When Jesus Gets Dark

 Matthew 21:33-46  October 8, 2023

The Wicked Tenants
James Jankgnect

 

This is the point in Matthew where Jesus
starts getting a little dark.

His stories are a little threatening, not very gospel centered.

Jesus has entered into Jerusalem at this point

and he’s confronting all the religious leaders there

and he’s obviously not happy with the work they’re doing.

 

Martin Luther once said that sometimes you have to squeeze

a biblical passage until it leaks the gospel.

 

This is one of those weeks.

There’s the landowner, there’s the tenants, there’s lots of killing.

This parable ends, basically with Jesus saying that the kingdom

of God is going to be taken away from those who don’t bear fruit

and given to someone who does.

Not too much grace going on here.

So, even though this particular parable might

not be easy to take in, we still shouldn’t avoid

the point that Jesus is making here.

 

When Matthew gives us “Dark Jesus”

we don’t have to avoid it or ignore it,

OR trade in our Lutheran understanding

of God’s grace when we hear it.

 

We just need to remember that at these times,

Jesus is being very serious.

These things are important to Jesus.

And when Jesus gets really dark and forceful,

he’s usually talking to people of higher status,

people in control, people with power.

Not the sick, not the poor, not the prejudged.

 

So in this parable, Jesus was talking to the

Chief Priests and the Pharisees,

the leadership of the church and of those worshipping God.

And now when we read it, we need to look at ourselves.

We are the tenants in the vineyard.

We are the keepers of the church now.

It applies, bishops, pastors, church leaders

and members of the Christian Church.

 

The question that it asks all of us: How are we doing?

What are we doing to bear fruit for the kingdom?

What are we giving back to God?

Are we doing what we’re supposed to be doing?

 

Are we giving the landowner what he wants,

or are we turning God away empty-handed.

It’s a legitimate question to ask.

If we’re here as a church for a purpose

are we doing that purpose?

 

Unfortunately, the way that the church has

often evaluated itself on this point is by how much we have.

When evaluate how we are doing,

the scale we often use is how many people do we have

and how much money we have.

 

Kelly Fryer, a Lutheran Church developer said it best:

She says that, even if we don’t say it out loud,

churches evaluate themselves in terms of “butts and bucks”

 

If we have lots of people and lots of money,

we assume we’re doing something right.

if we don’t, we assume something is wrong.

But is that what God wants?

Is that what Jesus thinks is so important?

 

When we evaluate ourselves this way,

we end up comparing ourselves to other churches

Those churches over there who have a giant building

Or need security to direct traffic in the morning.

They’ve got a lot of people, they must be doing something right.

And then, of course we compare ourselves,

to the “glory days” of the church,

Whether it was the 50’s or the 2010’s or the 1800’s.

When we think of the glory days

it usually has to do with the amount of people in the church

and how the church’s bank account was doing.

And we look back and wonder, what were we doing right then?

And then we try to recreate the “old days”.

Which isn’t really being the church in our own days.

 

But a bigger, wealthier church is not necessarily a church that

Is doing God’s will and following God’s mission.

But some churches have traded in God’s plans in order to appeal to the most people. 

Some Christian pastors have given up on the gospel

and made themselves into self-help gurus in order to appeal 

to the most people and have made heaps of money for themselves.

Some churches have become so focused on

Worship in order to appeal to the most people’s

preferences instead of doing what comes from their hearts.

Some churches preach hate every Sunday morning:

hate of people of other races, Religions, LBTQ people, 

and some of them are very crowded and have lots of money coming in.

Lots of large churches have given into only what

“the people” want instead of what God wants.

 

Now, there are plenty of churches that do have a lot of people

that do follow God’s call and many people have joined

to live that out that plan with them with them.

It’s not that large churches are bad.

But it’s not necessarily true that churches that are 

large in number and have lots of room in their budgets are always doing God’s will.

But we still often see it that way.

 

Butts and bucks, It’s pretty much an influence from business

from the world. Money and customers mean success.

That’s the fruit we think we’re supposed to bear

for the owner of the vineyard.

People are just numbers and commodities.

Krister Stendahl, was a professor at Harvard Divinity

and then he went on to be the bishop of Sweden,

he wrote extensively about Christianity in the world.

He spoke at the seminary when I was there, and I still remember

this little story from his lecture. He said:

 

“When God comes into the office in the morning, he doesn’t ask for

Christian growth statistics, he doesn’t ask

how many people have we added to the ledger

God asks ‘What have my Christians done for the Kingdom?’”

 

God isn’t interested in the raw numbers of

Christians in the world or members in our churches

God’s interested is in the mending of the whole of creation.

 

God doesn’t care about numbers.

God needs to get things done.

And maybe God can do that better with less people.

We never know what God could be up to.

I do know that God can do wonderful things with small churches too.

 

I also remember him telling us Jesus said to us,

“you are the salt of the earth”

But no one wants the world to be a salt mine.

 

We don’t need to be like that church down the street.

We don’t need to imitate another church in order

We don’t need to trade in the mission that we’re called

To in order to get more people and get more money.

We need to do what God needs us to do here

With the community that God has creation.

 

I think that  God has some great plans for us here.

We may not know what all those plans are yet,

but we need to keep our ears open for the moving of the spirit.

I do know that we’re not here as Christians just to make big and

glorious churches that make us look and feel good.

 

We’re here to serve God’s dreams.

Mercy and justice, things that flow naturally

out of us when we care.

That’s the rent we pay.

 

As we’ve done research for Christ’s 50^th anniversary

And I’ve been doing the interviews for the videos

We’re seeing these mornings.

 

And almost everyone said something like:

“We’re small, but. . .” as if we’re apologizing for it.

Not to criticize everyone, I’ve done the same thing.

But let’s stop apologizing for who we are.

 

This church has done some amazing things with the

Community that the Spirit has assembled here at different times.

Sometimes with 20, sometimes 200, sometimes 30,

and sometimes just 8 people.

We have made a difference in our community,

we have produced fruit for the Kingdom of God

at all the sizes we’ve been.

 

God wants us to love each other, and to love other people.

This is the kind of fruit that God wants back.

I think, right now, the landowner would be pleased

with Christ Lutheran.

Could we do more, could we pay more rent?

I’m sure.

 

As tenants, we always need to keep asking the question,

what does God want us to do now?

Where is the Spirit leading us now?

Not what’s going to get us the most people,

not what’s going to curb my anxiety about paying the bills,

but what is God calling us to do in this world?

  

Now, we still have the problem of this vineyard,

those tenants and that land-owner.

I so need to give you some sort of Gospel at some point.

 

If there is a way to squeeze any more gospel out of it, it might be this:

 

Every time those tenants broke their lease

and abused the servants that the landowner sends –

the landowner sends more, and more,

and then he even sends them his son.

 

Obviously, that landowner is desperate

to be in relationship with those tenants.

Obviously that landowner keeps hoping

that the tenants will turn things around.

 

And so it is with God and us.

We might not always live up to our

end of the bargain as tenants and care-takers.

But God loves us, and God loves the churches

that God has created,

and God has not lost hope in us.

and God will not lose hope in us.

 

Seventy times seven - over and over again -

God forgives and God reaches out.

 

Again and again.

God comes back to us