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May God give us his grace and peace.
Dear Christians, the conspiracy was underway. Easter was drawing near, and the beloved son was about to be cast out of the vineyard. The chief priest, the scribes, and the elders of the people plotted together in order to hand him over to the governor. Blinded and filled with hate, these vine dressers kept on reasoning among themselves and ignored the final warnings. If only they could have an inside man, a mole who would help them to seize the heir, the beloved son, in secret; that problem was soon to be solved. But as they were still looking for the right opportunity, they had long made up their mind. The Christ had become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to them. What the aged Simeon predicted about the infant Jesus in the temple had become true. Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against. So the thoughts of many hearts were being revealed.
So while the holy remnant, the believers, received Christ the heir, the rest rejected him. And the owner of the vineyard? Was he just a helpless victim to their plots and conspiracies against his anointed? They kept on mocking him, beating and abusing his prophets, and finally killing his son. But the Father had his own intent and purpose in all of this. And his plot did not just stand against their plot. Instead, he used their evil deeds for his own plan. These two plots, the one against Christ our Lord and the divine plot, really summarize all of mankind’s history. They also summarize the gospel narrative. And Psalm 118 prophesied this long before. The builders rejected the stone, but the Lord made that stone the chief cornerstone.
So today, let us consider Christ, who was rejected by the builders, but who became the chief cornerstone. Firstly, Christ was rejected. The chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people deemed him to be useless, like builders who look at a stone and decide this stone is not good enough to be used for the building. So they threw Jesus away. They handed him over to be killed. The son was thrown out of the vineyard. But could the Father not see all this coming? Is he so naive? With great diligence, he planted that vineyard, and out of his abundant generosity, he leased it to the tenants. But at vintage time, they took the servant who came to collect the food, and they beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Clearly, something is wrong with these tenants.
Imagine you would be the owner of the vineyard. What would you have done? Justice. Not only do these tenants need to be removed, but they also need to face charges for aggravated assault. But what does the owner of the vineyard do? He sends another servant, and yet another. And time and time again, God’s people took his prophets and beat them and abused them. But God kept on sending his prophets. All of this, I think, is beautifully captured in one word: long suffering.
In his long suffering, the Lord went even so far that he sent his own beloved son. And he truly did hope that they would respect him, but he also already knew that they would not. And God sent his son anyway. So this parable can really be seen as the continuation of the parable from last Sunday on the prodigal son. Remember, we heard about how that parable might go on: that the older son would not just remain outside in the field, waiting and pouting. Yes, God, in his generosity and long suffering, goes out there to see him in person. But the older son—that is, the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the scribes—will go after God and crucify Him.
This is what we hear in our parable for today about the wicked vine dressers. And notice how foolish their plan is. They say, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him that the inheritance might be ours.” Do they really think this works? And why would you want to steal something from God if God gives it to you for free? Right. It is true that Christ, the Son, is the proper and lawful heir, and the inheritance is truly His. But you all have become co-heirs with Christ. You also share in this inheritance. All who become brothers of Jesus through faith have a part in that. The Spirit of Christ calls God Father. And so all who have Christ’s spirit also call God Father, sharing in Christ’s inheritance.
And this inheritance is eternal life. This is the hope that is waiting for you in heaven. This inheritance of eternal life is your share of the promised land and the resurrection. The Father gave it to all of you freely in your Holy Baptism. This is the inheritance that we talk about in the prayers right after baptism, as we had this morning in the early service. So whatever—and this is the great promise in that—whatever might befall you in this life, you can certainly know that you will live eternally with Christ in the heavenly vineyard.
Now since God gives all of this freely, how wicked must these tenants be to think that they can steal it from God? Therefore, we must also hear the warning that Jesus says: He says to the tenants, “What will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vine dressers and give the vineyard to others.”
So, let us take heed, lest Christ becomes for us a stone of stumbling. Let us not take offense at our God. Let us not be offended at anything that He says in His Word, or anything that He does in our lives, or does not do in our lives. The builders rejected the stone, but that came with a severe punishment. And the vineyard was given to the Gentiles, with a small remnant of believing Israelites left.
Now, against their protest, crying out, “Certainly not,” Jesus held that verse from Psalm 118. That conspiracy of rejecting the stone becomes part of God’s divine plan. Because secondly, that rejected stone has become the chief cornerstone. And notice this great reversal. What wicked men consider to be useless, God considers to be very useful. In fact, the Son of God even had to be rejected and killed so that the Father could raise him up again. The Son of God became the chief cornerstone exactly by his resurrection. That’s how he became that foundational stone that holds the whole building of the church together. As also Isaiah prophesied long before: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.”
And the reversal is even greater. The wicked vine dressers did evil in trying to seize the inheritance by killing the Son. But here it comes. The Son actually had to die in order for us to receive that inheritance. By his death, he acquired that inheritance of eternal life for us by forgiving all of our sins. So as we die and rise with Christ in Holy Baptism, we also receive that inheritance with Him.
So again, by rejecting the stone, they actually accomplished and did and carried out what God planned by making this rejected stone the cornerstone. Now, the fate of that cornerstone is to some extent also your fate as living stones in God’s temple. You also are being rejected by the world. You mothers, the world looks down on you for sacrificing yourself in motherhood. You could have had such a great career. And here you are, troubling yourself with mundane works like changing diapers and trying to fix dinner while one child after another starts crying.
And your fathers, the world likewise looks down on you as you bind yourself to your one wife and to your children, always worried about how to pay for all the bills, worried about how to raise children in these evil times. And all of you young folks in general, the world ridicules you for missing out on so many pleasures. In the world’s eyes, you are just wasting your time, spending all Sunday morning in church and, for many of you, also Wednesday evening. That is all useless to the world. You could spend your Saturday night much differently; you could sleep in the next day, or you could study on Sunday morning or make some money. “Do you really believe that the world was made in six days, or that holy marriage is the only place for sexuality?” they say.
So while you do not partake in their manifold sins, the world considers you to be useless. And all of you—the world rejects you and ridicules your prayers and your devotion to Christ as useless, outdated, and bigoted. But all this is precious in God’s eyes. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
The great reversal does not only apply to your Lord Jesus but also to you. You are precious to Him. So, let the devil and the world plot against you. Whatever conspiracies they are out there, whether they are true or not, the Lord rules in the midst of his enemies.
So when all the devil’s attacks against us—especially nowadays, against the God-given order of the family—when he tries to undermine the parents’ authority and responsibility over their children, we fight the good fight. We fight for what is good and just, and we do it joyfully because we know that the Lord is in control, that his plot will bring the evil plot to naught. The Lord is on our side. What can man do unto us?
And he himself was that stone rejected by the builders, but he became that chief cornerstone of a beautiful temple and a majestic sanctuary in which you are the living stones. So may he ever keep us and bring us at last to the inheritance of everlasting life. In Jesus’ name.