Pride And The Wicked Tenants

Pride and the Wicked Tenants

Good Morning. Believe it or not, we are in the final days of Lent! The Scripture lessons from today through Good Friday are all Jerusalem and Temple themed. Today’s especially we focus on a common temple theme of having a right heart and purity when we come before God. And there is one huge point in the Parable Jesus wants us to see, Watch Out For Pride.

It is so much easier for us to see what we imagine to be sins or problems in others, but when it comes to ourselves, there are times we’re blind. That’s the problem with the Jewish leaders to whom Jesus told this parable, they knew they were wrong, but Pride kept their heart from breaking. That’s why they were even at this time plotting to kill Jesus’ friend Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead. He was too much evidence Jesus was the Messiah.

Luke 20, where our Gospel lesson comes from, finds Jesus teaching and preaching in the temple. He’s interrupted by the Pharisees, the Sadducees and scribes. These men approached Jesus with this question: “By what authority do You do these things?” translated - “Who do you think you are, coming into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, allowing people to call out, ‘Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’? Then You come to the temple, and make a mess. What is your authority? Let us see Your credentials.”

There’s certainly a number of things Jesus could have appealed to. He could have pointed out how about 33 years ago, there were astronomical phenomenon in the skies that drew wise men from five hundred miles away to come and inquire of King Herod, saying, ‘Who is this who was born King of the Jews?’

He could have pointed to the fact that he raised Lazarus from the dead only a few days earlier, in front of some of them, but none of these were the answers Jesus gave. Instead, as a typical Jewish scholar, He chose to answer a question with a question. Jesus said: “I have a question for you. John the Baptist, by what authority did he baptize?” He knew what the rulers would say.

If the rulers answered, “His authority was from God,” then Jesus would reply to them: “Then why didn’t you believe him? Why didn’t you pay attention when he looked at Me and said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world?” BUUUT, if the rulers answered and said, “His authority wasn’t from God,” both Jesus and the Jewish leaders knew the people would revolt against them and possibly stone them to death. Everyone loved and respected John the Baptist as a true prophet of God, except the Prideful Sanhedrin.

So they “copped out.” They lied and said, “We don’t know.” But of course they knew. They knew that John the Baptist was sent from God, but, since they were filled with pride, they resented that he had criticized their sinful living, and how they refused to repent. He condemned their Pride. They said, “We really can’t answer that,” and Jesus said, “Then I won’t give you My answer.”

Jesus next gives a parable. He said, A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. The Pharisees would have known this to be a reference to our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 5. There, God likened His people to a vineyard. God said: “I have made a vineyard for my beloved. I have cleared the stones from the earth. I have planted, pruned, and nurtured, but my people allowed this vineyard to grow wild sour (stinking) grapes, to go unattended and become desolate.”

Jesus freshened the Old Testament metaphor and spoke of the man who planted a vineyard and went into a far country while he hired tenants to work the vineyard for him. When the harvest came, the owner of the vineyard sent a messenger and sought to collect the rent. We know what happened.

They beat up some, and killed others. The owner faithfully sent messengers to the tenants, to appeal to them, but their hearts were hard. Then he said, since every messenger I sent to these workers they attack, I’m not going to send a servant to simply be a spokesman. I’m going to send my own son, the heir of the vineyard. I will send him, and surely, they will listen and pay what they owe.”

What happened? When the tenants saw him, they said: “This is the heir. We’ll kill him and bury him, and we will then possess the vineyard. It will be all ours.” They threw the son out of the vineyard, and they killed him.