Remember the phrase, “Who died and
made you boss?!” It is a phrase usually said in an angry response to someone
trying to tell us what to do. IT can be a real question and it can be a
question to imply “how are you better than anyone else?”
Today’s Gospel reading fits right
into this type of a question. Once again, we have a parable…a teaching tool
from Jesus to the religious leaders and to us. There was this landowner who
took the time to build a vineyard with all that is needed to make it
productive. Jesus adds the watchtower in this vineyard. That tells me that this
is a pretty important vineyard, if the landowner needs to put up a watchtower;
whether it is to keep watch over the grapes and the wine or it is to keep watch
of who is coming in or out, it is pretty important.
So
this owner takes off. He is gone…to another country! I guess that’s okay; and
the tenants must have agreed to work the vineyard. I have seen documentaries
and taken tours of vineyards and this is no easy task. Just as the farmers have
to tend to their crops on a daily basis, the workers in this vineyard do as
well. They have to make sure the grapevines are planted in just the right space
and spacing apart from one another. They have to make sure the soil is good
soil so that the grapes turn out just the way they need to in order to get the
best grape for this wine. They all have to have defined jobs so that they are
not overlapping. They have to make sure that there is no disease spreading
through the vines, how to treat this particular type of grape and the care that
it needs; so they have worked hard and NOW it is harvest time.
When
the harvest time comes, this landowner sends his slaves back to gather the
rewards! He doesn’t show up but sends these people to take what all these
workers had worked so hard for. These slaves did not spend the time to make
sure all this was done right. They did not read the soil, water the vines, tend
the grapes and nurse these plants to health, protect them from bugs or other
things that could endanger them! They just come in and are ready to take away
all that these tenants had worked for…just take it away! So they are mad! So
mad, in fact, they “beat one, killed one, and stone another.” The owner sent
another group (more this time) and they did the same thing.
Then
the owner sends his Son. “Surely, they will respect my Son! But we know what
happens. These tenants don’t listen or respect the son. They figure they will
kill him and get this Son’s inheritance. HERE IS A BIG PROBLEM! What in the
world makes them think that they will get the inheritance of this landowner?
Where in the world does it say in our scripture that these workers have some
right to this land? They were tenant farmers. Our scripture does not say that
after “a long contractual negotiation, it was determined that the farmers who
agreed to be said tenants- in the event of death of the owner son- would
inherit said land upon which they worked.” That is not in there so where did
they get this notion?
I
would suggest that it is because they fell into the trap of believing they
would get some kind of reward. They put their heart and soul into this land.
They used their talents, their gifts to do what needed to be done so that the
vineyard would produce and be successful- because if it succeeds, they all
succeed. So they have put so much into this land and the success of this land
that they forgot that they were tenants and not the owner.
I
would suggest that this is where the leaders of the church, the chief priests
and Pharisees began to relate in this story. They are living by the law. They
know the rules about worship, sacrifice,
what needs to be done according to the laws of Moses. It is their sole job to
make sure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to do as the CHOSEN
PEOPLE of God. They live this 24/7/365, just like the tenant farmers. I would
imagine that they got so caught up in trying to keep people within the law that
they began to feel a sense of ownership, a sense of “I am the one who is
keeping you in this relationship with God” or “I will tell you what you need to
do to be made clean and acceptable in the eyes of God.”
The
problem is that they don’t see that God is the one who is the Boss, the
landowner, the creator of this vineyard. We read throughout scripture and we
hold to be true that God created all of this; this land, the earth, all its
resources, and this universe. God is the one who made all this possible.
I
think that we can relate to this as well. We, too, can get caught up in the
sense of ownership. When we buy a house, it is ours to do with whatever we
want. No one can tell us what to do. When we have worked so hard and followed
all the rules, we should be rewarded with a little something (that is our
expectation). When we have done our homework, passed tests, done all that our bosses expected, filled out
the forms, spent years working for a company, tilled the land and produced
crops to survive, sang in the choir all our lives, led the youth group, taught
Sunday school for so many years…we all get caught up in this doing what we are
supposed to do and wanting, having, or expecting a sense of ownership.
What
Jesus is telling us that it is still and always will be God’s. We do all these
things thinking that it is expected, it is part of the check-off list, and it
is the law of what we have to do to be a good citizen…a god Christian…and we
then get caught up in this “If I just do this then I will get into the kingdom
of heaven!” What Jesus is teaching us here is that it is not about solely
living by the law. Just because these things can be checked off doesn’t mean
you have ownership or entitlement to the kingdom of heaven.
And
that is where the second problem with this reading comes from. If Jesus is
telling us that it is not solely by the law that we enter the kingdom of
heaven, then what else is there? That is the Gospel...The GOOD NEWS of Jesus
Christ. It is the Good News of living out that God sent Jesus into this world
to show us the Good News of God’s care for us, the Good News that no matter how
broken we are, God is there with us and for us, The Good News that no matter
how hard we try to live by the law we will fall short, AND no matter how many
times we fall short, God shows us that we are still loved; so much that God’s
own Son, Jesus Christ, will be sacrificed – not simply for the sake of
sacrifice – But to show us that we are loved and forgiven and that God wants us
to be in a relationship with God; Because of what God has done and is doing for
us.
In
our reading of Matthew today, we don’t necessarily see the Good New portion of
God’s action in the world. Jesus uses some strong language to warn and to
compel the leaders of the church and us that living by the law and focusing
only on that part of God can cause us to think that we are the owners because
we did the work. It is when we look later in this chapter and later in our
worship service and hear the words “in the night in which our Lord Jesus was
betrayed…” That we hear God’s Good News and invitation to come and be a part of
God’s son sacrificed for you and for me; we hear God’s invitation to come and
bring all that you are to this altar because you are loved more than you will
ever know: AMEN!
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