportunity for profit. Their plan was if they killed the son, the landowner would leave them with the land, for now the landowner had no heir to give this land to. They threw him off the property and murdered the son.
Why did they throw him off the property? Here is a great irony. Since this story takes place in the context of the Jewish culture, people (especially the Pharisees) would understand that the spilling of human blood would defile the land and make it unclean. The tenants didn’t want their stolen property to be defiled by human blood. Theft was acceptable in their eyes, but murder was dirty—something that had to be done elsewhere.
These crooks had “standards.” It makes me wonder what wrongs we are willing to ignore, but then when is the wrong even too far for us to tolerate?
As we look at the characters, we can see now who each represents. God is the landowner. The tenants are the nation of Israel, the Jews. The servants are the messengers sent by God, perhaps the prophets of the O.T. and others appointed to do his work. The son of the landowner is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the person telling the story.
Today, as we look at this story, we can easily see the failings of the Pharisees. It is easy to vilify them and wag the finger. Yet, the Words of Jesus Christ are not stuck in time. This parable of Jesus stands out to us as a candy cane with a barb also. We shake our fingers at the Pharisees, but I wonder if in doing that, we become caught and we don’t shake the finger at ourselves.
As we look at this parable of Jesus we are going to look at it from three different angles. First of all, we are going to look at from the perspective of creation, namely humanity and it relation to God. Secondly, as Christians, we are going to look at this passage from the perspective of the relationship between the Church and God. Finally, on a more personal level, I want us to look at this passage as individuals—each one of us in our relationship with God.

The Vineyard of Creation

The people who live in this world today in many ways live as ungrateful tenants. We take what doesn’t belong to us. Every few years, even months, the maps of Europe become outdated because of world wars or civil wars, or open rebellion. China has been cracking down on Christianity.
To whom does this land belong? To the person with the most guns? To those who have the power to persecute, extort, and murder? Absolutely not. This world belongs to God. As the contemporary testimony, which is found in the back of your hymnals states: “Our world belongs to God—not to us or earthly powers, not to demons, fate, or chance. The earth is the Lord’s!
The doors should be open.

The Vineyard of the Church

Yet, sometimes those who belong to the body of Christ behave as ungrateful tenants. The church is full of hypocrites—you and me just a part of them. If we think go to the perfect church, with perfect members, and the perfect pastor—you are greatly deceived.
We think that way here and elsewhere—if you think you can find a perfect church, first prepare yourself to become a perfect member/ attendance, tithing, giving of your time.
We behave as ungrateful tenants. We sometimes feel that WE own the church. We feel that we have the opportunity to decide who may attend and who is not welcome. We make life hard on those who don’t live up to our expectations, or we are quick to bail when we don’t get what we want.
Every single one of us is a sinner lost without Christ. Every single one of us needs to bow down before Him. We are tenants, dependent on God for our place in his land. We owe him our lives, our hearts, and our souls.
We live in a climate that is growing increasingly hostile to the church, we either push people away, or we run away from the people we should be working with. Church attendance and membership is seen as an option not a necessity and our loyalty is as deep as our felt needs. This is not the testimony we want to show the world. Once the former governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura said this, "Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers," he said. "It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business."
That’s the extent of what some people think about the church. Our actions and behavior should not encourage that attitude.
As permanent as we think we are, we are only tenants. Our time here on earth is limited. It’s time to examine our attitudes and our actions. Do we really want to be known and continue in some of things that we do. Is that how we want to be known? Is that the extent of what we want God to see when we stand before God’s throne?

The Vineyard of You

We are tenants in this world; even tenants of this physical life. We are servants who are in the world, but not of the world. As tenants, we need to tend the vineyard—we are to nourish the world we live in, the church of which we belong, and also our soul. We nourish the vineyard with spirit of God. God created the world, Jesus died for the world, and now the Holy Spirit is nourishing and transforming the world, preparing it for the impending arrival of Jesus Christ and the banishment of Satan and sin.
I have not mentioned the final verses of today’s passage until now. I will read them again.
Matthew 21:42–44 NIV
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
Matthew 21:42-
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ”‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, the capstone. We are simply servants, tenants of the kingdom. That kingdom extends over all the world, in his church, and in each one of hearts. We tend the vineyard to bear fruit. There is your challenge. Bear fruit. Be a blessing to one another, and to the world in which you live. Bear fruit by serving at your church home, not for personal profit, but as gratitude to a God who provides for us all. Bear fruit in your hearts as a reflection of your faith in God. Bear fruit or the Kingdom will be taken away and given to someone else who will produce fruit.
This is the greatest work that we can do. It is better than anything we can do by the work of our own hands. Bear fruit in the kingdom of God and you will be fed eternally—forever and ever. Amen.
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