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.
Every member of the Sanhedrin got the point, because every one of them knew the history of Israel. Every time God sent His prophets, they would beat or kill them. Now, He sends His beloved Son, and they murder Him to take for themselves the vineyard.
Jesus said, “Let Me ask you a question: What do you think the owner of this vineyard will do now? Do you think he’ll let them rob him? No. He will come and destroy the wicked vinedressers, take that vineyard that he so lovingly planted and cared for, and He will give it to somebody else.”
That’s a change from the original teaching of the prophet Isaiah, who said God will let it go into ruin and desolation. Now, the land will not just be desolate, but He will give it to someone who will care for it and bring its fruit in its season.
When the people heard this, they said: “God forbid. It can’t be. Surely not.”
Can you imagine being in the audience that day, listening to that parable? When Jesus finished the story, He looked them in the eye—the scribes, Pharisees, priests, Sanhedrin, the ones who asked Him by what authority He did the things that He did—and He quoted Psalm 118 and said: “Why then is it written: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone’?” Meaning, you have rejected me, but that won’t stop my mission. And a kingdom, a new temple, will be built on top of me and my words.
To explain that metaphor, before a stone mason builds a house, he looks through the supplies and examines each one of the stones that he would mold together and shape into a beautiful edifice. If they don’t meet his expectations, he throws them on the rubble pile and rejects them. The Bible said that the stone which the builders rejected would be the chief cornerstone of the new building, the new vineyard, taken from the prideful and wicked tenants. The priests rejected Jesus, but He became the cornerstone of our faith.
As Isaiah prophesied, Jesus was despised and rejected by his own, but he became the chief cornerstone of His church. The foundation would be the prophets and the Apostles, we are laid upon them, but the chief cornerstone is Christ. That stone became a stumbling block to many people. They trip over it. They fall on their faces because of their Pride, and they reject Him.
To accept Jesus means to reject ourselves, to admit our failure, that we can’t do it, that we fall short. If it falls on anyone, it will crush him. If you trip over Jesus, He will crush you. But everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.
