Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier.
Today in our Gospel reading, we find ourselves in the middle of Holy Week in Jerusalem, and the people around Jesus is becoming more and more polarized as Jesus moves forward on His mission to save the world by the cross. There are those who continue to follow Jesus to wherever He would lead while there are those who are searching high and low for any excuse to put Him to death. His enemies are doing what they do best by questioning His authority. Surely there must be something that Jesus will say that will give His enemies the proof they need to put Him to death as a heretic.
The question before Jesus is one that has been asked time and time again: “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” Rather than answer this same old question again and with little time before the cross, Jesus instead tells a parable to illustrate who He is. The answer that He gives is not the one that the people are looking for, for He claims to be the cornerstone of our life and our salvation.
The parable that Jesus tells is not a difficult one to understand if you are the Jewish leadership. It is quite unmistakable who is who in the parable: the owner of the vineyard is our heavenly Father. The vineyard is the people of God and it is the Lord who has planted the vineyard. If God has planted the vineyard, then that means that we are His creation and that we are made for fellowship with God. However, if you are one who is listening to Jesus’ parable and are looking for a way to trap Him in His words, then you will surely miss the point of Jesus’ parable.
As Jesus tells the parable, it is clear that the vineyard owner rented the vineyard out to tenants to run in his absence. You would expect that upon his return, the tenants would hand over the vineyard to the owner. Unfortunately, that is not what Jesus says.
As the man send a servant to get some of the fruit of the vineyard, the tenants beat the servant and he returns empty handed. This occurs a second time and the vineyard owner sees same results. He does it a third time and the results are the same. Surely this is not the results that the land owner had expected. In order to stake his claim, the landowner decides to send his son to the tenants in hopes that the something will change. In the end, the tenants refuse to do what is right and kill the son.
The tenants had entered into a business arrangement with the owner to pay Him a fair share of the profits from the vineyard, but when the servants came to collect on behalf of the owner, the tenants abused them and sent them away empty-handed. They even went so far as to kill the Son of the owner in the hope of stealing His inheritance.
Jesus deliberately exaggerated the role of the evil tenants in order to show the awful abuses of the religious leaders down through the years. During various times in Israel’s history, they have worshipped false gods – even in the temple area. At times, they even offered human sacrifices. As far as the prophets were concerned, most of them spent the majority of their ministry behind bars and many of them died at the hands of those who should have honored them. Even the last of the great Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist, lost his head to a ruler’s sword.
As unusual as the tenants are, the owner is even more so. His first servant returned with severe injuries and no fruit. What landowner would not immediately form a group to go after them and at the very least put the tenants in prison? Instead, this land owner sends servant after servant. Then, when the servants return beat up and bloody, he sent His son? Yet this owner sent his son knowing that he would most certainly die.
This is such a picture of God the Father. He patiently sent, not just three, but thousands of prophets to His people. He has every right to wipe us out for the sin we have committed, but He is patient with us instead, as the Apostle Peter wrote: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
God the Father has even sent His Son to a violent death like the owner in the parable. God, in His love for us, sent His only begotten Son to die for us in order that we might have a new life. Even as the wicked tenants threw the son outside the vineyard and then killed him so also the corrupt Jewish establishment sent Jesus out of town to die on a cross.
This parable of Jesus was one of things that had happened and of things yet to come. The people had rejected Him; not only the locals but the Jewish rulers as well. God our heavenly Father has created this vineyard and sends His Son to redeem it, but instead of listening to Him, we put Him to death instead. Not realizing what our Lord was saying, the people exclaim, “Surely not!” and Jesus tells them, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Instead of listening to Jesus, instead of asking for His forgiveness, Luke records that the scribes and the chief priests sought to put Him to death.
The death of Jesus had to be. His death was the payment for the world’s sin. Sinners treat God terribly with disrespect and irreverence. God gives them daily bread and they fail to be thankful. God gives them things to use in service to their neighbor, and they hoard it for themselves and use it to boast of their accomplishments. God gives them bodies and minds to be used for honorable purposes, and they misuse and pollute them both for temporary pleasure in self-destructive ways. That’s how sinners treat God. But that is not how God treats sinners. He gives us Jesus, for this is how God treats sinners: with patience, mercy and grace. He patiently waits. He continues to send His Word and preachers to proclaim it. He patiently showers you with forgiveness in His Word and Sacraments to keep you in the true faith, even as He patiently gives this dying world more time so that more might hear and be saved.
Jesus, who was the rejected stone, conquered sin, death, and the power of the devil with His holy life, His suffering, His death on a cross, and His resurrection from the dead. He is now the living cornerstone for me, for you and for all who believe. We have a Savior who suffered extreme rejection for us and is now alive. Jesus is the cornerstone that establishes the church forever. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.