The Fifth Sunday of Lent

March 25, 2007

"Following Jesus on the New Path!"

Luke 20:9 -19

Preached at Providence Lutheran Church in Holland, Ohio

By Pastor Dennis R. King

The Grace and Mercy of our Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you all. Amen.

Jesus told the people this parable. “A man planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went to another country for a long time. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants in order that they might give him his share of the produce of the vineyard, but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Next he sent another slave; that one also they beat and insulted and sent away empty-handed. And he sent still a third; this one also they wounded and threw out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do?’ I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. When they heard this, they said, ‘Heaven forbid!” But he looked at them and said, ‘What then does this text mean; ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls. “When the scribes and chief priests realized that He had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on Him at that very hour, but they feared the people.

When one reads a passage of scripture such as this, and concludes the reading with the words, “The Gospel of the Lord,” the hearers are likely to respond, “Huh? What’s good about that news?” The meaning of Jesus’ parable is so thinly disguised that only the presence of a crowd saves Jesus from the hands of the scribes and chief priests. He speaks about each servant being treated more shamefully than the one before, until the landowner’s son himself is killed. Time and again God sent His messengers to His people, only to have them beaten, wounded and cast out. And prophetically, Jesus saw His own end drawing near as he felt the sullen rejection of His listeners. Not long before this moment, Jesus intoned, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”

And yet, even in the face of the heartlessness of His people, God insists on doing a new thing! In spite of this ultimate rejection, God persists, to the death and even through death, to free His tormentors. He offers them release from the guilt of their own disgrace. God is doing a new thing. God is willing to surrender His own lifeblood to open the door to reconciliation and hope to the very ones responsible for His misery. God has been determined from eternity to provide deliverance for those who reject him. In fact, by their rejection of Him, He is established as the keystone, the stone that will bear the weight of the archway that keeps heaven and earth from collapsing!

And that is a new thing – so new and radical that we have trouble grasping it. When God says He is doing a new thing, God doesn’t mean He’s just upgrading and improving upon the old thing. The new thing God is doing is a new creation. The last word of Revelation is, “Behold, I make all things new!” What God is creating is so all-encompassing, so complete, that it is beyond our imagination. But until that newness breaks through in our lives, it remains hidden. It is certainly hidden from those whose gaze is fixed on the passing parade of temporal and temporary things.

A professor of mine used to say that we have to locate ourselves in the parables in order to understand them. As we look at this parable, where do we find ourselves? It takes great courage to confess it, but are we not the tenants sent to work the vineyard? We dare to confess it when we know that we confess to a Father who forgives us. But who among us has never turned his back on Christ? Who among us has not left a commitment unfulfilled or failed to love, when love was hard to find or turned away from a sticky situation where our comfort and support might have brought newness into an old and broken relationship? Isn’t this parable our story as well?

Underneath a thin façade of respectability, aren’t we all too willing to grab all the good we can get for ourselves? Where we turn there are appeals for help that go begging, simple kinds of appeals, like a pint of blood for a blood drive, a few hours a month to help out the church, a momentary chat with a stranger at a nursing home. (The outreach committee has openings for people to serve by greeting, visiting, adopting a shut-in, and the choir could always use another member.) The list goes on and on. It is just a sampling of how we might give of ourselves in loving concern for the hurting people of our families, our congregation, and our community. But we are too busy, too preoccupied, too tired, and too forgetful. And so the life and love that our Lord seeks to offer through you and me is stymied.

Who do those merciless tenants in the vineyard represent? Don’t we, in some measure, identify with them? And yet, all is not lost.

The newness that God brings into being almost always occurs in crisis. The religious leaders to whom this parable was addressed were at a moment of crisis. The crustiness of their ways would not let the newness break through. Throughout this parable there is a theme of judgment, absolute disaster that waits for those who fail to see the new thing God is doing in Jesus. He is breaking into our life and world. Whoever rejects or ignores this stone, on them the stone will fall and crush.

But for those who follow Jesus on the new path there is the reward of seeing the new thing God does in them and for them. For every cause that needs response there is always a small but faithful band who answers the call to bring joy and hope where there was none. We see a newness among the faithful people at Providence who shoulder the many responsibilities of leadership in committees, in our worship life, and by their volunteering bringing hope to others in need. We see growth in the Lutheran congregations in Tanzania, who twenty years ago had barely heard the name of Jesus. Today, in His holy name, they carry His story in their flesh, bringing hope and healing to so many as they make up the fast growing Lutheran congregations of the world. All of this testifies to the glory of God who, at the cost of His own life, offers Himself so that we can together find and do the new things He has in store for His people.

Centuries before Christ, the people of God were a captive band homesick, miserable exiles. They languished in distant Babylon, crying over their lost homeland and their beloved holy city in ruins. The crushing despair of defeat had weighed on them for decades. In their Babylonian captivity, they dreamed of the lost glory. But the prophet came to them and said. “Forget about the past glories when everything was coming up roses. Take a look, God is doing a new thing!” Isn’t it true among us as well that we look back to previous day and long for them and fail to see the new thing God is doing in our midst. God lives above and beyond death of the ancient city with all its splendor. He is a creative and active God, who reaches out to bring into being something new, something that will have a beauty of its own because it comes from His hand!

To us who walk by faith as His people in this place. God reminds us that He has made a promise to us. His promise lives through the agony of rejection and death, and rises each day anew in hearts filled with hope, telling us to look around and see what is happening right before our eyes here at Providence and among His faithful people. God keeps His promises. God is doing a new thing in our midst. Amen.