Introduction

            It was the week before Passover.  Jesus entered the city triumphantly, crowds cheering and screaming.  For a little bit he was, by far, the most popular person in the Jewish world.  This changed quickly.  Though the people supported him, he quickly ran into a wall of conflict with the local leaders, priests, scribes and Pharisees.  He did not back down, but instead we find him almost eagerly spurring on the this animosity.  He goes to the Temple to pray, and ends up clearing it of the well-established merchants selling what I’m sure many thought was really spiritual stuff, yelling “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a place of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of thieves!”  He continued to teach the people, but those in charge became bold in their challenges of his authority.  Not long after the Temple incident some of them went up to Jesus while he was teaching and demanded to know by whose authority he did what he did. 

Text: 

In Luke 20, starting with verse 9 we find his response:

            9 Then Jesus started telling this parable to the people around him:  A man planted a  vineyard, leased it out to some farmers, and then left home on a long journey.  10 At the time of the harvest he sent a servant to collect his portion of the fruit from the farmers.  But the farmers beat up the servant and sent him away.  11  The owner then sent another servant, this one the farmers beat up, dishonoring and  insulting him, and he too went away empty handed.  12  Again the owner sent another slave.  This one the farmers really injured and they threw him out of the vineyard.  13  So the owner of the Vineyard asked himself, “What shall I do?  I will send my beloved son, perhaps he will make them show me respect.  14 But when the son arrived at the vineyard, the farmers discussed the situation with one another saying, “He is the heir.  Let’s kill him, so that we can keep the property for ourselves.”  15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.  What do you think the Owner of the Vineyard will do to the farmers. 

16  He will come back and he will kill them, then lease the land to some others.  Hearing this, the people said, “May this never happen!  17  Looking directly at them Jesus then said, “What then does this Scripture mean:  A stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  18 Anyone who falls on it will be broken to pieces, and whoever it falls on will be crushed.  19 Considering this the scribes and the chief priests wanted to immediately arrest Jesus, for they knew he spoke the parable against them, but they were afraid of the people. (Luke 20:9-19; POT, Patrick Oden Translation)

OT illustration

Jesus was holding up a mirror and the leaders who were there saw their reflection quite clearly.  The owner, you see, was God.   And this wasn’t the first time any of these people had heard a story about a vineyard.   A long time before this, before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586BC, we find another person telling the people about God’s vineyard.  Isaiah writes in his 5^th chapter:  Let me sing for my beloved  my love-song concerning his vineyard:  My beloved had a vineyard  on a very fertile hill.  2  He dug it and cleared it of stones,  and planted it with choice vines;  he built a watchtower in the midst of it,  and hewed out a wine vat in it;  he expected it to yield grapes,  but it yielded wild grapes.  3  And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem  and people of Judah,  judge between me  and my vineyard.  4  What more was there to do for my vineyard  that I have not done in it?  When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?  5  And now I will tell you  what I will do to my vineyard.  I will remove its hedge,  and it shall be devoured;  I will break down its wall,  and it shall be trampled down.  The Vineyard was the people of Israel who were taken out of the land of Egypt and placed in their very own land.  They were chosen and cultivated by God himself for his delight, so that they would bear much fruit. 

But, they didn’t listen to the warnings sent to them, and became wild, drifting off into their own practices, no longer bearing fruit for God, but instead they producing something sour and unusable.   So God decided to tear up this vineyard.  If these vines won’t produce for him, then they simply will not produce anything.          

            Oh the people of Israel were warned.  Judges came early in their history, making sure that they toed the line, keeping the people in order, away from their destructive tendencies.  God sent many a messenger to them, reminding, leading, tending, guiding them so that their fruit would be sweet and a delight to all.  The servants came in the name of God, and they found themselves ignored, starved, treated shamefully, beaten and even killed.  A few were listened to, but most weren’t, the writer of Hebrews tells us of these servants writing, Some were mocked, and their backs were cut open with whips.  Others were chained in dungeons.  Some died by stoning, and some were sawed in half; others were killed with the sword.  Some went about in skins of sheep and goats, hungry and oppressed and mistreated.  They were too good for this world.    In Isaiah, the one reportedly sawed in half, we read that God would destroy the whole vineyard for ignoring the messengers, and the destruction of Israel shows he in fact did.  So Jerusalem was destroyed, burnt to the ground, it’s leading citizens carried off, it’s best grapes plucked from the vine by those God chose to sweep his field clean. 

Text:    Jesus’ hearers knew all of this. The Pharisees and leaders knew their history, and knew their destruction was caused by their own straying away and ignoring of the prophets who God had sent to warn them.  For in Jesus’ parable that’s who the servants are, the prophets, the messengers, those who brought words of reminders and direction so that the Vineyard of God would produce fruit for his use. 

God was not impatient in waiting for his Vineyard to produce that which he planned for it.  His patience is very long, and he will give every chance he can to those who are his.  Though at a certain point even God’s patience is exhausted and he personally takes action.  But in this parable we find the Vineyard is doing fine, producing good and wonderful fruit.  Here it is not the Vineyard which is destroyed it is the tenants.

NT Example

            While the prophets of the old testament tended to rail against the whole people of Israel for their faults and unfruitfulness, we find a change in Jesus, as if he’s identified the real problem going on.  He is not interested in destroying the Vineyard, rather he came to prune it, and fix what is wrong.  He was a friend of the poor, the weak, the needy, those who were oppressed, who were handicapped, those who were alienated, and those who had made many mistakes.  He is the man who healed the blind man, and forgave the sins of the prostitute.  He saw the fruit these people were able to produce despite whatever others had told them, and he carefully became the master farmer himself, tending these vines and helping them to grow to fullness.  Jesus shows that it is not these people who are the problem.  Rather, Jesus finds there are those who are standing in the middle, those who are themselves responsible for the fields, but not willing for whatever reason to hand over that which God deserves and demands.

Text:  These people have been given a responsibility.  They get to share in the bounty of the wonderful vineyard, for it is wonderful and delightful.  It’s fruit is truly refreshing, and it’s beauty is without equal.  But these people, the tenants in Jesus’ story, don’t want to share, they want to keep.  They’ve worked hard, they say to themselves, it is their talent and effort which produced the fruit, they deserve everything that comes from it.  The fruit is theirs to do with what they please, to use or destroy. 

The plants are theirs too, they think, and they are the one’s who can decide which plants are worthwhile, which plants are worthy.  It is their scale of worthiness that counts, not the Owner’s, not God’s.  But the owner of this vineyard isn’t impressed with their show of bravado.   After finding his servants beaten and sent away, with the tenants getting more and more brazen each time, he sends his own son, his heir, the one to whom all the promises and property is given, so that the tenants, those in charge of tending the fields, will remember the Owner and turn from their greedy ways.  His hope was that all would be restored, but instead the son, his only son, the heir, was killed.

                In telling this, Jesus is making use of a classic pattern.  He isn’t saying a word directly about how the leaders stand before God, he is instead guiding them to be their own judges, so that it is their own heart which convicts them.   The leaders have been given a responsibility and if they did not acknowledge the true Owner, than they would be replaced with people who did.  God’s Vineyard is producing good fruit, it’s just a matter of who will most ably manage this bounty. The last verse of the text tells us the Jewish leaders knew the point of the story, yet they still consciously put into motion a pattern of events which eventually led to their destruction.  At this point they are not unknowingly standing in the way, they are obstinately obstructing the movement of God’s kingdom, preventing actively his fruit from being delivered, because to do so would mean a lessening of their own authority and power.  We all know the end of the story Jesus was killed, for the most part by these very same leaders who heard this parable.

NT/Early Church Example  This story actually continued.  God in his infinite patience sent more servants, even after they killed the son.  The apostles and disciples, though, met the same end as the servants in the story.  They were handed over to the courts, and beaten in synagogues. They were accused before governors and kings of being followers of the son.  They took these opportunities to share the continued message that God is demanding the fruits of his vineyard.  

Indeed some were tenants themselves, who planted, who watered, who tended the Vineyard giving back to God the bounty of the fields and in doing this they themselves became the heirs of the Owner, not through violence or selfishness but as a reward of their diligence and honor.  Those who honored the tasks and responsibilities God gave them, shared in the joy, in the beauty, the delight of the Vineyard.  They knew who the Owner was, and they knew to honor him, but there was so much bounty, all were filled, and everyone was content.  For this Vineyard will produce fruit, good and wonderful fruit, with or without the help of those who are placed to manage it.  The Owner’s problem was not with the vineyard it is with the tenants who were supposed to be taking care of the vineyard.   They did not do their duty, and they were removed.  Jerusalem was destroyed, but the vineyard still continued to grow and produce fruit, though now under different management.  Others were put in their place, people who would happily provide the fruit the first ones failed to hand over.

Modern relevance.

            So great, the Jewish leadership was replaced.  Gentiles were grafted onto the vine and new fruit was being produced, fruit which spread throughout the world.  Life-giving, wonderful fruit, and the Son, the heir, rose again, and managed this Vineyard in a wonderful way.  Judaism is out, Christianity is in!  woohoo.  Except, that this story is now being told to us, today.  The mirror is now put before our faces to judge our actions in the Vineyard.  For God is still leasing out his Vineyard, giving responsibility to people to manage the fruit which is being produced. 

The others in this parable are not Christians in general, the “others” are those who conform to what is demanded of them by God. 

Whoever ignores the servants of God, who mistreats the fields and manages the Vineyard poorly will be crushed and replaced.  We, now, are in positions of taking up roles as Tenants in God’s Vineyard, managing the fruit which is being harvested.  We can be responsible or we can ignore, mistreat and abuse those who are sent by God to participate in our part of the field. 

Negative example:            [Hold up Newsweek (former cardinal of Boston was on the cover)]  I ask you.  What kind of tenant is this?    What did these priests do in their part of the Vineyard?  What do you think the Owner’s response will be?  For the Owner’s name is now being dragged down.  A cartoon inside shows a bishop surrounded by a pack of wolves saying, “You mean I am supposed to be protecting the sheep.”  Yes, that’s the job of the shepherd, and the job of the farmer is to protect and produce the fruit of the Vineyard.  This is an extreme example, but we kind find examples everywhere.  Anytime someone is alienated because of what they are, what they’ve done, or what they do not have the fruit is being abused.  When one person is lifted up and another ignored, fruit is being put to waste. When one person is seen as more important than another the harvest is not complete.  Anytime some fruit is allowed to rot on the vine, or the potential of the field is underutilized the Owner is not getting his due. The wicked tenants are the leaders who do not lead, or who obstruct and fight, -- those who do not hand over what they have been given, either their own gifts or the gifts of those who are under their care.  God will hold us responsible for the responsibilities he has given us.  The question is, what kind of Tenants will we be?

Positive Example:            Another magazine I got this week gives us a better example, an example of one who is giving back to the owner and seeking to produce fruit in what is often though a barren field. 

[Hold up Time (Bono was on the cover)] U2 are the biggest band in the world.  They played the superbowl, had the biggest tour of the year, and won 4 grammy’s last night.  They have been blessed tremendously, and have a lot of influence to do whatever in the world they want.  Rather than abusing this vineyard for his own gain and his own popularity as so many tenants do, Bono is using his gifts to cultivate.  He is actively seeking to help the poor, to help the sick, to help those who are beyond simple measures.  He is organizing business and political leaders, not just talking about causes but putting his passion into action.  He fought for the forgiveness of the debt which is crippling 3^rd world economies, he founded an organization which seeks to provide short term economic aid, to lower trade embargoes, and to provide money to fight AIDS in Africa.  He is not an accepted part of the leadership of the Church, but he is acknowledging the Owner of this Vineyard.  Like he said last night at the Grammy’s, “God is walking through the room.”  He expanded on this earlier in the year.  “It feels like there's a blessing on the band right now.  People say they're feeling shivers - well, the band is as well. And I don't know what it is, but it feels like God walking through the room, and it feels like a blessing, and in the end, music is a kind of sacrament; it's not just about airplay or chart position.”  He has been given a place in the vineyard and is giving fruit back to the owner.  According to Bono, “What saves you finally from arrogance is knowing the thing in life that's given you the most was itself a gift." 

Text and conclusion: 

That’s what this parable is telling us.  When we get arrogant, when we get in the way, and argue for our rights in the Vineyard, we will get removed and replaced by others who do the will of the Father, the will of the Owner of the Vineyard.  These tenants know their position is a gift, and they know they are responsible for what has been given to them. 

The Vineyard is wonderful, exciting, full of peace and joy, with fruit exploding off the vines for anyone who is willing to give the Owner his rightful due, as an obligation and as an offering of thanks.  God is walking through the room, and the question is what kind of tenants are we, and what kind of fruit will we have for him when he asks?  What kind of tenants will we become?  Will we share the fruits of the vineyard with the owner,  and share in the bounty?

Or will we seek our own advantage and ignore the vines which have been placed under our care, and be pushed out of the way for others who will serve God as he demands?  The Vineyard is growing, and we have been invited to share in its bounty by the Owner.  Let us continue to be faithful to the one who calls and who is coming again.