Suggested hymns for the service, from [Australian] Lutheran Hymnal and Supplement :
302 "Sinners turn, why will you die?"
70 "Stricken, smitten, and afflicted" (v.1,3 &4)
317 "Jesus sinners doth receive"
(HC 848 "With deep humility, O Lord")
465 "Praise my soul, the king of heaven"
Text: Gospel lesson Matthew 21:33-46
33 "Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. 35 "The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.
36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them in the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. `They will respect my son,' he said. 38 "But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, `This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 "Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" 41 "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," they replied, "and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." 42 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: "`The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes'? 43 "Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed." 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
Prayer:
Lord, we confess ungrateful and selfish tenancy, in this world that you have made. Let us not reject your word as it comes to us today. Help us by Your Holy Spirit to welcome you, and submit to your good and gracious rule in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Are we owners or tenants? There is a difference. An owner has rights. A tenant has responsibilities. If someone else owns the house and land you are using, you know you can't do what you like with it. The limits of what you can and can't do, are usually set out in a leasing agreement. When agreements are broken, there may be legal proceedings, but what can also happen is that bitter feuds might develop, even to the point of violence and murder.
Would we ever get to the point of violence, in our personal or commercial relationships? Surely not! We're not like those hot-headed people in the Middle East, or Northern Ireland, or the highlands of Papua New Guinea! Surely we are calm, peace-loving people, easily able to turn the other cheek when provoked...?! But are we really? What might happen if we learned that we have been cheated and robbed? How do we react when we are insulted? ridiculed? or patronised? There is anger in all of us. And there are ways of hurting other people without swinging a fist. We can do it with words. Words we speak to someone's face, or behind their backs. We can do it with silence. We can shut people out. We can hurt people in small, subtle ways, and sow seeds of hatred and division that can be continued and magnified in the next generation.
It's hard to understand why the tenants in Jesus' story acted in such a violent way. There is nothing to suggest that the owner was harsh or oppressive. At first there doesn't seem to be any obvious reason why the tenants turned on the owner's servants. Maybe the harvest failed, or was too little, and the tenants were worried about how the owner would react to not being paid. More likely it was sheer greed and selfishness. We see this in their response to the son. Verse 38 says, "when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, `This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him." This makes it clear that these tenants weren't interested in being tenants. They didn't want to serve anyone - they wanted it all for themselves.
Jesus told this parable to expose the attitude of the Jewish leaders to God. God is the creator and owner of all things. He chose the people of Israel, and established them as his own vineyard. He gave positions of responsibility to the nation's leaders, to look after his people, and keep them faithful. He provided abundantly for his people, and in return, looked for a response of faith, love - a harvest of worship. Did he get this? No. Jesus described what the Jews had done through the centuries in this way: Verses 35 and 36 - "The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them in the same way." As Jesus went on to describe how the landowner sent his son, he was talking about himself. Not long after he told this parable, it was acted out, as the Jewish leaders vented their hatred of God, by putting Jesus to death.
Hatred of God? Could this be true? Just before this passage, in Matthew 21:32, Jesus explained that the Jewish leaders had ignored the message that God sent them through John the baptist. The message was "Repent." Change your ways. Change your hearts and minds. Stop thinking that you are in charge of your life, and you can do what you like, and get away with it. The tax collectors and prostitutes of Jesus day had despised God's laws and done their own thing, but when the Holy Spirit convicted them, through the preaching of John the baptist, they broke down, and repented. But the leaders didn't. They weren't obeying God's laws any more than the tax collectors and prostitures, but they thought they were. They added pride and conceit to their sins of disobedience. They were complacent in their religion, and thought their empty obedience was fruit good enough for the Lord.
The fruit God desires, is perfect love, flowing from a pure heart, that is at peace with God and filled with his Spirit. The Jewish leaders had no love for God. Nor had the tax collectors and the prostitutes of Jesus' day, but they realised this, and sought God's mercy in repentance and faith. No one, at any time and place, has had such a heart of love for God. Sinful and unclean, we confess ourselves to be, and such we are, until God in his tender mercy and love, comes to us through His Word of grace, and the Sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion, lifts us up out of our sins, and freely forgives us.
Provoked or unprovoked, we have murdered people in our minds, grasped at God's blessings with thankless hearts, and considered ourselves owners, instead of tenants. But God, who is rich in mercy, has forgiven us. He used the ultimate act of human hatred against God, to provide forgiveness for us - the crucifixion of His Son, Jesus Christ. On that cross the owner of the world gave himself over to the violence of his tenants, and in his death, received, absorbed, and conquered the evil of humanity. On the third day, he rose, to proclaim his victory, and as he acended into heaven 40 days later, he commissioned more servants, to go into all the world and proclaim the great, undeserved love and mercy of the living God.
Today, how do you see yourself before God? Are you a repentant, grateful humble tenant, filled with God's mercy and love, eager to use all that God has given you, for his glory? Or are you still clinging to the idea that you are the owner of your life and that you have the right to hang onto all you think you own, regardless of the needs of others and the call of God? God does not need our gifts. We need his. More than anything, we need the gift of His Holy Spirit, who shows us our sins, and leads us to the Saviour. As we hear the message of the gospel, that God is not seeking to punish, but to save us, the Holy Spirit works to bring us to repentance and faith. Do not resist God's Spirit: welcome God's messengers, however confronting the message. But above all, welcome the Son, and give him the love and respect that is his due. Amen.
May the peace of God, which is beyond our human understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.