Sermons

Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.

+ + + 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.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Although there are grape vineyards elsewhere in Texas, here in East Texas we no doubt know more about piney woods! I think there have been vineyards and wineries in every state and province where I have lived, and I have enjoyed visiting them there and in other places where I have travelled. Recently I reflected on my own familiarity with vineyards, when one of the young men in our Youth Catechesis class asked me what a vineyard was and I explained that vineyards are where grapes are grown and often where wine was made. Knowing what vineyards are helps us understand the parable of the wicked vineyard tenants in today’s Gospel Reading, of course—if Jesus were to teach the parable in our place and time, one might wonder whether He would instead make the parable about sharecroppers, which are more familiar to us. Nevertheless, as we this morning consider today’s Gospel Reading, we do so under the theme, “Vineyard Tenants and their Fruit”.

Today’s Gospel Reading picks up St. Matthew’s divinely‑inspired account nearly where last week’s Gospel Reading left off. Then, we heard the chief priests and the elders of the Jewish people both challenge Jesus’s authority and have to think through the truth and its consequences for them. Afterwards, Jesus taught a parable about two sons: one son said he would not work in the family’s vineyard but changed his mind and did, and the other son said he would but did not. The Jewish leaders realized the first son had done the will of his father, but, as Jesus pointed out, the Jewish leaders still would not repent and enter the Kingdom of God.

So, Jesus commanded the Jewish leaders to hear the parable we heard this morning (we will hear Jesus tell them yet another parable in succession next week). If the preceding parable of the two sons was “quite critical” of the Jewish leaders, the one we heard this morning is “even more devastating” (TLSB, ad loc Mt 21:33-41, 1629. As if He were giving a type of synagogue sermon on today’s Old Testament Reading from Isaiah (Isaiah 5:1-7; see Davies and Allison, ad loc Mt 21:33-46, 174-175), Jesus draws on the vineyard as a figure of speech for God’s and Israel’s relationship, but, in order to make His point about the Jewish leaders, Jesus also draws on first‑century arrangements, where absent landlords leased their vineyards to tenants in exchange for a share of the fruit. The parable highlights the tenants’ “faithlessness and judgment”, and Jesus also uses it to teach further about Himself as the Christ (Davies and Allison, ad loc Mt 21:33-40, 175-177

Where God in the Old Testament Reading seems to indict all of His people, Jesus in the Gospel Reading seems to focus more exclusively on the Jewish leaders—they correspond to the wicked tenants, as God corresponds to the master of the house (or owner of the vineyard), the vineyard corresponds to the people, and Jesus is the Son. At least that much correspondence between the parable’s earthly and heavenly sides seems obvious and necessary for the parable’s main point, though much additional correspondence is often suggested, including some going back to the Old Testament Reading itself, supposedly likening some of its details to aspects of Jewish worship (see, for example, Davies and Allison, ad loc Mt 21:33, 180). Yet, while Jesus in the parable seems to focus more exclusively on the Jewish leaders, His warning about potential judgment for rejecting Him also in some sense applies to us, as Jesus Himself makes clear in His broader application following the parable.

By nature, we are as wretched and deserving of a miserable death as the wicked tenants, the Jewish leaders, were. What more could God have done for us than He has done? He looks for justice and righteousness from us but does not find them as He should. Even we who believe in some ways do not respect His Son, with the depth of our original and actual sin giving evidence of our own attempts to be lords of our own lives. Yes, the Jewish leaders sought to and eventually did arrest Jesus and have Him crucified, but your sin and my sin are as much to blame for His death as anyone and anything else.

Today’s bulletin front cover features both a lovely picture of a lush vineyard and a quotation from today’s Gospel Reading about the owner of the vineyard sending his son, and the bulletin’s explanation on the back cover tries to make good news out of the son’s sending. But, do not let the explanation mislead you! The son in the parable is sent in judgment, and the gift of an eternal kingdom is given to those who hate and slay him only if they repent. As the parable in some sense prophesies, God “In His great wisdom and mercy … used the murder of His Son to work salvation” (TLSB, ad loc Mt 21:33-46, 1630). Jesus supports and extends the parable’s teaching by asking the Jewish leaders about the meaning of Psalm 118 (especially vv.22-23), which itself arguably prophesies of His, the “Stone’s”, rejection in death followed by His exaltation in resurrection. Such is the Lord’s plan that He fulfils in order to save us, and it is marvelous in the eyes of all those who repent of their sins and believe that Jesus died on the cross for them.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther apparently in 15‑38 preached a number of successive sermons on today’s Gospel Reading (AE 68:113-134), and in so doing he identifies two different reactions to Jesus as the Stone (AE 68:128-133). Luther says the unrepentant are crushed by the stone, while the repentant are fall on top of the stone and are broken to pieces to their benefit. For examples, Luther points to the example of St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 3:4b-14) and himself. Luther says, “Those who let themselves be broken to pieces, believe, and are baptized will be built upon the stone … They listen and will be saved.” (AE 68:132) Their little pieces are built up into the Church, as St. Paul describes for the Ephesians, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in Whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:20-22) The care of the Kingdom of God was indeed taken away from the Jewish leaders and given to a people, or “nation” of leaders, producing its fruits. The Lord gave to His Church the gift of the Office of the Holy Ministry (Ephesians 4:7-16) to preach His law and Gospel, baptize with water and the Word, individually absolve those privately confessing the sins they know and feel in their heart, and consecrate bread that is the body of Christ and wine that is the blood of Christ—all that so those in the Church might receive the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Such ministers can be said to be the new vineyard tenants and all who believe their fruit.

So, regardless of whether we have ever seen a vineyard or know much about vineyards, this morning we have considered “Vineyard Tenants and their Fruit”. We have realized our own wickedness and, heeding Jesus’s warning, we have fallen on Him, the Stone, to be broken to pieces and then built up into the Church. With St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading, we have the righteousness from God that depends on faith and press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus our dear Lord.

Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +