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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated.
What shall I do? Was that really the question that was asked? What shall I do? I know what you would do. And I know what I would do. And it would not be what this owner of the vineyard did. What? Once that first servant came back to me having been beaten by my tenants or by your tenants, you’re going to go send another one and another one and another one. Now the text talks about three being sent, not a literal three, because the servants of the vineyard owner are prophets of the Old Testament. The vineyard owner is obviously the father. The tenants are the Jews. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, all, every prophet that were sent to proclaim the good news to the people of God were not always heard.
Remember what your mom and dad used to say? It goes in one ear and out the other? Maybe you were a better listener than I, because I heard that a lot. So why then did the vineyard owner have such love for tenants who beat up his prophets? And why was he so patient and kept sending them in love to these people who beat them and killed them? Because he’s sure not you and he is sure not me. We would have wiped them out a long time ago. Think of his great patience with you. Think of him coming after you time and time again. Think of all the times that you didn’t listen to God. And yet he still sent someone to come find you again. That’s long-suffering. That is patience. That is also called perfect love.
So when the vineyard owner says that he will send his beloved son… I hope alarms went off inside your head because there’s only two places in the New Testament where he’s referred to as the beloved son, and it comes from the father’s lips speaking from heaven. When Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, the father spoke from heaven and said, “This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.” When Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John, and Jesus is transfigured before their very eyes in glory, the voice from heaven says, “This is my beloved son.” Jesus is the one that the vineyard owner sends. And what do the tenants do to Jesus? But take him outside of the vineyard and kill him. Slaughter the beloved son.
Jesus doesn’t end the parable there, does he? He doesn’t end it there and just let it sit. He asks the question again. What shall he do, this vineyard owner, when the tenants kill the beloved son? Hmm. Jesus spoke about this in the Gospel of John when he talks about the vine being himself and branches being you and me, and some were cut off so that you could be grafted into that vine and have life there. Some were trimmed and cut off because they did not repent so that you could be grafted into that vine. Aidan was grafted into that vine as you have been grafted into that vine who have been baptized into Christ.
But do you know what had to happen for that to be your reality and mine? The beloved son had to be murdered. No beloved son murdered and sacrificed. No grafting in of you or me. The beloved son, in order for him to be the capstone and the cornerstone, had to be rejected. But not just by a certain few. He had to be rejected by all. We would love to paint ourselves into thinking that we’re not what we really are. And yet God’s parables point us back to see what we really are and that the vineyard owner gives the vineyard to others. The beloved son had to be murdered so that you could receive the vineyard.
Paradox. Because in order for that to happen, you have to be crushed. Broken. God’s word has a way of doing that, doesn’t it? God’s word shows us what we really are and we see it. And we don’t like to hear what we really are. And then God’s word also tells us what we are in his son, Jesus, the one who was murdered. So on one hand, the vineyard is taken away from some and given to others.
Think about this. This country is barely 300, 400 years, if you really push the envelope of time. And there was no vineyard here. It was taken from Europe and planted here. And you look at the vineyard in Europe and you don’t see so many people. People in the vineyard anymore. You see the stone walls of the vineyard of its past, but you don’t see the people in the vineyard. Not very many. So it can happen to America just the same. The gospel will always be in this country, but it will not always be what it was 20 years ago or 200 years ago. Because God takes it and gives it to others.
Whenever we’re broken… And that makes us see how broken we are when we realize it was taken away from another land and placed in our land by faithful people who were here long before we ever were born. It makes us think that in order to be fixed after we’ve been broken, we’ve got to fix and raise ourselves up. I’m here to tell you, don’t do it. You will not find satisfaction. Go ahead, pray a few more hours each day and see what happens. Satan will be on you. Go ahead, come to church a few more Sundays than you have been coming and Satan will be on you. Go ahead, give a few more pennies in the offering plate and see what happens. Satan’s going to challenge you. He does not want you to change.
But God will raise you up, which is different than you raising yourself up. You raising yourself up is thinking that I can change something in my life and it will be better. Right? Change it and see how it goes. Last Wednesday we talked about the soldier who looked up at Jesus at his death and said, “Surely this was the Son of God.” And we talked about how God used him. Oh, that’s great and it sounds so pious. You and I weren’t around to live with the repercussions of him as a Roman soldier. A Gentile, hardened soldier, sinner who comes to faith. Now he’s got to deal with the consequences of faith because it’s going to impact him as a Roman citizen and his relationship with his soldiers. It’s going to impact him with his family and his life with his family. If he’s married, it’s going to impact his marriage. If he has children, it’s going to impact his children.
God must raise you and I up. God must fix what he breaks. If he breaks you, and he will, and he has, he will fix what he breaks, not you and I. And he will build us up into this living house called the church, where he looks at us and trims what he needs to trim so that it’s the right stone in the right place. Oh, we would love to be a part of a huge ark like that, but you and I are probably one of the bricks at the bottom. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. The dirty ones. The ones that have been cleaned only ever so often and not often enough.
Simeon let this all be out of the bag when Jesus was brought to the temple. Simeon held Jesus and he said, “This child, behold this baby in my arms is destined for the rising and falling of many in Israel.” You know they had to think, what’s this old man talking about? And for a sign spoken against him. You know what the sign is that’s spoken against? That the owner of the vineyard would give the vineyard to others who don’t deserve it. That’s the sign spoken against. Why would a vineyard owner give the vineyard to someone who doesn’t deserve it? That’s the kind of vineyard owner you and I have. And you’re the kind of one he picks to be in his vineyard.
People speak out against it. You know what they say. “Oh, church, I don’t want to go to church because it’s full of hypocrites.” Where else should hypocrites be on a Sunday morning? Better to be here than to be praying to St. Pillow and St. Sheep and St. Bed. Doesn’t work too well.
Paul talked about this because Paul was an educated man. He was well-versed in Judaism. But he counts all of that as rubbish. It’s a very polite word for fecal matter. Because in the text, that’s exactly what it says. Fecal matter.
Listen again. I indeed count everything as a loss because of surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. What does it mean to know Christ Jesus as Lord that Paul’s talking about? It’s not Paul walking on water. It’s not Paul breaking bread and feeding 5,000. And it’s not even Paul healing people, which he did. To know Christ Jesus for Paul is to be shipwrecked, falsely accused, beaten, thrown in jail. That’s to know Jesus. Because that’s to know brokenness, isn’t it? And to be raised up.
Jesus was broken on that cross for you and I. And Jesus was raised up from that death for you and I. Just as you have been broken daily. Not once in a lifetime, but daily. And raised up daily that you and I may repent daily. Yet you and I may not sit back and think, my, how things are going so well, and forget that today God may demand our soul from us. He goes on, “For Jesus’ sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith.”
And then he says it again. “That I may know him. That I may know him.” You say you know Jesus. When you talk to somebody else, do you tell them about all the glorious things that God has done for you? Don’t do it. Because how do you explain all the other stuff that has been done to you or that you have done to yourself? Better to talk about what God has done to you. He has broken you and he has raised you up. That is what Paul is talking about. For him to know Jesus is to know what it’s like to be broken and raised up, and it’s not a once or twice, it’s a day in and day outness of our Christian faith in this world.
Paul said it another way, “We preach Christ crucified, stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.” But listen, Paul also makes this very important promise. Behold, he says, this is what God is saying to Paul, “Behold, I, the Father, am laying in Zion a stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.” Whether that day is at our death, or whether that day is throughout our life, little glimpses, that is the promise. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
