Matthew 21:33-43
Pastor
Nathan P. KassulkeNineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Sunday, October 8, 2023
“Tell Us a Story of Reckless Patience”
I was sitting quietly in my house about a week and a half ago when I heard a strange and sudden sound. It was loud and seemed close, not in the house but nearby. I had no idea what it was, though. It wasn’t as sharp as something like a gun firing or a firework exploding, but it had a definite pop to it. Only later did I find out what had happened when there were police cars on our block arresting the drunk driver who had hit a car almost directly across the street. It perhaps goes without saying that I am thankful that no one else appeared to be hurt, but that is certainly not due to the decisions or actions of that driver. What she did was reckless. Wouldn’t you know it, in the time between that event and today, I have read news reports about two other incidents involving drunk drivers here in Tucson. In one, a driver was going around 100 miles per hour not terribly far from here on Grant Road. In the other, sadly, a pedestrian in a crosswalk was struck and killed by a drunk driver. If you drink too much and drive a car, you are being reckless. You are not being concerned about the consequences or the dangers that are all too likely because of your decisions and actions.
I understand reckless, but I don’t know that until preparing for this particular Sunday I had ever considered how patience could be reckless. Patience is a virtue the adage says, and it is true that God wants his followers to be patient and kind after the pattern he himself has set. The story that Jesus has for us today, however, invites us to think about patience that seems to fit that unique description: reckless.
Jesus tells this story right on the heals of his previous. Those who were here at Grace last week heard the story about two brothers, one who said he would not do what his father asked but then did it anyway and one who did the opposite: claimed he would do what he was told but never did. Jesus pointedly concluded that story with a warning to his audience that they were not listening or believing John the Baptist’s call to repent. And then he has another story for them.
Like many of Jesus’ parables, it starts out in a seemingly ordinary way: a landowner builds on his land in order to have a fully functioning vineyard. He plants the vines, fences them in, builds a watchtower, and digs a winepress. The vineyard has everything it needs. It is all set to produce fruit and wine. But the landowner would not be the one to tend the vineyard. He leased his property to farmers who would do that. Everyone was on board with the idea that when the harvest came, some of the fruit would go to the owner as payment for his land and his efforts. These sorts of arrangements if not commonplace were certainly familiar in the land of Judea at that time.
But the payment didn’t come. The owner never received his fruit. The owner sent servants to go get what he was owed and instead of giving it to them, the tenant farmers beat and killed and stoned the servants. There’s a reason this story is known as the parable of the wicked tenants. The story has taken a turn to the gruesome and barbaric. And it only gets worse. Even more servants are sent, but they all are treated the same way as the previous. And then the owner makes a decision that we would have to consider reckless. He sends his son. Then, in a response that seems to surprise only the owner, the tenant farmers throw the son out of the vineyard and kill him.
Suppose you were one of the Jewish leaders standing near Jesus and hearing this story. Would you think of Isaiah 5 and recognize that the vineyard represents the people of Israel? I suspect you would. The men who were there and did listen understood that this parable concerned them. They were the tenant farmers who were supposed to lead God’s people and help them do what God wanted, help them produce fruit. Instead, they did the opposite. God sent prophets, and they rejected and even killed them. He sent more prophets with the same result. Think about what this story says about God’s patience. The men standing with Jesus needed God’s patience, but they weren’t the only ones. Over centuries, God was patient with the Jewish leaders who were rebelling against him and his Word and leading his people away. And he sent prophets, and nothing changed.
So what does God do? He sends his Son.
Now, we are not going to call God reckless. We won’t accuse him of ignoring potential consequences or acting with disregard for anyone’s health or safety. It would be reckless for any human father to act the way that our landowner does. But the God who created all and knows all acts in a way that reflects his amazing and incredible love. To the very people and the very sorts of people that have killed his prophets through centuries and generations he sends his very own Son. And he sends him knowing full well that they will kill him, but he sends him anyway because that is exactly what his people need. They need a perfect sacrifice, a perfect life and innocent death to repair and replace their lives and to make it so that they need never die. No parable can truly capture how amazing God’s grace is, but a story of shockingly reckless patience captures attention in a way that at least points us in that direction. Here’s what one commentator has to say about this parable: “There is no imagery within the experience of men that can picture the amazing grace and patience of God. The hearers might well exclaim: ‘Why, we never heard of an owner doing such a thing, not stopping until his own son was killed!’ Of course they had not. But this is the very point Jesus wants to make. With this unheard of imagery Jesus pictures the unheard of wickedness of these Jewish leaders who murdered not only the prophets sent for their salvation but were now about to murder God’s own Son.” So what do we take from this parable? We’re not Jewish leaders. We’re not standing before Jesus plotting against his life. But we cannot think for even a moment that our wickedness is somehow less than theirs. Our commentator actually got it wrong. He said that the wickedness of this story is unheard of. It is not. Every human being is born with an innate wickedness that exactly fits the actions of those men. And you are not an exception. And I am not an exception. Our sins sent Jesus to the cross just as certainly as their plotting did. Our unwillingness to serve and love condemns us, and it is only through Christ that these sins are removed and we are restored to live in a way at all different from those men.
Recall how Jesus closes this story. He asks those standing around him what the owner would do to tenant farmers who had acted in that way, and they all knew. He would get rid of them. He would give them the just result of their wickedness, and his vineyard would end up in the hands of other tenants, ones who would give the owner what he asked and demanded.
And that is exactly what Scripture had foretold. Jesus was the stone rejected by the builders. He was thrown out because he didn’t look the part. They, those leaders, thought that he was not fit to help anyone, just like builders thinking a stone was not worthy of their building. But God has other plans. He makes Jesus the cornerstone. He takes the rejected stone and elevates it to the highest possible position. And Jesus is the focus of the building that God makes of his people. All who see him as such, all who believe in him, trust him in this way are the ones who possess the kingdom of God and produce its fruit. They are not better tenants on their own. They are tenants who have been changed by the reckless patience and amazing love of God in Jesus Christ.
And now God asks and invites us to follow his example and to bear fruit. If God is patient, we can be patient. It is not our nature to be patient with others. Of course we think the father in the story is reckless because we could not even entertain reacting that way. How long does it take you to run out of patience with someone? It doesn’t have to take very long, does it?
This story of reckless patience reminds us that God is patient not only with Jewish leaders but also with you and me. How can I be patient with others? When I remember how God’s patience to me has been so extreme that others might call it reckless.
There are many actions that we might call reckless. Only rarely would we describe patience that way. But when Jesus tells us a story of reckless patience, we stand in awe of God’s amazing grace. We thank God for making us a part of his eternal kingdom, and we bring forth fruits of faith as he empowers us.
The Text: Matthew 21:33–43 (EHV)
33“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. He leased it out to some tenant farmers and went away on a journey. 34When the time approached to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35The tenant farmers seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way. 37Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. 38But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’ 39They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40So when the landowner comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?”
41They told him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. Then he will lease out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his fruit when it is due.”
42Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?
43“That is why I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruit.