That’s Unheard Of!

20th Sunday after Pentecost, 10/18/20 Matthew 21:33-43 That’s Unheard Of! I. Really? II. Really! Some years ago, I was describing an unbelievable event to another person and she replied, “If you didn’t take a picture of it, it didn’t happen.” That’s our world today. Anything out of the ordinary, anything that might be of interest to someone else, anything that might serve as visual evidence—click—we take a picture. And that’s because we tend to doubt the amazing and the unbelievable. Just hearing about it isn’t enough for most people; we need to see some visual evidence. But even then, we have our doubts. “How could that happen?” “Has that photo or video been altered in some way?” Or, when we can’t deny that what we’re seeing is true, we wonder, “Who would do such a thing? That’s unheard of!” That’s exactly the situation Jesus describes for us this morning in his Parable of the Tenants. You heard the details of this parable earlier. The actions of the people involved are unbelievable. And I’m talking about both sides—the tenants and the owner. Who would so such a thing? That’s unheard of! As we ponder this parable for a few minutes this morning, we’ll see it’s both not so unheard of and unheard of, depending on which of the two parties we’re talking about. Part I. We are, to an extent, products of our environment. People who are interested in the social sciences will debate how much influence environment has on an individual’s life, but there’s no debate that it has some influence. For instance, place a person into an environment in which opportunities for success abound, and you increase the odds that the person will achieve success. In this parable, the owner of the vineyard placed his tenants into the most positive environment possible. It was a top-rated vineyard. This was not an abandoned vineyard he had purchased at a foreclosure sale and then dropped some tenants into the middle of it, hoping to make a profit. Listen to the description of this vineyard once again, “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower.” As far as vineyards go, this was unheard of, complete with a wall, a watchtower, and its own winepress right there. It was positioned for success. The owner went to such pains because he wanted to be as certain as possible of receiving his payment from his tenants, which was a portion of the crop. If this had been some rundown vineyard, we wouldn’t be surprised if the tenants would have had difficulty in producing sufficient produce to pay the owner. But that wasn’t the case. Far from it. This owner had every reason to expect that the tenants would comply with the terms of the agreement. In the words of our worship theme, he was looking for fruits and had every reason to expect them. But looked what happened. After the grapes had been harvested, he sent his servants to collect his share, but the tenants brutally abused and even killed them. He sent still more of his servants, with the same murderous result. Finally, he sent his son, figuring the tenants would respect his son. But the tenants saw this as an opportunity to get their wicked hands on the vineyard for good. Kill him, and the vineyard would be theirs. Really? How preposterous to think that by murdering the son, the property of the owner would become theirs! Who would do such a thing? That’s unheard of! Really? Perhaps in the material world of vineyards, but not in the spiritual world of God’s kingdom. In fact, the unheard of had happened and would soon happen. For centuries God had sent his prophets to his people—men such as Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. These prophets spoke the word of God to his people. The Lord only had the best interests of his people at heart. He simply wanted to bless them through his word. But do you think his people ever gave the Lord what he was looking for? Name a single prophet whom the people listened to and obeyed wholeheartedly. Not a single one! In fact, they attempted to murder them and, in some cases, succeeded. Unheard of? Really? Really! And now the unthinkable was about to occur. Jesus spoke this parable to the leaders of the Jewish people on the Tuesday of Holy Week. Within 72 hours of Jesus speaking this parable, the leaders of the Jews would succeed in murdering the Son. Who would do such a thing and why? Sinful people with hard hearts, that’s who. And they would do so because they viewed Jesus as a threat to their way of life. They wanted the vineyard! They wanted to call the all the shots. Away with him! Crucify him! Unheard of? Really? I hope and pray that you are incapable of murder to get your way. The wicked hearts and bloodstained hands of these tenants in this parable is appalling. And so is the way that the leaders of the Jews treated Jesus. I hope and pray you’re incapable of such wickedness. But hatred, revenge, and sinful anger against other people are murder in the heart. Can any of us claim to be innocent of murder? Unheard of? Really? The disrespect the tenants displayed for the owner’s servants is appalling. They represented the prophets whom God sent to his people to speak his word. God forbid that we should ever show such disrespect! But, can any of us say that we have always loved and honored the word of our God, that we would part with everything else in our lives, but we would not part with God’s word? Disrespecting God’s word? Unheard of? Really? In some respects—perhaps in far too many—we are the tenants. And if this were the only side of the activity in this parable for us to view, what a wretched, hell-filled eternity we would face! Part II. But there is another aspect of this parable that’s unheard of, and that’s the activity of the owner, who represents the God of our salvation. Our God had given the people of Israel every spiritual advantage as represented by the great lengths he went to build a top-flight vineyard. He gave them his written word. He instructed them on how he wanted to be worshipped down to the finest detail. He provided them with a tabernacle and, later under Solomon, a glorious Temple. The Lord filled that Temple with his glory in a special way like no other place on earth. He told them what sacrifices he expected them to make at the Temple, every one of them pointing forward to the sacrifice that the Savior would make for them. He sent them his prophets to speak to them about the coming of that Savior. They had every spiritual advantage. In return, he simply wanted them to bear fruit. Well, what was he looking for? Sorrow for their sins, trust in him for their forgiveness, and obedience as the fruit of their faith. And the amazing thing is, the Lord produced that faith in them through his word and empowered them with that faith to live as his children. But look what he received! Generation after generation after generation of stubborn sinfulness. Gross idolatry. Violence. Immorality. Oppression. The exact opposite of what he was looking for. So, he sent them his Son. That’s unheard of! Really, it is! Who would ever do such a thing? Why would God send them his Son when they had already abused and killed his prophets? That’s unheard of! But he went even further than that. He foretold what his people would do to his Son. Jesus quoted Psalm 118, a Psalm that the Jews spoke every year during this week of the Passover celebration. “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” The people would reject their Savior, but he would become the stone on which the eternal, saving kingdom of God was built. But, that same stone would crush those who rejected him, the exact opposite of what the people expected would happen. And now this Psalm was being fulfilled before their very eyes. Matthew goes on to tell us that, after Jesus spoke this parable, the Jewish leaders looked for a way to arrest Jesus with the intent of murdering him. The Lord God knew that his people would do this to his Son, but he sent him anyway. That’s unheard of! Really! What would cause him to do such a thing for people who deserved damnation, not salvation? Only one thing—a heart full of the purest love for people who love to disobey him. That’s unheard of, but that’s the love our God has for each and every sinner, for you, for me. That has always been his plan, and he carried it out in his Son, Jesus, our Savior from sin. I know that’s unheard of, but that’s what makes our God so great, so glorious, so good. He’s all about you, and he showed it when Jesus died for you and rose again so that you could spend eternity with him. And now he looks for fruits—the evidence in your life that you love Jesus for what he’s done for you. He’s looking for you to show your love for him by loving others. He wants you to come to know his love for you more deeply and to reflect that love to others. That’s unheard of, but that’s who your God has made you to be. Unheard of? No, really! Amen.