SERMON “Paying the Rent” Audio link http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23575548/111002Matthew22.mp3
Our Lord, open our hearts to receive from your word with joy, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Today in the Gospel reading we meet up with God the crazy farmer again. Or maybe we meet up with God’s crazy tenant farmers. Did you ever wonder what goes on in the mind of someone who is a tenant? I have. If you’ve ever rented a house or, worse yet, owned a rental property, you’ve probably run into things like the place where someone painted around the couch instead of moving it. Or maybe you’ve found the switch plates fastened to the wall with tape. None of us has ever been guilty of fixing a leaky pipe with ductape, right?
But here we see God the gardener. He builds a garden. It’s a vineyard. It’s got nice walls around it. There’s a watchtower so that an attendant can make sure nothing happens to the grapes or vines. There’s a winepress. Everything is just so. He’s ready to engage in some commercial wine making. So he rents out the vineyard to some people who will care for the vines, bring in the crop, make the wine, and give him some of it, sell some of it, and pay rent on the vineyard. It all seems to be in order, at least until the harvest.
What happens to the rent collector? The one sent to collect some of the produce? The tenants treat him badly. He sends servant after servant to try to collect his rent. The tenants treat them all badly. They even kill some of them. Nobody is able to collect the rent from these tenants. Finally the owner sends his own son.
What’s going on in the minds of these tenants? I don’t know how the rent contract works where you live, but wherever I’ve lived, if the owner’s heir dies it certainly doesn’t mean that I’ll end up owning the building. That’s a ridiculous idea. But it seems to be the idea held by these tenants. They abuse and kill the son of the landowner, thinking then they can keep the vineyard to themselves.
Be assured of this. If you try that with the person who collects your rent or other bills it won’t work. When you have entered into a contract to pay for something you get to pay for it. The person you’re supposed to pay won’t come and kill you, but you could be forced to pay and you could end up with all sorts of other legal consequences as well. It isn’t a good idea. And in our parable we see that the landowner will indeed get rid of his tenants and rent the vineyard to someone else, someone who will pay what is due.
Notice in our Gospel passage today that many of the people heard Jesus’ parables with joy. Many of them realized that God wanted to draw people to himself, people who would live by faith in God’s grace. They knew that as the tenants in the vineyard they would do what was required of them and that they would receive a share in the produce. And they confessed that God would graciously bless them generously, not according to their good deeds but according to his abundance.
So who are the evil tenants in this parable? See how the religious leaders are the people who become angry with Jesus? They know that Jesus is speaking against them. He sees these leaders as the people who have denied God the glory rightly due his name. Jesus says that the chief priests and Pharisees are refusing God and that they are bringing condemnation upon themselves and all those who follow them. These are fighting words. They don’t want to be seen that way. And that’s for a reason. The Pharisees don’t see themselves in that way. They are the ones who are showing their people how to be a people who are holy, set apart to God. They are showing people how to bear the fruit of righteousness.
What’s gone wrong, then? There’s a disconnect somewhere. Somehow the Pharisees don’t see themselves the same way Jesus sees them. After all, they are the people who are learning the Law of God. They are the people showing people that they need to keep God’s commands. They are the people who are helping others protect themselves so as to keep from breaking any of God’s commands. This is serious business. The Pharisees see themselves as the good guys. So do most of the people. If you want to be a really holy person you want to be a Pharisee.
What’s that disconnect? The Pharisees think they can keep God’s requirements. They think that by building walls of protection around God’s commands they can guard against any sin. They think they can keep themselves free from sin so they don’t have to deal with it any more. We see this attitude today. I dare say we even see it in Lutheran congregations, though I think it’s more widespread in other fellowships. I know the Church of Christ and a lot of the Wesleyan groups have an idea that you can reach a point in your obedience that you eventually don’t end up sinning any more. And I know there are other Christian groups around who think that. Here’s how it plays out today. Beware of it. Don’t buy into it. We’ll see why in a moment.
Imagine you start going to a church. You hear a sermon that says Jesus was crucified for your sin and that your sin is taken away by faith in his death on your behalf. Fair enough, right? This is the genuine, historic message of the cross. It’s the Gospel, pure and simple. You believe the message and confess that by God’s grace you have been saved from the curse of sin. You are now covered with the righteousness of Christ, because you do believe that he died to take away your sin.
What happens next? This is where it starts going astray. And I guarantee you won’t have to be around a lot of church congregations long before you start seeing this. You’ve been saved by God’s grace. But what do you have to do now? You have to reform your life so you are good enough to keep God’s grace active in your life. You have to purify yourself morally. You have to bring forth fruit. You have to earn God’s favor day by day through your acts of obedience. You were saved by God’s grace, but you end up being told that you have to keep your salvation by your works. And it’s easy to fall into this error. But error it is. It ultimately condemns you and tells you that you have to save yourself, something you can never do.
Now wait a minute. What’s wrong with doing good works? I thought as a Christian I was supposed to keep God’s law. I thought I was supposed to read my Bible and pray. I thought I was supposed to do works of charity. I thought I was supposed to give in the offering. Is there something wrong with all this? Am I just supposed to believe on Christ and not change my life?
The good works we do are indeed good works. God loves them. He desires them. He wants to see us doing those things. And it’s good to obey the Scripture, to read it, to absorb God’s word, to pray without ceasing. We’re supposed to care for the needs of those around us. There’s no doubt about it. Make no mistake about it. God does give us commands and he expects that we will busy ourselves about following his commands. But we never follow God’s commands perfectly. We want to, we try to, but we always fail. There’s a sentence from the time of the Reformation describing this. “Lex semper accusat.” “The Law always accuses.” When we try to follow God’s law we fail. We then see our sin and our need for a savior. But something else happens at the same time. Our neighbor sees our attempts to keep God’s law. Our neighbor benefits from that. We end up helping one another and being a blessing to one another. This is decidedly a good thing. How many good works should I do? I should do as many good works as I can. They are good. But how many of those good works are going to save me from sin? There is no good work that can save me from sin. There is nothing I can do that will overcome evil. I have a sinful nature and cannot overcome it. Only Jesus can overcome sin. And he has done it. He’s done it for you and he’s done it for me. He did it while we were still sinners. And by his grace he has clothed us in a white robe of righteousness, all who believe. He is the one who has planted us in this vineyard. He’s the one who has brought forth fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. He’s the one who has let us run the vineyard for a ridiculously low price – we just have to believe and trust him. He’s the one who comes to collect the glory which we give him. And he’s the one who gives us every good gift – gifts indeed, gifts for which we cannot work or they will not be gifts.
So what do we do? Do we engage in sinful self-congratulation? Do we decide to be arrogant because God has given us all this? Or do we look to him in love and trust, confessing that he is the great and mighty God who has loved us, giving us all we need in the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf? That’s what is due him. That’s the rent he collects from us as we work in his vineyard.
Our Lord has taken away the vineyard from the priests and the Pharisees. He has given it to us who believe on him. May he grace us with his presence and make us willing and ready to share the good gifts of his vineyard with all who ask, in the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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