October 5 2008 Lectionary Reading: Matthew 21.33-46

Reading: “they took him and threw him out of the vineyard

and killed him…..” Matthew 21.39 (NIV)

These words of Jesus, told in the courts of the Temple, with the teachers of the law present, form an extraordinary parable. A landowner in Israel buys a piece of good pasture land and plants a vineyard, a common occurrence. The supporting trellises are built, the young vine plants are put neatly in place in rows. The new owner has a winepress made ready, were the grapes can be trodden for their juice, and he has a wall put round the vineyard. Then he finds a group of farmers to take over the vineyard as tenants. In the ordinary way, they will send the owner a share of the harvest. At the time of the wine harvest, when the grapes are harvested the owner sends his servants for his share of the fruit, but the tenants, it turns out are very dangerous, unscrupulous men. They lie in wait, beat one servant, kill another and stone the third.

So the owner sends more servants and the same thing happens. He then sends his own son - and now the tenants realise that if the kill the son, there is a chance they become the owners of the vineyard. This is what they do. They throw the son out of the vineyard and kill him.

What will the owner do ? asks Jesus of His hearers. He will kill those farmers and bring new tenants.

This is, indeed, an extraordinary parable. For, in the language of everyday life in Israel, land purchase, vine planting, cultivation, farming and rents, these words of Jesus in fact encompass God’s purposes, eternal things

this parable speaks of His own coming into the world and His death.

Here lies its profound significance. Profound significance.

This parable speaks of Jesus and His coming into the world,

and, most significantly, of His death.

And this is very important.

You see, there are many opinions, shades of opinion about the death of Jesus.

One writer says: “the impression created by the Gospel text” he writes, “ is that Jesus stands in the midst of conflicting purposes........”

When Jesus came to Jerusalem, the authorities took the opportunity to get rid of Him. To keep the political situation stable, to avoid trouble.

Pilate lost control of the situation that day and not caring about the life of one man, he allowed Jesus to be put to death.

So some see the death of Jesus as just one of those unfortunate things,

a tragedy in which a uniquely good man was caught up in destructive political, imperial forces.

But, the words of Jesus in this parable, the proclamation of the New Testament, the whole witness of the New Testament casts a completely different light on what happened that day at Calvary.

Yes, of course, if we read through Matthew’s gospel we see rising tension. They begin when Jesus healed a paralysed man saying to him ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’. The teachers of the law were shocked by this. When a man with a withered hand was healed in the synagogue at Capernaum on a Sabbath day, a real confrontation with the teachers of the law sent from Jerusalem took place. And when, in the heart of Jerusalem itself, Jesus cleared the Temple of the traders and money changers matters became serious.

So, yes, of course, if we read through Matthew’s gospel we see rising tensions, conflict. But what the gospel makes clear above all is this: that Jesus knew what the future held, He knew who was in control of that future, His Father in heaven, and He met that future in single-minded purpose.

As we read the gospel of Matthew, there begins to unfold, there is revealed the piercing, prophetic power of the Lord Jesus. Three times, and this is recorded in chapters 16, 17, 20, three times in the gospels, Jesus tells the disciples what will happen. The Son of Man must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things at the hands of the chief priests and scribes, be killed and raised again on the third day..

What will happen, what is to happen, Jesus declares to the disciples.

The future held in frame, foretold, in detail.

It is abundantly clear from the gospel, that Jesus lays down His own life,

for a purpose, No one, he says, takes my life from me,

I lay it down of my own accord.

And here is the fourth prophetic declaration of Jesus.

In this wonderful parable about a vineyard and its owner.

And just in the same way as on a sunlit summer’s day the breeze moves the trees, and we see

sometimes light,

sometimes shadow on the ground so

we see in this parable,

sometimes light, and

sometimes shadow,

what we see is

sometimes clear,

sometimes hidden.

Now there are many things we could trace in this story of Jesus,

but in these few minutes, let us just ponder the meaning of what

Jesus says about the owner’s son who was sent,

and killed by the tenants.

Here, in these prophetic words of Jesus is the fount, the wellspring, of what will become the everlasting theme of joy,

wonder and praise throughout the whole New Testament.

First: that God sent His Son. God sent His Son. He was with God in the beginning, declares John, but He left that glory, the glory of the presence of God and became a human being and lived among us.

We see Jesus relying utterly on His Father for all things. we see Him moment by moment doing His Father’s will and as the life of the Lord unfolds day by day we see this trust in the Father enrichening, broadening, deepening in His life each day, in each new experience, in each new situation. Enrichening, deepening finally towards the Cross itself.

After this the parable Jesus told stops, as the owner punishes the tenants.

The son who was sent by the owner,

is rejected and killed by the tenants.

but, lastly, we do not only have the parable that Jesus told about the

The son who was sent by the owner,

is rejected and killed by the tenants.

Along with the parable, we have the words of Psalm 118 that Jesus sets alongside it.

The message of the parable is far more than simply that of the killing of the owner’s son.For now, Jesus extends the prophetic range of Psalm 118 to illuminate, to shed precious light, to interpret, to bring the deepest of meaning to the words in the parable: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this and it is marvellous in our eyes.

What is the wonderful light that the words of the Psalm bring to the parable ?

The words of the parable show us that the son, rejected and slain is the cornerstone, of all that God has done and is doing.

Peter, standing before the court of the leaders of Israel, in Jerusalem,

declared: know this, you and all the people of Israel: Jesus is the stone you builders rejected, He has become the cornerstone, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified God has raised from the dead, Salvation is found in no-one else, there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.

Think of it. In parable and psalm, in prophetic power, Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ reveals to us the great power and action of the living God.

Here in the gospel, is the message that God has exalted Jesus, the lowly One, to the highest place and has given Him the name that is above every name……here is the message that we find our life, our strength looking to the risen ascended Jesus, the lowly One………

To Him who was rejected and slain, all authority has been given.

And though rejected and slain, God’s loving purpose for the world in Jesus cannot be deflected, diverted or hindered but will continue until all is completed.

This is the loving gracious work of God in His lowly servant, Jesus Christ.

And it is extraordinary.

AMEN.