Matthew 21:33-46

            {Prayer}

            When it comes to picking out a babysitter to watch your kids, you don’t just pick anyone. You ask around for recommendations. You want to know a little bit about them. Are they responsible?  Can they handle an emergency? Will they take care for my children?

            And when you do find that right person, there is still the list of instructions to go over before you leave. What is approved and available for supper, when bedtime is, how to reach you, who is, and isn’t, allowed to come over. And of course, there’s the warning: “When the kids tell you, ‘But Mom and Dad always let us do that’ … check with us first.”

            Underneath all the research and instructions is trust. As parents, you are leaving someone precious in the care of the babysitter.

            But imagine the babysitter deciding that being left in charge of your kids means your instructions no longer matter. They’ll make the rules now. You don’t get a say.

            Being left in charge doesn’t make you the owner. This is where things go terribly wrong. Not just with the babysitter but in the parable Jesus tells today.

            Let’s set the stage.

            Jesus is in the temple after His triumphant, Palm Sunday, ride into Jerusalem. He’s in the temple teaching the people. When asked by what authority he was teaching, Jesus goes into teaching a handful of parables. Remember, parables are earthly stories with eternal meaning.

            So, in the parable of the tenants, you have an owner who plants a vineyard and equips it with everything it needs. A fence, a winepress, a tower. Going away on a journey, the owner rents it out to some farmers. The owner entrusts the work and care of the vineyard to the farmers.

            When it comes time for the harvest, the owner sends some servants to collect the fruit. When the servants arrived, the tenants beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. The owner sends more servants and they are treated the same way. The owner then sends his son.

            The tenants’ response shows their intention. They are going to kill the heir and seize the inheritance. So they throw him out of the vineyard and kill him. This has gone far beyond poor management of a vineyard. The tenants are rejecting the owner’s claim over what belongs to him.

            Remember how a parable is an earthly story with an eternal meaning? As Jesus is telling this parable to the Pharisees and chief priests, they begin to realize that “Jesus was talking about them” (Matthew 21:45).

            You see, God had entrusted Israel’s religious leaders with the responsibility of caring for His people. Throughout Israel’s history, God had sent prophets to call his people back to Him. Again and again, those messengers were rejected. And now God’s own Son stands before these leaders.

            Jesus asks the leaders, “what will the owner do?” (Matthew 21:40). They say that he will “put those wretches to a wretched end” (21:41). In other words, the owner will put them to a miserable death and then rent the vineyard to other tenants. Recognizing the accusations are against them, the chief priests and Pharisees begin looking for a way to arrest Jesus.

            The thing is, Jesus knows their intentions, and yet He continues speaking. He continues exposing their sin. He continues warning them where it leads.

            Now before we start to congratulate ourselves for recognizing who the bad tenants are in the parable … we need to stop and look at this from a different angle. Would we not be royally outraged by a sitter who dismissed our instructions? Yet … don’t we resist God’s right to direct our lives?

            When it comes to the creation of Adam in Genesis 2, we read that “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (2:15). Genesis 1 uses the phrase to rule or have dominion over creation.

            Notice, Adam is not the owner. God entrusted Adam with the care of the garden.

King David writes in Psalm 24, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it” (24:1). Again, who is the owner of creation? But not only that … who is the owner of you and me?

             That is something we don’t like to think about or even acknowledge. We claim that everything we have is ours. I’ve worked for it so it’s mine. I am my own. I can do with my life whatever it is I want to do. However, … everything we have comes from God and remains under His authority.

            We so want to enjoy the vineyard we live in, and there is nothing wrong with that. The problem comes in when we begin to live in the vineyard as though the owner has no claim on it … or us. …

            What happens when God’s Word contradicts what it is that I want? God calls me to forgive others. Ephesians 4 says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (4:32). But I want to add a few words of my own to this. “I’ll forgive you … but I’m keeping this in my back pocket, so that the next time we argue, I can bring it up again.” God calls me to forgive … but I want to hold on to the wrong. There it is again. I want the final say over how I live and how I treat my neighbor.

            And yet … what does the Owner do? After everything that has happened, after all the rejection and abuse … the Owner still sends His son.

            If we had never heard this before, we might expect the owner to end things after the first servants were killed. We might expect for him to come and forcefully take the vineyard back over.

            But instead, the owner sends more servants. And then he finally sends his son.

            The Son telling this parable knows exactly what awaits Him in Jerusalem. He knows how He is going to be treated. That He too is going to be ridiculed and beaten. Jesus enters Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday knowing that by the end of the week He is going to be taken outside the vineyard, outside of Jerusalem and crucified. And yet He willingly goes.

            He willingly goes … bearing the punishment of your and my sins. He willingly goes and gives up His life so that you and I, who have treated His Father’s gifts as our own, would be forgiven.

            But Jesus doesn’t leave us with a dead son outside the vineyard. He speaks of the stone the builders rejected becoming the cornerstone. The One they cast aside is the very One on whom God builds.

The rejection of Jesus … it does not overthrow God’s saving purpose. Jesus, the crucified Son, rises. Your forgiveness and your place in God’s eternal kingdom do not rest on you. They rest on Christ alone. Christ’s forgiveness reaches the selfishness, resistance, and desire for control that His Word exposes.

            You have been bought with the price of Christ’s holy, precious blood. You belong to Him and through Him, you have been given a place in God’s kingdom.

            Jesus says the kingdom will be given to a people who produce its fruit. Our place in the vineyard is a gift of God’s grace. And from that gift grows the fruit of faith … repentance, love, generosity, forgiveness, and the care of others.

            Think again about that babysitter. Why do parents leave instructions? … Because they love their children. Those instructions guide the sitter in caring for someone precious to them. Being left in charge means caring for those children with the parents’ wishes in mind.

            God has entrusted precious people to our care as well. Our family. Our neighbors. The people sitting beside you this morning. People who aren’t here who need to hear of the Savior who gave His life for them.

            And God’s Word guides us in how we care for them. We listen. We forgive. We speak the truth in love. We use what He has given us to meet another person’s need. In those ordinary moments … faith bears fruit.

The Church belongs to Christ. These people belong to Him. That gives our service both direction and comfort. We have real work to do. And you can do it trusting the Lord who loves us and loves the people He has entrusted to our care.

And when we see how often we have failed in that care … we return to the Son who came for us. His forgiveness is ours. His Word strengthens us to serve again.

            The vineyard is His. You are His. The Son who redeemed you is risen and reigns on high. This is our confidence as we care for what He has entrusted to us. Amen.

            The peace of God that surpasses all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and forever. Amen.