"The Enemy Within"
Sermon Presented October 2, 2005
Matthew 21:33-46
In recent years we have seen that business and governmental leaders don't always have our best interests at heart when they make decisions. CEOs and CFOs often look out for their own interests as they strip profits from a company or cook the books to enhance their own images and bank accounts. Business owners sell their personal company stock early when they know a sharp decline is imminent. Many governmental leaders from local to national levels put their own economic interests and the interests of a few constituents ahead of the interests of taxpayers in general and of the poor and less privileged. We find that the enemies of the people tend to be those who work themselves into positions of trust and then fleece the unsuspecting.
Our text this morning deals with this issue of insiders abusing the trust of others. Interpreters call this story an allegory because the fictional characters have symbolic meanings. When the Pharisees and chief priests hear it, they soon know the story is about them. Hear Jesus' message to those in charge of the vineyard, found in Matthew 21:33-46. (Read text.)
When we look at this allegory with the landowner representing God, the slaves as the prophets and martyrs who died for the faith, the owner's son as Jesus and the tenants as the religious leaders who fail to repent, we believe we are off the hook! Surely Jesus isn't talking to us!
Before going further, let me tell you my major objection to this story. It makes what appears to be a mentally challenged landowner represent God! My God is wise and fair, so Matthew must have misheard or misquoted this parable. But I decided to tackle it anyway because you may be as confused as I.
The story goes like this. A landowner decides to plant a vineyard on his property. He carefully tills and fertilizes the soil, plants the vines, and builds a winepress in order to make the best wine in the country. To protect his investment, he builds a fence around it and erects a watchtower. Up to this point, he seems to do everything right. However, he makes his first big mistake when he hires the tenants to run the business. Without checking references, he turns his vineyard over to scoundrels and then leaves town. The vineyard is protected from outside enemies, but not from the enemies within.
When the wine begins to flow through the presses, the landowner sends his slaves to collect his produce. However, the tenants meet the messengers with violence - beating one, killing another and stoning another. It's difficult to imagine that kind of violence from tenants!
Now the foolishness of the landowner is compounded when he sends additional slaves - more than the first time - to collect the wine and they are treated the same as the first group. We can't imagine what the owner is thinking when he sends his son, believing these Mafia-style tenants will respect his son and give him the wine. Wrong again! It's like watching lions maul the zookeeper, the vet and the one who feeds them, and then sending your own child into the cage to calm the animals. The tenants seize the landowner's son, throw him out of the vineyard and kill him, assuming they can now own the vineyard. That kind of logic doesn't compute either. Even a fool should know that the distraught and angry landowner will come after them with both barrels blazing!
As Jesus tells the parable, he takes his audience through this series of dramatic events that build in intensity, and then he stops - without a conclusion - and asks them to tell him what happens next. Their answer is what Jesus expects and he allows them to convict themselves before he interprets the story.
Jesus tells them that the vineyard will be taken from the tenants and given to others who will produce the fruits of the Kingdom of God. And guess what? The Pharisees and chief priests know Jesus is talking about them!
To me, this story doesn't make sense logically, so let's look at it theologically! What could Jesus possibly be telling us about God that is positive here? Why does he compare the religious leaders to the violent tenants? Why did Matthew and two other gospel writers repeat the story for their audiences? What happens when we put ourselves into the parable - heaven forbid - as a tenant instead of reserving that place for the religious leaders of Jesus' time? This is what I see.
I see that we are entrusted with a wonderful ecologically balanced world. I see Yellowstone, the redwood forests, Lake Michigan, the Grand Canyon, oceans, streams, sunsets, rainbows and light. I see birds with fantastically designed feathers singing beautiful melodies. I see leaves that turn brilliant shades of orange, yellow and red and colorful mums this time of year. I see we have a marvelous vineyard and the responsibility of caring for it.
And I continue to be reminded of my need to care for the vineyard as I read magazines, newspapers and theological publications. They all advise me of my need to care for the environment. The cover article of the current issue of Time magazine concerns global warming in relation to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The main thesis of the article is that during the last 35 years, the number of hurricanes has remained constant, but their intensity has increased to a doubling of category 4 and 5 storms. A map shows the changes in water surface temperatures from 1971 to 2004 - noting a dramatic increase of 6 degrees.
The conclusion of the article states that we can no longer ignore these facts. There is a cause and effect relationship between the increase in devastating hurricanes and global warming, and we must reverse the trend. Individually and as a nation, we must care for the vineyard or our children and grandchildren will bear even greater consequences. It takes conscientious thought to use less plastic. It costs more money to purchase environmentally safe products. It takes extra time to walk or take public transportation rather than driving whenever we feel like it. Conserving resources isn't as convenient as utilizing everything we can without regard to the environmental cost. We don't kill the prophets, but we sure do ignore them, and in turn, people die.
And then there's our spiritual heritage that is built on our faith in God through Jesus - the chief cornerstone. I sometimes think that we have become so prone to intellectualize our faith that the thinking part of us supersedes allowing God's Spirit to transform our lives. As tenants, we continue to be poor stewards of God's vineyard - a spiritual heritage entrusted to us.
When we reconsider the story, the point becomes clearer. We aren't robots but have free wills. We can choose to deepen our relationship with God or not. We can choose to care for the environment or not. We can welcome God's prophets and listen to their messages or we can turn them away. We can delight in worshiping God or we can ignore God. God gave us the vineyard, but doesn't control how we use it. God leaves us to our own devices. We can allow God to reign or ignore God. And God continues to come to us and give us opportunities to do what is right. God is most patient and continues to send messengers!
By placing ourselves in the position of the wicked tenants who squander their freedom and their home because they don't recognize the generosity of the owner and his right to receive the fruits of the vineyard, we see the purpose of the parable. The purpose is to shock us into listening, repenting and changing our lives.
The goal of God's unconditional love is to empower us to produce the fruits of the Kingdom - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness and self-control. God comes to us again and again and again asking us to repent of our selfishness - to be sorry for our sins of neglecting God and our world and turn toward God. True repentance means to change our lives in radical obedience to God. The result is a Spirit-filled life of faithful obedience. Let's not inadvertently be the enemy within.
