St. Matthew 21:23-32
If the world did not receive Jesus, then it naturally follows that it will not receive the church. The world does not understand God. Yet, the great irony is that Yahweh created the world. It is His. Yet, evolution is the prevailing thought of the day. The worldly thinker, the casual observer and the uninformed will nod in agreement with the evolutionists that this world has to be millions of years old. “It doesn’t make sense,” they say, “that the world could actually be younger than people think.” Behind the belief that God created the world and the universe, lies a more fundamental belief--that God is more powerful than we are and that He is beyond us. Hidden in this thought process is the notion that miracles and things beyond our ability to understand could actually come to pass. When Hebrews 11 lists the ancients who believed in the Messiah in the Old Testament, it begins by stating right off that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was created ex nihilo, “out of nothing." In a similar fashion Psalm 104 recounts God’s hand in making the world and sustaining it. The psalmist then ends the psalm by praising the Lord for His creation and then says, “may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord.” The doctrine of creation that God formed the world in six days, each having twenty-four hours, is wrapped up in the belief that God works in the world and has, in fact, come to save sinners. Believing in the biblical doctrine of creation and looking to the Messiah, according to Hebrews 11 and Psalm 104, go hand in hand. What is disturbing in the gospel is that chief priests and the elders do not receive the Messiah who has come. Centuries of prophecy lie right before them, under their noses--signals that hearken to the coming of the Holy One are right under the surface of thought and preaching. Yet, they cannot detect His presence among them. Their questions posed to Jesus are not sincere questions. They are questions of entrapment. They want to catch this Jesus in a web that seeks to get Him in trouble with the Jewish authorities and the Roman authorities. What is at the root of it all? There is a failure to believe that God can do things that are beyond our realm of understanding. They don’t like that Jesus had just cleared out the moneychangers from the Temple. They do not like Jesus‘ warnings that everything in Jerusalem is about to change. What came first, the failure to believe in the miraculous or the worldly way of thinking that Jerusalem was the conclusion to holiness? Or maybe it is a combination of both. They didn’t want to hear the scriptures of the Old Testament. They were happy with the way life was. Heaven, God, creation, the Messiah, salvation....these things no longer fit very well into their system. The parable of the two sons, which follows the questioning, lays out for us the two ways of life. The father says to one son to go work in the vineyard. “I will not,” is the response, but he changes his mind and goes. The father asks the other son to work in the vineyard. This son says, “I will, sir,” but did not go. Both sons are forced to contemplate their situation. “Should I or shouldn’t I?” Could there be repercussions for the decision made? In the parable, one is faithful, while the other is not. To change one’s mind is symbolic of repentance. The word for repentance in Greek means "to have a change of mind." We start out of the gate thinking like the world, but then we contemplate our situation, or lives, and we repent. Others give little regard to the heavenly Father. They talk the talk, but their lives do not bear the fruits of faith. How could the second son lie to his father, unless he had no fear that his father actually had the power to take away his inheritance? The second son did not regard the position of his father. This is akin to people not believing in God today. People have great difficulty believing that God could be a God who condemns to hell. It doesn’t fit with our context of life today where there is no belief in right or wrong. In a world where everything is “OK” and we do not believe in ultimate truth, it becomes an uphill battle to believe that there could be a heaven and a hell, just as it is difficult to believe that God created the world in six days. But, what if it is different? What if the Bible really is true? Then what? What if science only tells us so much and we are forced to believe? It is the case that even these modern day scientific theories go only so far and the rest is left up to the scientist's faith in his theory. The Holy Spirit leads hearts to believe. The Holy Spirit leads rebellious hearts to repentance, and we see this in the gospel. Jesus’ words cut deep into the chief priests and elders of the Jews when He says, “the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” The tax collectors and prostitutes are those like the first son who questions his father’s authority, but then goes to work in the vineyard. They came into the world sinning, but they repented. The chief priests and elders are like the second son who made a show of fulfilling the father’s wishes, only to betray him and make a mockery of his position. Such is the reality of life today. The vineyard which the sons were to tend is the Lord’s task of life and service by faith. It is the life that St. Paul is always encouraging in his letters. God calls people to journey with Christ and serve, as they are led by the Holy Spirit. In it is the task of believing the scriptures, living amidst the preaching of the gospel and abiding at the Lord’s altar in prayer and reception of the sacrament. Many say they will do it, but they go off forsaking God and the scriptures to live a life that fulfills the lust of the flesh. Whether it be goods, fame, sex, prestige, or just satisfying selfish desires, the world entices us to ignore the heavenly Father and His Son, our Lord. The prophet Ezekiel is quite forthright that “the soul who sins shall die.” This is true whether the sinner believes or not. The end is the same. It is with this in mind that Ezekiel proclaims God’s desire that sinners repent--that they have a change of mind and heart. God desires that the son who says “no” to working in the vineyard, will consider not only his own conclusion, but that he will also consider the authority of the Father who commands his son to work in the vineyard. Through the holy and white garment of baptism, you are brought into the vineyard by your Lord and Savior. The seal of the cross that was traced on your forehead and on your heart in the baptismal liturgy is the command of the Father to go and work in the vineyard. Making the sign of the cross in this day and age is the statement that we believe that something miraculous and beyond human explanation took place in us as we passed through those life-giving waters. It is quite a striking confession these days to believe that we have been changed and sanctified by God through those waters. In this baptism is Jesus’ proclamation that your sins are forgiven. In the baptismal waters lies your change of heart and mind which pulls you away from the world. In the baptismal waters is the promise and the faith that believes that God does things which are beyond your understanding. In those waters lie the Holy Spirit who takes hold of you, puts you into the tomb of Jesus and raises you as He rose. You are the Lord’s own possession and you are fit for service in the vineyard through your baptism, because God does work in His creation to sustain and to save what is His. No matter how deep and horrible your sins are, Jesus was raised up and His blood shed on the cross in order to make the baptismal waters the flowing water of life that bubbles up salvation for you. Christ’s blood covers you, for He is the Messiah who was prophesied, who came, who died, and who rose for our justification. Amen. -- Rev. Chad Kendall Trinity Lutheran Church Lowell, Indiana www.trinitylowell.org http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=243282012833
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