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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
This image depicting Matthew 21:33-46 is by French painter and illustrator James Jacques Tissot (1836-1902), rendered in opaque watercolor over graphite on gray woven paper, owned by the Brooklyn Museum, and used from this website.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who likes to be rejected? Anyone? Anyone? I would not think that there would be anyone who likes to be rejected. We all may have to deal with rejection: from bosses and colleagues at work, from teachers and classmates at school, from peers we would like to be our friends, and from extended and immediate members of our family. We all may have to deal with rejection, but seldom, if ever, do we like to be so rejected. Yet, tonight we realize that our Lord’s rejection by the leaders of the Jews fulfilled prophecies of His Passion for us, and so our Lord’s rejection is a good thing for us.
Tonight we begin an eight‑sermon series with the general theme “Passion Prophecies fulfilled for you!” As last Advent we considered prophecies of our Lord’s Birth, so this Lent—at each of our five Midweek Lenten Vespers Services, as well as on Maundy Thursday, on Good Friday, and even at our Easter “Sunrise” Matins Service—we will consider prophecies of our Lord’s Passion fulfilled for us, especially those prophecies whose fulfillment is reported in St. Matthew’s divinely‑inspired Gospel account. Tonight, the “prophecy” comes from Psalm 118 (vv.22-23), and the report of its fulfillment comes from Matthew 21 (vv.33-46; confer Mark 12:10-11 and Luke 20:17-18), a scene depicted on the front of tonight’s service outline. And, I might mention at this point that Jesus’s fulfillment of this particular prophecy is restated in the preaching and writing of St. Peter (Acts 4:10-12; 1 Peter 2:4, 7).
The scene in Matthew 21 is the Tuesday of Holy Week, before the Thursday events of “The Lord’s Supper” that we earlier this evening heard narrated in “The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ” read as “Drawn from the Four Gospel [accounts]”. On that Tuesday, the chief priests, elders, Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees each in turn challenge Jesus’s authority, and He answers them in parables. Tonight we are especially interested in the so-called “Parable of the Tenants”. As Jesus tells the “Parable of the Tenants”, a master of a house planted and developed a vineyard that he leased out to tenants. When the master sent his servants to collect his previously-specified share of the fruit, Jesus says, the tenants took, beat, killed, and stoned those servants. Finally, the master sent his son, but, Jesus says, the tenants, trying to get his inheritance, took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. So, Jesus asks, what will the master do to those tenants? According to St. Matthew, the Jewish leaders said that the master would, “put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons”. Then Jesus points to where Psalm 118 reads, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” The Jewish leaders understood Jesus was speaking about them and sought to arrest him. They tested Jesus in their own minds, and—instead of finding Him reliable, trustworthy, significant, esteemed, worthy, genuine, or valuable—they rejected Him.
The specific verb the original Greek of the New Testament uses to refer to the builders’ “rejection” is used only nine times in the whole New Testament, and all but one of those nine are in connection with either the Psalm 118 passage or Jesus’s own prophecy of His rejection by the Jewish leaders. The verb is related to a group of words that refer to “watching” and “testing”, as I mentioned, and far more common in the New Testament than references to the Jewish leaders’ testing and so rejecting Jesus are references to God’s watching and testing us.
We may like to think that we have done nothing to deserve rejection at work, at school, among our peers, or in our families, but we all have done things to deserve rejection by God. Sometimes the depravity of our sin seems to know no end! If we are honest with ourselves, we know and confess that by nature we are sinful and unclean, and that we have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. Apart from faith in Christ, we deserve to die now in time and to be tormented with death for eternity. So, we repent, as in tonight’s penitential psalm, especially with its antiphon: “Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love”—that is, for the sake of His mercy (Psalm 6:4). When we turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better than keep on sinning, then God mercifully forgives our sin and our sinful nature. He forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
Jesus is the Son of the “Parable of the Tenants”, Who was taken by the Jewish leaders, thrown out of Jerusalem, and killed on the cross. There, on the cross, Jesus is rejected not only by the Jews but also by God on account of your sin and mine. But, as the next parable Jesus tells goes on to indicate, He is resurrected and invites all to His wedding feast, clothing them in garments of righteousness that He Himself provides (Matthew 22:1-14). Jesus was the Stone that the builders rejected, Who, in their having done so, became the Cornerstone, as Psalm 118 put it, all the Lord’s doing, marvelous in our eyes. Psalm 118 is an especially important psalm, from the role it played in the Israelites worship life to its pointing to the Messiah, the Christ, and so to its finding its fulfillment in Jesus. Not only had the Old Testament in places such as Psalm 118 prophesied of Jesus’s rejection by the Jewish rulers, but, as I mentioned, Jesus Himself had also prophesied of His rejection by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes (Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22), even the whole generation (Luke 17:25), as seems to be the case even today. However, when we by faith receive Jesus and His sacrifice for us, we are forgiven of our sin and are no longer rejected by God but made a part of His Church.
In tonight’s Office Hymn, drawn in part on Psalm 118, we sang of Jesus Christ as our cornerstone, and of our placing “On His great love” our hopes “Of present grace / And joys above” (Lutheran Service Book 912:1). In St. Paul’s letter that we know as Ephesians, the Church is described as a building with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone, the teaching of the apostles and prophets as the foundation, and the rest of us as part of the whole structure built on them and being joined together, growing into a holy temple in the Lord (Ephesians 2:19-21). To be sure, through the pure preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the Sacraments, God gives the Holy Spirit, Who works faith, when and where He pleases, in those who hear the Gospel (AC V:2). Through Holy Baptism the Holy Spirit brings us into the Church. Through individual Holy Absolution from the pastor the Holy Spirit forgives the sins that those who privately confess them know and feel in their hearts. And, through Holy Communion the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthens and preserves us in body and soul to life everlasting. These things are the Lord’s doing, and they are marvelous in our eyes. Through them He gives the Kingdom—not to those who have rejected Him but to those who receive Him by grace through faith.
No one likes to be rejected, whether at work, at school, among our peers, or in our families. But we have realized that our Lord’s rejection by the leaders of the Jews fulfilled prophecies of His Passion for us, and so our Lord’s rejection is a good thing for us. Jesus knows how we feel when we are rejected, even by the world that rejects us on account of our faith, and Jesus comforts us with His peace and joy. We accept into our midst other sinners, who repent and live together with us in the forgiveness of sins. All of this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +