Bellevue United Presbyterian Church

Anticipating a Rejected Lord

November 29, 2009 Matthew 21: 33-46

Rev. Andrew Purves

Cathy has a maxim for sermon preparation: find the gospel in the text. That is to say, we must allow the good news of God’s world-redeeming, relationship-creating love to control our reading of the passage. That is not to say that we should avoid all the dire stuff, but that the dire stuff should be put into a proper gospel context. That is to say, in any reading of any Bible passage or story, make sure you focus on the right aspect. This sermon, I hope, will illustrate what I mean, for I have selected a passage with a lot of dire stuff, while the gospel message is hidden just a bit.

But, first of all, let me set a context… I was food shopping the other day, wandering around, somewhat tuned out. I was vaguely aware of elevator music in the background. I suppose it is intended to induce unnecessary buying. Anyway, for some reason I became aware that the noise was in fact a Christmas carol, a Christian hymn, a testimony to the birth of the God-child, stolen from the church’s worship for mercantile seduction. I was seized with a rush of irritation. Not yet Thanksgiving and the creepy store was playing Christmas music, Christian music, for mood-inducing commercial gain. Bought, sold and compromised. Jesus for dollars. I am struck once again by the taudrification (if there is such a word) of Christmas. Do you think the living Jesus is delighted that Giant Eagle plays “Silent Night” to further numb bored customers into spending their money?

It was in that sour mood, then, that I decided I would preach on a parable told by Jesus that points up the sharp edge of Jesus’ incarnation, and what happens when we don’t take him seriously. But to repeat Cathy’s maxim: always look for the gospel in the text. Nevertheless, even the gospel in the text need not, indeed, never, gives us a safe, nice, non inoffensive Jesus, an innocuous Jesus, a tame Jesus, a Giant Eagle “Silent Night” Jesus. For the event that this first Sunday in Advent anticipates is no safe, nice, cozy deal of sentiment over substance.

The parable of the wicked tenants is remarkably helpful for guiding reflection on the life of the church today at the start once again of an annoying Advent season. While it must be interpreted in its historical context as part of the teaching of Jesus against the religious leaders of his day, and of the reach of the gospel beyond the confines of Israel, the parable must not remain locked within the limitations of past history.

As gospel, the parable has contemporary significance. Two theological points are of continuing relevance: 1. we should expect people, and especially religious leaders, to try to hinder the reign of Christ; and 2. whatever contrivances are mounted against the church, God will be victorious.

First, Jesus teaches us to expect rejection, but not just of the gospel, as if it were a system of ideas, an argument, or a series of propositions inviting assent. Christian faith is not at bottom a philosophy or a world view, or even a moral and spiritual vision for life. The parable teaches us to expect rejection of the gospel rather at the point of the defining, issue: rejection of Jesus, of him, Mary’s child as uniquely God with us and God for us. Is that not what is all around us today: Advent without Jesus leading to Christmas without Jesus - have a happy holiday! The dire stuff in the parable, the first issue back then, the first issue for today, is not rejection of God so much as the issue is rejection of Jesus. Personal rejection, indeed the murder, of the son of the landowner is the heart of the parable, given at verses 37- 39.

The landowner, that is, God, had sent many slaves, that is, prophets, to Israel, to keep the people in the ways of God. But the people rebelled against God, beating and killing the prophets. Again and again God sent his messengers to the people, yet they rejected God’s entreaty, killing the messengers. Finally, God sends his son, Jesus, saying, “They will respect my son.” But the people to whom he was sent saw their opportunity: “let us kill the son and get his inheritance.” So they seized the Son and killed him = Jesus’ teaching his disciples that the leaders of the Jews in Jerusalem will seize him and kill him.

So Jesus asks: what will the owner of the vineyard, God, do in response? Or, to put this in contemporary terms: what will God do to those who reject his messiah, not now by killing him, but by rejecting him and also by trivializing and co-opting him for their own ends? Jesus, of course, announces God’s terrible judgment upon those who reject his messiah, his anointed. “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants.” This is the announcement of the spreading of the gospel beyond Israel in response to Israel’s rejection of her messiah. Jesus tells the Jerusalem Temple establishment that the kingdom of God will be taken away from them and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.

Jesus cites Ps. 118:22, and this a scriptural commentary upon his parable. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” This Psalm verse recalls also Isaiah 28:16 - “See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.” Indeed, “Christ is made the sure foundation, Christ the Head and Corner stone.”

The issue that first confronts us is the consequence of rejecting Jesus, a refusal to acknowledge him as Lord, as God’s anointed, through whom God is given what is due. Note how within this parable of rejection of and deadly violence against the landowner’s son - that is, against Jesus - is the reminder that the heart of faith is relationship with Jesus. The tenants did not seize and kill an idea, a principle, or a system of doctrine. They seized and killed the landowner’s son. The gospel comes to us as a person.

Who does the rejecting? The vineyard within which we labor today seems to be especially ripe for the fruit which comes from Matthew’s planting. Even today we do not have to look far to entertain the notion that the gospel, that is, Jesus the Lord, is under attack. On the one hand, and on the public stage, the proponents of the ‘new atheism’ propound an aggressive rationalist dismissal of the Christian faith. Books by the British biologist Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion and the journalist Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great rank high on the best seller lists. But this outright attack, not just against Jesus, but every expression of faith, seems to me to be rightly set alongside a seemingly growing apathy and bored indifference among many people, who, while subscribing to a vague belief in a contentless God, are less hostile towards Christianity than the new atheists. But in either case, there is the rejection of Jesus, of the NT insistence that God was in Jesus reconciling the world to himself. For according to the NT, we can’t do God, as it were, without Jesus. Jesus is the issue.

We note too in passing that while the parable is Jesus’ serious warning to the religious leaders of his day, we are referred beyond the rejection of Jesus from outside the church to an attack that is more insidious and dangerous. For the parable is especially concerned to raise the issue that the Lord will be rejected, not only by those not of his fold, but by those of his own household, the church, and especially by those who are in positions of leadership. The parable refers to people rising up against their head, the vinedressers against the proprietor. In the image of the parable, the builders reject the foundation stone that sustains the building. At this deeper level, then, the parable is about the betrayal of Jesus by some of those whom he had called into leadership of the church.

Thus, amid the on-going theological disputes within the church, disputes that will resurface with much energy at our General Assembly this coming summer, and with frequent reports of moral lapses by church leaders - have you read the reports late last week of the terrible collusion between the Irish RC church and the Irish police in covering up priests’ abuse of children? - there is cause here for thoughtful and honest self-examination. We who preach and teach and lead God’s people are called always to repentance and renewal, and to be untiring in testing our preaching against the gospel given for us in scripture and expounded through the great tradition of faithfulness exemplified by the teaching of the acknowledged doctors of the church. Are we faithful in doctrine and practice to the real Jesus or only to a Jesus of our own invention, a Jesus with whom we are comfortable, managed down to our own convenience?

But ever mindful of Cathy’s maxim to always find the gospel in the story, the parable does not stop with a warning to expect betrayal, nor to reflect on the horror of the consequence. Thus I move to my second point. For here is the gospel message: Whatever the contrivances of those who actively reject or betray Jesus, seeking to destroy him, or of those who either don’t care or remain functionally indifferent, the cornerstone remains secure, holding up the building. The attack on Jesus Christ is ultimately fruitless. Jesus suffers no loss or diminution when he is rejected or betrayed. In spite of betrayal, he retains the place given to him from the Father. No matter the honor given to and apparent success of those who attack Christ, the authority and purpose of God will prevail. “This was the Lord’s doing.”

Thus the attack on Christ and Christ’s assured victory in that he both sustains his household and secures God’s reign are part of the secret purpose of God. Attack against God is no new thing, and God defends his right. God planted the vineyard, first Israel, then Christ’s rule, and this kingdom will be taken away from those who reject or betray Christ and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The parable in its negative teaching is a dire warning on the cost of turning against Christ. Its positive teaching is that the church is now forewarned to expect attack and, assured of God’s hidden work, to have no fear for the life and health of the church, or of God’s final victory, even if all of this remains wrapped in mystery.

So as we begin another Advent, as we anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the God-child, we do so knowing that God has the victory. No matter the seeming odds against Jesus, no matter the trivialization and crass commercialization of Christmas, no matter the contentless, unattractive, and bland civil theism that passes for religious conviction in our society, the cornerstone is in place. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes.

So here’s my Advent resolution: Knowing that the Lord has the final victory I will try to live my faith without a sour mood provoked by Giant Eagle’s Silent Night, or Macy’s Jingle Bells, or by being told to have a Jesus-less happy holiday instead of a Christ-filled happy Christmas. Jesus is in Christmas whether they like it or not, and it is not in their power to remove him, for he is the Lord’s planting, and indeed, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.