The Wicked Tenants (October 8, 2017).

THE WICKED TENANTS

Text: Matthew 21:33 - 46

Back in 2002 I was helping my oldest sister Teresa clean up her condo. She and her husband lived there while my brother-in-law was studying to be a doctor at the Medical University of South Carolina in Columbia. I had remembered what the place used to look like when they moved in back in 1984. She had a tenant who had apparently trashed the place. The walls had to be repainted. The carpet had to be replaced because it was an obvious patch job of mismatched carpet that did not match the original. What was so ironic was that their tenant was a construction worker who often helped to build houses. It was unfortunate that she and her husband had to have their tenant evicted after several failed attempts to make things right on paying the rent.

The parable that is the text for today is almost a mirror image of how religious leaders who were so called qualified failed miserably for those who relied on their leadership. We would like to stop there and look at this story like a history lesson. However, sometimes our actions sometimes mimic that of the religious leaders who failed.

This parable is about accountability, abuse and a cornerstone.

ACCOUNTABILITY

What does it mean to be held accountable? 1) Effectiveness: It would seem that to be accountable would mean that someone would be expected to perform and succeed with the things that were entrusted to them. 2) Allegory: It would also seem that the explanation of accountability was explained by Jesus in what appears to be allegory. A) The servants in this story represent the prophets. B) God represents is the owner of the vineyard. C) The tenants are the religious leaders. D) The vineyard is the nation of Israel. E) The son of the owner of the vineyard is none other than Jesus Christ Himself.

If God gave you everything you needed to succeed would you throw it away? If you bought your son a really nice car and paid cash for it, then you would not be happy with him if you saw him driving carelessly and recklessly drag racing with it would you? The owner had planted the vineyard, fenced it in and even put in a watchtower. The vineyard was therefore secure. The fence was a deterrent for potential thieves. The watchtower enabled the guard to see any thieves or animals that might try to steal any of the fruit. The tenants failed in their task because they recklessly broke the contract.

ABUSE

What do our test scores look like? If opportunities are tests, then we would have to admit (if we are honest with ourselves) that we sometimes take those opportunities for granted! "One of the supreme tests of life is, "How did we use our privileges?" Oscar Wilde has a terrible kind of parable like this. Jesus was walking through the streets of a city. In an open courtyard. He saw a young man feasting gluttonously and growing drunk with wine. "Young man." said Jesus. "why do you live like that?" "I was a leper." said the young man, "and you cleansed me. How else should I live?" Jesus went on and he saw a young girl clad in tawdry finery, a girl of the streets, and after her came a young man with eyes like a hunter. "Young man," said Jesus, "why do you look at that girl like that?" "I was blind." said the young man. "and you opened my eyes. How else should I look?" "Daughter." said Jesus to the girl. "why do you live like that?" "I was a sinner." she said. "and you forgave me. How else should I live?" Here were three people who had received priceless gifts from Jesus and who used them like that". (William Barclay. And Jesus Said. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1970, p. 141). Is that not the same kind of things that the workers in this parable had done with the vineyard?

Is there not an echo of Babylon Here? "What if we have made sin more act than attitude, more flesh than spirit, more general than particular, more national than personal?" (Carlyle Marney. These Things Remain. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1953, p. 46). Like the tenants in this parable, aren’t we too guilty of being mutineers in the vineyard of God’s world? We often condemn sin in others while we sometimes neglect the attitude and attitudes behind sinful behavior within ourselves. There cannot be a change in attitude unless there is a change in heart!

How did they abuse their privilege? 1) Broken promises: The tenants in this parable were supposed to yield what was due in the harvest of their crops as part of the contract. 2) Violent behavior: Notice what the tenants did to the servants who came to collect what was due. They beat one, killed another and stoned the last one of the three in that group (Matthew 21:35). In their rebellion, they broke the contract and acted more like tyrants than tenants. The owner of the vineyard sent another group of servants to collect what was due. Again, they were treated just like the first group of servants (Matthew 21:36). Finally, the landowner sent his own son and again the tenants display the same kind of behavior as they killed the son (Matthew 21:37). They hoped to take what belonged to the owner of the vineyard as if it was their own. They revealed who they are in word and deed when they say to themselves, "Let us kill him (the son) and take his inheritance" (Matthew 21:38) and act out the evil deed. Is that not what they did to Jesus, did they not kill Him? Although this parable was convicting to the religious leaders, it was also prophetic as to what would come when Jesus was later crucified.