Sermon Cloud

Matthew 21:28-42: "‘What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, "Son, go and work in the vineyard today."  29 And he answered, "I will not," but afterward he changed his mind and went.  30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, "I go, sir," but did not go.  31 Which of the two did the will of his father?' They said, ‘The first.' Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.  32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.  33 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.  34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.  35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.  36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them.  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 have his inheritance."  39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.  40 When therefore 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 rent out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.'  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 marvelous in our eyes"?'"

INTRODUCTION

We come again this morning to the study of the parables.  We come with questions, we come with burdens, we come with our own opinions, yet we come.  We come to sit at the feet of Jesus and to hear the very words of life.  Many of His words are tender and soothe bruised hearts. Some of His words wound and bruise our hearts so that He can come and heal them with His grace.  Whatever these words, these are not mere words from a philosopher in a classroom or a guru on top of a mountain.  These words are cast in earthy and common stories.  Vinedressers, hookers, traitors, franchise managers, and the like are all ways in which the average person could engage and enter the parables Jesus told. 

As we continue to consider the great revolution of God as He broke into humanity in the person of His Son to bring about no less than a subversive agenda to the powers of the world and the prince of the air, we are given another story to consider.  There are two parables we're going to discuss, one of them about two sons and the other about vineyard managers working for a master in another country.  Both of these stories have a similar theme and work to draw us to very bad news for very good people.  These are sobering words for anyone who comes close to Christ and perhaps the most sobering to those who seem the closest.  Let's dig in.

STUDY

So sobering are these words that at one point in v.31 Jesus says, "I tell you the truth" which is the word we use for "amen."  It is a word that is used by Jesus as a highlighter or a way to underline what He's teaching or just taught.  It means that what Jesus is saying is trustworthy and everyone should listen.  It's a sign that we're to pay close attention to His words. 

If you move up a little in the chapter, you'll see that Jesus was speaking to the religious, moral leadership.  Not just any religious leaders, but the leaders of the right religion.  These leaders held to all the doctrinal truths necessary, they believed one was to submit to God's written word.  They believed that everything that God said was true.  They were morally upright, fastidious in keeping all of the laws of God and were examples to the Jews regarding prayer, giving, study, and all other religious duties.  They were well respected and held up with high honor in their culture by anyone who loved God and wanted to follow His commands. 

Yet, here we see again a conflict with Jesus as He rebukes them with a parable, a story.  He doesn't dismiss them or write them off.  He teaches them and holds up concrete examples of deep truths for their response.  He does this as a way of rescuing them and all those listening to Him.  Every word is grace, even the harsh ones.  He doesn't give harsh words because He's capricious and moody; He gives harsh words to make soft people. 

He gives these two stories with a cast of characters for them and for us to consider.  Let's start with the parable of the tenants so that we can see a common problem which we all share, and then let's look at the parable of the two sons to see a specific problem that religious people share, and then the solution to both.

The Parable of the Tenants

Verses 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.  34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit." 

Jesus gives us quite a bit of information about the land the master leased.  He says he planted a vineyard, but he also put up a fence, dug a winepress, built a tower and leased it.  Why is Jesus giving us so much detail about the vineyard?  He could have just said, "He had a vineyard and leased it" but He didn't. 

He's showing us that the master is not just the owner, but an investor.  The master buys the property, plants the vineyard and purchases all the equipment necessary and then builds all that's needed for the tenants to be productive.  The master then leases it out and asks for the tenants to give him fruit from their labor.  He's a business man.  But something goes incredibly wrong in this story and the tension is immediately felt. 

Verses 34-39: "When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.  35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.  36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 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 have his inheritance.'  39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him."   

When the time was right to collect on his investment, he sent his servants to get his fruit (his payment) and they were one by one beaten, stoned, and even killed.  So again he sends other servants, even more than at first, and they do the same.  They beat them, stone them, and kill some of them.

Why would they do such a thing?  Because they wanted to own the land and didn't want anyone over them.  They wanted to owe no one but themselves.  There was even a strange law that allowed someone to keep the land if they could prove after three years that they were running things without the owner.  Now, this rule was so that if a land owner left to another country and died, after three years of not hearing from the owner, the tenants could take ownership of the land for themselves since they were self-sufficient.

The simple crux of the story is that these tenant managers were not owners and anyone who came to them and reminded them that they weren't the owners were beaten or stoned, even killed, and the one who made them feel the most aware of their lack of ownership was the son, and they symbolically dragged him out of the vineyard and killed him. 

The vineyard motif was common in the Scriptures and to God's people and the religious leaders would have understood what Jesus was saying.  There is a place in Deuteronomy 6 that shows us a glimpse of how they might have heard this story.  In this chapter, God has led His people out of slavery and is leading them into a land which they'll possess.  God was the one who rescued them.  God was the one who destroyed Pharaoh's armies.  God was the source of their liberated joy.  And, God was the one who they were to consider and worship when they entered into and possessed the land.

Deuteronomy 6:10-14: "And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you--with great and good cities that you did not build,  11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant--and when you eat and are full,  12 then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  13 It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.  14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you"

Do you see what Jesus is getting at?  He's telling us that the human heart easily strays and quickly forgets that everything we have is from God.  Every liberty enjoyed is from God.  And we're prone to go after other gods and forget the one true God.  He warned the Israelites because He knew they would forget that everything they had was a gift and they didn't earn it.  Every good thing they'd enjoy came from Him.  Even when they produced fruit, they'd have to remember that they didn't create the seeds, they didn't make the trees, they didn't cause the sun to rise, they didn't send rain.  Every bite of their mouths should be to the glory of their God as they thank Him for His goodness towards them for such lavish gifts they didn't earn.

Simply put, you didn't build the city you enjoy, you didn't make the houses you live in, you didn't fill it with all its good things, you didn't dig the well, you didn't plow the field and plant the vineyard in every bottle of wine you enjoy, but yet you enjoy these things.  Don't forget!  Don't forget the Lord your God who rescued you from slavery.

But why do our hearts wander so easily?  Why do we forget so quickly?  Because grace frightens us. 

Do you know why grace is so incredibly threatening?  Because if everything was given to us by God's hand and it was all of grace, then that means that He can ask anything of us and we owe Him everything.  We can't take credit for anything.  But, if we do it ourselves, if we build and produce on our own, or perceive it so, we can still have our religious compartment, except we can set limits.  In other words, if I'm saved by grace, God deserves all the fruit of my love and worship, my entire life.  If I'm saved by my works, then He owes me.  If I'm busting my tail to keep the rules then I can demand from Him and He's indebted to me.  If He paid it all, then my whole life is indebted to Him.

We are all tenants, but we want to believe we're owners.  We all know we're only tenants, but we're all acting and living as if we're the owners.  Why? Because owners get to do what they want.  They call the shots. 

We have been given common grace, grace by God's sheer creation in making us and sustaining us.  The rain falls on the righteous and unrighteous.  He provides even for the one who totally ignores Him.  They work in His vineyard and have been given everything they have.  All the gifts, all the tools, and even the mouth to speak and hands to labor are given by Him; yet many of us live as if we made it all and sustain ourselves. 

What do the tenants get from the master, the owner?  They get everything!  The land, the vineyard is planted, the tower is built, the winepress, everything is given to them.  Yet they don't want to live with that reality.  The human heart naturally hates the idea of this kind of grace.  It hates the idea that if we're really created by God and sustained by Him, then I can't simply do what I want.  I'm not the center of the universe; He is!

This is a profound problem.  We know we're only tenants if we're honest, but we want to live like owners.  This creates a sham for a life where we make decisions to constantly assure ourselves that we're owners, but it's never enough because we can't ultimately own everything.  So we're never quite happy.  It's never quite enough.  Our hearts always yearn for more because there is always more to own.  We don't want to stop and admit that this world isn't my oyster, even if Antonio Montana says so. 

We certainly can understand the mindset of the tenants.  Anything that comes into our lives to remind us we're only tenants-circumstances, preachers and teachers, or anything else-we're hostile towards and want to beat.  We want to drown them out because we don't want to believe we owe God everything.  Everyone, when first coming to consider Christianity, has to deal with this problem.  How do I follow Christ yet still maintain some control in my life?  Whether it's initially or after some time, this question is raised in our hearts.  When God contradicts us and calls us to live like tenants and not like owners in areas of our lives where we want to maintain control, we find ourselves wanting to chase away His servants.  This is why community can be so difficult.  If we are loving each other and reminding each other that we're not the center of the universe and we own nothing and are only tenants, we're going to have conflict and get our sensibilities ruffled.

But what is the context for this parable?  Of course this is true of all humanity.  Of course this is a universal and human problem.  But Jesus is specifically telling the religious leaders this parable.  Why?

The reason is found in how they perceived themselves and God.  You see, one of the greatest ways to avoid Jesus and stay in control our own lives is to get religious.  The best place to hide from Jesus is in His church as we bury ourselves in good deeds and keep busy. 

Flannery O'Connor, a Christian author, says it best in her novel Wise Blood.  In it, she writes about one of her characters named Hazel Motes who wants to live in total self-control and makes this observation:

          "He's convinced that the best way to avoid Jesus is to avoid sin."

Why would this be a way to live in total self control?  Well, if you're going to want control, who better to boss around and have indebted to you than God?  If you become religious, you can avoid Jesus by never needing Him.  You can adopt a morality that perceives itself to never be in need of a savior.

The vineyard is a metaphor for Israel, God's people, and the tenants or managers are the religious leaders.  Jesus is saying that the messengers were the prophets that He's been sending to them.  Jesus even says in Matthew 23:34 that He's sent them prophets and wise men, but they keep killing them. 

He's saying that there is a pattern with religious people.  They are the ones who most want to stay in control, and they are the ones that are the most hostile to Him, to the truth. 

This is why so many reject Christianity upon these grounds.  They see that religious people are controlling, hypocritical, ungracious, and frankly pushy and arrogant.  So they write off Christianity because of the kind of people that claim to be Christian.  As a matter of fact, Marx and Nietzsche had the same observations about Christianity.  These were two philosophers who still have a great influence in our day in ways we probably don't even know.

Both of them observed that religion was a way for people to get into a place of control and power and stay there.  So they rejected it outright and spurned it as the most dangerous form of repression ever invented. 

Why?  Because religion puts you in a place where you feel God owes you because of the sacrifices you make and the morality you keep.  You know how you find out if you are like this?  By checking your heart when things go wrong.  Who do you blame when life begins to fall apart?  When suffering comes?  When injustice hits you?  Do you start to question God and blame Him?  Do you say things like, "Why would you do this to me?"  If so, it's probably because you've adopted a view that sees yourself as sacrificing so much and therefore when suffering comes you feel like it's unfair because of all you've done. 

Also, it places you in a position where you look down your nose at other people and villainize them.  You see others who don't have the same moral or ethical sense as you, or those who don't quite do things the way you do you as idiots unworthy of God's grace.  You want to know how you can tell?  Do you ever say, "I wouldn't do that?" in such a way that you're disgusted when thinking about how someone does things?  Anyone who doesn't have your sensibilities or your view of truth, you want to beat and flog in your heart.

This is what Marx and Nietzsche were after.  But guess what?  Jesus already said this hundreds of years earlier.  Jesus knew this and was giving us this parable to teach us this very principle.  He knew that one way to control your life was to get religious, and the most hostile of people will be those who don't have a grace narrative which teaches them that everything they have, they have by grace, but a works narrative that tells them everything they have they have because they worked hard. 

Who killed Jesus?  Some may immediately say "the Jews."  Of course it's understandable we'd say such a thing.  Jesus' parents were Jewish, His family was Jewish, His disciples were Jewish.  Really, it's no big statement to say the Jews killed Jesus.  But it's more than that.  It's not just that they were Jewish, it's that it was the ones who were the most moral, who had the truth, who studied and poured over the Scriptures, and it was those who were righteous and obedient who killed Him.  The more you were religious, the more you would have hated Jesus and wanted Him dead.  It's the religious who killed Jesus, and the religious with the right truth and morality just happened to be Jews.  But anyone who thinks they're a good person, an ethical and religious person is going to hate Jesus.

Why?  Because religious people hate the implications of grace.  They hate that everything they have is a gift and comes to them by grace.  They want to maintain control and ownership of their lives and the things they possess.  They don't want to be told that what they have is not theirs but God's.

If our hearts naturally hate grace, then the greatest enemy to grace is religion.  It's the most deadly problem.    

There are two ways to avoid grace and to ignore that we're only tenants.  One way is to become completely irreligious and avoid anything that has to do with a religious morality.  However, this becomes its own morality.  Why?  Because now you look down your nose at the religious and shake your head at them.  You feel proud that you're not like them.  So you cast off any constraints in your life and say to yourself, "No one is going to tell me how to live.  I'm in charge of my life." 

The other way to avoid grace is to get religious.  One is to disobey, the other is to obey.  It's to be the most moral and upright person, so much so, that you never sin or see yourself as a sinner and can now avoid grace altogether. 

The Parable of the Two Sons

Let's look at this parable carefully.

Verses 28- 30: "What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.'  29 And he answered, 'I will not,' but afterward he changed his mind and went.  30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, 'I go, sir,' but did not go." 

As we see, the first son is disrespectful and rude to his father.  Instead of answering him as sir, or with a term of respect or endearment, he simply says, "I will not."  This would have been scandalous.  No son would have spoken to his father like this unless there was some hostility in his heart.  However, this son later changed his mind and went to do what his father said.

The second son actually gives the right respect to the father by saying to him, "I go, sir."  The word used is kurios which means lord.  He's speaking to him in a way that was respectful and honorable and the way he should have; however, he didn't go. 

The first boy doesn't want to be told what to do.  He doesn't want anyone to rule over him and is disrespectful to his father.  The second boy is a good boy and is outwardly respectful of his father. 

We know where this story is going because we've already looked at the story of the prodigal son and older brother.  This is a similar story.  One of them was disobedient and disrespectful and left his father's house by asking for his inheritance early and went out and blew it on prostitutes.  The other son stayed home and was obedient and worked in the field each day and did his duty.

Who ends becoming the villain in that story?  Who is the one who actually had the deepest resentment for the father?  The good son, the obedient son, the son who stayed home, close to his dad.  The younger son changed his mind, came home, repented, and was welcomed in by his father.  The older brother hated his father's grace and questioned his father.  He never came in.  The wild son came home; the good son stayed away and never came in.  The older son, the good son, was further from the father's heart and was more lost and alienated. 

This is a similar story and Jesus is teaching us.  He's showing us that the prostitutes and tax collectors, the traitors and collaborators, the irreligious and jacked up of this world enter the kingdom of God before the religious. 

This would have been as outrageous to the religious as it is to us.  How could prostitutes and tax collectors, the dregs of society, come into the kingdom before the upright and good? 

You see, the religious look at their past records as a way of commending themselves to God, but the broken sinners have nothing to look at.  Their record only shows them their need of a savior, of a substitute. 

Jesus is saying that your record means nothing.  It's not how good or bad your record is; what matters is that you turn from both your religion and irreligion and repent.  This is the word Jesus uses when He said that the younger son, "changed his mind."  It's the same word that means repent.  It's the word Jesus uses in v. 32 when He says "you didn't change your mind."  In other words, you didn't repent. 

It's not how good or how bad, it's your willingness to admit that you've been trying to be your own lord and savior and therefore trying to be the owner of your life. 

You see, the religious don't think they've sold their bodies and are traitors, but Jesus sees it differently.  He sees that they've been selling themselves to their own efforts and have become traitors of grace.  The prostitutes only sold their bodies, but the religious end up selling their souls.  The tax collectors were only traitors to a nation, but the religious are traitors of God.  This is heart attack serious.

The fundamental sin that Jesus is addressing is that we by nature hate grace and want to be our own saviors.  It's the sin beneath all our sins.  We have sex, we get hammered, we cheat, lie, steal, and we are good, upright, and moral for all the same reasons.  We want to maintain control of our lives. 

What will heal us and what will really change us is when we repent and turn from trying to avoid Jesus and run our own lives.  Jesus isn't merely a moral example for us; He's our substitute because we need grace and nothing we do or have will bring us that rest and peace with God which our soul needs.  What we need is repentance.  We need to repent from the sin under our sins of not wanting grace to shape and change us, to mold us and control us.

Tax collectors and prostitutes get this!

Some of you, after hearing this, are going to be troubled because you are beginning to see the implications of what Jesus saying.  Jesus is calling us to a more radical trust, a more radical love than even the most upright and religious people.  You may not be sure that you can trust Him yet. 

This really is the problem.  Faith really can be defined as living trust. 

Who was the last person that the master sent to the tenants?  His son.  Here's what he said:

Verse 37-39: "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 have his inheritance.'  39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him." 

The owner could have simply had the tenants arrested and stoned to death.  They had broken the law and justice could have been served.  But he keeps sending them his servants and eventually he says, "They will respect my son."  So he sends his son off to stop their insanity and what do they do?  They kill the son.

Helmut Thielicke says this:

He seeks them and bears with them so intensely and pathetically that the parable is stretched almost to the breaking point and some of its features actually become improbable.  For where would you ever find an owner of a vineyard who would allow his tenants to treat his servants so shamefully and, instead of putting his foot down and showing who was boss, kept on making repeated attempts to win them over by sending more messengers?  This very impossibility, this gross distortion in the parable-picture is intentional.  For in the strict sense its purpose is to illustrate God's incomprehensible concern for man, and lengths God will go to keep on his track and maintain contact with him despite his stubbornness and his blind delusion.  We may behave as madly and pigheadedly as we will, and yet God's faithfulness is greater than our folly.  We may play dead like a dog and treat God as if he did not exit, we may be blasé and ignore him, but God still stick to us and will not let us out of his sight. 

Our God is not simply a businessman.  He is more than a land owner.  He doesn't just want our fruit, our things; He wants us.  He's a Father after a relationship and not just an owner after His goods.

What is the fruit that God desires?  Loving worship of Him.  It's the only right response to the grace He's given us. 

The only way that God can win over our hard hearts that have ignored His common grace is by sending His Son to come and give us redemptive grace, a grace that changes our hearts and causes us to not merely respect Him, but to love Him and be willing to give ourselves over completely to Him.

What is Jesus pointing us to in this story?  The cross, where this redemptive grace will be accomplished for us.  He's calling us to consider His death as the Father's Son who came to die on our behalf.