Pay Up Or Pack Up Series

PAY UP OR PACK UP (MATTHEW 21:33-44)

US News and World Report (3/31/97) polled 1,000 people several years ago on who they thought were people “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to go to heaven. The person most likely to go to heaven was none other than Mother Teresa, who garnered 79 percent of the votes. The next four persons in popular standing were curious choices - Oprah Winfrey at 66 percent, Michael Jordan at 65 percent, Colin Powell at 61 percent and Princess Diana at 60 percent.

The next three, who barely made 50 percent, among the people’s choice were Al Gore and Hillary Clinton – both at 55 percent, and Bill Clinton at 52 percent.

Two persons barely failed the grade - Pat Robertson at 47%, and Newt Gingrich at 40%.

The two people respondents considered most unlikely to go to heaven were Dennis Rodman at 28 percent, and O.J. Simpson at 19 percent.

What was more startling was how the respondents rated their own chances of going to heaven. They fancied their chances of going to heaven the highest - at 87%, much higher than Mother Teresa’s humbling 75-percent vote (Douglas Stanglin, “Oprah: A Heavenly Body?” U.S. News & World Report, 3/31/97).

Most people who think they have a blank check to heaven are in need of a reality check.

Repentant tax collectors and prostitutes – the most undeserving of a place in heaven, according to most people - had a special place in Jesus’ heart. The more they understood their rotten condition, the more they appreciated God’s amazing grace to them. A large crowd of tax collectors and sinners sat, ate and interacted with Jesus and His disciples (Luke 5:29; Matt 9:10; Mark 2:15). One of His disciples was still known to others as Matthew the tax collector (Matt 10:3), so Jesus was affectionately and sarcastically labeled as a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Matt 11:19). Matthew’s text is unique from other Gospels, because Matthew the tax collector was the only writer who referred to God’s acceptance of believing prostitutes, probably the worst kind of sinners in people’s mind, in His kingdom.

Why is God disdainful of the proud and merciful to the humble? What similar option has He given the self-righteous and the sinful? How does God expect people to respond to the gift of salvation He freely offered to them?

God Will Hold People to Their Agreement: You are Not Entitled

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. (Matt 21:33)

A good, positive rental experience can only be enjoyed given the right landlord and the right tenant or tenants.

I moved quite often the first half of the 90s after I arrived in Los Angeles. My first Southern California landlord charged us – three housemates - $1,000 for a condominium, another $1,000 for security deposit and $120 for a cleaning fee. The contract also stipulated that $30 shall be added to the rental if it was not paid 10 days after rental was due. The landlord made us send the check to her resident. I moved out seven months later because I could not stand one of the housemates, who is a smoker.

Next, I decided to rent a room in a duplex. That did not work out either, because the landlord had a key to the apartment. I suspect that he had no housing of his own and stayed overnight on different nights at his rental properties. He often entered my apartment and crashed in the living room. Sometimes he would come in the morning, make, and eat his breakfast there. Later he brought his girlfriend and her toddler. One morning I found the woman dressed in her bikini frying bacon in a pan! At the end of the year’s contract, I moved out.

After that mess, I shared an apartment with a friend in a modest 20-unit apartment complex, with a manager on site in one of the units and a handyman in the owner’s employment. The rental was $620, late rent charge was $10 – date not specified, security deposit was $200, cleaning deposit was $190 and key was $10. It was the ideal situation for me and it lasted a good three and a half years. The landlord refunded every cent to me when I left, including the cleaning fee.

The tenants in Jesus’ parable never had it so good. The landlord was a handy (v 33), savvy, knowledgeable, flexible, and thoughtful man. The landowner was no slumlord, and the property was a high-end and prime piece of property, not an upper-fixer that required regular repair or much renovation in a run-down area. The facilities on the rental property included a surrounding wall, a rock winepress, and a bonus watchtower. The Greek text implied that a “barrier” enclosed the vineyard (v 33). Putting up a wall, partition, or fence is hard work but it added value to the property, discouraged trespassing on the property, and gave farmers a sense of privacy.