Welcome to a three month long study of one week in the life of Jesus. We’ve given the series a title, The Greatest Week in History. That may seem like hyperbole to you but I ask you to think again. Think of it … Jesus Christ never held a political office, never ruled a nation, and never commanded an army. In fact, during His day He was so obscure that He never even met a Roman emperor. He spent His life in obscurity teaching and explaining the Scriptures to the Jewish people. And yet, when your smartphones flashes the date today, it recognizes that the birth of Jesus split history into two parts, no matter what you think about Him. Today, some two billion people adhere to His teachings around the globe. Jesus is so influential that non-religious people all over the globe use His name to curse. Can you imagine a plumber saying, “Mahatma Gandhi!” when he smashes his finger? He’s easily the most influential figure in history and we’re focusing on His final week on earth. The power of this week lies in all that happened. And it deserves both retelling and a careful scrutiny.
Bracketed by Palm Sunday on one end and Easter Sunday on the other, this is the most important week in history. On Friday, Jesus will die. On Thursday, Judas will betray Him. Today’s focus is Tuesday.
And before we read our passage, allow me to set the scene. It’s Tuesday, just seventy-two hours away from His death and about sixty-four hours away from Judas’ famous kiss. So many items are going on Tuesday that we will devote three Sundays to the happenings on Tuesday. We’ll focus our attention today on simply three items from Tuesday:
1) The Disciples see the fully withered fig tree; 2) Jesus authority is question by the religious leaders; and 3) Jesus teaches several parable. It’s traditionally called the Parable of Vinedressers or the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. And this parable is told in three of the four gospels. I know the traditional names seem odd but Jesus’ story is amazingly relevant.
Today’s Scripture Passage
And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. 10 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. 13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ 14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” 17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. (Luke 20:9-19)
Think with me about the cause of World War I for a moment. Sixteen million people died before it was over. And all of it was started by a wrong turn and an assassin’s bullet. In the end, one hundred nations would join together for the Great War (WW I). Yet, it was the slightest tremor that pushed the tectonic plates together to start this conflict. And all of it began when Archduke Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated while they visited Sarajevo. And yet, what’s amazing is that he could have easily escaped and possibly prevented the war itself. His convoy took a wrong turn on that day placing Ferdinand directly in front of the murderer’s bullet on June 28, 1914. Just one wrong turn and millions of people lives may have been spared?
What was the ONE thing that caused Jesus to die? The past two days, Jesus had come into Jerusalem receiving the crowd’s praise (Palm Sunday) and He has cleansed the Temple (Monday). This got the attention of the religious authorities. In fact, they ask Jesus this question: “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority” (Luke 20:2). Jesus’ response is the story we just read. Note carefully the reaction of the religious authorities: “The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people” (Luke 20:19). In essence, Tuesday of the Passion Week is essentially a day where Jesus and the religious leaders of Israel are in verbal conflict. Tuesday’s verbal conflict sets the stage for Friday’s crucifixion. Thursday they will seek to take His life physically but on Tuesday they seek to set the ground work for His death. It’s here they seek to take Him verbally. Jesus tells a parable that isn’t simply for them, it’s for us.
Sermon Preview
The tenant farmers are going to show us we all have a problem. Secondly, the attacked messengers are going to show us there’s a counterfeit solution we should avoid. And it’s the last messenger will show us the ultimate solution.
1. I’m a Tenant Acting Like an Owner
The tenant farmers point to a fundamental problem in all of us. The power of Jesus’ story is that it is so simple: a man owns a piece of land. The owner purchases the land, plants the crop, and rents the land out to tenants. Like those of you who own stocks or mutual funds, the landowner is an investor. Now, it’s important to first look at the relationship between the tenants and the owner. The tenants pay rent like any of you who pay rent. The landowner wants what any investor wants: a return on his investment. Jesus’ point is clear: here were these tenant farmers, who wanted to be the owners. And they attacked anyone who came along to remind them they were tenants and not owners,
The Bible tells us it’s the nature of the human heart to think of itself as the owner of what we have as opposed to the tenants. We are all tenants acting like owners. We say unconsciously to ourselves, “We will pay no rent to the owner.” Our minds want us to forget the degree to which everything we have is a gift. Our hearts want us to take credit for our lives. You may say, “Oh, I’ve worked very hard; I am what I am because I’ve worked very hard.” But if God had decided you were going to be born on a village deep in Southern Mexico a couple of centuries ago, would you be doing as well, no matter how hard you worked? You’d like to say in reply, “It’s all a matter of my work.” No, friend, it’s a matter of your circumstances. It’s a matter of your abilities and opportunities, and God gave those to you.
Here you are and you have a certain amount of power. You have your possessions and your privileges. Yet, you can’t use those any way you want. I know the world, all the self-help books tell you nobody can decide these for you. These self-help magazines say, “You have to decide your own values. You have to set the agenda.” That is exactly the opposite of what Jesus is telling us. What those books are saying to you is, “Act like an owner!” What the Bible says is, “No, you’re a tenant.” We take our own money, we take our own talents, we take our own time, we take our own sexuality, we take our own gifts, we take our own intellect, and we do what we want with them instead of honoring Him with them. We are all Tenants Acting Like an Owners.
2. I’m Passenger Acting Like a Driver
Next, it’s important to look at the relationship between the tenants and the messengers for it’s their relationship that shows us a counterfeit solution. “When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed” (Luke 20:10-11). You notice if you read the text carefully you’ll see that as time goes on, every messenger who comes, they are a little meaner to him. We note from Jesus’ story that when the owner sends messages, the messengers are beat up. Jesus says to the religious leaders, “I keep sending you prophets and sages, and you keep killing them. You keep beating them.” Go back and look through the Old Testament and you’ll see exactly Jesus’ point. God’s messengers were physically abused and killed. One messenger, Isaiah, was sawn in two and another, Zechariah, was stoned to death near the altar.
This parable teaches us that you have received messages too. God has sent repeated messengers into your life. God sent you your parents or your grandparents. He sent you co-workers or neighbors to get you to see the truth. God sent His message through a ministry or this church. For some of you, the messengers have been individual friends who have just been trying to get you to see the truth. But I must go a little further and say the old Bible teachers used to talk about what they called providential messengers. A providential messenger is a near tragedy or a tragedy, a frustration, a disappointment, an unfulfilled longing God sends into your life. It’s the car wreck from last year and your wife’s ovarian cancer. What is the message? The message is you are not in control of your life.
Your idea of self-sufficiency and your idea of independence is an illusion. No matter how hard your work at it, life will eventually beat you up. No matter how many goals you set or how many times you say, “I’m going to do it my way,” in the end, you’ll discover this you are not in control. God keeps sending you all these messages. But Jesus Christ is God’s final messenger. If you refuse Him, you refuse your last hope. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus is God’s ultimatum. Nothing remains if Christ is refused. No one else can be sent for heaven itself contains no further messenger.
Underneath the depression and anxiety you are feeling, you know the message I’m telling you is “spot on.” Your anger at God is really your anger you are not in control. Here you are thinking you are an owner, when you really are a tenant. Here you are thinking you are the driver of your life, when you really are a passenger.
3. I’m Stranger Thinking I’m an Heir
Last, we need to see the relationship between the tenants and the Son. “But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours’” (Luke 20:14). This is an astonishing crime. Think of Barabbas being chosen over Christ. Why did they do this? They did because they had enjoyed an immunity from punishment. The first time they mocked and insulted one of the messengers, they were slightly afraid. But they soon grew hardened when nothing happened. They had reached a point of no return.
You are coming to a crossroad today. You see, if you don’t admit you’re an enemy, you will stay one, and you’ll be crushed by the stone. But if you admit you’re an enemy, you will no longer be one, and it will be a building stone.
Look to the cross for a moment. “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). What I find fascinating is this: the very wounds I gave Him are the very wounds that healed me. My sin that killed Him is the same source of my healing.
Prayer
Father, you have sent me so many messages … so many messages. So many times you have told us that we are not in control of our lives. Our money and our freedom have masked this. All of us have believed the illusion that we control our lives and our fate. We are so sorry, Lord.
We have ignored and pushed aside your love and your message. You have sent kind friends, family members, and even tragedy to shock us and shake us. Turn us to the message of your love so we may be humbled. Turn us to fully see Jesus on the cross and the lengths you’ll go to save us.
Amen.
Here you are today, thinking, “I’ve refused the gospel many times in my life. I am not dead. I wasn’t stuck blind. I can go on another day, another week, another year in happiness and safety. I can refuse God again for He is merciful.”
