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slent504
Evicted
Text:
Luke 20:9-19
Date: Lent V
3/28/04 transle online free
Today's
Gospel leaps ahead of our Lenten schedule and tells of some of the
teaching Jesus did in the temple on Tuesday of Holy Week. I'm a
little concerned that people who don't know the narrative of the
four Gospels, when they view Mel Gibson's film, “The Passion of
the Christ,” they may get the idea that everyone but his few disciples
simply hated Jesus all along. What actually makes his Passion even
more cruel, however, is that quite a large number of people welcomed
him joyfully in Palm Sunday and crowded around him and listened
with hope if not faith as he preached and taught in the temple all
the way until that Tuesday evening. Were these hearers among the
crowds that, in a few days, would be joining the mob yelling, “crucify
him”? Or was there a larger group of stunned and silent onlookers
than maybe we've thought before?
It
was to people who came to hear what he had to say that he told this
parable. Of course the scribes and chief priests were standing by
and, as it was obvious to all that the parable had them in mind
as the “called and ordained” leaders of the people, they were put
in a sort of uncomfortable position, as we hear at the end of our
text. This parable is more allegorical than others and the people
understood its meaning, namely, that upon Jesus' coming sacrificial
death and resurrection, he is the fulfillment of all of God's promises;
from now on he is the key to understanding all the Old Testament
scriptures; from now on there is salvation in no one else but by
repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and him crucified.
The
scriptures frequently refer to God's people as a vineyard of his
planting. In the parable this vineyard was “let out” or “leased”
to tenant farmers representing the religious leaders and priests
of the people. Those called to serve God's people in his name with
his Word are not the owners but are given a charge to care for the
people in the way the Owner has commissioned them, namely, by the
preaching of his Word and giving out of this gifts.
As
the planting-growing-harvest cycle of the field and vineyard are
predictable, and “the time came” that the owner of the vineyard
should receive some of the fruit of the vineyard, so now Jesus has
in mind the now tight time schedule when, in a matter of only two
more days, he would accomplish what he came for—his sacrificial
death. God has acted in specific ways in our world and our history
according to his own time schedule. The Old Testament reading for
today calls to mind the deliverance of God's people from Egyptian
bondage as Moses led them through the Red Sea on dry ground but
drowned hard-hearted Pharaoh and his army. We recall the words of
St. Paul when he wrote, “But when the fullness of time had come,
God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem
those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption
as sons” [Galatians 4:4-5 (ESV)]. Or, even better, from the beginning
of Luke's Gospel with his precise description of the days of Caesar
Augustus “when Quirinius was governor of Syria.” “When the time
came” for his parents to present Jesus in the temple, Simeon understood
it was time for God to act, saying, “Lord, now you are letting your
servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have
seen your salvation” [Luke 2:29-31a (ESV)]. Jesus is here saying
that the critical time is now, in this final week in Jerusalem,
where Jesus is destined to die.
But,
as our Old Testament reading has it, the crucial time also comes
whenever the claims of the word of the Gospel are preached and come
to each individual. As St. Paul said of preaching, “now is the time
of salvation.”
The
servants sent by the owner to reap some of the fruits of his vineyard
represent all the Old Testament prophets sent to his people, and
especially the last OT prophet, John the Baptist, sent to gather
in the fruits of repentance. As we all well know, however, the scripture
is the record of the hardness of heart and refusal of God's own
people to believe. Even these scribes and chief priests, St. Luke
said, “rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been
baptized by” John [7:30]. The tenant farmers in the parable beat
the first servant and sent him away empty-handed. The second they
also beat and treated shamefully, sending him away, again, empty-handed.
The third they wounded and cast out, not even sending him away!
John the Baptist prepared the way for the Lord, and now it is time
for the Lord himself, the “beloved Son” to visit the vineyard.
“The
beloved Son” calls to mind the voice from heaven at his baptism
and again at his transfiguration, “this is my beloved Son.” It recalls
Abraham's beloved son Isaac whose near-sacrifice pointed forward
to the bloody, atoning sacrifice of the beloved Son of God. In the
parable the tenants dialogue and plot and plan when they see the
owner's son coming. He is thrown out of the vineyard and killed.
Jesus will be killed outside the gate of the city.
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