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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.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some of you know that several weeks ago, when I was down in Austin walking on the U‑T campus, I tripped over a section of sidewalk that had shifted, and I fell—a somewhat spectacular fall, at first stumbling several steps as I tried to recover my balance, but ultimately hitting the ground hard, with my laptop-backpack and my coffee-cup flying out in front of me across the sidewalk. Although I only skinned my right arm and leg, that experience came to my mind, as perhaps your own experiences came to yours, when hearing what today’s Gospel Reading said both about someone’s falling on the rejected cornerstone and being broken to pieces and about the rejected cornerstone’s falling on someone and crushing him or her. This morning we reflect on today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “The Rejected Cornerstone”.
For today’s Gospel Reading, we have moved forward in St. Luke’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account, to what we call Holy Week, after the Jewish leaders and Jesus had disputed about His and John the Baptizer’s authority (Luke 20:1-8). In the presence of and against the Jewish leaders, Jesus told the people what is called the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, who increasingly mistreated the servants the patient owner of the vineyard sent to them and ultimately killed his son. When the Jewish leaders reacted with surprise to the Parable, Jesus spoke about the Rejected Cornerstone. And, when the Jewish leaders had heard also that warning of judgment, they still wanted to turn Jesus over to the authority of the governor, instead of repenting, as the Parable and the subsequent warning regarding the Rejected Cornerstone had called them to do.
Even though the number of rigs currently drilling for oil and gas in the United States reportedly has fallen to its lowest level since at least 19-40, most of us in East Texas probably still have at least some understanding of how land is leased but mineral rights are retained. In some ways, letting out a vineyard to tenants was similar, with the owner collecting either a fixed amount or a share of the production. In the case of the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, the vineyard apparently was producing fruit, but the wicked tenants were selfishly keeping all the proceeds to themselves, foolishly thinking that they could somehow get the vineyard away from its owner. The Parable does not necessarily apply to you in the same way that it applies to me, but we all can consider whether or not we are producing fruit, such as sorrow over our sin, faith that, among other things, trusts God to forgive our sin, and at least the desire to do better than to keep on sinning. We all can consider how we treat the servants the owner of the vineyard sends, and we all can consider whether or not we fall on the Rejected Cornerstone and whether or not the Rejected Cornerstone falls on us.
As St. Paul writes to the Philippians in today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 3:8-14), we have no righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but any righteousness we are to have must come through faith in Christ and depend on faith in Christ. On account of our sinful nature and our actual sin, we deserve to be destroyed, as the wicked tenants deserved to be destroyed. If we, like the builders, reject the Cornerstone, we fall on it and are broken to pieces, or it falls on us and crushes us. Even if the Parable of the Wicked Tenants does not necessarily apply to you in the same way that it applies to me, we all need to heed the Parable’s and the subsequent warning’s call to repent. For, when we repent, as God calls and enables us to do, then God forgives our sinful nature and our actual sin. God forgives our sinful nature and our actual sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The Parable and the subsequent warning regarding the Rejected Cornerstone certainly can be used by the Holy Spirit as law: law that curbs sin, that reflects sin, and that shows believers how to live. Yet, the Holy Spirit can also use the Parable and the subsequent teaching regarding the Rejected Cornerstone as Gospel: Gospel to show us our Savior from sin, Jesus Christ. For, Jesus is the Beloved Son, the Son of God the Father as the Owner or Lord of the Vineyard, which Son the Jewish leaders as the wicked tenants killed. Jesus is the Stone Whom those would‑be builders rejected, the Stone Who has become the cornerstone. If we do not fall on Him or have Him fall on us—that is to say, if we put our faith in Him—then we are built up into the Church that is built upon Him. For, in the background of today’s Gospel Reading are God’s Old Testament promises, promises repeated elsewhere in the New Testament, promises about believing in the Rejected Cornerstone and so not being put to shame (Isaiah 28:16; Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:6-8). In the Parable, Jesus essentially claimed to be God the Father’s Messiah, and He showed the Jewish leaders that He was aware of their seeking to destroy Him (for example, Luke 19:47), and He further prophesied of His death on the cross for the Jewish leaders and for all people, including you and me. The unrepentant Jewish leaders eventually did deliver Jesus up to the authority of the governor, and Jesus submitted to him and his authority, dying on the cross for us. We who repent receive the benefits of Jesus’s death for us through His Word and Sacraments.
Perhaps you and I already have inherited, or perhaps we stand to inherit, something from a relative or friend in this life. While Jesus is the Son and heir of the Kingdom of God, God makes us His brothers and sisters and co‑heirs with Him of the Kingdom. At the Baptismal Font, we are adopted as God the Father’s children and so made inheritors of His Kingdom, namely the riches of the eternal life that He pours upon us, the forgiveness of sins and so salvation. As the water imagery in today’s Psalm (126) and Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 43:16-21) suggest, the water of Holy Baptism effects God’s call and His appointment (confer Foerster, TDNT 3:781-783).
As we who are baptized continue to sin, we privately confess to our pastor the sins that particularly trouble us, for the sake of individual Holy Absolution. So absolved, we are admitted to the Sacrament of the Altar, where we eat Christ’s Body in, with and under bread and drink Christ’s Blood in, with, and under wine—for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In all these ways, God builds us on Christ Jesus, the Rejected Cornerstone, and on the foundation of the prophets and apostles, and so in Jesus, the whole structure, being so joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord (Ephesians 2:20). The temple that is Christ’s Church, the vineyard of the Lord, given to other tenants, returns to the Lord the first-fruits of what He has given us—contrition, faith, and at least a desire to do better than to keep on sinning, and also other good works that show God’s love to those He has placed around, maybe even including in some small way helping people in our community clean up after the heavy rain and flooding of this past week.
Perhaps if I had paid more attention to where I was walking several weeks ago when on the U‑T campus, I would not have tripped over a section of sidewalk that had shifted, and, instead of falling, I would have stepped onto it and, in a sense, been built upon it. Certainly the Lord God intends for and enables us to be built upon Christ Jesus, our Rejected Cornerstone, putting our faith in Him and bringing forth the fruits of faith. As we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading, the Lord has formed us for Himself, so that, now and for eternity, we might declare His praise.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +