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The Very Hardest Parables - Luke 20:9-19
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Well, welcome to church on Super Bowl Sunday. Thank you for being here. I know it's a little less packed than it normally is because I saw a few faces that are normally 7PM people at church this morning. And so they are probably at home watching the Super Bowl right now. And if I didn't love Jesus, that's where I would be too.
Speaker 1:So what can you do? I don't know who you're cheering for, but don't we all kind of at least a little bit want Manning to go out on a high note? Yes. Okay. Anyway, we have just come out of our annual sex and money series.
Speaker 1:But this year, we changed things up a little bit. And instead of jumping around looking through text that dealt with sexuality and economics, this year we decided to walk through the book of Ruth together. And I think from the feedback we received and certainly from my experience of the series, that was a welcome change. It gave us opportunity to look at how economics and wealth often define who is named and valued in society. We looked at how rules and regulations for care and benevolence and generosity will never replace genuine actual care.
Speaker 1:We looked at sexuality. The ways in which sex can be just a tool or even worse, a weapon if we allow it. But how if we choose, our sexuality can actually become an expression of the intimacy that we were designed for as human beings. And then finally, last week, we looked at the risk and the cost attached to commitment. That there is simply no way to love without putting something of yourself on the line, even if that hurts us at times.
Speaker 1:Last week, I said it this way, that to love is to risk, and to risk is to be made vulnerable, and to be made vulnerable is to hurt sometimes. But to hurt is to learn empathy, and empathy is part of what teaches us to love all over again because love, this is divine. And so I hope that over these past four weeks, you have been surprised by how much of yourself you have seen in the story of Ruth. Now that series is completed. It is on our podcast feed and our YouTube channel if you want to check it out that way.
Speaker 1:But this coming week, Wednesday, is Ash Wednesday, and that marks a new season for us, the beginning of Lent. And so again, I wanna invite you to join us here Wednesday night, 7PM for a very simple forty five minute service, and an opportunity to be marked with ash as the sign of the Easter pilgrim. But Lent is the preparation for Easter. And so we wanted to make sure that we spent this season towards Easter in the gospels. And so starting tonight and then for the next six Sundays leading us toward holy week, we are going to be looking at some of the hardest parables of Jesus.
Speaker 1:And these are the parables of judgment. Now just to ease any latent concerns here, perhaps baggage from past religious experience, the perils of a judgment are not all fire and brimstone. In fact, very often, a part of what Jesus is doing is helping his audience to shake off their religious baggage as well. Now that said, these parables do confront us, and they are often sometimes difficult to reconcile with our meek and mild Jesus imagination. But my hope is that this will still be a lot of fun, especially as we begin to prepare our hearts for Easter.
Speaker 1:Now, parables can be categorized in a lot of different ways. Over the years, I have tackled the parables of kingdom and the parables of grace. All those sermons are available on our podcast feed. And so if you do want to compare or contrast anything that we're talking about in this series, you're more than welcome to do that. I will also mention though that there is a fantastic book called the parables of kingdom, grace, and judgment by one of my absolute favorite authors, Robert Farrer Capon.
Speaker 1:Sadly, he passed away a couple years ago, but this is a great book if you are looking for some extracurricular reading in this season. So, the parables of kingdom, grace, and judgment, you can find it on Amazon, really worth reading. Today though, we will be jumping into the gospel according to Luke, and we will do that in chapter 20 by looking at the parable of the wicked tenants. First though, let's pray. Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden.
Speaker 1:Thank you for all the ways that you speak and guide and invite us toward you. As you speak grace and kingdom imagination into our lives. Would we also be open to hear what you would say to us about judgment and correction and ultimately your love. We want to want to be like you. And so where we need to be reshaped or redirected or called to repentance, would you soften our postures by your spirit?
Speaker 1:And would you speak to our hearts by your love? May we never presume to judge each other but always be open to the reflection that comes from waiting in your presence. With all the church in heaven and on earth. With all the prophets, apostles, and martyrs before us, with all the saints that gather around us. We worship together the ever living father, the ever loving son, and the ever present spirit.
Speaker 1:In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright. Wicked tenants.
Speaker 1:Now, the parable itself is found in Luke 20 verses nine to 19. But we're going to need to do some extra work here to dig out some of the context. And so I'm actually gonna read tonight from the start of chapter 20 in Luke. And if we have time, we might even jump over to Matthew for a bit to see what he has to say because he tells this same parable with a little bit more detail over there. And so if you write down Matthew chapter 21 verses 23 to 45 in your journal, You can go take a look at that later this week and compare those if you like.
Speaker 1:So Luke 20 though, starting in verse one reads, one day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law together with the elders came up to him. Tell us by what authority you are doing these things they said. Who gave you this authority? Now, this is important because this is the whole context for what Jesus has to say here. Who do you think you are?
Speaker 1:That's the question. It's the basic question. And to be honest, it's a good one. But to be perfectly honest, it is the same question that all of the religious authorities have been asking over and over and over again ever since Jesus showed up, and they will continue to ask until he was gone. And the reason it's a good question is because Jesus doesn't actually have any credentials.
Speaker 1:From everything that we read in the gospels, from everything that we know of Jesus' life, he does not appear to actually be sort of an ordained rabbi. Now, I don't mean by that ordained in the way that we ordain people today. We give them a fancy scarf like I wear sometimes and we call them reverend. Truthfully, the whole rabbinic movement proper didn't even start until after the time of Jesus. But even during Jesus' day, there was still a system by which certain people or teachers were recognized and set apart in that role.
Speaker 1:That involved schooling, and it involved apprenticeship, and it involved official recognition from the system. Jesus wasn't part of that system. And not only did he not have any credentials, he just didn't teach properly. Now one of the things that you will see in all of the great rabbis is that they will always reference their teacher. You just never put forward an interpretation without citing those who have come before you or those who taught you.
Speaker 1:Now I am hopefully at finishing my graduate work sometime later this year. As it currently stands, it is in draft form. It's up on my desk upstairs and it needs a lot of massaging before I hand it in. But as it stands, there are currently 484 citations in my work. 484 references to the work of other people through which I am trying to prove my own ideas and gain just a little bit of credibility.
Speaker 1:One of the things that you will see in Jesus is that not only does he not cite his sources. In fact, one of the things he is famous for is saying this, you have heard it said, but I tell you something new. This is not going to win you fans with the establishment. Now there is a place for credentials. The woman building you a bridge should understand something about structural integrity.
Speaker 1:And honestly, I hope she has a degree or two to prove it. But don't discount the wisdom that comes from unexpected places. There are things that you need to hear from left field. Now that is not all that shocking. And most of us probably recognize that in our lives in some way, but whether we make space for it, whether we actually listen to those voices, this is sometimes a very different thing.
Speaker 1:But there's one more thing that I wanna point out here before we move on. It says that Jesus was teaching in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news. Now, we are in a series about the parables of judgment. The judgment is not always the most fun topic. But let's note here that the story starts, and I'm gonna suggest it ends, with good news.
Speaker 1:And that's important. Because this good news bit is something that we have become unfortunately inoculated against over time. We just kind of read it like good news, gospel, got it, let's keep going. But in the context here, this is simply the word Now, it's not a lot of fun to say. Try it out just under your breath maybe.
Speaker 1:But what it means is simply good newsing. It's a participle. So remember back to grade 10 English class, that's an I n g word. More accurately, for all the English teachers in the room, it's a verb that modifies a noun or verbal phrase. Don't throw your red markers at me.
Speaker 1:But good news is, at this point in history, not a religious term. It is very simply good news. In fact, one of the most common uses for the term Evangelion at the time of Jesus was when the representative of the Caesar would come out in the public square and give the gospel of the Roman Empire. This was all the good news of what was happening across the empire. In particular, it was usually battles that they had won.
Speaker 1:So good news is very much in the eye of the beholder. The good news of Rome was not particularly good news for the Parthians or the Carthaginians. So the point is, you can't just show up on someone's door and say, I've got good news for you. It depends on how they hear it. You can't just show up and say, I've got good news and I've got bad news.
Speaker 1:Good news is, you don't have to buy cat food anymore. Bad news is I probably should not have been texting and driving on my way over here. You can't say that. That's an awful thing to say, because you ran over the cat, and some people really like their cats. So you don't get to say that.
Speaker 1:Right? Unless perhaps it is Schrodinger's cat. Then you could say, I've got good news and I've got bad news. It's about your cat. And that's all you'd have to say.
Speaker 1:And yes, that is an existential joke about the nature of reality and whether we can ever really know anything, and I appreciate the two of you who chuckled. Rest of you can Google it later. But in some sense, you don't get to gospel. It's up to whomever you are speaking to. Is what you have to say good news?
Speaker 1:Well that depends on how it's heard. And sometimes it seems like we have forgotten this. As if religion was automatically good news. As if Christianity was automatically gospel. But the truth is that sometimes some people hear things in very different ways.
Speaker 1:And often it is tone and tenderness as much as fact and figure that shape how we are heard when we speak. So if you have been wounded by church before. If you have been injured by religion in the past. If the news that you have heard from this pulpit or from any other has hurt you in some way in some sense, then I want you to know that I don't presume that my language, my experience, my particular perspective can always accurately communicate the beauty of the Jesus story. This is why there is room for you to bring your voice into the conversation.
Speaker 1:And the reason that people said Jesus was good newsing was because what he was saying sounded beautiful to them. If Jesus sounds beautiful to you then this is good news. The point being that the context for this parable, the context for the opposition that comes from the religious authorities in the story, it's not anger and judgment. It is actually the good news of the surprising grace and acceptance of God. So yes, there is judgment in Jesus.
Speaker 1:And yes, Jesus is not afraid to call it like it is when he needs to. But the Jesus people in the gospels, those who were drawn to what he had to say, were often those to whom the religious welcome of the day simply wasn't extended. In the larger context, even when it comes to the hard words of Jesus, is the good news of a gracious God that goes far beyond our expectation. And that is absolutely critically important that we not forget that going into the story. And so the religious leaders ask, who gave you this authority?
Speaker 1:And Jesus replied, well, let me ask you a question. Tell me, John's baptism, was it from heaven or human origin? And they discussed it among themselves and they said, if we say from heaven, he will ask why did you not believe him? But if we say of human origin, all the people will stone us because they are persuaded that John was a prophet. And so they answered, we don't know where it was from.
Speaker 1:Which is obviously a huge cop out. And so Jesus said, fine. Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Then he went on to tell the people his parable. Which is interesting because he is about to tell them a story to explain exactly by which authority he does these things.
Speaker 1:And this is important again because Jesus seems to have a conviction that inviting people to discover him for themselves is more important or perhaps we could say it this way, more potent than simply proclaiming himself to them. Have you ever wished that Jesus was just a little bit more straightforward? Like a little less parable and a little more true and false sometimes. Maybe I've wished that before. I mean, tell me what to do and then at least I can try to do it.
Speaker 1:What's with all these stories? And yet I wonder if perhaps the learning how to listen isn't the more important part for Jesus. And so if you are struggling to understand who Jesus is or exactly what his call on your life is all about, if you wrestle with the identity or the idea of God, then hear this, you are in good company on a good journey because those are good questions. And I think if you are really willing to listen, more than a checklist or a pop quiz, what Jesus probably wants to tell you is a story. And so he went on to tell the people this parable.
Speaker 1:He said, a man planted a vineyard and he rented it to some farmers and he went away for a long time. At harvest time, he sent the servant to the tenant so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him up and sent him away empty handed. He sent another servant. But that one, they also beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty handed.
Speaker 1:He sent a third. And they wounded him and threw him out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my son whom I love. Perhaps they will respect him.
Speaker 1:Now, Jesus has already brought up John the Baptist. And if you go back in the gospels to the moment where Jesus and John meet at the Jordan River. Jesus asked to be baptized and John agrees. And when Jesus comes up out of the water, the gospel say that a voice from heaven spoke and said, this is my son whom I love. So hang on to that.
Speaker 1:But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. This is the heir, they said. Let's kill him and the inheritance will be ours. Now, this is not as crazy as it sounds. You're thinking, really?
Speaker 1:You're gonna kill the owner's son, and then he's gonna say, well, you guys might as well have the inheritance. I guess my son's dead now. Seems a little absurd. And it does. There was, however, apparently a law in the Babylonian Talmud that allowed for the tenant of a property to lay claim to that property if the owner either died or lost interest in it.
Speaker 1:And so the Talmud actually says that after three years, if the owner hasn't been around, the tenants can claim the land. Now, obviously, that does not count if you kill the owner's representatives, especially his son, who legally would be the same thing as the owner showing up. But I suppose in the back of these guys' minds, or at least in the story, maybe that's what they're thinking here. We can pull it off. The owner will stay away.
Speaker 1:We'll just take out. And so they threw the son out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and he will kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. When the people heard this, they said, God forbid.
Speaker 1:Now literally, it's the phrase may it not be. But this incredulity they show here is not at how Jesus ends the story. This is incredulity at the actions of the tenants in the story. And we know this for a couple reasons. First, the Greek here, may it not be, is.
Speaker 1:It was sort of a slang phrase almost in Greek, and it was just a way of expressing incredibly strong disapproval or shock at something. I've actually read a couple different scholars say it should be best translated into modern English, something like, hell no. But the feeling here is kind of like, oh no, you didn't. Did I pull that off? Oh no, I did not.
Speaker 1:But you get the idea. Right? Yeah. You can actually see it here if you jump over to Matthew's version of the story. In chapter 21 verse 40 there, Jesus ends the story with a question.
Speaker 1:He says, what will the owner do to these tenants? But in that version, in Matthew, his audience that responds to end of the story. They say, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end. Point being, everyone agrees how the story should end. The question very simply is what is the story about?
Speaker 1:And so Jesus looked directly at them and said and asked, what then is the meaning of that which is written? The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. That's a quote from Psalm one eighteen, but there's also a pun in here as well. Because in Hebrew, which is very likely the language Jesus might have used when he was teaching publicly, stone is the word Eben and sun is the word Ben. So he just told a story scripture about an Eben that is rejected.
Speaker 1:He is linking these ideas together hard. But then he adds this. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces. Anyone on whom it falls will be crushed. Now, before we come back to this strange enigmatic closing line, there are a few things we need to look at in the parable.
Speaker 1:First of all, Jesus has already hinted at what this parable is about fairly clearly. When he talks about the father's son whom he loves being sent, that's our clue. This is a story about Jesus. And given the fact that this parable is told in the context of religious authorities questioning Jesus' authority, that makes a lot of sense. So God is the owner of the vineyard.
Speaker 1:Jesus is the son whom he sent and is eventually killed. The messengers sent ahead of him are the prophets who were called to the nation of Israel. They called it to change and they were largely ignored and ridiculed. But that means that the tenants in the story, those slime balls who think they can ignore the messengers and kill the son and take the land, these are the religious leaders that Jesus is speaking to right now. No wonder they respond and say, oh hell no.
Speaker 1:Because they know exactly what the story is about. They know how the story is ending. They know exactly what Jesus is trying to say about them. But that brings us all the way back to that idea of good news that I spent all that time talking about earlier. Because this is the real question that Jesus is asking.
Speaker 1:And it's the question that has him so hot and bothered that meek and mild Jesus would tell a story with the bad guys end up being killed and their land taken away. The question is simply this. Who does the vineyard belong to? Is it religion or is it God? And here, Jesus comes down as hard as he possibly can on the side of God.
Speaker 1:Because when religion thinks that it has replaced God, or when religious leaders think that they can stop listening to the spirit, when churches start to ignore or ridicule or hurt the children of the creator, then religion has become toxic and it needs to be rebooted. Now it can be very easy for us to hear this story and say, sure. Okay. We get it. It's those Jews.
Speaker 1:Right? The dirty sadducees, the pharisees. They're just so sadducee, you know, all that stuff we learned in kid's school. And truthfully, that's how a lot of the early church fathers read this passage. The vineyard, the kingdom has been taken away from the Jews and it's given to the Gentiles to the church.
Speaker 1:It's ours now, finders, keepers, losers, weepers. Cyril of Alexandria, Ephraim the Syrian, they all read this parable that way. But I don't actually think that's what's going on here. Instead, I like what Saint Ambrose had to say. He wrote that the people of God are correctly named a vineyard.
Speaker 1:For as the vine clings to trees, it is raised up. When it is pruned, it is not diminished, but it increases. The people of God are stripped when they are bound, uplifted when they are humbled, crowned when they are cut back. When the scars of the old shoot are cut away, the people of God likewise grow into the wood of the cross. It is as if they are cherished in the arms of a pious parent.
Speaker 1:You see, for Ambrose, this parable of judgment, this story of an angry owner who represents God, this is not just an attack on the Jewish system of religion. Instead, this is an ongoing challenge, a confrontation to us. To be continually humbled and transformed by the graciousness of God. Because the simple truth is that there are times where we all put religion in front of God. And there are times where we all put our preferences in front of other people.
Speaker 1:And there are times where we all put what we want as human beings in front of what we hear God speaking to the deepest parts of our souls. And that's why I think that Jesus ends with this strange and enigmatic statement. See, this is actually a reference to Isaiah chapter eight verse 14. There, the prophet says that the Messiah will be a stone that causes people to stumble. And that might sound familiar if you've been around church for a long time because Paul uses that language too.
Speaker 1:In first Corinthians, he calls the cross a scandal or a stumbling block. So here's what I think is going on in Jesus' words. He is saying that God intends to return to the vineyard to change everything. Religion has become a problem. And it has found its way in between God and his people.
Speaker 1:And it needs to be taken back to its roots to where it started. But you've only got two choices here. You can either stumble across Jesus, become completely disoriented because he doesn't fit into your world, and have everything that you thought you knew fall completely apart only to be put back together in a new way. Or, you can fight that change and hang on to your old paradigms and refuse to let go of what you've become accustomed to and find yourself crushed by the transformation. You see, I actually think that like almost everything Jesus has to say, this parable is not a threat.
Speaker 1:It is an invitation. An invitation to realize that being broken to pieces, having your world fall apart, this is not the end. It is simply the beginning of a newer and better, more expansive imagination of what could be. You see the hard part of this parable is not the breaking apart. It is the conviction that Jesus has that the kingdom of God will come.
Speaker 1:That the world is being changed. Because imagination is not merely a possibility, it is the destiny of all reality. And so because of that, the only question that matters is this. Whether we will embrace that story even when it trips us up and breaks us down. Or whether we will fight to the bitter end to hang on to what we think we already have.
Speaker 1:Do you want to be selfish? Do you want to be arrogant? Do you wanna be controlling and angry or petty? Because if you choose to you can be that. But what Jesus says is that story is coming to an end.
Speaker 1:And whether you realize it or not, things are changing underneath your feet. And judgment can either feel like the crushing weight of the kingdom of God that leaves less and less room for who you used to be, or it can trip you up and break you down and build you into something new. So the scars can be cut away and we might grow into something more beautiful. In the words of Saint Ambrose, uplifted when humbled, crowned when cut back, pruned yet not diminished. And so as we begin this journey toward Easter and we explore together these very hardest parables, my prayer is that you might embrace judgment for the gift that it is in this season.
Speaker 1:Not payment or punishment or retribution, but instead this gracious preparation for the life that we were meant for. May you be broken to pieces this Lenten season, yet never crushed. Let's pray. God, help us to understand this transformation that's happening in your world. Slowly, bit by bit and step by step, how you are recreating us as individuals, the world that surrounds us, every fiber and piece of your creation.
Speaker 1:Help us to understand that when you speak even your hardest words, you are inviting us to be part of that renewal of all things. That if we fight it, if we choose to stay away from it will feel like the crushing weight of a new world that we're not ready for. But if we can stumble across you, if we can learn how to fall, if we can understand that being broken to pieces is simply what allows us to be put put back together in a new way. That we can be welcomed into this new and expansive imagination of reality. God, for all the ways that we have fought what you are doing, and all the ways we have pushed back against your imagination.
Speaker 1:That we ask that you would continue to speak to our hearts and our spirits by the grace of everything that you offer us. And that slowly, bit by bit, we would become the people that you imagine. In the strong name of the risen Christ, pray. Amen. Amen.
Speaker 1:K. Now, we'll end here. Next week, we'll pick up. We have five more of these parables to walk through, but we will end with this as we always do. Love God, love people, tell the story, have a great week, and we'll see you here next Sunday.
Speaker 1:Thanks everyone.