The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew
Jesus said, “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence round it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants[a] to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than at first. And they did the same to them. 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 have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore 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 let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;[b]
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvellous in our eyes’?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”[c]
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet. (Mt 21: 33-46)
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Jesus is laying a story on the chief priests, and Pharisees, and quite obviously, at that. The landlord in this story is God, of course. The tenants are the chief priests, the scribes and the religious lawyers. The servants who are sent by the landlord to collect the rent, are the prophets of ancient times – killed for telling people the error of their ways – and the son of the landlord, of course, is Jesus himself.
The religious leaders had been trusted with the care of Israel, but had seized it for themselves. And they see Jesus as a real threat to what they have going on.
This story tells us that Jesus already knew he was going to die. And the people he is talking to? The truth is, they can’t change . They are as much prisoners of the system as are the poor. They might, if they really, really, wanted to – change – but it would call for too great a sacrifice.
One man who did manage to change, of course, was Paul. He had been one of them. As he says here, he had been one of the religious elite. He had been part of the power structure. He had persecuted Christians. He trod the same road as those who crucified Jesus. He had been one of the elite, but ironically, had been a slave to the law.
Confronted by a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus, he turned his back on a lifetime of worship of the law, and followed Jesus. He realised that despite all that he did to obey the law, it hadn’t been able to save him.
Today, he tells us that he has given everything up for Christ, and counts all his past achievements as garbage. And he has no regrets. He says, “Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ.”
“Christ showed me,” he says, “That what I once thought was valuable, is worthless.”
Have you been following the stories of the heads of huge corporations? Those who have been caught stealing vast sums of money from the companies they ran? Sums so vast that their companies collapsed around them?
Did you read about how one family looted the company they ran, of hundreds of millions of dollars? The prosecutor says they used the company as a personal piggy bank.
The main culprit is the family patriarch, who is seventy-five years old. He has already lived past the average lifespan for males in North America.
And yet, this man who could be called to his judgment any day now, is still robbing and lying and accumulating loot.
“What is a man of seventy-five going to do with hundreds of millions of dollars?” He can’t spend it in his lifetime. It isn’t to leave to his family,
because his sons were riding the same illegal gravy train.
We are not talking about making a comfortable life for yourself here. We are talking about greed for greed’s sake.
Did his greed blind him to all sense of proportion?
He is going to die someday soon. Probably in prison. Hello???
How is all that money going to help him then? Doesn’t he know he will have to answer for everything he has done? And soon. And he too will realise, too late, that what he has valued is truly worthless.
You know I read something that really made me sit up and take notice the other day. It was written about near death experiences, by a surgeon who has been present at many of them.
You know what usually happens, don’t you? The person’s heart stops, usually during surgery, but sometimes in the patient’s hospital room. The doctors rush to revive the now ‘dead’ patient using those paddles placed on the chest. They do it a couple of times and the patient’s heart starts beating again.
When they have come around enough to be able to talk, some of them tell of having gone toward a bright light, meeting dead relatives, or even meeting a Christ-like figure. They report feeling a deep sense of peace, and happiness, and they usually say they will never again be afraid of dying.
You have heard these stories, haven’t you?
Well this surgeon says that when he questioned patients about their near-death experiences, he found that for over half of them it wasn’t so wonderful at all.
These people reported seeing dreadful landscapes, lakes of fire, and horrible figures – demons – for want of a better name – and intense fear. It was terrifying!
When they have had more time to think about their experiences, they decide not to tell anyone, as they are ashamed to talk about it.
The people to whom Jesus was preaching – the same ones who would ultimately crucify him- were hanging onto power. They were hanging onto their perks. They were probably even scheming to add to what they already had, and just like those modern day criminals, we have talked about, they were apparently oblivious to the fact of their inevitable journey from this world to the next.
And to the coming judgment.
But Paul doesn’t fear judgment. He isn’t living his life out of fear of retribution. He has come to love Jesus, and enjoys telling about it, and he wants his friends to continue to find joy in their faith, and, in their lives.
And he very emphatically warns those friends in the church in Philippi, against those who would enslave them to Jewish laws. He says that knowing Christ is enough.
Now our Old Testament lesson today recounts the Ten Commandments. Does what Paul is saying mean they are no longer needed? If Christ is enough?
A big emphatic, “ No!.” Those laws are still valid.
But if you look at just a few of them you can see that you could look like you are obeying all those laws, and still not be a good person.
Do not worship any God except me. Well we know there aren’t any other gods, don’t we? So that’s an easy one.
But even though you may not worship Baal, or any other heathen god, there may be things in your life that you put before God. Think about the things that take up all your time and a lot of your money? If you give inordinately – if you sacrifice – time and effort, and money, to something, then isn’t it a god, to you?
Do not misuse my name. This refers back to when it was thought that knowing someone’s name allowed you to use it against them in magic. I think that using God’s name in vain is an insult to God. You could avoid doing that, and so be on the right side of this commandment, but still have a filthy mouth.
Remember the Sabbath. I remember people who would never work on the Sabbath. But they never went to church either. They didn’t use the Sabbath in the way it was meant to be used. They didn’t work on Sunday but they sure didn’t keep it holy.
Respect your father and mother. It’s possible to respect your father and mother, but not to really care for them.
Do not murder. I know of instances where a person’s life has been almost destroyed by lies, and yet the liar could claim never to have murdered.
Be faithful in marriage. We have read sad stories of couples whose public face has been one of marital accord, and have heard later of terrible abuse that went on behind closed doors. And yet the abuser could claim never to have committed adultery.
So you get the idea.
Sticking to the letter of the law is easy. What we want is people who stick to the intent of the law.
And the intent of the law?
Well Jesus summed that up when he told us: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength. And Love your neighbour as yourself.
The religious leaders obviously didn’t do this, and yet, they would say they obeyed the law in every way.
And so have today’s leaders, corporate and political. How many times have you heard, “ Everything I did was within the law.”
Tell that to the shareholders and bond holders, and the banks left holding worthless paper. And the employees now without jobs, and with pension funds ravaged.
And did they enjoy doing what they did? Do they really feel fulfilled? Do they consider they have contributed something noteworthy to this world?
And we? We who try hard to live as Christ did, and find ourselves falling back at times; discouraged at times; despairing at times? What about us?
Like Paul, we are not perfect. We haven’t yet reached our goal – the goal of living in Christ, and for Christ. But let Christ take hold of us, and help us keep running towards the prize.
Because the past is over, gone, forgiven, and should be forgotten, as we strive with new life in Christ, to win the prize of being called to Heaven.
This is the prize God offers because of what he did in Christ Jesus.
This is the prize that is open to us, because of his life, and death and resurrection and glorious ascension.
And in striving for that, think of the legacy you will have left in this world.
Not because of what you took, but because of what you gave.,