Today
of course is Palm Sunday when Christians celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus, God made
flesh, into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. On Palm Sunday the Jewish crowds acclaimed
him as their Messiah but a few days later they were calling for his
crucifixion.
Today’s gospel
reading – which you’ll find printed on your service sheets - comes just after
Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
As he starts his
journey towards the cross, Jesus has some important news for the Jewish nation
and the religious leaders who are plotting his death.
Like lots of
Jesus’ parables, today’s parable about the landowner who planted a vineyard can
be applied in different ways. It can be applied to Israel; but it can also be
applied in part to the church and even our own lives.
And this morning
I’d like to look at these strands and see what God might be saying to us today.
Firstly the most
obvious interpretation of this parable is that Jesus is speaking to the nation
of Israel and particularly to its religious leaders.
Isaiah 5 verse 7
says; “The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the
people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but
saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”
So, the landowner
is God and the vineyard he planted is the nation of Israel.
It was customary
at this time for vineyards to be rented to tenants and the owner could expect
as much as half of the grapes as payment.
And God, because He
has invested time and effort in planting and nurturing and protecting the
vineyard, also expects a return from it.
However things
don’t go smoothly and the tenants don’t give the landowner his share of the
harvest.
Anyone who knows
about the history of Israel will know that God repeatedly had to send prophets
to warn and correct a people that kept going astray. And many of these prophets
were killed and mistreated. For instance the Jews beat Jeremiah, killed Isaiah
and stoned Zechariah.
In the end the
landowner decides to send his own son, believing that they will surely respect
him. But the tenants see an opportunity here.
The law at the time
decreed that if there were no heirs, the property would pass to those in
possession. So, in verse 38 we’re told that the tenants reason that if they
kill the son, they will receive his inheritance.
And then in verse
39, Jesus tells the Jewish religious leaders that he knows they are going to
kill him and he prophesies his own death.
Because of their continued
unfaithfulness and rejection of Him as their Messiah, they will be left out of
the kingdom of God - both individually and as a nation - and that kingdom will
now be given to “other tenants” – a people that produces its fruits.
This is another
prophecy – this time about the church. Jesus is saying that there will be a new
people of God – who will produce the fruit that God requires.
This will change
the way that God deals with mankind. The old covenant and the Jewish law will
be replaced by a new covenant of God’s grace.
People will no
longer understand forgiveness of sins as man’s work - through the sacrifices of
animals, but by the work of Christ on the cross.
It will be a time
when everyone – both Jews and Gentiles - can have a personal and saving relationship
with the God who created the universe.
Up to this time,
the Jews felt that they had automatic membership of God’s kingdom because of
their relationship to Abraham; and this is why they were so keen on their
ancestry and family lines – because it proved they were descended from Abraham.
But the new
people of God would have what God wanted for Israel all along: a living relationship
with Him, that would be honoured through the spreading of His word and kingdom to
all peoples.
Jesus then uses
the metaphor of a stone to describe himself. Initially in verse 42 he describes
himself as the stone the builders rejected. This is a direct quotation of Psalm
118 verse 22 – which is a prophecy about the Messiah.
Jesus is saying
to the Chief Priests and the Elders who are listening to him that he is the
stone prophesied about in the Old Testament that they are rejecting
And that by rejecting
him they are rejecting their Messiah – the cornerstone – the most important
stone of all. In ancient buildings, the cornerstone was the principal stone
placed at the corner of the edifice.
A stone like this
can be used to build something beautiful, such as the church, or people can
trip over it and hurt themselves. Equally if a stone like this falls on someone
they will be crushed.
Jesus ends with a
warning of judgement for those who reject him. The chief priests and Pharisees
realise he’s talking about them but instead of heeding his warning they look
for a way to arrest him and to continue with their murderous plot.
So how can we
apply this parable to ourselves? Well initially
the church is now God’s vineyard and Christians are like individual vines
planted by God.
And just as God
expected to reap a harvest of fruit from Israel – today He expects to reap a
harvest both from individual Christians and of course from the Church as a
whole.
If we are
Christians God expects a harvest of fruit from our lives. Jesus said You did
not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear
fruit - fruit that will last.
What is fruit?
Fruit is God working through us to touch people’s lives and extend his kingdom.
Fruit is produced as we play a part in helping people coming to know Jesus - and
as we play a part in helping to encourage and build up other Christians in
their faith.
We can only
produce fruit if the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus is living in us. As Jesus
said - apart from me you can do nothing.
If we are vines
then the Holy Spirit is like the sap that runs through a vine - and fruit is
only produced as we co-operate with and are obedient to what God asks us to do.
And if we’re not
producing fruit there is something wrong. Either we have not yet truly repented
and so Jesus remains outside our lives and we cannot bear fruit.
Or there is
something in our lives causing us to be unfruitful. In the parable of the sower
Jesus identified the seed falling among the thorns which he said was someone
who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of
wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
If we are
unfruitful Christians perhaps we need to look at our lives and with God’s help try
and root out some of the weeds and thorns which are restricting our
fruitfulness – the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth.
And of course God
also expects us to be fruitful as a Church. He has planted All Saints to reach
out and extend his kingdom here in Brenchley.
Although its
important to maintain the church building and grounds – this isn’t our
priority. Our priority is to reach out to the people who live here with the
good news of Jesus. And this should be the main focus of our activity.
The fruit that
God is looking for from Brenchley church is lives that are changed by hearing
the gospel and coming to know Jesus.
God wants to see
a body of people growing in faith and their relationship with Him and then
sharing that faith and touching the lives of those around them with His power
and His love.
God’s main
complaint against the tenants of the vineyard is that they refuse to listen to
Him and want to keep the harvest for themselves.
Although God has
planted the vineyard and owns it they do not acknowledge His ownership and
refuse to give Him his due.
They want to run
the vineyard for themselves - for their own benefit and glory – not for His.
And there is a
danger of the Church doing this – of losing sight of the fact that God has planted
us and that He is our owner and will also be our judge.
Some Churches
lose sight of their mission to reach out, and focus instead on organising
church life to fit in with their own preferences and desires and tastes.
They become
inward looking – rather than being focused on providing services and events
that will reach out and appeal to those around them who do not yet know God.
And then of
course over time these churches die - because they become irrelevant to the local
communities and people around them.
The fact is that
a huge number of people today – particularly younger people - are completely
unchurched and traditional services are confusing and inaccessible for them.
I remember seeing
Jamie Oliver doing a TV programme in America and he went to a lively American
Church service with lots of gospel singers.
He said after the
service – if my local church was like this I’d go every week.
And that comment
really stuck with me.
This of course is
why we have Cafe Church. It is designed to be a more accessible and child
friendly service for those who might otherwise find a traditional service hard
to relate to.
And Parent and
Toddler services are designed to appeal to younger families with small
children.
Some of these may
not be to our personal taste but that’s not the point. The point is we are
called to reach out to those around us who don’t yet know Jesus and to provide
services and events that will be accessible to them and help them to come to
know God’s love.
Part of the fruit
the Jewish religious leaders owed God was worship, but they replaced genuine
worship with customs and rituals and traditions.
This is why Jesus criticised them for
nullifying the word of God by their traditions.
He said “these
people worship me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.”
Again this is
something we need to be wary of. If our services become rituals and the ritual
substitutes genuinely worshipping God.
We can reel off
all the right words and feel we have done our bit for the week – but remain unchallenged
and far from God in our hearts.
When we come to
church – do we come looking to bring God an offering of our worship – of
ourselves? Do we mean it when we invite Him to send us out in the power of his
spirit to live and work for his praise and glory in the world – or are they
just empty words?
Are we bringing
God the genuine worship that is His due?
And of course
like the tenants in this story some people can withhold their lives from God altogether
because they don’t want Him to make demands on them.
Although
everything we have comes from God – like the tenants in this parable - we can
push Him away and reject His claim on our lives and keep him at arm’s length.
This is a
dangerous thing to do because if Jesus isn’t the corner stone in our lives, His
words, rather than helping and encouraging us to be fruitful and faithful, will
become a stumbling block to us.
As we start Holy
Week perhaps it’s a good time to look at our own lives and the life of
Brenchley Church in the light of this parable - and think about how we can
become more fruitful - both as individuals and as a body of God’s people in
this place. In the name of the living God. Amen.
