STONES AND FRUIT (Matthew 21: 33-46) 10/2/11

      Ever watch the Indiana Jones movies with Harrison Ford as the star? One of my favorites is called Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It reminds me of today’s lesson. My Bible captions it “The Parable of the Tenants.” It might also be called Jesus and the Vineyard of Gloom. In the movie and in the parable, some very bad decisions are made by people in charge. The consequences in the movie are just like the ones in real life. They hurt and they don’t just hurt the decision makers. They hurt us all. Let’s see what this parable has to say to us.
      Parables are a story form almost unique to Jesus. They are object lessons conjured up from real life. This parable is no exception. The times in which Jesus lived were those of Roman occupation. There was unrest and tension. Those whose could afford to do so often left their real estate holdings to be managed by others. Crops were farmed by tenants. The framework described in the parable is typical. A tall hedge was built around the vineyard for protection from vandals, robbers and wild beasts. A tower was built both for sleeping quarters and as a guard tower. A winepress was part of any vineyard. It consisted of two troughs carved out of stone or built from bricks, one high, one low and connected by a channel. As the grapes were pressed in the higher trough, the juice ran off through the channel to the lower trough. Absentee owners would contract out the land to tenants as sharecroppers or paying tenants or some other form of business partnership. This is not so different from arrangements made right now in Chesterfield County for use of fields to plant crops or as grazing land.
      Unlike a pure parable, which normally tracks one direction and has one central point to make, this parable is a hybrid. It has some allegorical flavor to it as well. We don’t need a grammar lesson here, so let’s just say that this story has multiple players and makes multiple points. Before we go too much farther, lets look at the playbill and sort out the cast of characters. The vineyard is the nation of Israel. This comes right out of Isaiah 5: 7: “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.” This also identifies the owner of the vineyard for us. It’s God, of course. The tenants are a little tougher, but it’s pretty clear that they at least include the religious leaders. Remember that we have talked about reading the Bible in context. Here is another example of its importance. Who is Jesus’ audience? If we look back to verse 23, we see that Jesus entered the temple courts and the chief priests and the elders came to him while he was teaching. Jesus initially speaks to them in parables. Other listeners ware certainly around, but his chief audience at this point is religious leaders. The working of the vineyard, or doing God’s work, and the fruit it yields, might be said to be the harvest. The messengers sent by the owner are the prophets. Finally, the owner sends his own son. Guess who?
      You could see it coming, couldn’t you? When the owner has tried everything, even to the point of sending his own son, he has no choice but to find new tenants, Finally, God Himself shows up and the tables are turned. The bad guys get their come-uppance and the new kids on the block take over the vineyard, which is to say, the kingdom. If this sounds like a pointed message to the Pharisees and ultimately the Jews, it certainly is. The danger is that you might think that is all there is to this story. That would be a mistake. Let’s look closer, for there is no story in the Bible which does not have relevance in our world today. This is much more than a history lesson, and much more than an indictment against the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.
      You might say that this is a three-legged story. Jesus talks last about himself and his identity. First he talks about God and then men. Our picture of God here is as a trusting God. The owner builds a perfect environment in which to be successful. Then he turns it over to men. He doesn’t micromanage. He leaves people in charge, expecting the job to get done. In much the same way, God the Creator has provided everything we need to succeed. We are entrusted to do his work. Then, when it is time to share in the harvest, the owner in the parable, and God in our lives, sends messenger after messenger. He appeals to the tenants, to us. He is patient beyond our human understanding. He suffers insult and rejection and still sends more messengers. We know them in the Bible as Isaiah and Jeremiah and Amos and Joel and so many more. Some are hurt. Some are even killed. Finally, he even sends his own son. In a bizarre act of greed and selfish ambition, the son is killed, as if in some aberration of the law, the killers will succeed to the ownership of the vineyard. It didn’t even work that way in first century Israel. It certainly is no way to enter the kingdom of heaven. Our last lesson about God is the most obvious. As did the owner to the tenants, so will God come and judge. Where will we be then? Will we be like the stewards of the vineyard, rejecting the very hand that feeds us? The judgment is that they will be removed, replaced by others who will serve and obey.
      Secondly, Jesus’ parable illumines the privilege and freedom that we are bequeathed as a starting point. As it was in the vineyard, we have everything we need. --- even the freedom to apply our skills and work in the manner with which we see fit. While God does not abandon us, he does give us everything we need to succeed. He even lets us have room to experiment, to fail and then to succeed. In America, this entire analogy is in full flower. We have been given plentiful resources and the freedom to apply ourselves in whatever way we choose. Yet the Christian church in America is losing numbers every week, every month, and has been for years. The United States is now characterized as the fourth largest mission field in the world today. We are in danger of becoming the Pharisees that Jesus referred to in this parable. We sin when we are deliberately disobedient to God. Going down a selfish road without regard to the consequences it may have upon ourselves and others is precisely that kind of deliberate disobedience. We are his fruit, but if we are rotten, we will be thrown out with the rest of the garbage.
      Thirdly, Jesus talks about himself. He is the son who was sent by the owner. He is the part of God himself that is directly revealed to us. He is the direct link. Maybe the claim of the messengers can be argued, but not so with the son of the owner himself. He is different. To reject his claim is to reject the owner himself. The parable also makes it clear that Jesus knew what lay ahead. Though nothing happened that day, he knew it would happen. His was the path of sacrifice. His telling of the parable to the religious leaders was nothing less than a foreshadowing of the cross which lay ahead.
      So the parable concludes with this idea of the fruit going bad and having to be replaced. This is analogous not only to the story of the Jews and the Gentiles, but also to the Christian church in America, for if we continue to water down the words of the Bible, we become so inclusive, so tolerant to all other creeds and beliefs as to have no Savior. He is no longer needed, for we have killed the messenger and with it, the message. Oh, don’t worry about the Church. It is the bride of Christ and it will be preserved because Christ is the head of the church. But do worry about its presence. Do worry about your presence in it. Do worry about both being and preserving that good fruit, for it is not just Pharisees and it is not just first century Israel. It is you and I and it is here and now.
      While the parable is told, the rest of the lesson is still unfolding. There is still the reference to the stone. Jesus talks of the stone that the builder rejected, of its power to crush and to break those who would test it wrongly. He quotes Psalm 118, which there refers to the nation of Israel. Here, Jesus refers to that stone as himself. He is foundational, like a cornerstone, to all that we understand about both creation and salvation. He is also the capstone, the end stone, the last stone laid. As the apostle John describes him, he is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. He is who we build on and who holds it all together. To refuse him is to be broken. To defy him is to be crushed.
      “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” If the words sound harsh or hard, consider how many times, how many ways he reaches out for us…how much he gives to us…how much rejection he takes from us. If the result sounds violent or painful, consider how many times his message has been ignored. But the cup will not pass away. While living outside the umbrella of Christ is possible because of the free will God gives us, free will can not stop judgment day.
      You do not want to feel the weight of that stone upon you. Build your life and your reliance on the only stone that can hold forever. Make Jesus your cornerstone and your captsone. Be the fruit that he made you to be.