Matthew 21 33-46 2008
Pentecost 21
Matthew 21:33-46
October 5, 2008
“Same Old Song and Dance”
Introduction: Believe it or not, some of the best sermons might come from out of the files. If it was good years ago, why not preach it again? If it worked last time, why shouldn’t it work again?
Fact is, this sermon isn’t out of the files, but in our text Jesus does essentially draw upon an old sermon, a musical parable the prophet Isaiah had sung seven centuries earlier. Jesus wasn’t above using something that had worked once before. Only problem was that this old parable hadn’t seemed to work last time. This time, Jesus wants a completely different result. Will he get it?
Will the old parable—Isaiah’s—bring a new ending when retold by Jesus (v 33)? Jesus draws his parable from a love song the Lord sang through Isaiah seven hundred years earlier, “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?” (Is 2:1–4).
The vineyard Isaiah was singing about was Israel and Judah, God’s chosen people. God had loved. He had blessed them with good land, protection from enemies, his continuous presence in temple, and, best of all, the promise of the coming Messiah. But this love song turned tragic.
His vineyard brought forth wild grapes—idolatry, injustice, bloodshed. It brought forth everything wrong and distasteful. There was no fruit of faith. There was no sweetness of the gospel and God’s approaching favor as He prepared to send the Savior of the world. Even when God sent a line of prophets to warn them, they failed to bear fruit. Rather they beat them, killed them, and stoned them to death. So what would the Lord do to his vineyard? He would lay it waste, “And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” (Is 2:5–6).
Unmistakably, Jesus’ retelling of Isaiah’s tragic love song is directed towards the Jewish leaders of his day, the chief priests and Pharisees. (vv 34–41). They were heirs of the promise. Their nation was the nation through which the Messiah would come, still blessed with God’s presence, still warned by God’s prophets. And God expected them to bear fruit—to welcome the Messiah, to believe in the Messiah, the Son of God, sent by the Father full of grace and truth. And then to proclaim Him to the nations.
Would the Jewish leaders heed Jesus’ new telling of the old parable, or would they repeat the tragic ending of Old Testament Israel? Of course we know the answer. The last messenger of the master, the Son, was now among them, and they were plotting to kill him. No, they would not repent. As a result, the stone, Jesus, would fall on them, and they would be broken to pieces, destroyed, and Jerusalem and Israel would be laid to waste and its people scattered through out the world—the same ending as the first time the old parable was told. Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." (vv 42–46). They did not like it one bit. They responded, “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.”
Having something that you thought belonged to you taken away…Playing football…Michigan Wisconsin game…They know what it is like to think something belonged to them only to have it taken away.
The question before us is - Will the old parable, the parable of Isaiah, the parable of Jesus, bring a new ending when retold today? Two thousand years later, Jesus’ words are now the old parable for us. Like God’s people of old, we, too, have been placed in God’s vineyard/kingdom by his grace. In this kingdom of God’s church on earth, God lavishly supplies us with those things that nurture good fruit (i.e., his Word and Sacraments). He is present with us in a profound and mysterious way in our Lord’s Holy Supper. He continually sends us his servants—pastors—just as God sent the Old Testament prophets. Some times God’s people listen to them, and sometimes not. Sometimes they hear the words, but fail to put them into action. We retell this old parable among us today to move us to render the fruit of the vineyard and receive those whom he sends to us. But most especially we look with faith to the Son whom God sent. We cry out to God for forgiveness. We pray that by His Holy Spirit that He would lead us to be good stewards of His vineyard and that we might produce a harvest that glorifies Him. The fruit of the vineyard is repentance, faith, and the love toward God and neighbor that flows from faith. All of this is what Christ, God’s Son, came to nurture in us. Too often, we also fall into the same tragic ending of the old parable.
We show ourselves to be unfaithful tenants of God’s kingdom whenever we do not demonstrate love toward God and neighbor as the fruit of faith and whenever we do not receive God’s Son, who comes to us through Word and Sacrament. Too often we fail to bear this fruit of love for God and neighbor in the vocations into which he has placed us. Such sin renders us deserving of losing the kingdom and being put to eternal death.
But God sent his Son, Jesus, to save the vineyard and its tenants. Jesus was perfectly faithful in his vocation and mission to seek and save the lost. Though he was rejected and killed, God raised him from the dead and placed him as the cornerstone of his Church. Through Him we receive forgiveness, life and salvation.
Conclusion: Today you are blessed, once again, that God’s Son is coming to you through his Word and Sacrament. Therefore, let us be the new ending of the old parable: placed in God’s Vineyard by grace, let us render its fruit and receive his Son.