Wicked Tenants
Matthew 21: 33 - 46
Intro: A young Wyoming State Trooper was on patrol. He stopped a car that may have been involved in a bank robbery. Before the officer could get out of the car a bullet pierced the windshield and hit the officer in the eye. The gunman came to the patrol car and shot the officer 4 more times. After a 4 year recovery the officer retired on disability. Though his body was healing, his spirit was not. He found himself filled with rage at the perpetrator who had ended his career. One day the trooper’s wife said to him, “What happened to you is a tragedy. God made sure those bullets didn’t kill you; but, your anger is going to do what those bullets didn’t.”
I This passage from Matthew is a parable told by Jesus in allegory form. God is the owner, the vineyard is the nation of Israel, the tenants are the religious leaders, the slaves are the prophets and the son is Jesus.
A The tenants are not “wicked” in the beginning of the parable. However, at some point they forgot for whom they were working.
B VS. 35 – one slave is beaten, another killed and still another stoned. VS. 36 more slaves are sent and received the same way. VS. 37 – 39 The owner’s son is sent; he is killed.
C How would you feel if you were the owner of the vineyard? - - - Anger doesn’t begin to describe the emotions you might feel.
II When looking at this parable, we must remember that the tenants represent US. In this parable Jesus teaches that God has given the kingdom to those who believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
A God has provided everything you see around us. We live in the “vineyard” God has planted for us to work in, from which we are to return fruits of our faith to Him.
B Perhaps the privilege has gone to our head. We may have forgotten for whom we are working.
C We become unreasonable, disrespectful, or possessive acting with the same attitude of the tenants of this story. When their social security checks would come my grandmother was fond of saying to my grandfather, “What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is my own.”
III VSS. 42 – 44 tell us what the owner (GOD) will do. The problem here is that the tenants were unwilling to part with fruit. They rejected the owner’s claim to it.
A Rejecting God takes many forms: We may declare there is no God; therefore it is all mine.
B We are willing to admit that God plays a small, vague part in our lives rejecting that all we have really belongs to God.
C We refuse to accept other people created by God who are not like us. In doing so, we actually reject the God who made them.
Concl: God waits for us to get our act together, to quit trashing what is His and remember that our possessions, our money, our property, and even our very selves do not belong to us: but, are gifts from God over which we are to be GOOD tenants.
Stewardship is simply recognizing we only have what God has provided. It is about attitude! It is as much about living as it is about giving. Good tenants / wicked tenants / You choose!
