Creekside Church Sermon of October 3, 1999 "A Costly Way To Do Business" Matthew 21:33-43	Rev. David Bibbee
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I remembered how frustrated as a child I would get when I put an assignment on the teacher's desk only to have her hand it back saying, "You're not finished yet." I worked on it some more and handed it back again. "You have more work to do on this, David Bibbee!" Usually by the fifth time I had it right. When it comes to interpreting the Bible, one of my professors offered this counsel, "If your reaction to a parable is, 'This makes perfect sense-it's the way things ought to be,' go back and read it again. You've missed something."

The parable of the vineyard is about more than God's dealing with Israel. It has something to tell us about God and ourselves, something disturbing and surprising. And so for our purposes I want to look at the parable itself and what it says about the costs God is willing to incur in his dealings with us.

Addressing the chief priests, Jesus told about a man who planted a vineyard. It was an impressive one...state of the art with a watchtower, winepress, and a hedge around it. He then hired tenants to manage the operation and he left town. He is an absentee landlord. When harvest time comes he will expect his substantial slice of the harvest and revenues. You may already be forming an opinion about him, thinking he is one of those fat cats, earning his treasure from other's toil. You picture him sunning himself on some tropical beach, sipping a cold drink, while the little people strain and sweat from sun up till sun down.

Come harvest time, the landlord sent servants to collect the rent. Then something happens that changes our estimate of the tenants. The servants asked for the rent and got a beating instead. Two were injured. One was dead. No rent. Now what does the landlord do? Send in a police negotiator? A S.W.A.T. team? No, he sent more servants. They fared no better than the first. The thug tenants knocked the tar out of them, threw them out the front gate bloody and empty handed. The landlord should have done a thorough background check on these characters. This kind of treatment couldn't be tolerated. The contract had been broken. The landlord's honor had egg on it. All his servants were either hospitalized or in the funeral home. The healthy profit he hoped for was taking a huge loss.

What would he do? Call in the FBI? The Delta Force? Take control and show that he was really serious about getting what was rightfully his? No...what he does next shows that he is either very patient or very stupid. He sends his son. His only son. It's one thing to put your servants into harm's way, but to send your boy to get from violent men what the others could not does not make sense. The master is not a sharp businessman, nor does he seem to be a very caring father to do such a naive thing. Yet he reasons, "I'll send Junior out to the vineyard. I'll appeal to their respect of our family name. Surely they will pay up."

Surely not. The wicked tenants wasted no time killing the son. "Now the inheritance is all ours," they laughed. Now what did the landlord have? "And when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" Jesus asked. Jesus didn't say. The resolution is left dangling. No closure. The vineyard still belongs to him, but the tenants act like they own the place. Someone observed that when Jesus told parables that deal with nature...the birds of the air and the lilies of the field...these parables breathe peace, safety, and order. But when people are at the center, there is always an element of conflict, doom, and downfall. God, like a trusting landlord places us in his lush vineyard and gives us charge of the operation. He has high hopes that we will do right by him and make a return on his investment. But it isn't long before we act like we own the place.

God the teacher, has momentarily left the classroom and instead of working on our assignments, applying our time and talents for the test that is to come, we throw paper airplanes, sit with our feet propped upon the teacher's desk and announce that we are the teacher now.

This parable offers a troubling look at the pervasiveness of our sin. When the tenants conspired to kill the son for his inheritance, it wasn't the first time in the Bible such a thing happened. Back in Genesis the brothers of Joseph conspired to kill him so they would get their father's inheritance. Jacob conned his dumb brother Esau out of his birthright, and then tricked their old blind father Isaac into giving him the blessing that belonged to Esau. King David, the man after God's own heart, had an affair with Bathsheba and arranged for her husband Uriah to die in a battle so he could have Bathsheba as his own. It's one long story of tenants staking squatter's rights to what they do not own. And God sent servants, and God sent prophets and God sent his own Son. They killed them all. Not a good job of risk management on God's part.

Violence is still done to God's servants. Seven young Christians were killed inside a Baptist church in Austin, Texas two weeks ago. In Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, a seventeen year-old girl was on her knees with a gun pointed at her head as a hate-filled classmate asked, "Do you believe in God?" Her "Yes." made her a fatality. What will the owner of the vineyard do? How long will the violent tenants contest the servants that God sends into the world? We are costly bunch to do business with.

Now let's be clear about something...it's not only the sins of the violent that Jesus is addressing here. We continue this sin in more subtle ways. If we are the recipients of some good fortune, we take credit for it. If we have a fine job, a wonderful healthy family, a loving marriage, and abundant resources, and someone says, "Man, you've got it made!" our first thought is about what we did to make it possible. We take credit for the good that comes our way. If we fail, it's because of our upbringing or someone else's fault. When it comes time to consider what we will give to help the ministry of the church happen, the first word to pop into our head is "mine", not, "thine."

How long until the master gets what is his? We don't know. But there is something this parable makes clear-the outcome rests with the master. The vineyard still is his and always will be his. When Jesus asked what the landowner would do about the wicked tenants, the assumption was that he wasn't going to take it anymore and would exact a fierce justice. But I hear Jesus telling us that this landlord's patience and mercy goes a long way. He doesn't undergo a sudden change of personality and unleash his wrath. He goes so far as to offer his son. Suffering is what he endures to make things right. Here we meet God who is persistent in his pursuit and is willing to pay the price of having us. He doesn't seem like a very powerful God to put up with such resistance, you say. But to fathom his power you must remember his purpose.

Let me relate a story which gives a glimpse on a human level of the power of God's persistence. It happened in Alabama. A devout Jewish family moved into a trailer community in which there lived a man who belonged to an Aryan white supremacist group. From the moment he discovered their presence, he was determined to make their lives a living hell. He spray painted swastikas on their home. He sent them hate mail. Harassed them all hours of the day and night. Did all he could to make them live in constant fear. He even threatened their lives. But through it all they never fought back. They never spoke a harsh word in response to the vulgar, hateful insults he hurled at them. They commended their cause to God.

Then the tide of misfortune washed over this hateful man. His wife left him. He lost his job. He began having health problems. When the Jewish family learned of this, they sent him cards which he consistently refused. When the husband saw him outside he always spoke, though for a long time there was no response. Then a change began to occur. This cold, callused man became receptive. He had no one to look after him, so the family brought him meals and made trips for his medications. One by one the barriers started to fall, but so did he...so much so that he was confined to a wheelchair. For awhile they took him into their home and cared for him as family. Never once did they mention the terrible things he had done to them. They sought no apologies. They asked nothing in return. They did what is so wondrously rare today and responded to cruelty with kindness. It was a response which could only spring from a deep spiritual well. And as a result, the man's hatred was conquered. He committed his own life to God.

While the master is away, the vineyard of life has been turned over to us. Let's not act as though it is ours. This parable, even more than the parable of the prodigal son, reveals to us a God who is remarkably, lovingly persistent. God has incurred high cost in doing business with us. This is cause for comfort, but it is cause for caution as well. The end of the original parable is unresolved, but Jesus said the kingdom could be taken from us and given to someone else.

This vineyard in which we live, all of our opportunities, our blessings, this church...it can all be taken away and placed in hands worthier than ours. Yes, God is patient, but God will not thwart his own purpose. God will have a harvest. It is why Jesus said..."These things I have spoken to you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide."

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