God's Word at Work

THE UNFAITHFUL TENANTS
Luke 20:9-19 (English Standard Version)

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this mornings meditation is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 20, verses 9 through 19, particularly these words, “Jesus began to tell the people this parable; ‘a man planted a vineyard, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country for a long while.’ The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people; for they perceived that he had told this parable against them.” This is our text.

In the name of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, dear Christian friends. How many of you have someone very close to you, that you have tried to help get over a bad habit? It might be your wife or husband. Maybe it is your child or your parent. Maybe it is a close friend at school or at work. But it is someone you really care about and you want to help them get over this bad habit — not for your sake — but for their good, and health, and happiness. Maybe your friend is having an affair that they cannot seem to break. Maybe it is not that dramatic — maybe they just keep on smoking even through their blood pressure is up and they are coughing badly. Maybe they are overeating even when they already have heart trouble. Maybe they have trouble communicating with others without using rough or foul language. But whatever the problem is — you want to help that person overcome that problem.

Maybe you’ve tried many techniques. Maybe you’ve complimented them when they did well. Maybe you nagged and fussed when they didn’t do so well. Maybe you gave rewards for a job well done. Maybe you punished when they failed. Perhaps, in a last desperate hope to save your loved one — you made some great and gallant personal sacrifice, just for them — far and above the call of duty — hoping that this great sacrifice on your part will bring about the desired results in the other person.

Doesn’t it hurt when you really want to help someone, but they don’t want to help themselves; when they tell you to mind your own business; when they just ignore your warning message; when they tell you to leave them alone? OR — probably the worst hurt of all comes when that loved one SAYS they will reform or do better — and then they don’t do it.

I hope by now, you have already noticed the parallel between this loved one in your life — and the parable which Jesus told. God is like that man who planted the vineyard — He created the heavens and the earth. The man rented out his vineyard to tenants — God put man and woman on earth and told them to take care of it. Regularly, God sent servants to his tenants to remind them to thank, praise, serve and obey only Him — servants like Moses, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Jonah, and many, many more. These messengers brought God’s peace to his tenants and called on them to pay homage and honor to God himself. But throughout history, God’s messengers were treated like the servants of the vineyard owner — they were beaten, people refused to listen to them, they ran them out of town, they cursed them, and at times — they even killed them.

But God did not stop loving those people, and after all the servants were sent, he finally made one last and great sacrifice, He sent his only Son to the tenants — thinking they might respect him — but they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. And so we remember the words of crowd, pushed on by the scribes and Pharisees very early on Good Friday morning — “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

Our text says that the Scribes and the Pharisees “perceived that Christ told this parable about them.” And they perceived correctly — it was about them — But not JUST them, it was about all sinners, including you and me. At times we too are unfaithful tenants in God’s Vineyard. God spoke to us through the prophets and the Apostles, giving us his Holy Word. But we were not always ready to listen. God sent messengers to us, pastors, family members, and friends, who helped to guide us and lead us out of our sins into the righteous path before God — but even that didn’t always work — because at times we would refuse to listen to them — especially if it hurt our own pride and self worth.

And then God sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ into the world FOR US! And even though we were not there when it happened — our sins and our rebellion against God’s will, helped to nail Jesus to that Cross. Yes, we too are the unfaithful tenants to whom the son has been sent.

What comfort there is here for us in this parable. When you and I try to help a friend overcome a bad habit — quite often we give up rather quickly. You and I just do not have the patience to work year after year trying to get someone else to break their bad habit.

But God keeps on, year after year. God never gives up on his people. Just as the man in the parable never gave up on the tenants, and finally sends his own son.

But the parable does have a very serious warning. There will be punishment for those who reject the Son. Jesus ended his parable by telling his listeners that the owner would return, “He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” There will be a judgment day. Rejection of God’s Son, as Savior and Lord, will have eternal consequences. Jesus quotes Psalm 118, verse 22, “The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner’” And in our text, he explains just how important this stone is, “Every one who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but when it falls on any one, it will crush him.” It’s just another way of saying, “he who believes and is baptized, shall be saved, and he who believes not shall be condemned,” or broken, or crushed. The Scriptures tell us that Christ is a stumbling block for the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. Whether they stumble and fall on the Rock — or whether the Rock falls on them — the result is the same — A lack of faith in Jesus Christ brings about eternal death and condemnation. “He who believeth not, shall be condemned.”

The Scribes and Pharisees were sure Jesus was talking about them –But instead of hearing the warning and repenting — they immediately started plotting to kill him.

Let us heed the warning. Let us listen to God’s messengers as they speak to us through the Holy Scriptures. Let us, by God’s grace and strength, live our lives in faith toward Jesus Christ as we thank, praise, serve, and obey our gracious God. Let us look to Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, as our redeemer from sin and our only hope for eternal life. To God be the glory. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

THE FIG TREE
Luke 13:1-9

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this mornings meditation is recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke, chapter 13, verses 1 through 9 — particularly these words, “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘Cut it down; why should it use up the soil?’  And he answered him, ‘Leave it alone, sir, one more year, and I will dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.”  This is our text.

In the name Jesus. (Amen.)  Do you remember our simple definition of a “Parable?” A parable is an earthly story, with a heavenly meaning. A parable was a teaching device which Jesus used very often to get across a point that might not have been very clear being taught any other way. In today’s text, Jesus was answering what appears to be a very simple, theological question — “Does God punish people because of their sins?” And there were two very recent events that were on the people’s minds — raising this question. Some Galileans were killed by soldiers from Pilate. Now that would not have been so unusual, in and of itself, — but what made it unusual was that they were offering their sacrifices to God at the time it happened. Our text told us, “Now some present at that time told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices”. And Jesus added another incident — 18 people had died when a tower in Siloam fell on them. And the question that people were asking was, “Why did God punish these people this way? What did they do? Was there some great crime or sin that they were guilty of which caused them to die in such a harsh way?”  Jesus answered that question very clearly. He said in our text, “I tell you, NO! BUT unless you repent, you too will all perish.”  And then he told the parable to explain his answer.

First of all, God has a right to expect good works and good deeds from all people — and that includes you and me. God is the owner of the vineyard in the parable. He is the one who pays for the land and plants the plants. He is the one who has a right to expect a profit from his investment. When we translate that parable into our lives, it is God who created this world of ours — it belongs to Him. It is God who has given life to each and every human being who inhabits this earth, we all belong to him and to him alone. It is God who gives us nourishment, and strength, and fellowship, and comfort. And because of all that he has given to each one of us—we owe him everything that we have, everything we are, and everything we hope to be. We are the fig tree, which owes fruit to our owner.

But have we produced the fruit which our owner wants us to produce? Have we always put God first in our lives? Have we always loved our neighbors as ourselves? Have we always put the best construction on everything? Have we always been faithful to our God in THOUGHT, WORD, and DEED?? As sinners who fall short of the perfection which God demands—every one of us must answer “NO”. We have not produced the “fruit” our God wanted us to produce. Maybe we have done better than some other people — but that is not our standard. Have we been perfect, like God is perfect?? — That is God’s standard!

And so the judgment of God is clear–“The soul that sins, it shall die.” “The wages of sin is death.” And so the owner in our text tells the keeper of the vineyard “Cut down the tree!” If that was the end of the parable, then it would be possible to say that those Pilate killed, and those on whom the tower fell were indeed being punished because of their sins — and also, that their punishment, their death, was justified and right. And if that were true, then nothing but fear could live in your heart or mine — because we would spend our days waiting for the time when God would choose to get even with us, and to punish us for our sins. There could be no peace — only fear and trembling.

But the parable didn’t end there. For some reason, a reason which Scripture does not share with us, the keeper of the vineyard cares about that fig tree — and so he pleads with the owner to spare it for one more year.

The vineyard keeper is very obviously Jesus Christ; because Christ is the one who intercedes for us before the Father in Heaven. Jesus is the mediator between God and man. Jesus is the one who stands up for you and me, and asks God to spare us — not because of what we have or have not done — but because of what He himself has done. In the parable, he promised to dig around the tree and to give it some fertilizer so that that fig tree might produce fruit. In life, he gave his life — He himself suffered at the hands of the Jews and Pilate and He himself died on the cross of Calvary so that we might have forgiveness of sins. He paid the price of our debt of sin so that we might be forgiven. And then, together with the Father, he sent us the Holy Spirit, so that working through the Means of Grace, through Word and Sacrament, you and I might be brought into Saving Faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, so that we might be kept in the faith in Jesus Christ, and so that we might be strengthened in our faith so that it would be possible for us to accomplish the good works that God himself has prepared for us to do — in other words, so that you and I might be “good trees,” “bearing good fruit.”

And if that were the end of the parable, we would all rejoice with exceedingly great joy, because our future in heaven would be absolutely and completely secure without any worry, or care, or response whatsoever on our part! But the parable didn’t end there. There was still a possibility that even after the caretaker did all that he possibly could — that fig tree could still parish.

The last line of our text said, “If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.”  Jesus gave the same warning before he told the parable. He assured his listeners that those who died at the hand of Pilate, and who died under the tower were not being punished by God — but then he added a warning, He said, “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

The theme of Lent is “Repentance of sins”. During Lent we remember our sinful nature. We remember our total inability to please God by our own goodness and our own good works. It is only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior that we are at all able to come before God.     During Lent, we are reminded to humble ourselves before our gracious and loving God, and to renew our commitment and our dedication to Him and to his will — so that through the Holy Scriptures and through the Sacraments, The Holy Spirit will strengthen our faith, so that we can live our lives to his glory and we can bear the fruit that is fitting for a child of God, redeemed in the Blood of the Lamb. Not in our own strength, but in the Grace of God alone!

No! God does not punish us as we deserve, or else we would all be dead already, both temporally and eternally. But for Jesus sake He forgives us our sins, He creates saving faith within our hearts, and He strengthens our will to follow his holy will. Let us repent of our short comings and let us rejoice in His grace, His love, and his forgiveness. To God alone be the glory, now and always. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.