Loving God, you give us all that is needed in order to produce the fruit of the kingdom, asking us only to be open to your Spirit. Strengthen us in faith and love as we gather together today; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

At first glance, the parable that Jesus tells in today’s gospel is one of the easiest ones to understand. The vineyard seems to be Israel. The landowner seems to be God. The slaves who come to collect are kind of like the prophets who were sent to Israel and mistreated, and even put to death. The son is kind of like Jesus. And the new tenants who will be given the vineyard sound like all those – both Jews and Gentiles – who will believe in Jesus. Yet, there is always more there in the parables than such an explanation might suggest.

For one thing, the point that is emphasized in each of the parables is usually to be found in the part of the story that would have been most shocking to the hearers. In this case, wouldn’t the most shocking thing have been the conduct of the landowner? After all, he sends slaves to collect the produce at harvest time – not once, but twice. The slaves he sends the first time are beaten and stoned and killed, so he sends more slaves the second time. They also are beaten and stoned and killed.

If you were the landowner, would you really be trying again? Would you really send your son to them and expect them to treat him any differently than the others? Wouldn’t most people have tossed the tenants out after the first incident? This landowner is either extremely patient and merciful, or stupid. So what is Jesus teaching with this parable?

First of all, Jesus is teaching what God is like. God knew what was going to happen when he sent prophets to speak God’s word to the people, yet he sent them anyway. God knew what was going to happen when he sent Jesus, and yet he was sent as well. God is not stupid. However, God does have a depth of love and patience and mercy that we find hard to comprehend. We would not expect a landowner to be so patient as the one in the parable. And yet God is this patient – and more – with us.

Regardless of what we have done or how disrespectful and defiant we have been toward God, God continues to come to us and to seek us out. In fact, God values us so much that he has declared that we are worth the death of his Son. And God holds out his hands to us and waits for us to turn around – to repent – and to be healed and forgiven. This is God’s stance toward us. The question for us is always how we are going to respond.

In order to get at this question, let’s return to the parable from today’s gospel. One of the most common approaches when trying to learn from the parables of Jesus is to ask ourselves who we are in the parable. Where is it that we fit into this story? Otherwise, it becomes a story that is all about other people and has very little to do with us. And so, in this parable, who are we?

Are we the landowner who leases out the vineyard to tenants? (This is fairly unlikely, unless we think that we are God.) Are we the slaves who get sent to collect and get beaten and mistreated and even killed? (It’s conceivable that God could call one of us to be a prophet.) Are we the son who gets sent as a final attempt to collect what is right and who gets thrown out of the vineyard and killed? (We might have a Messiah complex if we answer “yes” to this one.) Or, are we the tenants in the vineyard who keep what does not belong to us and who abuse those who come to collect the harvest?

We might be tempted to think that we are those other tenants who will come later and will act properly toward the landowner. However, when we read today’s gospel carefully, we discover that the vineyard in this parable is the kingdom of God (Mt. 21:43). Now – are any of you participants in the kingdom of God? Are any of you residents of the kingdom of God?

If you’re not too sure, here are a few hints from the Scriptures: The gospel of John tells us that people enter the kingdom by being born of water and the Spirit (Jn. 3:5). Have any of you been born of water and the Spirit? If you’ve been baptized, you have! We also read in the gospel of Luke that “the kingdom of God is among you,” or within you (Lk. 17:21). It was already present when Jesus walked this earth.

And so, when God reigns in our lives – when we can say it and mean it that Jesus is Lord – we are part of the kingdom of God and seeking the kingdom of God and its righteousness (cf. Mt. 6:33). There is, of course, the fulness of the kingdom that will only be seen in eternity, yet God’s reign is already here among us. And so, we can only say that we are the “other” tenants who will act properly if we do not yet believe in Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we’re already participants in the kingdom of God and are most like the tenants who lease the vineyard in the parable.

So are we going to act with willful greed like they did, or are we going to produce “the fruits of the kingdom” (Mt. 21:43)? This gets to the heart of our response to the God who did not hesitate to send his Son in order to bring us back to him. How are we going to live, and how are we going to use what we have been given?

Some people ask the question, “How much of what is mine shall I give to God?” They are trying to figure out how much is enough. Yet, is there anything we have that really belongs to us? Your body, for example – where did that come from? Ultimately, it was created by God. The money you have – who does it belong to? You’re going to want to say, “Me, of course. I worked hard for it. It’s mine.” Yet, who gave you the life and breath and skills to be able to work for it? Doesn’t it all come from God? And couldn’t God take it all away from you in an instant if he wanted to? It’s kind of like everything we have is on loan. God is the rightful owner, but God has given to us our time, our talents and our possessions to use during our time on this earth.

The question, of course, is always how we are going to use them. Do we use them in order to get as much as we can for me, myself and I (and perhaps the odd family member)? Or, do we use what we have been given as God intended – to glorify God through service to others?

The fruit of the kingdom is things like love and joy and peace. The kingdom grows patience and generosity and faithfulness. Fruits like self-control and gentleness and kindness are found there (Gal. 5:22-23). Residents and participants in the kingdom of God are expected to produce such things. Yet, even these things do not belong to us. It is only the Holy Spirit who has the power to produce such fruit in us or in anybody else.

Thanks be to God that he not only gave us his Son, but gave us his Spirit as well! Amen.

Lectionary 27(A)      Matthew 21:33-46
October 5, 2008
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2008 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved