Pentecost 21 – 25 October 2020 – Year A

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

The text for this meditation is written in the 22^nd Chapter of the Gospel according to  St Matthew: Verses 34 – 40:

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

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

The Pharisees were on a desperate mission. Over the past weeks we have seen them question Jesus’ authority to teach, which resulted in Jesus exposing their ill intent and hypocrisy with parables; then they tried to discredit Him with a question designed to trap Him. This did not go well for them; and now they are challenging the Son of God of matters of the Law by asking Him a fundamental question about the greatest commandment.

This question should be familiar to students of the Catechism as the basis for the two tables of the law – To ⁽¹⁾Love God – ⁽²⁾Love others.  Jesus tells us that the first and greatest commandment of the Law is to love God with all that we have.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  I really don’t know just what the Pharisees were expecting Jesus to say, as this is the heart of the great Hebrew creed known as the “Shma.”  Shma is Hebrew for hear or pay attention.

The Shma is as follows: ^{[Deuteronomy 6:-4-9] 4} “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  These words were some of the first words that faithful Israelites taught to their children.

It was as if Jesus was saying, “You all know the answer to this one.  You have known the answer since you were a child.  Love the Lord your God.”  

When we look at the Ten Commandments, we see that the first four - ^(1)“You shall have no other gods,” ⁽²⁾You shall not make graven images ⁽³⁾ “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God,” and ⁽⁴⁾“Remember the Sabbath Day,” are all ways that we love the Lord our God.  We use the Gospel for today to organise these commandments into the first table of the Law; that is the first four commandments which defines “Our relationship to God”. – A Vertical relationship between God and humankind.

You see there is an ultimate truth in the First Commandment that makes it the ‘greatest’ - If we kept the first commandment perfectly, we would automatically keep all the other commandments.  Conversely, we cannot break any other commandment without breaking this one first.  If we could truly love God perfectly, God wouldn’t need to tell us any of the other commandments - we would simply keep them all.  This is the first and greatest commandment.

Then Jesus went on to tell of the second great commandment.  This time He quoted from the last verse of ^{(Leviticus 19:18)} “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”  At that time, Moses had just finished giving a list of ways that the Israelites could care for one another and he summed it up with these words about loving the neighbour.

In this scripture passage we also have a summary of the second table of the Law: ⁽⁵⁾ Honour your parents; ⁽⁶⁾ Do not murder; ⁽⁷⁾ Do not commit adultery; ⁽⁸⁾ Do not steal; ⁽⁹⁾ Do not bear false witness; ⁽¹⁰⁾ Do not covet anything of your neighbour’s:  all six remaining commandments.  All these are a summary of our relationship with those around us. – A Horizontal relationship under God between each other.

Jesus went on to say, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”   

Notice that, according to Jesus, these two statements about love are the foundation of the law – not the Gospel.  Even when we talk about loving Jesus, we are talking about the law.

How easy it is to say this law.  Love God with all your resources and love your neighbour as you love yourself.  This law is easy to say, but impossible to do.  The fact is that we often love ourselves with all our resources, love our neighbour when we will receive something in return and love God with our leftovers.  When we come before God, we must confess as we did earlier in the service, “We have not loved You with our whole heart and we have not loved our neighbour as ourselves.  We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment.”

But God does not punish us.  Instead, He shows the love to us that we should show to Him.  He shows us that [ἀγάπη] Agape love that is unconditional and has no barriers.  In this unconditional love, God sent His only begotten Son into the world to save us from our sins.  

This is the Christ who is both David’s Son and David’s Lord.  He is David’s Lord by virtue that of the fact that He is true God begotten of the Father from all eternity.  He is David’s Son by virtue of the fact that He is true man born of the Virgin Mary.  In the Christ, we have both God and man in one person.

This God-man, Jesus Christ, is the one and only man in all of history who loved with pure unconditional (Agape) love.  He fulfilled the law and loved God with all His heart and with all His soul and with all His mind.  He fulfilled the law and loved His neighbour as He loved Himself.  This is that love that kept Christ on the cross through all the suffering and the shame.  This is the love that Paul talked about when he wrote to the Romans and said, ^{[Romans 5:8]} “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Only one man in all of history ever loved with pure Agape love.  That man is the God-man, Jesus Christ.  Only He was able to fulfill the law of love and love God with all His heart and with all His soul and with all His mind.  Only He was able to start with the foundation of Agape love and build a life of perfect righteousness.

Now Jesus Christ makes that righteousness and that love available to us.  He makes them available to us because His love extended to the cross.  As His love for us kept Him on that cross, the holy wrath of God assaulted Him for our sins.  In His love, He sacrificed Himself in order to give us forgiveness, life, and salvation.

We know His sacrifice was perfect because His love was too powerful for death.  Jesus did not remain in the grave, but rose in triumph over sin, death, and the devil.

Now He transforms our sinfulness into His righteousness.  He changes our selfish lovelessness into His selfless love.  He pours His love into us even as He once poured forth His blood from the cross.  This is the Gospel – that God pours forth His love onto and into us.

The direction of the love is one way that the law differs from the Gospel.  When the direction of the love is from us to others, then we are talking law.  When the direction of the love is from God to us, then we are talking Gospel.  We often fail to love others.  God never fails to love us.

Even as God pours that love into us, He also pours that love through us.  God’s love reaches through us and touches our neighbour.  The Holy Spirit uses our everyday activities to love our neighbour.  Our job is no longer just a job.  Instead, it is a work that we do not only for our employer, but also for Jesus.  When we clothe and feed our family, it is not just our family that we feed and clothe, but also our Lord.  For on the Last Day, Jesus will say, ^{[Matthew 25:40]} “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”  The Holy Spirit can even use these everyday acts of love to bring the God News of salvation to the people we meet as we live out our lives in this world.

There was a time that each of us hated God as an enemy.  Now He fills us with His love and makes us His beloved children.  Once, we were not a people.  Now we are the people of God.  Once, we were the slaves of sin.  Now we are the free people of Heaven.  Once we were subject to God’s eternal judgment.  Now we are subject to God’s eternal love.  God’s love has conquered evil and made us His children forever.  Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

 

Pentecost 20 – 18 October 20 – Year A

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

The text for this meditation is written in the 22^nd Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses 15 - 33

Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. ¹⁶ So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. ¹⁷ Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” ¹⁸ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. ²⁰ Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” ²¹ They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ²² When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

²³ The same day some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, ²⁴ “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’ ²⁵ Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. ²⁶ The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. ²⁷ Last of all, the woman herself died. ²⁸ In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them had married her.”

²⁹ Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. ³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ³¹ And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living.” ³³ And when the crowd heard it, they were astounded at his teaching.

(Note: Sermon focus is on Matthew 22: 15-22):

Today’s Gospel is a continuation of the teachings of Jesus a few days before He died on the cross for our sins.  So far, we have heard the high priests and elders challenge Jesus’ authority.  When their challenge failed, Jesus began teaching in parables.  Many of the parables exposed the corruption and hypocrisy among the religious leaders of that day.  He was damaging their reputation … exposing their hypocrisy.  Rather than repent and amend their sinful ways, they decided that they had to publicly humiliate Jesus,  undermine His credibility, regain the upper hand.  Today, we heard that the Pharisees sent a delegation to do just that.

 

The delegation was a strange mixture of two opposing viewpoints. ^{(Matthew 22:15–16)  “}Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. ¹⁶And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians”, … In order to understand how strange this delegation is, we need to review a few cultural details.  The reading mentions the Herodians.  Herodians were politically motivated Jews who supported the Herod family as rulers over Israel. Jews who despised the Pharisees!  The three main Herod rulers ( Herod the Great, Herod Archelaus, and Herod Antipas), were puppet kings of the Roman empire.  They were not Jewish.  They were Gentiles.  Since the Herodians were big fans of the Herod family, they were also big fans of Roman rule.  After all, it was the Romans who kept the Herod’s in power.

 

Then there were the Pharisees.  We’ve met them before.  One of the things we know about the Pharisees is that they tried very hard to keep the law of Moses.  Well, the law of Moses said, ^{(Deuteronomy 17:15)} “You may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.” Herod’s rule was in direct contradiction to this passage in Deuteronomy.

 

Ordinarily the Pharisees and the Herodians were enemies.  That is the reason that the delegation who came to Jesus that day was so strange.  The fact that these two groups worked together to attack Jesus tells you something about how much they both hated Jesus.

 

So we’ve got two groups of people who are planning to entangle Jesus in His words.  The disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians came to Jesus saying, ^{(Matthew 22:16–17)}  “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. ¹⁷Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” The strategy is obvious.  First you compliment a person to give him a false sense of security.  Then you hit him with a “got-cha’” question.

 

The question was designed to put Jesus between a rock and a hard place.  Remember that they are in the temple surrounded by Passover pilgrims.  Many of those Passover pilgrims hate the Roman occupation.  If Jesus answered, “Yes, it is lawful to pay tax,” then the people who hated the Roman occupation would hate Him too.  If He answered no, then the Herodians would report Him to the Romans and get Him arrested.  If He did not answer, then the crowd would label Him as a coward.  The Herodians and the Pharisees thought they had Jesus in a no-win situation.

 

In the study of logic they teach that there is a false dichotomy in this question.  A false dichotomy presumes that a question asked has only two possible answers. The false presumption does not take into account that there may be more possibilities.  The disciples of the Pharisees tried to convince Jesus that there were only two answers: “Yes, it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar,” or “No, it is not.”  They didn’t think that Jesus could come up with any other answers.  They thought they had Jesus trapped.

 

Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ^{(Matthew 22:18)} “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Jesus saw through their plan immediately.  It was obvious that they were trying to trap Him.  Everyone who heard the question knew that they were trying to trap Jesus, but Jesus could look at their heart and see the malice they had toward Him.

 

Although it was a trap, Jesus answered their question anyway.  ^{(Matthew 22:19–21)} “Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. ²⁰And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” ²¹They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Jesus exposed the false dichotomy.  He came up with a third answer.  

 

Jesus understood something that they did not.  God is in control of both civil authority and religious authority.  The physical kingdom of power and the spiritual kingdom of grace are not an “either / or,” but a “both / and”situation.  In the Old Testament, in the Book of Isaiah Chapter 45, God pointed out that Cyrus, the pagan king of Persia, despite all outward appearances, was God’s own instrument.  The Lord used him to work out history for the ultimate good of his people.  Likewise, when Pilate boasts of his authority either to punish Jesus or to let him go, Jesus answered him, ^{(John 19:11)} “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

 

When Jesus said, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” he was telling us that Caesar and all government is God’s instrument at work in the physical world.  Obeying the laws of the land and participating in our democracy are a part of our obedience to God.

 

Now, while it is all well and good to learn that we are to be faithful to the government that God has placed over us, there is more to learn from this reading.  The delegation of Pharisees and Herodians tried to trap Jesus with a false dichotomy.  What false dichotomies do the forces of evil use against us?  Very often our own sinful flesh presents with the false dichotomy of false belief and despair.

 

False belief looks at God’s law in a superficial way and says, “Hey, I can do that.”  False belief says things like: “I lead a pretty good life.  I’ve never murdered anyone or robbed a bank or anything like that.  I’m faithful to my wife.  I spend time with my kids.  Yeah, I think there’s a pretty good chance that I’ll end up in heaven.”  This is the false belief of self-righteousness.  This is the false belief that we often associate with the Pharisees.  The law is doable, and I am doing it.  When you trust your own ability to do good, that is a belief that is false^{. (1 John 1:8)} “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”.

 

The other part of the false dichotomy is despair.  Here we find some very honest people.  They have looked at God’s law thoroughly and deeply.  They fully understand that they cannot keep it.  An interview with these people would find thoughts such as, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.  I am just too old to be saved.”  “No matter how hard I try, it just isn’t good enough.”  “After all I have done, there is no way that God will let me into heaven.”  This is despair.  The Biblical poster model for despair is Judas who hanged himself after he betrayed Jesus.  These are people who believe that their sin is stronger than God’s forgiveness.

 

The two parts of this false dichotomy have something in common.  They both depend on self.  False belief lies and says, “I am good enough to get into heaven.”  Despair says, “I am not good enough to get into heaven.”  Every time we look to self, we get pulled into one of these two choices.  Even those who say, “I will do my best and God will do the rest,” have chosen false belief.  If all I think about is what I can do for myself, then these are the only two possibilities.

 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus answered with a third way.  In a similar way, He breaks into our lives to offer us a third way.  Those who live in despair are right about one thing: We can’t live the perfect life needed for eternal salvation, but Jesus did.  He lived a perfect, sinless life.  A few days after the events in today’s Gospel, He died a sacrificial death on the cross.  The following Sunday, He rose from the dead.  Forty days after that, He ascended into heaven.  He did all the things that we confess in the creed and did them all for us.  He provided a third way … a way that leads to eternal life.

 

In today’s Gospel [Jesus] … said, ^{(Matthew 22:21)} “Therefore render … to God the things that are God’s.” With His sacrificial death, Jesus rendered to God the payment for the sin of the world … that is every sin … for every person who has ever lived … for every person who lives now … and for every person who will ever live until the end of time.  He has paid for your sin.  He has paid for my sin.  All our sins are paid in full.

 

The Pharisees and the Herodians in today’s Gospel tried to make Jesus irrelevant by asking a trick question.  When that didn’t work, they gave up on subtlety.  They decided that the only way to remove Jesus from the scene was to remove Him from this life – to kill Him.  During the next few days they carried out their plan and arranged to have Jesus crucified.  When Jesus was dead, the powers of sin, death, and the devil thought they had won.  They didn’t understand that the death of Jesus is His greatest victory.

 

It is by this victory that we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation.  It is by this victory that even though we die, we shall rise again.  For Jesus Himself did not remain in the grave, but became the first fruits of those who rise from the dead.  His resurrection is the assurance that the work He did on the cross is the ultimate victory – the assurance that false belief and despair are our only choices, but Jesus has given Himself as a third choice that leads to everlasting life.

 

The coin in today’s Gospel had an image.  On the cross Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews is the image of the invisible God.  In that image you see what the God of the universe has done to make us his own!  ^{(Romans 8:32)} “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

 

Pentecost 19 – 11 October 2020 – Year A

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

The text for this meditation is written in the 22^nd Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses 1 - 14:

 

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, ² “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, ³ and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. ⁴ Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” ’ ⁵ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, ⁶ while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. ⁷ The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. ⁸ Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹ Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ ¹⁰ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. ¹² And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. ¹³ Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

 

In order to understand the parable in today’s Gospel, it is very helpful to understand the context of the culture of the day … especially the context of royal wedding customs.  I  Jesus’ parable, the wedding feast in the parable is the king’s feast given in honour of the wedding of the prince.  The king has all the resources of the kingdom at his disposal … the best food … the best entertainment.  The king might even have his best architects and builders build a whole new building just for the feast.  The feast lasted many days and so the servants of the king prepared the best lodging for the wedding guests.  Money is no object.

 

One of the things a king would do for wedding guests is provide a fashion spa for the guests when they arrived.  The king understood that travel was hard work in those days.  People would arrive exhausted and dirty.  The difficulty of travel might even make them a little grumpy.  The king provided facilities for refreshment … manicures … pedicures … fashion designers and expert tailors … everything a guest needed to look and feel their best when they entered the banquet hall.  The king wanted everyone and everything to be perfect in order to honour the wedding of his son, the prince.  This is one aspect of the culture of the parable that will help us understand it.

The other thing about the culture of that day has more to do with the simple fact that they did not have the same attitude about time that we do.  We have digital wrist watches that can tell us the exact time.  We have mobile phones and all other kinds of instant communication.  At the time of the parable, even writing was expensive.  Most communication was done orally, face-to-face.  If you were important, like a king, you had servants do the communicating, but the communication was still a personal, oral communication. 

 

This meant that there were always two invitations to a party.  The first invitation was to inform everyone that plans were under way.  This is the invitation that had the RSVP.  Those who could attend would reply that they were coming.  The second invitation informed the guests that everything was ready for them to come to the party.  The people who received this second invitation had already promised to come.  It was an incredible insult to excuse yourself after you had already promised to attend.  Turning down the second invitation of the king was treason.  Mistreating the servants who brought the second invitation was an act of war.

 

Jesus used these customs to illustrate His teaching about who enters the Kingdom of Heaven and who does not.  This parable demonstrates the overwhelming generosity of God the Father and His justice.  It also demonstrates the cruel insanity of those who reject the gift of salvation.  The king is God the Father.  The wedding feast is eternal life.  The servants are God’s prophets, apostles, and pastors.  Those who were invited and refused are the rank unbelievers.  The travellers on the highways who were both bad and good are those ordinary people with no claim to entitlement, but who are at the wedding solely by the grace and mercy of God.  The guest who was not dressed properly is a hypocrite.  His name is on the church membership roll but he rejects the gifts of God.

 

So, what does this parable say to us today?  Why is it important for us to hear this parable?  It is very easy for us to look through the pages of the Old Testament and see the many ways that people rejected the prophets.  We hear how the people put the prophets in prison, drove them out of their homes, and put them to death, and we rightly condemn such activity.  We hear that of the original twelve apostles, only John died of old age.  All the others died martyrs’ deaths.  We wonder at such cruelty and once again, condemn it.  It is very easy to point a finger of condemnation at people who lived long ago and far away, but what about you and me.  What does Jesus say to us today?

Jesus used the man who refused the wedding clothes to warn you and me today.  Regularly each week we gather in the wedding hall of the king.  How are we dressed?

 

Imagine what this man had to do to get into the wedding hall without the right clothes.  When he arrived, the servants of the king came to him and offered to clean him up and heal his wounds.  They offered him clothing that was just the right style for the feast.  They wanted to give him everything he needed to fully enjoy the wedding banquet of the king.  The servants offered it all and he refused.  He insisted on doing things his way instead of the king’s way.  He insisted on wearing his clothes instead of the king’s clothes.  He entered the wedding hall, but rejected the gifts of the king.

 

Trained and Ordained Priests and Pastors in the mainstream denominational Christian Church on earth are the servants of God.  When they open up God’s Word, they offer the best of heavenly style.  It is called the righteousness of Christ.  It is a very expensive style.  Jesus had to buy this style with His holy, precious blood, and His innocent suffering and death.  The heavenly style is the righteousness that Jesus earned for us with His suffering and death on the cross.  The righteousness of Jesus Christ is the only style that is elegant enough for eternal life.  It is the only style that the true servants of God can offer to you.  

 

As a servant of Christ, the priest’s / pastor’s role is to remove the filthy fashion of sin and clothe us in the heavenly style … the robes of Christ’s righteousness.  To put that in modern context; within the Worship service we humble ourselves before God and confess that we are sinners in what we have done and in what we have failed to do. In response to this, the Priests / Pastor by virtue of their office of the servant of God’s Word, cleanses us of our sin with Christ’s forgiveness and clothes us with the robe of righteousness in the pronouncement of the Holy Absolution.

 

On receiving absolution, we can rejoice together at this great gift from our king by using the words of Isaiah the prophet. ^{[Isaiah 61:10]} “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”  

 

Sadly, Jesus teaches that there are those who reject the style of heaven.  Jesus says that there will always be some in the banquet hall of heaven who insist on wearing their own clothes … their clothes of arrogance, narcissism, self-righteousness, adultery, hatred, and so forth.  The old sinful nature insists that he is good enough.  He has no sin.  He does not need the heavenly style of the righteousness of Christ.  His style is just fine.  “Besides,” the old sinful nature will say, “A loving god doesn’t really send people to hell.”

 

Jesus tells it differently.  The party crasher may have been able to fool the servants, but the servants are not the ultimate judge.  We must all stand before almighty God.  There is but one verdict for those who trust themselves and refuse the clothing of the righteousness of Christ.  The king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  

 

Those who reject Christ, reject salvation.  Those who in any way depend on their own efforts for even the smallest fraction of their salvation will meet the king and He will order them out of the wedding hall.

 

It is a different story for those found in the road.  The Holy Spirit works through His servants to bring them to the wedding hall and wash away all their sins.  Through His servants He covers them with the righteousness of Christ … the righteousness earned on the cross.  The day will come when they, like Christ, will rise from the dead and enter into the wedding feast of the Lamb.  There they will receive the fulfilment of ^{Isaiah 25: 7-8} :On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.  He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.  They will rejoice at the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb.  Amen

 

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

  

Pentecost 18 – 4 October 2020 – Year A

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

The text for today’s meditation is written in the 21^st Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses: 33–46

 

“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. ³⁴ When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. ³⁵ But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶ Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. ³⁷ Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ ³⁹ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰ Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹ They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone; 
this was the Lord’s doing,
    and it is amazing in our eyes’?

⁴³ Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom ⁴⁴ The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶ They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Last week, we heard about an encounter between Jesus and the chief priests and the elders.  It was Holy Week.  On the first day of the week, Jesus rode a donkey from the Mount of Olives to the temple while the Passover pilgrims praised him.  Then he chased the merchants and money-changers out of the temple.  After that, He healed some people.  When Jesus returned to the temple to teach, the chief priests and the elders were waiting for Him. ^{(Matthew 21:23)} “When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus responded with a question of His own, ^{(Matthew 21:25)} “The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” The temple authorities were afraid to answer Jesus’ question and so Jesus declined to answer their question.  This is where last week’s reading came to an end.

However, just because last week’s reading came to an end, that does not mean that Jesus stopped talking to the chief priests and the elders.  Jesus continued to speak with them and about them.  The reading we just heard is just one of the parables that Jesus told while He was in the temple that day.

Keep a few things in the back of your mind as we go through this parable.  Many of the events represented in the parable would happen in less than a week.  In a few days, Judas will betray Jesus.  In less than a week, Jesus will suffer, die on the cross, and rise from the dead.  The chief priests and the elders were already having secret talks about how to destroy Jesus.  Jesus knew that this was coming when He told this story.

Jesus painted a word picture for His listeners.  He said, ^{(Matthew 21:33–34)} “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. ³⁴When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. The setup for this parable is very familiar territory.  No doubt many of the Passover Pilgrims who listened to Jesus had seen vineyards just like the one in this parable.  His listeners would be very familiar with the idea of ‘share farming’ which is renting land for a share of the crops it produced.  There may even have been vineyard owners and workers listening to Jesus when He told the parable

Within the context of this parable, the landowner represented God.  The vineyard represented Israel.  The many details involved in the planting of the vineyard … the fence, the tower, the winepress, and so forth show that God has blessed Israel with all it needs to thrive and grow.  The tenants represent the spiritual leadership of the nation.  In the current circumstances, that would be chief priests and the elders of the people … the same people who asked about Jesus’ authority.  The servants who came to collect the crop would be God’s servants … especially His prophets.  The fruit they expected would be repentance and faith. 

After Jesus setup the backdrop of the parable, He started making His point. ^{(Matthew 21:35)} “The tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.” The tenants turn out to be violent, insane criminals.  There is no sense to what they are doing.  Only the most stupid arrogance would believe it could get away with such a crime. 

This sentence represents the violent history of Israel towards God’s prophets and other servants.  The writer to the Hebrews describes the life of the prophet very well. ^{(Hebrews 11:35–38)} Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. ³⁶Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— ³⁸of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth”. Israel’s history toward the prophets was one of unbelieving rebellion, violence, and torture.

Under these circumstances, the landowner had the right to punish these tenants with death, and that is exactly what the ordinary landowner would do.  However, the landowner in the parable is not ordinary.  ^{(Matthew 21:36)} “Again, he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them”.

Here Jesus illustrated the incredible mercy and grace of God.  Instead of judging Israel and destroying it, God sent more prophets.  This teaching is consistent with the words God gave to Ezekiel.  ^{(Ezekiel 33:11) “}As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”  God offered life to Israel.  But still, God’s prophets continued to suffer cruel violence.

At this point the landowner in the parable did something insane.  ^{(Matthew 21:37)} “Finally, he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’” Given the history of these tenants, no earthly landowner would do this.  An earthly landowner might send his son at the head of an army with orders to destroy the tenants, but he would never send his son to collect the fruit of the vineyard.

The amazing thing is that Jesus was teaching about Himself at this point in the parable.  He Himself is the Son of God.  He has come just as the prophets came before Him.  The parable is about the person who first told it.

As Jesus continued, the tenants reveal the extent of their insanity.  ^{(Matthew 21:38–39)} “When the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ ³⁹And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him”. Who in their right mind would believe that they could become the heirs to an estate by killing the current heir to the estate?  To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a legal system in the history of the world that would allow such a thing.

Regardless though, this parable is eerily accurate in its detail.  The tenants threw the son out of the vineyard before they killed him.  In a similar manner, Roman soldiers will lead Jesus out of Jerusalem and crucify Him.  The parable illustrates the events that will happen to Jesus by the end of the week.

Jesus closed the parable by asking His hearers to judge the tenants in the parable. ^{(Matthew 21:40–41)} “When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” The judgment is death.  The owner will kill the tenants and replace them with faithful people.  There is a hot place in hell for those who violate the precious trust God has placed in their hands and do not repent.  This parable is terrifying in its judgment.

The sad thing about this parable is that it is God’s intent to make all people fellow heirs with Christ as the Apostle Paul said:  ^{(Romans 8:16–17)} “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ”. So, within the context of the parable, it was the landowner’s intent to make the tenants heirs with His son.  The landowner intended to freely give them the very thing that they tried to take by violence.  The insanity of their evil not only caused them to lose this gift, but their lives as well.  They could have had it all, but they lost it all instead.

The parable in today’s Gospel is a true tragedy.  It ends with a dead son and damned tenants.  Jesus was not satisfied with this ending so He followed it with a quote from Psalm 118.  Jesus said to them, ^{(Matthew 21:42)}  “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes”? With these words Jesus made it clear that the fate of those in the parable need not be our fate.

Just as the rejected stone became the corner stone so Jesus Himself did not remain rejected.  Although Jesus died in rejection, He did not remain in the grave.  He rose from the dead to become the cornerstone upon which the church depends.

Under God’s grace, even the evil tenants need not be damned.  It would not surprise me at all if some of those who voted to crucify Jesus later repented.  It would not surprise me at all if they heard the preaching of the Apostles and received the gift of faith from the Holy Spirit.  It would not surprise me at all if they, through that gift of faith in the one whom they crucified, were now in heaven praising God.

God’s grace is for all.  He wants to give it to us freely for the sake of the perfect life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  If we insist that God must save us on our terms, then we shall follow the example of the wicked tenants in the parable.  When God has His way, we will die in Christ and follow Him.  We will not remain in the grave, but will rise from the dead just as Christ rose.  We are already Children of the living God.  Jesus has placed His righteousness in our hearts and we will live with him forever.  Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen