We remember friends back in BC who had to rent the basement of their house out as most normal people who own houses have to do back there. They had nothing but trouble, people leaving stuff on the stove when they went out for long periods of time, and there’s always the issue of getting the rent on time, which you are very dependent upon.
Landlords have very little recourse, and it is very difficult to evict someone. We even had a great tenant in our basement suite, but sometimes we would go downstairs and the gas fireplace would be going while she was off at work, and it would literally be close to 100 degrees in the place.
Well, in our parable today I want you to think Temple of God, and the remarkable fact that God has continually allowed human beings to be his tenants both on the earth and especially here in the Temple.
The parable begins with a man (here obviously representing God) planting a vineyard (the nation of Israel), who let it out to tenants while he went away to another country for a long while.
Actually we can look at this on three levels. The first can be creation where God created a beautiful fruit producing garden where he actually seemed to dwell at times, and he appointed Adam and Eve to be tenants of this garden. They decided to make the place their own and were bad tenants. They got evicted.
The second level has to do with the nation of Israel. We can see this in Isaiah 5 and the first 5 or so verses. Read… God gave the people of Israel the privilege of being tenants over the land of Canaan, specifically what became Israel and Judah, but they became wild grapes doing their own thing without regard for their landlord, and were bad tenants. They got evicted at least temporarily.
And thirdly we have the Temple, which represents the home of God. He allowed the Priests and Pharisees to be tenants of the Temple, and this parable is a direct indictment of them as they also did things their way and became very bad tenants. Now the Bible says we are temples of the God, the Holy Spirit, so if that doesn’t get our ears perked up this morning, I don’t know what will.
Now as we put ourselves in the story I think it’s reasonable to say that we are kind of a fourth level where he is talking about the church and how we are in a similar way tenants or stewards of the church of Christ. It is a little different because supposedly we have Jesus living inside us through the Holy Spirit, but I think we can take some lessons from this parable, most specifically that our own bodies and the church are not ours and there are very specific guidelines from the landlord, for living in the body of Christ.
So with all that in mind let’s continue in this parable of the wicked tenants. “When the time came he sent a servant to the tenants”. He actually sends three servants and each one is simply asking for some fruit which is clearly from the rest of Luke’s writing, directly connected to obedience.
Now what does it mean, “When the time came?” Well, let’s look at Jesus own words here in Luke where he says in chapter 10 verse 2 that the harvest is plentiful, in other words ready, so we need labourers now. He said in John 4, “open your eyes the fields are ripe for the harvest”. Last week we heard that the banquet is now ready. The time is now, today is the day of salvation, and as his labourers, there should be fruit to give Jesus.
The idea of authority is the main theme here. In the previous verses the priests and scribes are asking Jesus by what authority he teaches and does these miracles. He doesn’t answer them directly because they will not accept or understand his answer, so he uses this parable instead, indicating that they are the tenants and God is the authority.
The servants refer to the many prophets that were raised up and sent to the Israelites, all of whom the religious leaders persecuted and/or killed. With absolutely no fruit whatsoever coming from God’s holy people. The temple itself had become a very business like institution with various rituals that had become meaningless and a large focus on making money and being friendly with the Roman government.
If we stop there, does any of that sound familiar as you reflect on the 21st century church at least here in North America? Consumerism, the Christian industry, the compromise in order to fit in with society and avoid persecution, rituals that do little to further the kingdom and reach people for Christ. This appears to be something that just seems to happen when human beings are in charge of any spiritual institution. We can’t seem to keep our comfort and desires out of the mix and allow the authority to come from the one we say we worship. It started in the Garden of Eden and it continues today.
So these first three servants are sent away beaten and empty handed and finally the landlord says in verse 13, “maybe if I send my beloved son, perhaps they will respect him”. But this actually made the tenants turn it up a notch and when they found out he was the heir, in their greed to have the ultimate authority, they killed him.
Their excuse was that maybe the inheritance would then become theirs. But we now know that the inheritance comes from putting our faith in and submitting to the Son. That’s how we become heirs with him.
Notice the two questions that God the landlord asks in these verses. First what shall I do? This is where he answers, “I will send my son, this is my solution to the problem”. The second question comes in verse 15 when he asks, “What then will I do to those who killed my son and reject my solution?”
This time the answer comes in verse 16 and he says, “I will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. This of course refers again to our last parable about the banquet where if the Jews don’t accept the Messiah, he will go to the Gentiles. The nation of Israel was destroyed and given to others many times, though never permanently because he made a promise. The temple was destroyed and now a mosque sits in its place. And the earth itself will be destroyed and given back only to those who have been washed by the blood of Jesus, who have his stamp of authority on them.
And look at how the religious leaders respond, “Surely Not!” Do you see how they have obviously made the connection between themselves and the tenants in the parable? Would not most people say “yeah, right on destroy those nasty tenants.” But they know it’s them so they say “surely not, God would never do that to us”.
That is the arrogance of human religious authority. We think that God is for us because of who we are and it doesn’t matter what we do. It’s our church, it’s our salvation and so on. But Jesus wants us all to know that we have absolutely no authority of our own that he hasn’t given us and can revoke at any time. All our authority comes through Christ and his word.
Watch out Christian if you think you are safe from God’s judgement just because you claim the name of Jesus. No, you are under the holy and beautiful authority of Jesus who purchased you and created and owns the very air you breathe every day.
So Jesus looks directly at these people who are in denial and again quotes a Scripture passage that they would be very familiar with from Psalm 118:22, “The stone that has been rejected has become the cornerstone.” Again we see the reference to the temple. So he begins and ends this parable with quotes from the Old Testament, again confirming his authority and showing that their very own Scriptures speak about Him.
Now in Isaiah 5 the entire vineyard is destroyed, but here notice it is only the tenants, the leaders of the vineyard that are destroyed. Israel stays in tact but new leadership will be put in place. These new leaders aren’t specified here but it is obvious later that the new tenants, the new leaders are Jesus and the apostles, and eventually the church.
He is addressing this parable to the people generally, of which some were the religious leaders, and he is clearly letting the people know that they need to distance themselves from the disobedient leaders and accept the stone that the builders reject, because it will be the cornerstone. The Son that is rejected will be exalted to the throne.
Now what exactly will happen to the people regarding this stone? This is now directed at all the people again. Everyone who falls on the stone, referring to everyone who stumbles upon and rejects the stone, will be broken to pieces. Again he refers to their sacred text in Isaiah 8:14-15, “And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offence and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken, they shall be snared and taken.”
With all these references that Jesus makes to himself through their accepted and cherished Old Testament scriptures, it always amazes me that they didn’t see the truth. They were blinded by pride and greed.
Now those that stumble and fall on the stone will be broken, and it continues that those on whom the stone falls will be crushed. This likely refers to Jesus coming back in judgment. The ultimate judgment that will fall on everyone who does not accept the authority of Jesus as the Son of God. Now notice being broken doesn’t necessarily imply death, but being crushed does here.
In this last part of the story Jesus lets the religious leaders know that he knows about their plan to kill Him. This should have scared them into reconsidering, but they were so prideful, so sure they were right, that they ignored his graceful warning. Again that’s a warning for us too.
It reminds me of Cain who was warned right before he was about to kill his brother, that he shouldn’t, but he goes ahead and does it anyway. God right there in their midst giving them a face to face chance to repent before they even follow through on the act, but they don’t heed the voice of God, they never have, at least not consistently.
They thought if they killed the heir then they would claim ownership, only they didn’t figure on the resurrection, that the son would live and be responsible for the judgment. This is why many of them were so rigidly against the idea of resurrection. If they believed it, they would be in big trouble.
So many Jews still can’t or won’t believe that they were responsible for killing the Messiah they were hoping for. Hey I wouldn’t want to believe it either. But they refuse to see that even though they did, there is forgiveness now in accepting Jesus as the Messiah. Amazingly he will not hold it against them if they confess and turn to Him.
But it’s not just the Jews. We are all responsible for Jesus hanging on the cross. Most of us in this room have accepted that fact and called on him for forgiveness, which he has freely offered. We worship him for that, but do we worship him as he desires, or as we desire? Do we allow him to be the landlord of our lives and our church, as well as our saviour?
Think of it this way. Let’s pretend for a moment that we are the tenants and the vineyard is now the church. We kill the Son through our disobedience and wanting to run things our way, and the owner comes and says what have you done? Yet rather than evict us on the spot he decides he will forgive us and actually make us heirs. Unimaginable isn’t it? But that’s what happened.
However, that’s not where the story ends. What if after he forgives us and goes away again leaving us to the vineyard that will one day be ours, but that he still controls, we continue as we did before.
We continue to reject the prophets he sends through his word, we continue to go against his authority. That’s almost as unimaginable as him forgiving us and letting us stay isn’t it?
We have no business being the tenants looking after his church. But he makes us worthy and able to do so according to his plan and through his spirit. But god forbid if we decide again that we would rather do it our way. If we let our comfort, desires, pride and greed dictate our actions rather than following his instructions.
The cornerstone in those days was architecturally vital. The rest of the building depended on it for the support and alignment of adjoining walls. You’ve seen some of the architecture of that period, some of them became wonders of the world. But if the cornerstone was off by just a little it would make for drastic problems later on. You know how something a little off at the beginning can mean way out of whack as the building continues.
The same is true for the people of God and the Church. If we neglect the cornerstone, the only one who can be the cornerstone, it won’t take long to be way off course. And my friends, I think as the capital “C” church we are off course. I say that because I don’t see much fruit in our personal lives and in the church. If we are not accomplishing what Jesus died for and empowered, then there must be something a miss. Could it be that we are not falling under the authority of our landlord enough? Have we taken over our spiritual lives and the church, made it what we want it to be rather than what He died for it to be?
Do we have to, if we’re honest, identify with the tenants in this story in terms of how we treat the word of God. In their day it wasn’t because they didn’t know the word of God. They pretty much had their Scriptures, the Old Testament memorized. Their problem was that they didn’t understand, and/or didn’t want to follow what it said when it came in the flesh. In our day I think there may be some of that, but I think more for us it is the fact that we don’t know God’s word well enough, and when we do we are the same in that we don’t necessarily want to follow it. At least the parts that are difficult.
We supposedly if saved, have the Holy Spirit to help us understand it. They didn’t have that luxury, they depended on the inspired prophets to help them, but they rejected those prophets. Why, because with understanding necessarily comes response-ability, obedience. How many of us want to lack understanding, don’t want the prophets in our face either, stifle the Holy Spirit, because the alternative requires us to do things differently than we want?
I know sometimes in my prayers, I want to plead ignorance but I can’t. And that really sucks. The more you know and understand, the more accountable you become, and frankly the harder life becomes if we have not died to self. It is self – our sinful nature that makes a life of obedience to God difficult, because our old nature desires what it wants, not what God wants. Our desires need to become less important than his. And that is the spiritual battle that is constantly raging inside true believers. And frankly, the easiest way to escape the discomfort of that battle is to avoid the truth.
I think we all need to ask ourselves, is Jesus a stumbling block to us, even as believers? In your heart of hearts would you like to claim all the benefits of Jesus, but really rather not hear about the requirements. Basically what these religious leaders and the people of God throughout history have done is listen to the good stuff, you are God’s chosen people, you are forgiven and precious to me. But when he asks us for what he wants we kind of cover our ears and humm.
But here’s the glimmer of hope in that final verse. It says they will be broken to pieces (punished), and they will be crushed (eternal death). Clearly if they’re still listening, if we’re still alive, this hasn’t happened yet. Oh thank you for our patient, and graceful, and compassionate Lord. But the time will come.
Let’s go back to verse 10 for a minute as we come to a close. This one is very important to us I believe. It goes back to the first opportunity, and what does God ask for? His share of the crop. What does that mean, what is his share of the crop?
He comes to the tenants asking for just some of the fruit of the vineyard. In this culture wealthy land owners would often lease the right to raise crops to peasants, and part of the payment would be a portion of the harvest. Now if we remember the wild grapes that were mentioned in Isaiah we can assume that these guys either didn’t have a good crop, or they wanted all the proceeds to themselves. I think both can be the case when we look at the religious leaders of Jesus time. They were greedy and they weren’t producing any good spiritual fruit.
But I think the verse that clinches what this fruit is, is found in John 5 and is put most understandably in the New Living translation, “the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life, that brings joy to both the planter and the harvester”.
The fruit today is people who are learning the truth and coming to believe in Jesus for salvation. So this was what Jesus was looking for from the religious leaders, some kind of spiritual fruit, and it is also what he is looking for from His church. If the church is not producing disciples it is not doing what it is intended to do. Now is the fruit all up to us? No. But he is asking for his share, and I think what that means is our dedication to and obedience to the great commission. Simply doing our part as willing servants.
In Revelation 14 one like the Son of Man comes and harvests a ripe crop from the earth to be with Him, then an angel comes and harvests grapes that are ripe for judgment, and they are thrown into the winepress of God’s wrath. His share are the saved.
Very simple question for us from this parable today. When Jesus comes to us are we presenting him with disciples? Remember this parable is about Jesus’ authority? The great commission in Matthew says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (The implication?) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.”
When Jesus comes to our next congregational meeting, what will we have for him? Will we have some portion of the harvest for Him, or will we turn him away. Each of us needs to ask this question of ourselves. Are we giving him fruit from our own lives? Hebrews 10:26-29, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?”
Saved believer, if you are continuing in deliberate disobedience you are doing what the tenants did, spurning the Son of God, rejecting his grace. Church, body of Christ, if we are not being His body we are rejecting Him. There are no commands in the Bible to meet Sunday mornings, go through a specified program and go home until next Sunday.
The commands are to love God above everything else, which is shown primarily through our obedience to Him as mentioned in John 14, to love each other as ourselves, and to make disciples and baptize them. As His tenants, anything we do on Sunday morning, or any other time, should be to promote those activities. Sunday morning services are OK even if they were not commanded, as long as they serve this purpose. Once we have made and baptized the disciples, we are to teach them to obey everything He has commanded, and that is my goal every time we meet formally.
Church, I am pleased to say we have some fruit to offer Jesus this year. We have had people come to Christ, baptized many, and I pray that everyone who has been baptised, all 28 of you since I got here and all of you who were baptised before that, are truly disciples. My hope is that we are not wild grapes, but that we are striving to obey everything Jesus commanded, including going out and making more disciples, because as we see, he comes regularly to collect what is rightfully His. And he deserves the sweetest grapes, not the sour wild ones that he will have to spit out of his mouth.
What about grace pastor, I start to tune out when it’s always about obedience? As I have said before, part of his grace comes from his warnings for both the believer, and the unbeliever. And for the next three weeks we are going to talk about his grace and the once for all sacrifice in Hebrews 10, but again verse 29 of that chapter in the section entitled “full assurance of faith”, has been haunting me, “How much worse punishment, do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant, and outraged the Spirit of Grace” (by continual deliberate disobedience). His warnings are as much his grace as his death n the cross, because we will not run to his grace if we are not warned and aware of the consequences. That section includes, “The Lord will judge his people”. I give you and me these warnings out of love for you and God’s grace. Please accept them and respond.
