Matthew
21:33-46
33 "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.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our
eyes
· Years ago, I heard this bit of cock-eyed wisdom: “God made us in God’s own image, and we have
been returning the favour ever since.”
· I also heard this one: “If
your god holds all the same values and priorities you do, you’re worshiping an
idol.”
· The present rarely differs completely from the past. People rob
banks… because that’s where the money is. People take other people’s belongings
or land or even lives… because what they have is not enough, whether in reality
or in their own eyes. Natural disasters will be interpreted as a divine
punishment and scapegoats will be found… and punished. We could go on and on.
· As people, we’ve almost always looked for the easy answers. We’ve
looked for someone else to blame. In short, we’ve looked for a way to defend
ourselves and our actions from criticism, from confrontation, from change.
· The officials in charge of the Temple in Jerusalem were no
different. The Temple and the worship there were in their charge. Ultimately
they saw themselves as being in charge of God’s complete relationship with
God’s people. They believed that they were the ones who knew what God wanted
and how God wanted things done. No prophet or teacher would tell them what to
do. They would decide who carried the Word of God and they would decide what
would happen to those who challenged their dominion. They defended the “what-we’ve-always-done”
and lauded those who affirmed their status quo as true representatives of the
mind of God.
· Jesus challenged this. He called himself “the stone rejected…”
that is now “the cornerstone.” This was not expected. This was not how the
Messiah of God was envisioned to be. Since the leadership “knew better”, Jesus
and his message was discounted and rejected. Still Jesus quotes Psalm 118 and
calls himself the rejected cornerstone, which the Psalm says the world finds
amazing. His parable that precedes this appears to be a reference to Isaiah’s
parable of the vineyard which made up our first reading.
· Rejection… it goes to show that people shy away from those things
that might require change and that make them uncomfortable. We like to set our
own limits and set our thrones up where we want them to be. We don’t like the
unexpected. Oh, a surprise birthday party is okay now and again, but things
that are truly unexpected often mean bad news, at least in our minds.
· When it comes to God, the unexpected is very uncomfortable. We
want a predictable Deity and one we can completely understand, and, in that
understanding, control.
· Not going to happen. We will not understand, nor will we figure
the whole thing out. God will not be put in a box and wrapped up like a
birthday present. Grace, which some call the very life of God, will not be
categorized, inventoried, and shelved. Our sovereign selves would like that,
but we might watch for the opposite.
· This is the reason for the parable in today’s Gospel reading. The
tenants had decided that they really owned the vineyard and they abused the
servants sent to receive the landowner’s produce. When the son comes, will they
treat him differently? Jesus says no, and with that, causes a lot of trouble.
The truth can do that… especially if truth confronts a favourite fiction.
· Jesus’ recurring theme – that the Son of Man must suffer and then
rise from the dead – is not liked by those who oppose him, since it doesn’t fit
their version of Messiah and it indicts them. His followers don’t like it
either, since it doesn’t fit their version of Messiah either. Both are
confronted by the reality of Jesus as a suffering Messiah, an image that is
just as hard for many of us to accept today as it was in Jesus’ time.
· God will be what God will be… for us and for all of creation. Unexpected
and amazing, forgiving and merciful to those who have no claim on such a
judgement.
· The unexpected mercy of God, coming to us in unexpected ways. A
good thing really, no matter how upsetting. In our celebration of Thanksgiving
this weekend, this is something more to be thankful for.
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