The Wrong Hill to Die On
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Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 4202 A Beloved Black Pastor
Charles A. Tindley was born into slavery. Although his slave mother taught him to love Christ, his master forbade him to attend church under threat of the whip.
After the Civil War when he became free, he took correspondence courses and entered the ministry. He began with a church of only 12 members where he had once served as a janitor. In time, his compassionate preaching attracted over a thousand people each Sunday, both black and white. For years he maintained a breadline which fed 500 to 600 people nightly. Derelicts received warm clothing and hot baths in the basement of his church. The mayor of Philadelphia visited his church and was so impressed that he gave the pastor a personal check for $2,000.
Charles Tindley died on July 31, 1933, when people were still receiving bread from his church. There were so many tributes at his funeral that the service lasted five hours. Downtown streets had to be roped off to hold back the crowds from the hearse that carried his body.
Long after his death, people talked about the black preacher who was a brother to everyone.
Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
One of the chief hallmarks of Jesus’ ministry was that He never for got that His mission was to save others, not to win a war with His earthly enemies.
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
Even His words of correction were spoken, not to humiliate or tear down those who made themselves His opponents, but to bring them to repentance. This confirms the prophetic Word through Ezekiel:
Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
Our Gospel text reveals both the compassion and the justice of Our Lord. Moses asked to see the Lord so that he might know Him, but, while denying that to Him, God declared Himself to Moses, and revealed His will, as it is written:
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
God, the Creator of all things, is presented as the Owner of a vineyard. Rather than placing others in it as workers or slaves, He covenants with them as tenants. as γεωργοῖς, gener. one who is occupied in agriculture or gardening, they are identified as being there to work in the vineyard, but unlike a δοῦλος, or slave, they will share in the reward of a successful harvest.
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.
English Standard Version Chapter 20
9 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. 10 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.
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.
They had an agreement, those tenants and that owner, an agreement that was mutually beneficial, yet, at the appointed time
,
They had an agreement, those tenants and that owner, an agreement that was mutually beneficial, yet, at the appointed time, they refused to honor it. In and of itself, they had, by their action, merited a wrathful response, but the Owner desires a good relationship with them. He wanted a relationship more than He wanted to be right.
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.’
As clearly as the Owner has shown His graciousness, so clearly have the tenants shown their disdain and wickedness. With each envoy they increased their rebellious response to His just and proper request. At this point, there is only one step left, both for the owner, and for the tenants.
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.’
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?
Disrespect and physical assault, these the Owner was willing to meet with an opportunity for repentance and reconciliation. With this decision, the tenants have entered the realm of murder. They are forcing the Owner’s hand. Will He, in fact, abandon His ownership to them that they have attempted to gain by open rebellion and destruction of His family?
Disrespect and physical assault, these the Owner was willing to meet with an opportunity for repentance and reconciliation. With this decision, the tenants have entered the realm of murder. They are forcing the Owner’s hand. Will He, in fact, abandon His ownership to them that they have attempted to gain by open rebellion and destruction of His family?
Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, 2017 Edition The Fifth Commandment
The Fifth Commandment
You shall not murder.
What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.
Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, 2017 Edition The Fifth Commandment
The Fifth Commandment
You shall not murder.
What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.
It is incomprehensible that someone could answer Jesus’ question in any way other than in accordance with the Law. And yet, that is exactly how the Chief Priests, Scribes and Elders responded! Earlier, rather than answer Jesus truthfully about John the Baptist, they evasively said that they did not know whether John was a prophet from God or not. Now, they amazingly rejected Jesus’ summation that the Owner would “destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” Jesus’ response is both fitting and sorrowful:
It is incomprehensible that someone could answer Jesus’ question in any way other than in accordance with the Law. And yet, that is exactly how the Chief Priests, Scribes and Elders responded! Earlier, rather than answer Jesus truthfully about John the Baptist, they evasively said that they did not know whether John was a prophet from God or not. Now, they amazingly rejected Jesus’ summation that the Owner would “destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” Jesus’ response is both fitting and sorrowful:
And yet, that is exactly how the Chief Priests, Scribes and Elders responded! Earlier, rather than answer Jesus truthfully about John the Baptist, they evasively said that they did not know whether John was a prophet from God or not. Now, they amazingly rejected Jesus’ summation that the Owner would “destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” Jesus’ response is both fitting and sorrowful:
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.”
We don’t know, exactly, how close this incident was to the events leading up to Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, but we do know that things had reached the point where there were only two ways this would end. For the entirety of Jesus ministry he had preached the Gospel, calling on all to repent and enter the Kingdom, and these religious leaders had rejected the very thing that they spent so much time diligently studying - the Word of God’s promise.
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. So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.
For them, with hardened hearts they set their feet on a course that would end in death, the death of God’s Beloved Son. Although He had said or done nothing deserving of death, His ministry exposed their hypocrisy, His humility exposed their hubris, and His love exposed their hatred. Now the leaders set their faces to destroy Jesus, and He set His face to lay down His life for them, and for us.
For them, with hardened hearts they set their feet on a course that would end in death, the death of God’s Beloved Son. Now the leaders set their faces to destroy JEsus, adn He set His face to lay down His life for them, and for us.
Famed Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi was quoted on several occasions as saying “winning isn’t everything - it’s the only thing!” The quote, which actually originated with UCLA football coach Henry Russell Sanders, is the ground upon which we will fight to the death to be right. Believing that “the end justifies the means,” we will attack, not only the ideas of others, but their very person. During this primary season, we see this at work as candidates and their supporters forget that the object of an election is public service, that the role of a public official is that of a public servant, and that the primary beneficiaries of their efforts are to be the citizens rather than themselves or their cronies, campaigns sometimes become so heated that there is no room for coming together when the smoke clears. In the end, we all lose.
As damaging as that attitude is in what we Lutherans call the “Left-Hand Kingdom” or the earthly realm, how much more when it takes place under the auspices of the “Right-Hand Kingdom,” or the Heavenly realm. When the children of God, members of the Body of Christ, treat brothers and sisters, not as fellow heirs of the grace of life, but as competitors for the Throne of grace, we all lose even as we think that we have won.
The Apostle Paul understood that winning isn’t everything.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
The way of the cross is the way that, to all human understanding, is the way of loss, the road to defeat. That way, hard as it is to our flesh, is the Way of the Kingdom, the way trodden by our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Way that we who follow Him must also walk. He is the Prince of Peace, and we are called to walk in that way. St. Francis of Assisi prayed:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Viewed in the Light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, this prayer is simply the desire that Paul declared. As we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him who called us, Jesus Christ our Lord, we are made by God into the means God will use to bring others to eternal life, not in competition, but in communion with others who share the message of the pure Gospel. Like Paul, we proclaim the power of God unto salvation, and like Aquila and Priscilla with Apollos, we help our brothers and sisters to discern and present the Word of God more clearly, to the praise of His glorious grace.
To see the world as Christ does, is to see the need to “preach the Gospel to every creature,” to “be ready in season and out of season.” Only those who are ready to die for the sake of Christ are ready to live with Him. It isn’t the Mount of Transfiguration that is our goal, but the Place of a Skull, Golgotha, where we are glorified with Christ in Holy Baptism. As Jesus said, “and I , when I am lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.”
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So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.