Matthew 21:33-43 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Pentecost 20 Sunday, October 18, 2020 “Jesus Guides His Church with Incredible Patience”
What word would you use to describe God’s patience? That was a question that needed to be answered as we put together a worship plan for this Sunday, along with the rest of our “Jesus Guides His Church” series. We often think of God’s grace with the adjective amazing, and we sing a well-known hymn about that. A few weeks back, we used a different word, “inconceivable,” which fit as well. Either could be used to describe God’s patience also. Or we could call it unbelievable or astonishing or extraordinary. What’s interesting though, is that it doesn’t really matter what word we use. It’s never going to quite convey the enormity of what we are saying, what the Bible tells us, about God’s patience and his love for us. It is incredible, the word that we have chosen, but it is more than incredible how God deals with sinners. And Jesus once told a story to illustrate just how incredible God’s patience really is. You heard it read already in today’s Gospel from Matthew 21. Let’s think through it again. The story starts with a landowner who determines that his land will be used as a vineyard, so he crafts it to be that. He plants the rows of vines. He erects a fence to protect the land. He adds a winepress so that the fruit could be used productively and builds a watchtower for security and oversight. The vineyard had everything that a vineyard would need. It just needed some farmers to care for the crop. According to a common enough custom of the day, the landowner entered into a lease. Farmers who did not own the land or the vineyard would use it. They could earn a living from the vineyard while also paying the landowner for the privilege of doing so. With that agreement in place, the owner thought nothing of leaving on a journey while the growing season went on. And then came the harvest time. Clearly the arrangement between the tenant farmers and the landowner meant that he would receive some of the fruit as it was harvested. He sent his servants, but instead of being given the fruit, the servants were seized, abused, tortured, and killed. He tried a second time with even more servants, and the very same thing happened again. This is unbelievable from any earthly perspective. What would the farmers hope to gain from killing and mistreating the servants of the man on whose land they were trying to make their living? He had every right to expect the fruit, but they refused to give it. How would you expect the owner to react at this point in the story? Perhaps he ought to work with the courts or with leaders in the area to bring those men to justice. Perhaps he should put together his own army to make sure that the next time they encounter those men, they come out on top. But that’s not what the owner does. In a move that seems reckless and is certainly more patient than those men deserve, he sends his own son. He reasons that they will have to respect the very own beloved son of the master. How could they not? Well, they didn’t. They saw the son and plotted against him, too. They thought that somehow they could benefit if the son was out of the way. They could keep the vineyard that the son would otherwise inherit. They could keep their position and their wealth. So they took the son, threw him out, and killed him, too. To end the parable, Jesus does not finish the story, but askes the people how it should end. “So when the landowner comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?” They 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.” Jesus does not specifically walk the people through the meaning of the various aspects of the parable, but the verses after this report that the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders to whom Jesus had been speaking, knew that he had spoken the parable against them. And indeed he had. He even told them, “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.”
Those Jewish leaders were represented by the tenant farmers. They had been put in a position of authority over God’s people, God’s field, God’s vineyard. There are a few other places where the Bible uses the picture of a vineyard to represent the people of God. And God had an expectation that those leaders would obey his will. They would not only lead the people in a way that the people would bring forth fruits of faith, they themselves would produce fruits also. As he sought those fruits of faith, as he looked for faithfulness, love, mercy, kindness, God sent his servants the prophets to warn the people and their leaders. And so we have identified the landowner as God and the servants as the prophets. And very often the prophets were mistreated and stoned and killed. This had gone on among the Old Testament people of God for centuries. And it was continuing. And so, with the same reckless love of the landowner, after waiting patiently for fruits of faith that never came, God sent his own Son, Jesus Christ. And the story of the parable so clearly illustrates how amazing and incredible and inconceivable is not only God’s patience, but his mercy and love as well. That he would send his own Son in the hopes that the people would listen to him. Jesus spoke this parable in the early part of Holy Week. Just days later, what the parable had discussed and predicted came to be. The tenant farmers killed the son. The Jewish leaders insisted that Jesus be crucified. They somehow thought that his death would benefit their position and their power and their livelihood. They somehow thought that they would retain their leadership over the people whom God had chosen. But they themselves said it, “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.” The vineyard represents the kingdom of God, and the Jewish leaders would be essentially removing themselves from it by their consistent and persistent disobedience. But God would give t to other tenants, those who would bring forward fruits of faith, true believers from all nations. So what do we make of this parable for ourselves? It does tell us about history. It tells us about the people of Israel, and primarily their leaders, up until Jesus. It shows how God dealt incredibly patiently with them, that he allowed such wickedness to go on for so long. It also shows that his patience has an end point. He will judge. He will punish. We live now under God’s great patience. He warns us not to fall back into sin and unbelief. He encourages us to consider how we respond to his servants, the prophets, to those who bring God’s words of warning and of promise to us. He warns us that sometimes we do prefer our own thoughts and feelings over the truth of his Word. Sometimes we do selfish and self-serving things instead of displaying love and kindness. Sometimes we do think only of our earthly situation and forget about what is most important, our relationship with God. But God in his reckless love sent his own beloved Son, knowing full well that people would execute him. He sent his Son not only to seek fruits of faith and repentance, but to forgive sin and to enable those fruits of faith and repentance. In other words, he did not come just to punish wicked tenant farmers, but to die for them and for others. He came to call wicked people to be included in his vineyard. Jesus quoted from Psalm 118 as he explained to the Pharisees that their answer concerning his parable was correct. The Psalm prophesied that Jesus would be rejected by many and yet would become the most important part of a new construction, the cornerstone of the kingdom of God. In spite of God’s patience, in spite of his reckless love, many continue to reject him. Many still refuse to bring forth fruits of faith. And God’s patience will reach its end. But for many others, God’s promise is on full display. He has been patient with us in our sinfulness and has called us out of our sin to faith, to repentance, and ultimately to eternal life with him. No single word could do justice to how incredible, unbelievable, amazing God’s patience and love are. But I guess we’ll try one more. Jesus quotes the Psalm and says, “This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” God’s patience is marvelous. His love is marvelous. He has done this for us.
The Text: Matthew 21:33–43 “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. 34 When the time approached to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 The tenant farmers seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way. 37 Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. 38 But 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!’ 39 They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 So when the landowner comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?” They 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.” 41
42
Jesus 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? “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.” 43