St. Matthew 21:33-46 The parable set for today encompasses everything in our lives. This householder plants a vineyard. He sets it up with everything that is needed. It has a hedge to form the border; It has a wine press to provide the finished product; it has a tower set as a lookout to aid in the protection of the vineyard. Tenant farmers are put in place and the householder goes on a long journey.
Parables have deeper meaning. This parable concerns the world and salvation. God is the householder. As Jesus tells it, He is telling the Jewish authorities that God had provided the OT covenant for them. The Mosaic covenant was the hedge, the sacrifices were the winepress, the tenant farmers were the Jewish authorities, and the tower was in place to watch for the Messiah. The servants were sent to collect the fruits of the vineyard. These were the prophets sent by God. The Jews killed them. This recounts the idol worship of Israel and their theological lens being distorted such that they no longer were looking for the Messiah--looking out of the tower--but they were more interested in owning the vineyard. This is the perennial problem in the world today. People use God’s name for whatever suits them. Many people claim to believe in God, but few actually live lives of faith and repentance. Most live only for the world and for today. This week we have received news that doesn’t really surprise us concerning the economic outlook of our country. The Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI), which has a very good track record for its predictions has officially declared that the economy is heading for a recession. The spokesman was fairly pessimistic in his explanation. This leads us to consider ramifications. What will this mean for me? What will this mean for the local economy? Will we see any difference from what we have already been seeing? This trickles down and affects jobs, money, and security. All the unseen variables that take place do affect us. These things that happen in the world can cause great difficulty, and it is in times like these where it is good for us to ask the question: wherein is our hope? In what do we hope? What is our goal in life? The people who are most affected and perhaps even devastated by worldly hardships are those who live for today. The Jews in the parable wanted the inheritance. They wanted the vineyard for themselves. They were content. Those of us who come to church listen to this sermon thus far and point the finger at all those other people who don’t put Jesus first. But do we really put Jesus first? Are we about the things of Jesus? How often do we lose sight about the reason for the church’s existence? How many of us do not rightly understand Christian service. There are so many people who only look at the church as this structure or organization that consists of meetings, leaders, tasks, and opportunities for influence. There are always people who think that they rule in the church. They have the say; they have the authority; they have the influence. When we look at the church as a physical organization of people and a structure of governance, we become like those farmers in the vineyard. Eyes are no longer set toward the horizon from the watchtower. If your eyes are set more towards your own work in the vineyard than on the coming of Jesus, then, hid amidst seemingly good intentions, is your failure to get it right. This is sin and sin destroys. Your work and service is not about you. The right focus and the true mission of the church is about the Lord and His vineyard. It is about Jesus coming on the horizon. It is about receiving forgiveness and finding Christ’s love for us and being enwrapped and enveloped in His love. There is much to learn from this parable. The sin of focusing on ourselves and this world can happen in the world and in the church. We are to be in the watchtower looking for Jesus and heaven. The signs were there in the Old Testament, if only Israel had discerned. In Jonah and the big fish was the coming of Jesus to win His victory over the grave. In Noah and the flood was the newness of life through the baptismal waters. In Elisha and Naaman’s leprosy was the cleansing through baptism and Christ’s blood. In the bronze serpent on the pole and the healing of the deadly snake bite was seen the raising of Jesus on the cross for all to look upon Him to be healed from Satan’s deadly snake bite of sin. In a similar way, Jesus has told us to “take, eat, this is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me...take, drink this is my blood of the New Testament: this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.” Then St. Paul gives us the exhortation to keep looking from the watchtower: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes”(1 Cor. 11:26). The right focus of the church, then, is that all service, all faith, all love culminates at the point that the bread and wine are consecrated on the altar, the bread and cup are raised up for all to see, and all come forth to eat and drink Christ’s body and blood. The Son of God comes to reconcile us and we do not despise His coming, but we welcome Him. The point of the church is that it has an altar, and at that altar the blood of the New Covenant covers us. The whole point of the vineyard, the whole point of the church, the whole point of servants, prophets, teachers, and workers is to see the Lord Jesus when He comes. Today He comes under the bread and wine. As the parable indicates, Israel killed the prophets, and they killed God’s Son outside the vineyard. But His death brought life. The horrible reality of Christ’s suffering and death brings for us a peace that surpasses the world and all its horror. The economy may decline. Finances may dwindle. Health may worsen. The world will pass away. But the blood of Jesus shed outside the vineyard is for your sins and for your salvation. Jesus abides with you. Cleansed and covered by the blood of Jesus, He shall carry you through it all and you find yourself at the Lord’s altar, which is the watchtower in the vineyard today where we look at the bread and we look at the cup that is raised for all to see, and in it we see Jesus coming to save us. Amen. -- Rev. Chad Kendall Trinity Lutheran Church Lowell, Indiana www.trinitylowell.org http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=243282012833
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