Matthew 21:33-46

October 27, 2006, PR201, Princeton Theological Seminary

“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. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 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.” 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’? 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. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Jesus often taught in parables, and for good reason. He was telling his listeners some difficult truths. They were the kind of truths that could not be expressed directly. They were better understood if they were painted in word pictures. Our text today paints a picture for us, as many parables do. Actually, it paints three pictures for us (funny how that worked out), and I would like to describe those pictures to you now.

In the first picture, a man owns a vineyard that he loves dearly. He builds a fence, a wine press, and a watchtower. He hires farmers to watch over the vineyard, all in the hopes of producing a bountiful harvest. When the time for harvest comes, he eagerly sends out his slaves to collect the fruit of the vineyard. He can’t wait to see what his beloved fields have produced.

As you just heard, this picture also includes the tenants killing the slaves, along with a second group of slaves that the landowner sends. Finally, in a reckless act of love, the landowner sends his son, who is also killed. If we didn’t recognize the allegory before, we certainly do now. This picture is of Jesus, lovingly sent by his father. Lovingly sent, indeed, but rejected by the tenants of Israel. Jesus is hauled out of Jerusalem just as the son was hauled out of the vineyard, and both are killed at the outskirts.

The tenants, when they saw the son, thought of the riches they could gain by killing him and stealing his inheritance. They didn’t understand that this was their last shot; they needed to give the son the fruit if they had any chance of coming back next season – or even of surviving the landowner’s anger. So too, Jesus was gravely misunderstood. The very chief priests and elders who listened to his story sought to silence him because of how dangerous he was. They had no idea who they were actually rejecting.

Let’s move to the second picture. This picture is one of a stone. The stone doesn’t look so good – it looks like it too has been drug outside the city gates and killed (if you can kill a stone). Yes, friends, this is a second parable and a second allegory, and the stone is also Jesus. The rejection that we saw in the first picture is still there, but in this picture we see something new. The stone is actually part of the foundation of a grand building. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

The same Jesus who was crucified has been raised. The rejection of Israel could not get in the way of God’s covenantal promise. Jesus was glorified. He was crucified on Friday, but he was raised on Sunday.

After all of that, who does the kingdom or the vineyard belong to now? It seems like it’s not for Israel alone. Is it taken away and given to Gentiles alone? No, it is given to a new group of people who are defined by nothing other than their participation in this death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: the church.

Yes, in this second picture, the kingdom belongs to a motley group of people. They don’t have much going for them on their own merit, but that’s exactly the point. They are gathered together by nothing other than the rejection of Jesus. The cornerstone of this building is only able to hold the building up because of his rejection. This is an ironic twist, and it is only accomplished in the mystery of God’s love.

In Jesus, the kingdom is opened to everyone. Galatians tells us that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. The vineyard has been given to other tenants.

Let’s move on to the third picture. To see this picture, we need to back way up, because this picture is huge. In fact, pictures one and two are both parts of this larger picture. This picture is one of a God who covenants to be with God’s people. It begins with Abraham. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” It continues through a long and difficult history of the people of Israel, but God never gives up.

God sends prophets, and they are rejected. But God never gives up. God sends more prophets, and they too are rejected. But God never gives up. God sends God’s son, from within the people of Israel, with a covenant message of grace and forgiveness, once again showing that God will not give up on these people. The son, too, is rejected and killed – there’s picture number one. But God is so insistent on God’s covenant that the rejection of the son was actually part of God’s plan! Through him, this covenant is broadened to include a new group, the church – there’s picture number two. This picture has always been one of a God whose mercy is deep, and now we see that it is a picture of a God whose mercy is also wide. God never gives up.

It would seem that the murder of the slaves would have caused the landowner to give up, but he didn’t. It would seem that the murder of his own son would have caused the landowner to give up, but he still didn’t. It would seem that the builder’s rejection of the stone would cause the stone to give up, but it simply won’t. God is impervious to our rejection. God never gives up on us!

Now that we have seen this picture, what are we to do? Matthew is implicitly asking this question of us, his readers. We are, after all, the new tenants. Will we bear the fruit of good works for the landowner? This is an important question, and not to be ignored. God calls us to faithful service, to give all that we have and all that we are to be transformed by God into who God would have us to be. We have decisions to make every day about whether we will live for God or live for ourselves.

If we choose to live for God, we have made the right choice. We can know greater love for our neighbors and greater rewards that come from self-sacrifice. We live faithfully into the covenant of God.

If we choose to live for ourselves, we have made the wrong choice. We are stifling the possibilities for love that God has created us to enjoy. We are not living up to the covenant calling that God has issued. But that doesn’t mean that we’ve ended the story. God never gives up!

Our rejection, like the rejection of the tenants, has nothing on God’s enduring covenant faithfulness. God cares about our response and God covets our response, but God’s faithfulness to us does not depend on our faithfulness to God. God never gives up.

Jesus was rejected. Jesus was raised from death, opening the kingdom to a new community of both Jews and Gentiles. We are called to respond in faithfulness because no matter if we do or if we don’t, we have a God who is eternally faithful. God never gives up.