Sermon Text: Matthew 21:33-46
Date: October 8, 2023
Event: Proper 22, Year A (The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost)
Matthew 21:33–43 (EHV)
“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. He leased it out to some tenant farmers and went away on a journey. 34When the time approached to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35The tenant farmers seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way. 37Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. 38But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’ 39They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40So when the landowner comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?”
41They told him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. Then he will lease out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his fruit when it is due.”
42Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?
43“That is why I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruit. 44Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was talking about them. 46Although they were looking for a way to arrest him, they were afraid of the crowds because the people regarded him as a prophet.
God’s Patience is Beyond Our Comprehension
Can you be too patient? Is there a point when patience ceases to be a virtue and becomes a detriment? For myself, I feel like I waver between being too patient and not patient enough, at some times reacting too swiftly or judgmentally and at other times waiting too long to intervene or do something. The tricky thing is that the realization that you’ve erred one way or the other often only comes after the fact with reflection. “I was too rash or harsh in that situation” or “I really should have done something about that sooner.” However, rarely do I look back on things and think “I handled that with the proper balance of patience and urgency.”
You can take it to an extreme example on either side. The teacher is in the classroom and sees a student yawn and have their eyes closed for a second. Would it be appropriate for that teacher to throw a fit about how they deserve respect and that the student should pay attention in class? On the other side, if someone notes that smoke and flames are coming from their neighbor’s house, would it be wise to say, “Well, let’s see how this plays out. I think it might be ok”?
So, patience can be good and patience can be bad, depending on the situation and the scenario. But generally, patience presupposes a problem, right? If everything were just good and happy all the time, there’d really be no need for patience. So patience is, in some ways, an adaptation because of sin.
But patience is not just something that sinful human beings learn and work on—patience is an aspect of God as well. He, when dealing with sin, has perfect patience, patience that is often beyond our comprehension. When we think of how patient God is with us or with other people, it leaves us slack-jawed and amazed. Let’s explore God’s patience through Jesus’ parable here this morning.
Jesus is still speaking to the religious leaders who are trying to find any possible reason to get rid of Jesus; this parable comes right after the parable of the two sons that we heard last weekend. Jesus’ point in the parable of the tenant farmers is to show that when the leaders rejected him, it was not simply an act of laziness or hypocrisy as we saw with the son who said he’d work in the vineyard and never went. No, their rejection of Jesus was an active war against God and his plan of salvation.
So, in the parable, the landowner who lived in a distant land sent servants to collect his share of the produce of a piece of property. This would have been an arrangement that many of the people were familiar with; a good portion of the agriculture in that area would have worked like this: The locals worked for a distant owner, and then by contract had to give him a set portion of the crop or profits, while they were able to make use of everything else from the farm. It was theoretically a win-win for both involved, at least until someone abused the system.
The landowner’s servants were met with horrendous treatment: They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way. You might well assume this was not in the lease. They should have respected the servants as the landowner himself, but they did not.
You might expect the landowner to come with an army and destroy these tenants. But he had one more patient, seemingly recklessly patient, act up his sleeve: Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. As we listen to the parable, we probably think, “Are you crazy? What are you doing? When they so mistreated your servants, why would you possibly send your own son to them?!” And that’s really the reaction Jesus wants us to have as he illustrates God’s patient love. If we take an honest, objective look at God’s love, we can’t help but ask, “What are you doing? Why?”
As we trace history throughout the Old Testament, time and time again God sends his prophets to his people to call them to repentance. We heard a snippet of condemnation from Isaiah in our First Reading. Jeremiah, Hosea, Nahum, and all the others were sent with what boiled down to one task: bring God’s Word to his people. And how did the people respond? Most of the time they ignored them, sometimes they hurt them, and at other times they even killed the prophets God sent to them. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way.
And now here stands Jesus, God’s own Son, with his message of forgiveness to give to them, and what are they trying to do? Exactly the same thing their forefathers did to the prophets. They tried to ignore him, they tried to persecute him to get him to be quiet, and eventually, they think they will be free of this message that rubs them the wrong way if they just kill Jesus. When the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.” The leaders' reaction to Jesus didn’t make any more sense or help them any more than the farmers’ reaction in the parable.
The fact that Jesus is speaking this parable to the religious leaders is a testimony to God’s patience. The religious leaders had rejected Jesus; they were actively seeking out ways to kill him. In just a couple of days, they will accomplish that goal. It would be easy to understand if Jesus wanted to take these last days to just be with his disciples rather than those who had rejected God’s cornerstone.
But why doesn’t he? Because Jesus is still trying to reach out to these leaders of the people. He’s still calling them to repentance. He still loves them even as they hate him. Now, there will come a time when we’ll see Jesus isolate and just be with his disciples, but then we actually see an even more baffling expression of Jesus’ patience and forgiving love. Because up until the very end, up to the final moments, Jesus will reach out to Judas, his friend and betrayer. He will call Judas to turn from his path and see the forgiveness that Jesus provides, even as Judas rejected that such forgiveness could exist for someone like him.
This is the patient love of God, that reaches out to save even his enemies, even those who hate him, even those who seek to destroy him. For as clear as that fact is about Jesus’ enemies on the week that he died, those things are also true about us. Now, have we respected our pastors and teachers more than the Israelites at large respected the prophets or Jesus? I think probably, yes. I’ve never had a member here or in South Dakota threaten me or try to physically harm me for a message I shared. But Jesus speaks to a deeper problem here. While that problem may not express itself in us in the same way it did with the religious leaders, we share the same root problem as those who ignored and murdered the prophets and those who had Jesus crucified.
Our sin against God is no different no less severe than those of the religious leaders who would plot to take Jesus’ life. Our sin is war against God and his will, and it’s a war that we will not win. Sin brings God’s wrath; sin brings hell. Sin led the people to reject God’s message and kill his servants—even his Son. Sin leads us to do things that God finds equally abominable because with God there is no difference from sin to sin. Murder his prophet or ignore part of his Word? They are the same. Each sin robs us of the perfection that God requires. Even one sin means we, the wretches, deserve to be brought to a wretched end.
Why should God love you? He shouldn’t. Why should God be patient with me? He shouldn’t. But he is, right? He does love us and is patient with us in a way that is beyond our comprehension. Think of how many times we have turned from God and sought our own way. Think how many times we have looked at God’s will and said, “Eh, I don’t really want to do that so I don’t think I will.” Think of how many times our thoughts, words, and actions do not line up with God’s expectations and demands.
God should be done with us, shouldn’t he? Aren’t we beyond hope? Aren’t we beyond his patience? Isn’t this reckless? God says, “No.” His loving patience may not make any sense to us, but it makes perfect sense to him. His love for us is so great that he doesn’t want us to receive what our sins deserve; God doesn’t want anyone in hell. So he is patient with us. He reaches out to us with the call of repentance, to turn from our sin, and to trust in him as Savior. Even though we have fought against and spat on him in all we’ve said and done, he still loves us, he still wants us to be with him.
This is most clearly embodied in Jesus’ work. Not calling the religious leaders or even Judas to repentance, but his journey to the cross. There is the most baffling patience of all. Finally, he sent his son to them. But Jesus didn’t come to simply teach us or help us to be better—he came to save us. For reasons that only God can fully understand, Jesus took the sins we had committed against him and laid them on himself. Jesus suffered hell on the cross in our place, even though he had done nothing wrong. God himself died for the sins that his people committed against him. Who can understand this?
The good news is that we don’t have to understand or comprehend God’s patience to benefit from it. Your forgiveness doesn’t require you to be able to explain why God’s course of action was the right one; you benefit from Jesus' work because he’s given it to you. Unlike in the parable, God’s Son died but then rose from the dead triumphantly. The love of God conquered every sin so we will not meet a wretched end. No, just the opposite. We will be with our loving, patient God in the perfection of heaven forever.
So, spend some time this week just letting God’s patient, forgiving love hit you anew. Let it be fresh and amazing again, no matter how many times you have heard about it. And then let your life bear the fruit of thanksgiving. Let it be a life that praises God for his patience not in sin, but in prioritizing his will, knowing that he has given us everything—even eternal life—for the sake of Jesus, our Savior. Thanks be to God! Amen.
