Pentecost 19A
October 8, 2023
Matthew 21:33-46
INTRODUCTION
Today’s Gospel will pick up right where we left off last week. Remember, this is Monday of Holy Week, the day after Palm Sunday, after Jesus has turned over the money-changers tables in the temple, and has generally upset the authorities. They have just asked him, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you that authority?” Jesus responded with a trick question that they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) answer, and then a parable that calls out the religious and political authorities on the ways they have not fulfilled their duty to God. And now he will tell another parable, about wicked tenants who are called upon to care for a vineyard, but who are not merely negligent, but actively work against the duties entrusted to them. Jesus is not making any friends here – Matthew tells us that the chief priests and Pharisees start looking for a way to arrest him, which they will do just three days later.
The parable in the Isaiah text is one that Jesus’ listeners would definitely have been aware of; Jesus is likely referencing it in Matthew quite intentionally. It is a love-song about how God cared for this vineyard and hoped for great things for it, but has been disappointed that it yields only wild grapes (a word that I learned this week means something like, “stink-berries,” which makes me giggle).
Both texts are about how people have squandered God’s providence, neglecting to seek justice and love. The good news is hard to see, I admit, but you will find some solace and hope in the epistle, about how nothing we do or don’t do is more powerful than what Christ has done for us. As you listen, dwell in the hope of this promise! Let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
This week I got a call in the office, and the person asked, “Hello, may I please speak to the business owner?” I said, “Well, uh, I’m the pastor, and this is a church, so…” She reiterated, “Ok, so are you the business owner?” Again, I hesitated before saying, “This is a church.” She said, “Okay, thank you!” and hung up. This is not the first time I have gotten such a call, asking if I am the business owner of this church. I assume such callers are not looking for a lesson in Lutheran theology or polity. (“Well, theologically speaking, the Church actually belongs to Christ, but legally it belongs to the congregation members. Our denomination’s polity has given decision-making power to the congregation, and it is their contributions – or time, talent, and treasure – which resource our mission.”)
But joking and polity aside, the question of ownership for people of faith is an interesting one. To be clear, I do not own St. Paul’s, except insofar as I am a member just like all of you. But do I own my car, on which I have no more payments? Or my clothes? Or my computer? What about the money in my bank account? Do I own these things? People of faith are sort of caught between our culture’s obsession with owning things, and the power that this ownership gives us, and the knowledge that we own nothing, because everything comes from God. As Luther writes in the Small Catechism, “God has given me and still preserves my body and soul: eyes, ears, and all limbs and senses; reason and all mental faculties. In addition, God daily and abundantly provides… all the necessities and nourishment for this body and life.” Considered that way, you see, nothing at all is really ours, but God’s!
The reason I’m thinking about ownership this week, is that this is a question in today’s parable in Matthew, often called “The Parable of the Wicked Tenants.” A landowner plants a vineyard and does everything necessary for it to thrive and succeed. Then he chooses some tenants, people who will live on and work and care for the land he has lovingly planted. So that is the relationship here: the landowner is the owner of the land; the tenants are stewards of that land. They do not own it, but are charged with the task of caring for it, helping it to bring about good fruit, on the owner’s behalf. Owner, and caretaker. The roles here ought to be very clear.
But… the tenants want to be more than stewards. They have morphed their role into something that grasps toward ownership, and all the power and control this role offers. They refuse to give up the produce, instead harming or killing those who come to collect it. And when the owner thinks to send his son, the tenants, rather than respecting him as the owner hoped, take the opportunity to make themselves true owners. “This is the heir!” they exclaim. “If we kill him, this will all be ours, and then we really will be the owners!” It’s a ridiculous prospect, because do they really think the landowner will say, “Oh, you bested me all right! Killed my son, that was a brilliant move. Now I have no heir, so I guess I’ll have to give the whole operation over to you clever tenants. Nice work!” Of course not! As the elders and chief priests rightly point out (not yet realizing that they are condemning themselves in this scenario!), “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.”
So, what do we make of this strange story? The classic, traditional reading of this parable is allegorical. The landowner is God, the tenants are the Jewish leaders, who have not borne good fruits, the fruits of the kingdom. Instead, they have squandered God’s gifts, and used their power not to care for the poor but to exploit them. God has sent numerous prophets (in the parable, that’s the slaves) to try to set them right, but they have not listened. Finally, God sends his son – that’s Jesus – and even the son, they kill. Now remember, this is Monday of Holy Week, so this is very close to actually happening. But, Jesus points out to them that their plot to become owners rather than stewards of all God has provided, and to do whatever they want with it, will be in vain, because “the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” – and their killing of the Son will only serve to bring about God’s purpose, once he is resurrected. Jesus, the rejected stone, will become the cornerstone of our faith. So there is some good news here!
But I think this reading lets us off the hook too easily. It accuses the Jewish leaders of being unfaithful, or not bearing fruit, and we then get to be the “other tenants” at the end who will do a much better job of listening to God and bearing fruits of the kingdom. Yay us! But as a general rule of thumb, if you’re getting off easy after reading a parable, you’re probably missing something!
So to bring it back to where we started, where I feel convicted by this parable is in this question of ownership vs. stewardship. I see the wicked tenants grasping for ownership, for control, for freedom to do whatever they want with what they believe to be rightfully theirs. But to be a steward, you see, requires letting go of control. It requires making choices that keep in mind our connection to others within the system – whether that is the local community, or the environment, or the Church, or whatever. Let me say that again: being a good steward means making choices about what has been entrusted to us that are for the benefit not just of ourselves, but of the community, of neighbors near and far.
And yet look how the tenants in this story act: they are so desperate for power and ownership that they resort to unreasonable violence, not once but several times. Their decisions are only for what they perceive to be their own benefit. The landowner sends them partners, but they are so focused on their own greed and desire that they reject, harm, and kill what is being offered to them, seeing it as threat. They are their own worst enemies, and they keep engaging in self-destructive behaviors, finally working themselves, presumably, not into gain, but into loss of everything.
And that ought to worry us a bit. Now for the most part, I think we are pretty decent people, generous people, who want what is best for our community, yeah? Certainly we are not murderous wretches! And yet we do continue to engage in lifestyles that harm our environment, participating in a never-enough culture of single-use items, fast fashion, and over-consumption. We continue to benefit from systems forged by a racist past, without doing much of anything to try to dismantle it. We are protective and possessive of what is ours, or what we believe to be rightfully ours, even as others suffer far more than we ever have.
Now I know not all of that describes all of us all the time. But it describes most of us at least some of the time. There is room for improvement all around – in the ways we interact with the earth God made (whether that is in our personal use, or in our refusal to participate in a system that prioritizes convenience and consumption), in the ways we give and share our resources, in the ways we speak up for those who don’t have the privilege and opportunity that we do. We can all move in the direction away from valuing ownership over community, and toward being faithful stewards of what God has given to us to care for and benefit from.
And here’s the thing: there is good news and grace in that opportunity. Yes, we do fall short, but there is grace enough for us to try again. Notice, Jesus never suggests that “those wretches [be] put to a miserable death.” That’s the leaders who say that. Jesus instead implies that even this wickedness is used by God to bring about salvation. And so it is also for us – we try, we fail, we try again, and whatever we can do, God will use it for His purpose, will use it to bring about life. God will continue to use us, trust us with this marvelous creation, forgiving us and guiding us toward a life of faithful stewardship of God’s many gifts – and will respond to our failures not with violence, but with grace. Let us not squander this trust, but steward it well, striving and “pressing on for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Let us pray… Gracious Owner, we crave power and ownership, even when it leads to destruction. Guide us instead to be good stewards of what you have entrusted to us – our selves, our time, and our possessions – so that we would work with you toward bringing about your kingdom’s goals of love and justice. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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