Matthew 21:33-46
It all happened so fast. I was standing there in the
kitchen talking to Jeremiah when I heard the awful sound of glass shattering.
The room fell silent. We rushed over to find two boys with a dirty old football
in their hands and a broken glass pane on the front door of our house. Chaos
ensued … I started desperately shooing the dog away from the broken bits,
Jeremiah was checking to see if anyone was hurt and the boys quickly began with
explanations, “he threw it too hard” “he threw it the wrong way” “he was
supposed to catch it” “I told him not to throw it” “he told me to do it.” And
from the parents, “You know you aren’t allowed to throw an outdoor football
indoors” “go to your rooms” “we have rules and you broke them.” We ordered a
new door, but it was back ordered, which meant we had two months to look at the
broken door that was soon patched up with cardboard. During that time, I heard
more accusations like, “we didn’t know we couldn’t throw it in that room” “mom
was standing there and didn’t stop us” “that door is old and flimsy.” Whatever
the reason, whatever the fault … one thing is for sure … we all went to bed
grumpy that night and we all felt grumpy when we walked by that patched up
door. In our attempts to place blame, in
our justifications, anger and frustration, we all felt bad and defensive and
didn’t want to deal with the consequences.
As soon as the glass cracked, the faces of all involved
asked an age old question, “am I in trouble?” I hate that feeling. As hard as I
try to be perfect, to please everyone and to completely transcend my human-ness
… I mess up and I know it and I hate when it shows and I hate when I wonder “am
I in trouble?”
I found myself asking this same question when I read the
Gospel reading for today. It is a parable about a vineyard. The main characters
are: the owner, the tenants, the servants and the son of the owner. The tenants
do not come off looking good in this parable. As I read through several
commentaries on this passage, I found many opinions (and some arguing with the
others) about what each of these characters represent. It is generally agreed
upon that the servants that were sent to collect the harvest for the owner are meant
to represent the prophets and the owner of the vineyard is meant to represent God.
Over the course of the Bible we find a repeated pattern where God sends a
prophet and that prophet is treated terribly: rejected, beaten or sometimes
even killed. Then, God sends God’s own son as the land owner sent his own son
to collect the harvest and that son is killed. Most people believe that this
represents God’s son Jesus. At the time of the original hearing of this
parable, it would be a foreshadowing or a warning as the crucifixion had not
yet happened, but we of course know that Jesus was rejected and killed.
So what does the vineyard represent and who are the
tenants? At this point, perhaps you, like me, are wondering “am I in trouble?”
and hoping you aren’t the violent tenants. But who the tenants are meant to
represent is where there is a difference of opinion. There are many references
to Israel as a vineyard, particularly in the book of Isaiah. Some think that
the vineyard then represents Israel and the tenants are the people of Israel
and so they are the ones in trouble. The ones about whom the audience in the
text says, “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.”
This thinking has contributed to really harmful ideologies and actions over the
years that say the people of Israel, or Jewish people are the ones who rejected
God’s son and so the Christian church is the new land owner. The answer then
for many of us to the question of “am I in trouble?” is “no, blame them.”
Others point to verse 45 when it says, “When the chief
priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized he was speaking
about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they
regarded him as a prophet.” So, the tenants then would not be the whole people
of Israel but rather the chief priests and Pharisees Jesus was talking to at
that time. And since I don’t think we have any ancient Israelite chief priests
or Pharisees here today, we would all then say together in response to the
question “Am I in trouble?” … “no, it was them.” That feels pretty good. An
ancient text for a particular situation and a particular people. We aren’t in
trouble.
Except … verse 42 says, “Jesus said to them, ‘Have you
never read in the scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become
the cornerstone, this was the Lord’s doing and it is amazing in our eyes’?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given
to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.” Uh oh … it says “you.” Does
that mean all listeners and readers … Am I in trouble?
We might be. Yes, this was spoken at a particular time to a
particular audience but let’s look at that audience. It says that the chief
priests and Pharisees didn’t arrest him because they were afraid of the crowds
who regarded Jesus as a prophet. But … what happened to that crowd? It isn’t
too long until they start shouting “crucify him.” They quickly shift from
thinking he is a prophet to rejecting him.
And this parable was shared and passed down and written
down and is here before us because the pattern gets repeated- God sends a
prophet and that prophet is rejected, God sends God’s own son and that son is
rejected. The “you” in this passage is timeless. And … we might be in trouble.
But surely there is someone else to blame. Have we rejected
Jesus? When God sends the prophets it is to have a relationship with the
people. It is because of God’s repeated attempt to be their God and be
connected to them. And then God sends God’s own son, to save the world, to
preach and teach love, to model forgiveness and mercy and to offer himself in
relationship. And he is rejected.
Have you rejected the unconditional love of God and lived
as though your life is only worth something if you can prove it, earn it or
meet some ideal? Have you rejected God’s mercy in a cycle of blame and shame,
condemning others, judging others, living in a well of self-blame? Together
each Sunday we confess in unison with these words “we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left
undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our
neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.” It’s as if …
we know we are in trouble.
I think most people walk around thinking they are in
trouble. The world is happy to blame us for a lot of things. From a young age
we learn to tell ourselves we have messed up, we are bad, we have failed, we
aren’t good enough. And so we build up defenses. I know for myself, when I am
overly stressed, tired or broken down- I get more defensive which then pushes
people further away at times when I want them closer. The tenants were trying
to take matters into their own hands. They had done bad things when the owner
sent his servants and now here comes the son. They were in deep at this point
and they knew they were wrong. So they built up their defenses and they killed
the son. The text says they said to each other “let us kill him and get his
inheritance.” Which is ridiculous because you can’t get an inheritance when the
father, the owner, is still around. What a mess they were in.
Jesus then says the part about the stone that the builders
rejected becoming the cornerstone. What does a cornerstone do? It holds
everything together, and if you reject it … it all falls apart. Everything fell
apart for those tenants.
But here’s the thing … Jesus knows this and still keeps
preaching, teaching, loving, healing, praying all the way until he is
crucified. Prophet after prophet is rejected and God keeps at it. We build up
our walls, we trade blame, we wallow in self-hatred, we keep trying to kick out
that cornerstone and yet, God stays steady. And the son that was killed is
resurrected. Showing us that no matter how deep the mess we have created …
salvation is here. The question is not
“am I in trouble” but “am I forgiven?” and the answer is yes. And if there
wasn’t some part of us that believed that, we wouldn’t make that confession.
When we confess, we stop placing blame on others and we come before God,
relinquishing our futile attempts at control and we fall into God’s unending
grace, knowing that the cornerstone is strong and eternal.
In case you are wondering, we got a new door. The kids are
still paying off the door debt in the form of extra weekly chores. But the
funny part is, I keep asking the trash company to do a large item pick up but
they haven’t gotten back to me. So the old door is still hanging around, our
ongoing reminder of the grumpiness we share. I hope though that it has at some
point transformed into a reminder that we all mess up, it’s all ok, our
mistakes never outweigh our love and … do not throw footballs in the house!
