Category: Sermons

Free! – to Face Judgment

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(based on 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11)

I don’t imagine the first three verses of our text this morning would serve as the ideal bedtime story as you’re saying goodnight and tucking in your little one. “Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (v.1-3). “Sweet dreams.” These aren’t the kind of soothing, calm words that would put a child at ease when lying down for the night!

For that matter, these aren’t the kind of words that go over all that well with adults, either. In fact, some might point to verses just like these in Scripture as the reason they never have and never will give Christianity the time of day. The gloom and doom version of God doesn’t go over so well in a society that has given itself permission to redefine or design the divine according to personal preference. When we’ve allowed our ideas of religion to closely resemble ordering a pizza with our favorite toppings and leaving off the stuff we don’t like, is anyone surprised that most people would prefer to leave off the toppings of hell, destruction, wrath, or judgment? Hardly.

However, though we may not readily admit it, we are all in favor of judgment. Imagine you’re a small business owner and someone breaks into your store and makes off with tens of thousands of dollars worth of product or goods. If the police caught the guys that did it, you’d likely be in favor of justice being carried out and a judgment being rendered. The same would also be true if a drunk driver hit and killed a member of your family, or if someone published an unfounded, slanderous report about you online or in a magazine or paper. When we’re wronged, we’re not opposed to judgment at all when it means justice is being carried out. But when God talks about judgment, it doesn’t sit as well with people. 

You know why that is, don’t you? Consider the child who suddenly hears his father call out to him, “Son, come here right now. We need to talk.” Those words are able to evoke totally different responses in the son. On the one hand, he might immediately react with curiosity, wondering what it could be that his dad wants to talk about. On the other hand, those words can be totally terrifying if he happens to know exactly what dad wants to talk about and it isn’t going to be good. In that situation, what is that determines the son’s perception of his dad’s words? It’s not anything on dad’s end but on the son’s. If he did something wrong, that’s what makes those words terrifying. But if he didn’t do anything wrong, those words are relatively harmless.

So when people balk at the notion of God and judgment, it’s clear why. We don’t want to consider God’s judgment, because our conscience makes it pretty clear what he means when he says, “Come here right now. We need to talk.” When we consider that God is omniscient – all knowing, omnipresent – everywhere, and omnipotent – all powerful, that pretty convincingly rules out any of our wrongs going unnoticed, doesn’t it? There’s no chance that God just happened to be looking the other way. There’s no chance that maybe he didn’t hear us. There’s no chance of anyone pulling one over him.

That means you didn’t actually have to speak your bitter response to that political comment someone made recently, the Judge knew your thought well enough. It means he doesn’t need to check your browser history to see what sites you visited online – the Judge has a browser history that can’t be erased. That means you can lie to your parents, deceive your spouse, and fool your boss – the Judge knows the truth in each and every case, right down to the last disgraceful detail. So it’s no surprise that the idea of God and judgment going together isn’t a popular one with many people.

Especially when we consider the sentence that such judgment deserves. There were two words Paul used in the text this morning to describe what awaits those who don’t meet God’s standards of judgment: “destruction” (v.3) and “wrath” (v.9). Here we must explain another sticking point many have with Christianity. It’s one thing for people to believe in a heaven – that’s all well and good. The struggle for many, however, is the only alternative that exists outside of heaven: hell. They see no reason whatsoever that a loving God could send anyone to a place of such suffering. No heaven? That’s one thing. But why the extreme pain and torment and suffering of hell? Does God delight in that? Then why else would it exist? 

But that misunderstands what heaven is and what it means to be in the presence of God. What makes hell so wretched and unyielding is the absence of God. It’s not that God deliberately or intentionally wished to set up such a place of suffering as some curb or threat so that people would be drawn to heaven instead. Rather, when God is not present, all that remains is unyielding and relentless agony. Not because God wants it, but simply because that’s all that exists when God is removed from the picture.

However, remember that judgment is only something to be feared if you are guilty of something. If you haven’t done anything wrong, then you have nothing to fear. And if Jesus is in the picture, then you have nothing to fear. “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him” (v.9-10). Paul is addressing believers – then AND now. Believers know that they have been chosen – “anointed” as Paul writes – to receive salvation. That salvation is received not by going to church, not by voting for the right presidential candidate, not by anything you could do on even your best day, but only “through… Jesus Christ.” And then, lest we try to make it too terribly complicated, Paul also lays out how Jesus made that possible: by his death. 

This is where the focus ought to be. When so many defiantly denounce God because of their disdain over realities like judgment and hell, they’re pouting over something that doesn’t have to be anyone’s reality – including theirs! Since we’ve already agreed that most everyone is in favor of judgment when it means that justice is being served, we ought to dumbfounded that God chose to carry out the sentence of his just judgment on his own Son instead of you and me. So rather than being disgruntled about judgment and hell, we ought to be delighted that we don’t have to fear it! God’s judgment to all who believe is that since Jesus died, you will live. What’s to fear?

With no fear of judgment then, we live as we have been made to live – not as those who belong to the night, but as those who live in the light as those who belong to the day. That’s how we’re free to live. “You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, …let us be awake and sober. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet”  (v.5, 6, 8). Faith, love, and hope. Do those sound like the qualities that embody your day-to-day living? 

The verdict has already been made. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Let every man and even your own conscience itself be liars, but let God’s declaration and promise stand true. If you are in Christ Jesus, you have nothing to fear. There is no condemnation for you. You are free to face judgment because you already know the verdict. 

Could I ask something of you? Could you please – please – follow Paul’s advice? “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (v.11). So many in our world right now need so much encouragement, and you have the best encouragement imaginable to share with them. You have no fear of judgment. Encourage others by reminding them that in Christ Jesus, neither do they.

Free!

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(based on Galatians 5:1-6)

This week we elect the next President of the United States. Today we observe Reformation Sunday. What do the Reformation and a National Election have in common? How are they similar? One might say they both have to do with the important matter of freedom. Regardless of political party, each side has expressed its concern over loss of freedom, whether that concern is tied to the fear of an agenda on the part of one political party or the fear of unilateral actions on the part of the President. During the Reformation, the freedom Jesus came to bring was being stripped by the Roman Catholic Church.

Yet, it is that similarity that could potentially cloud how drastically different each event is. One deals with what is temporal; the other what is eternal. One deals with our role as citizens of an earthly nation; the other deals with our place in the spiritual kingdom. One may some day be taken from us or limited; the other never can.

During the month of November until Thanksgiving, we’ll be directing our thoughts not on the temporary, worldly freedoms we enjoy, which have undoubtedly been a blessing to us in this great nation for so long, but rather on the freedom that lasts forever and is a far greater blessing to us now and into eternity. We will see how the freedom we have in Christ plays a role in our lives on a daily basis. The freedom we have in Christ allows us to Face Judgment, to Face Death, and to Be Ruled. 

For starters, though, we must understand the source of the freedom we have as Christians, and why that freedom we have in Christ is so very important. It is not just because of the liberties it allows us in our Christian living, the freedom to live for and serve God and others not out of coercion, fear, or obligation, but rather with love and gratitude and thanks. These are tremendous blessings, indeed! But they pale in comparison to the greatest blessings of being free – the blessings of being free from the guilt of sin, free from Satan’s control, and free from the fear of death. These, friends, are the blessings of being free!

The Galatian Christians were at risk of losing those blessings of being free. They had heard and believed the gospel message that salvation was God’s gift to them through faith in Christ Jesus. They had experienced the joyful realization that a perfect Savior had fully satisfied every requirement necessary to be at peace with God, and had paid with his own life to cover the cost of their own inability to do so. But Paul wrote this letter to them because they were in danger of trading all of that in – and the freedom that comes along with it. He put it this way in the beginning of his letter: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all” (Galatians 1:6-7).

What was the big deal? What was Paul so concerned about? Some among the Galatians were insisting that being a Christian still had its requirements, that faith in Jesus didn’t mean that God had let his people off the hook of ceremonial requirements and restrictions, but that those were still binding. What a person ate and wore and the rules you kept – they were insisting that those were still essential. In fact, they accused Paul of deliberately removing such requirements from his preaching and teaching to make his message more attractive to his hearers. The scary part was that the Galatian Christians were starting to buy it. 

Have you noticed that the same threat to the gospel appears today? While it may perhaps be a bit more subtle, it’s present. In fact, you may even have been guilty not only of believing it, but declaring it yourself. Today’s version of it sounds like this: “No Christian would ever eat/drink/wear/watch/listen to [blank].” “You can’t be a Christian and support this company or that organization.” “No God-fearing Christian could ever vote for [blank].” “You can’t be a good Christian and [blank].” It doesn’t matter how one fills in any of those blanks, either, because even implying that there are such conditions to Christianity puts an asterisk by our salvation. It implies that Jesus and his work alone aren’t all that really matters for salvation, but that certain requirements and restrictions still apply. If we start believing that rhetoric or find ourselves speaking that way, are we any different than the enemies of the gospel that Paul was addressing in Galatians?

And if anyone thinks this is a little matter, listen to Paul: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (1:8-9). Those are strong words directed at anyone that wants to convey that Christianity is based on the good news of the gospel AND anything else! If anyone teaches that it’s necessary to “read the fine print” or that “certain restrictions apply” when it comes to the gospel, Paul says, “let him be eternally condemned!”

Do those words sound familiar? Ironically, it was the same threat directed at Martin Luther and others who questioned the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that works were necessary for salvation. So in essence, the church in Luther’s day was guilty of committing the exact same crime as those Paul was addressing in Galatians, implying that only the gospel AND works could save, but here the tables are turned and it is the church of Luther’s day condemning the very teaching Paul was defending in Galatians – that we aren’t saved by what we do, but through faith in Jesus and what HE did for us! Paul condemned anyone insisting that what we do saves, and the church of Luther’s day condemned anyone who denied it!   

In an effort to defend the good news of the gospel, Paul encouraged the Galatians and us, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (5:1). Paul plays off the words of Jesus, who invited us to come to him when we’re spiritually worn out and need the rest of forgiveness that only he can provide. Jesus invites us to rely on the “yoke” that he bore for us to provide that rest. But to resort to the law is essentially to remove Jesus’ yoke of rest from our shoulders and replace it with the unbearable yoke of slavery to the law. Paul is trying to establish how ludicrous it would be to exchange the freedom we have in Christ for suffocating standards of the law. And he doesn’t just stop there, but goes on to highlight three devastating consequences of trading in the yoke of Jesus’ rest and forgiveness for the yoke of slavery to the law.

The first Paul lays out in verse two: “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.” What Paul is saying that if you want to insist on bringing observance of the law back into the equation, then Christ holds no value to you. Imagine an edited Bible that cut out out every reference to Jesus Christ, Savior, Messiah, etc. What would you be left with? You’d have nothing but law. Sure, there would still be talk of God’s love, but any assurance of that love would be entirely dependent upon one’s ability to keep the law – an impossibility! Without Christ in the picture, all that is left is the law. That leads into Paul’s second devastating consequence of putting on the yoke of the law.

To be bound to any part of the law is to be bound to all of it. Paul wrote, “Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law” (v.3). There is no middle ground with the law – it is all or nothing. The law makes clear that God isn’t interested in you giving it your best effort or the old college try. Only perfection from A to Z is acceptable. Martin Luther’s experience in a monastery enlightened him to how deceiving the appeal to observance of the law can be. He wrote, “Thus it is certainly true that those who keep the Law do not keep it. The more men try to satisfy the Law, the more they transgress it. The more someone tries to bring peace to his conscience through his own righteousness, the more disquieted he makes it” (LW, 27:13). He spoke about having seen many murderers facing execution die more confidently than “these men who had lived such saintly lives” [monks]. The law appears to offer the promise of a legitimate utopian oasis, but it is nothing more than a mirage that leaves souls parched with unquenchable thirst. 

Finally, if Christ is of no value and we have obligated ourselves to the whole law by thinking we could keep any part of it, the ultimate consequence is that we fall out of grace. “You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace” (v.4). Picture God’s grace as him scooping you up in the palm of his hand. You did nothing to deserve it. He chose you, even working in you the faith to believe that Jesus is your Savior. As you rest, suspended up in the palm of his hand, you see the exemplary achievements of the law falling all around you, enticing you with their promise of acclaim and worth if only they can be accomplished. Wondering, imagining, that you can perhaps reach out and grab just one or two of them, you stretch yourself too far, falling out of the his palm, out of his grace, into the abyss that awaits all who make the mistake of thinking God’s favor can be earned instead of freely given by his grace. Shudder the thought!

No, friends, the law will never earn us the righteousness God demands. That is ours only through faith. Martin Luther rejoiced to discover what Paul wrote, “For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope” (v.5). Luther knew that his freedom wasn’t granted to him by the pope or an emperor, but by faith. Faith alone made him righteous before God – and free! Friends, faith alone makes us righteous before God – and free! No earthy election can ever rob us of that freedom. 

Divine Dress Code

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(based on Matthew 22:1-14)

You may not know the name Mouna Ayoub, but she likes clothing. That is an understatement. The French socialite has arguably the most expensive wardrobe in the world. She possesses over 1,600 pieces of haute couture, each costing up to $400,000. All of the high-end fashion labels, like Chanel and Christian Dior, for example, have there own mannequin replica of her to allow them to tailor clothes to her size when she is unavailable for fittings. Where does she keep all her clothing, you ask? In her apartments. Not apartments in which she lives, mind you, but apartments which she has solely for the purpose of serving as large closets for her clothing. 

Yet, as much coin as she may be willing to spend for a personally designed and fitted dress, not one of them would be spectacular enough to allow her to gain access into the banquet Jesus talked about in this morning’s parable. In the last parable of Jesus that we’re looking at in this series, while there are a number of points Jesus makes, we want to pay special attention to the dress code required to get into heaven. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’” (v.11-13). The man was speechless. Why? Not because he wasn’t an invited guest – remember the invitation had been extended to everyone. However, the invitation for everyone was clear: only those wearing the proper attire would be welcome to the wedding.

Anyone who has attended a wedding knows you get dressed up. You don’t just throw on a T-shirt and tennis shoes and show up. You dress up. You wear something special. It’s just what we do, and for many it’s even a fun excuse to go out and buy a new suit or dress for the occasion.  

But if we think we do the same when it comes to the wedding banquet Jesus is referring to in his parable, we risk finding ourselves in the same situation as the speechless man in the parable, the one who ended up booted from the banquet. 

Honestly, though, does this really resonate with us? If there’s one thing we know as Christians, it’s that our only hope for heaven is Jesus’ righteousness, his perfection, his holiness. Right? Yes, we may know this. We may have been taught this. We may confess this. But… do we believe it? Do we live it? Or, do we still find ourselves slipping on this attire or that outfit, just to be sure? If we know what we need to be wearing to be welcomed into the banquet, what warning is there for us in this parable?

Could it be that we may have to be wary of trying to squeeze in with a knock-off or some off-brand imitation of Jesus’ righteousness? We know that righteousness is the requirement that needs to be met to gain access to the banquet, but can we deceive ourselves into thinking that maybe our self-righteousness is sufficient to make the grade? Sure, it’s not the real thing, but it’s pretty close, right? We uphold traditional values. We treat people well. We go to church. Basically, we’re good people – the kind of people that by default everyone presumes will populate heaven. So maybe our righteousness will make the cut.

But do we really think our imitation haute couture will stand up to the Divine Tailor’s inspection? Will he not see right through the poor stitching of our self-righteousness with all its loose threads? Will he not notice the inferior fabric and materials from which the garments of our works are made? Will the mismatched cuts and disproportionate lengths of our obedience escape his notice? If we think we can don our own look-alike knock-off garment of righteousness to be allowed in, we will only end up embarrassing ourselves and dishonoring the king by thinking we could pull it off and fool him!

Maybe we’re not so brazen. Maybe it’s a little more subtle. Perhaps we aren’t foolish enough to imagine that a garment made up entirely of our own righteousness would ever pass the test… but we still find ourselves clinging to that little something extra, just in case we may need it. Like that lucky pair of socks or that lucky jersey we only pull out when our team really needs a win, we insist on bringing something of our own to wear beneath the provided wedding attire of Jesus’ righteousness, just in case, for a little added insurance. So beneath Jesus’ robe of righteousness, we sport that lucky sock or undergarment of status or achievement (“I’ve been a Christian/Lutheran my whole life,” “I read the Bible every day,” “I’m a devoted spouse,” “I… anything”) that we don’t presume will replace Jesus’ righteousness, but we figure it can’t hurt to wear that into the banquet just for good measure. 

But do we really suppose we can improve on the wedding garments the host freely provides? What an insult to imply that what he provides is somehow lacking! Imagine interrupting the photographer at a wedding to insist on a little change here or there to improve on the wedding party. You’d insult both the photographer, as well as the bride and groom for their choice of attire for the bridal party! Who are you to suggest such things? Who are any of us to think that Jesus’ righteousness isn’t enough, but must also be accompanied by this or that accessory to make the outfit complete?

The bridegroom himself provided the only clothing necessary and permitted to the party – his righteousness. Paul captured this very truth in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God made him without sin – no sin, perfectly right with God – for the specific purpose of being our righteousness! Jesus alone is the righteousness we need to meet God’s standards. Jesus alone is the righteousness we need to gain access into the eternal heavenly banquet. Let us leave our own personal attire at the door – it will amount to nothing but an eternal fashion disaster!

Rest assured, the garments provided for you will be enough. They have been washed. They have been made clean – not with detergent, not with dry cleaning chemicals, but with the blood of the Lamb, the bridegroom himself – Jesus Christ. The picture from Revelation is a vivid one describing the saints in heaven: “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).

That guest list of gathered saints that John saw in his vision is pretty extensive. In Jesus’ parable, the king wanted a banquet hall filled with guests, so when those he invited first declined his invitation, he simply invited anyone and everyone else to be his guest. There is room for everyone, and the king’s genuine desire to have everyone join him was expressed by his patience even with the underdressed guest. Could it be that Jesus was illustrating how extensive the king’s patience is? He didn’t remove the guest outright, but gave him one last chance to acknowledge that he was underdressed. Would it have been too late for the guest to apologize – repent – and ask the king for the wedding garments instead? There was still a chance! He needed only to speak up and in humility ask for the proper attire! But he was speechless. If he wasn’t allowed to the banquet wearing what he already had on, then he wasn’t interested in sticking around. But still today, to you, to me, to everyone, the king is patient and loving – not hesitating to point out that our filthy rags are not welcome in his holy hall, but still today, to you, to me, to everyone – offering the only attire that is, the Son’s righteousness.

And there is added peace of mind for you in the present, not just waiting for you in the future: friends, you do not need to wait until the banquet doors are opened to wear your attire. In fact, you wear it today. You were dressed in it in your baptism. Though not as common as it used to be in the church, baptismal gowns would adorn infants as they were brought to the font to be baptized – white gowns that symbolized the very attire required to be a guest at the banquet. In baptism we were dressed in that righteousness. Today you wear it. Today you live in it.

What peace of mind that offers a world caught up in trying to measure up! You already do! There is no pressure from God to achieve the highest test score, to be the perfect spouse, to be the next YouTube sensation, to get more likes, to be good enough for your parents’ approval, to get recognized by the boss. Jesus’ righteousness that covers you this very moment means that you quite literally cannot be more perfect in God the Father’s eyes! The Son, the bridegroom who gave himself up for the church, for believers like you and me, has clothed us with his holy righteousness. Because of him you are more than good enough! Live with that peace of mind.

It’s OK if you enjoy finding a good deal on used clothes at Goodwill. It’s alright to wear hand-me-downs. You don’t need an extravagant wardrobe sporting designer labels that fade out of style faster than you can say Loius Vuitton or Armani. In Jesus, you already meet the divine dress code necessary for a place at the banquet. But the good news is that you don’t have to wait until you get there to start celebrating. Start celebrating today – every day! – knowing that Jesus’ righteousness makes you good enough. Amen.

Searching for Fruit

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(based on Matthew 21:33-43)

If you were hired as the executive chef at an exclusive restaurant but then refused to spend any time in the kitchen, I don’t imagine you’d be holding on to that job very long. If you sign a lucrative contract as the starting QB in the NFL and end up rarely completing a pass, it won’t be long before you find yourself sitting on the bench or playing for another team as a backup. The movie star leading in flop after flop at the box office will find the offers for roles eventually start to dwindle as they’re offered to others. The point is, if you’re hired to do a certain job and don’t do it, it’s only a matter of time before that job will be taken from you and given to someone else who will do it.

In a nutshell, that was exactly the point Jesus was making in the parable he told in our Gospel today when he concluded, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit” (Mt. 21:43). Simply put, the Lord is searching for fruit, and where and when he doesn’t find it, he will take his blessing elsewhere and provide others with the opportunity to produce its fruit. Where God’s Word and the work he desires to carry out through it are despised or disregarded, he will take his Word and work elsewhere that he might bear fruit through others. Martin Luther observed: 

“For you should know that God’s word and grace is like a passing shower of rain which does not return where it has once been. It has been with the Jews, but when it’s gone it’s gone, and now they have nothing. Paul brought it to the Greeks; but again when it’s gone it’s gone, and now they have the Turk. Rome and the Latins also had it; but when it’s gone it’s gone, and now they have the pope. And you Germans need not think that you will have it forever, for ingratitude and contempt will not make it stay. Therefore, seize it and hold it fast, whoever can; for lazy hands are bound to have a lean year” (LW 45:352).

Last Sunday we had a short and sweet parable – only three characters in three verses. Today’s parable is longer and more detailed. Thankfully, Jesus clearly spells out the point of this parable. Because he does, 1 ) we don’t have to worry about missing out on the big picture because of all the details, but 2 ) we can also gain a better understanding of the main point by giving out attention to the various details of the story. 

First, we note that God took every care to set up his people for success. “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower” (v.33). God had given his chosen people everything they needed to bear fruit. Even as their people were just being established in Egypt, the Lord granted them the lush lands of Goshen to settle in when Joseph brought his whole family there. The next stop after that was the land flowing with milk and honey that God had promised exclusively to them. And on the journey there the tabernacle in the desert was their portable house of worship to visualize for them the Lord was among them. At Mt. Sinai God further set them apart from every nation on earth by blessing them with the Ten Commandments and a special set of laws to bless them and protect them from the world’s corruption. In describing the steps the landowner took to bless his future tenants, Jesus is simply putting into story the picture Isaiah painted from our First Lesson: “I will sing for the one I love  song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well” (5:1-2). Jesus put into a parable the very word picture painted by the prophet. The message: God had given his chosen people everything they needed to bear fruit. The Lord even raised the very question through Isaiah, “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?” (v.4).

Now then, against this backdrop we have certain people represented in the parable, the tenants, the servants, and the son. The son plainly represents God’s Son, Jesus. As for the tenants and the servants, the reaction of the hearers that Matthew provides after the parable shows that even they clearly understood who the wicked tenants represented. “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet” (Mt. 21:45-46).   That leaves the servants sent by the landowner to gather his fruit. These are the prophets the Lord sent again and again to his people in hopes that their message would yield fruit in his people (people like Isaiah, the prophet/writer of today’s First Lesson). But sadly, throughout the history of the Old Testament, God’s people responded just as the religious leaders were responding at the conclusion of Jesus’ parable. 

It is clear how this parable applied at the time and in the circumstances during which Jesus told it, but is it as clear how the parable applies to us today? Surely it isn’t recorded for us in the Bible just so that we have yet another opportunity to shake our heads and point our fingers in disappointment at those poor excuses for religious leaders, the full-of-themselves Pharisees. For in so doing, as Jesus’ condemnation of them leads us to hold an even lower opinion of them through this parable, we can become blind to how easily our disappointment directed at the Pharisees can slowly mold us into their modern day counterparts! 

We guard against that by striving to understand how any application of the parable can serve as a personal warning or application to us. Consider first how the tenants’ behavior served as a warning to God’s representatives in his church today. Their behavior in the parable showed a severe misunderstanding of their role int the vineyard – it wasn’t their vineyard to operate and control as they saw fit; rather, it was the landowner’s who had entrusted it to them.

When God’s representatives in his church today forget that, the ship can very easily start to veer off-course. When church leaders take the wheel, so to speak, and speak/act/lead as if it is their ship to steer in the first place, they put everything at risk and potentially chart a course that may lead to a shipwreck. No pastor, ministry, or organizational leader has anything to manage except that which has been entrusted to them by God himself. This is not my church, for example, but God’s church which he has privileged me to shepherd. No congregation belongs to any pastor, but to the Good Shepherd himself. God’s vineyard is not for me to use to further my own self-interests. It does not exist as a means to line my pockets or advance an agenda. The tenants forgot that, and just as it did not end well, so will it be for any under shepherd or leader in the church who forgets whose vineyard it really is in which we’re working.

Ah, but the parable doesn’t just serve as a warning to God’s representatives in his church, but to everyone in his church. For the way the tenants treated the servants sent to collect the harvest ought to be a clear warning to all of us in how we also treat God’s representatives in his church. Remember that it was the landowner himself who sent the servants to the tenants. So to mistreat or abuse the servants as God’s people mistreated and abused his prophets throughout the Old Testament, is tantamount to mistreating and abusing the landowner – God – himself. 

Does this happen in Christ’s church today? Of course it does, otherwise we’d have to conclude the Jesus was quite oblivious in providing a warning in this parable that is unnecessary. When a message from the Word of God is faithfully proclaimed, but falls on ears that do not wish to hear it or have it applied to their lives, nowadays the hearer may simply depart from one place in favor of another messenger or community whose message is more suitable to their palate, even if it uses God’s Word to lie and deceive instead of hold forth the truth. Or, and this may be even more common in this day and age in which there’s no shortage of access to messages via video, podcast, blog, etc., we simply choose to avoid or ignore one of the servants sent by the landowner in favor of another, leaving issues unresolved. When we disregard the efforts of pastors, elders, and church leaders to communicate and reach out to us, we are essentially letting God know that we’re not interested in his efforts to care for his sheep or that we don’t agree with how God is doing it. 

Knowing what not to do is one thing; correcting it is another. The wonderful part of this parable is that making corrections is actually some of the most desirable fruit God craves in his vineyard. It’s called repentance, and it means acknowledging wrong on our part, turning from that sinful, unrighteous behavior, and turning to the Son of the landowner for forgiveness. For God’s representatives, this means confessing when they have not guarded their hearts from seeing their position as self-serving instead of serving selflessly. It means confessing when we’ve placed our ways before His. It means acknowledging the times we’ve defiantly claimed his vineyard as our own to do with it what we please.

We also bear this fruit when we acknowledge our role in mistreating those servants God sends to us to collect the harvest. We confess that we don’t pray enough for those God sends to serve us. We repent of the times we ignore their efforts to serve us. We acknowledge that we let our personal indifferences and preferences get in the way of their service to us and not taking their words and actions in the kindest possible way. When in repentance we turn from our own mistreatment of God’s servant to the Suffering Servant himself, Jesus, for forgiveness, we rejoice that he never turned his back on those who turn away from him, those who mistreated and abused him, and not even those who would crucify him, but even pleaded to the Father for their forgiveness. Rest assured, the forgiveness for which he pleaded has been applied to you and me as well!

How do we respond when faced with those unpleasant calls to repentance? Hopefully not the way the chief priests and Pharisees responded when Jesus told this parable! Rather, let us swallow the bitter pill of repentance and embrace that such difficult steps are exactly the types of fruit God wants to see in our lives! Through the ongoing practice of repentance we are actually removing the rocks and tilling the soil, enabling the Holy Spirit to produce abundant fruit in us.

We are furthermore equipped and empowered to bear abundant fruit when the burden of doing so is removed by the Savior whose perfect harvest of fruit fully satisfied the landowner’s demand and expectation. Where we have forgotten whose vineyard it is that has been entrusted to us, when we’ve treated God’s servants as poorly as the tenants in the parable, the Landowner’s Son has not. His Father’s will, not his own self-serving purposes, was his only concern 100% of his time on earth. Even the religious leaders who plotted against him and finally murdered him, he always treated with respect, even when he directed his harsh calls to repentance at them. The Son produced the perfect harvest of fruit, removing the burden from our shoulders to do so. 

And, at the same time, the Son inspires and moves us to step our fruit-bearing up. Does that mean we have to start a ministry that helps feed 1 million starving children or build 100,000 homes for the homeless, or rescue thousands of sex-trafficked children? Of course it doesn’t. But… could it? What if we the only thing holding us back from bearing abundant fruit on that scale is ourselves? What if we’ve been too quick to think so little of ourselves – and actually it’s God we’re thinking too little of – that we’ve never dreamed of, envisioned, or prayed for God to bear that kind of fruit through us? Could it be possible? My response to that question would simply be, “Have you not seen the astronomical things God has done in Scripture and throughout history through his people?” You better believe God is capable of producing that kind of harvest of fruit in our lives! Maybe all we need to do is remember that he can, and provide him with the opportunities to do so. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, you haven’t been hired as an executive chef at some exclusive restaurant or signed on to some lucrative contract in the sporting world or offered a starring role in the next blockbuster movie. No, you’ve been called to something far greater – you’ve been brought into God’s vineyard to produce something that will last far longer than a fine plate of food, or championship, or academy award – you’ve been set apart to produce fruit that will not only cause God to grin from ear-to-ear with delight, but fruit that has the potential to make an eternal impact in the lives of others. Let’s get to work.

A Story of Sons, Sorrow, and Salvation

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(based on Matthew 21:28-32)

Jesus knows how to grab our attention, doesn’t he? He introduces his parable with the question, “What do you think?” (v.28). That question is about as powerful as they come, because it clearly and directly invites the listener to be a part of the story. What was true then may be even more true today – everyone has an opinion, and we love being asked it, because the truth is, we were going to give it anyway! No one holds back on their opinion, so Jesus, the master story-teller who knows our hearts even better than we do, draws us in by asking, “What do you think?”

Well let me go first. I suppose there are plenty of ways the response, “No,” can get our attention, but few of them make get to me as much as when that “no” is spoken by a child in direct defiance of a parent’s command, as it was in today’s parable. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that kids, sinful nature and all, are prone to such a response. What is really telling in those situations, however, is how the parent responds. Will mom or dad tolerate such a defiant response and let it go, further reinforcing it and guaranteeing that it will be spouted off with much more confidence by the child in the future, or will it be addressed right then and there? 

If, like me, you’re waiting to see how the dad responds in the parable, don’t hold your breath. We don’t ever get his response. Rather, we’re just told the son eventually changed his mind and ended up doing what his father asked. “There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went” (v. 28-29). That’s it. A brief introduction to the first son, a description of his actions, no response from the father, and then the parable continues on to the other son. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go” (v.30). And that concludes the parable. Three verses. Three characters. Very few details, and “The End.” One of the effects of Jesus’ short and sweet parables, though, is that instead of trying to sort through lots of details and trying to associate meaning to them, we’re left with more of an urgent, nagging desire to know the meaning behind the parable. In the case of this one, namely, whom do the sons in the parable represent?

For the answer to that, Jesus again involves his hearers, the chief priest and the elders, who were listening to him teach in the temple courts and had already questioned his authority to do so. Jesus asks them a question and uses their response to explain what would have been to them a rather unpleasant and outright offensive truth. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did” (v. 31-32). Jesus then clearly identifies the first son in the parable as representing the tax collectors and the prostitutes, the very types of people the religious leaders despised. Because we are familiar with the religious leaders from Jesus’ interactions with them in the Gospels, we don’t have to imagine how that sat with them. 

How does it sit with us? The past two Sundays, at the conclusion of our previous sermon series and the start of this one, we were reminded that forgiveness and grace are for everyone. That makes for a very touching storyline, but it seems to get a little tougher to swallow when we stop to consider the challenging reality of who that includes. Who could the first son represent today? It’s definitely not the types of people we’d consider as fine church-going folks, is it? Rather, it’s those with checkered pasts, to put it mildly, who at some point after their prodigal son-like wayward living, eventually come to faith in Jesus. Basically, think of the type of person that makes you cringe, the farthest thing away from the church going type. The people like that, who at some point in time come to faith in Jesus, are represented by the first son. 

It could be the die-hard atheist who spent his lifetime attacking Christianity, who finally succumbs to the very gospel he hated and sees Jesus as his Savior. It could be the sinners who sin that sin that reaaaaaaally gets under your skin, only to later confess that sin, and in repentance rejoice in Jesus’ forgiveness. The first son could be the political analyst who holds what you consider to be a radically opposing view, who actually is a Jesus follower, too. The first son could be the converted prisoner we skeptically roll our eyes at when he claims to have “found Jesus” while serving time. We could go on.

There’s something else worth noting when we think about “those types of people”; Jesus seemed to spend a lot of time around them, didn’t he? Jesus, the churchiest of church guys, not only didn’t avoid such sinners, but actually went out of his way to be among them! Think of how frequently the Pharisees themselves tried to shame Jesus for associating in such scandalous circles. Jesus spent an awful lot of time in his ministry with first sons who by their lives defiantly protest, “I will not” to the father, so that in the end, through his patient preaching and teaching, they might later change their mind, as well as their ways and their heart, and up believing in Jesus and living for him. 

And here’s the most shocking part of Jesus’ parable: these are the ones who are first in line for heaven! They don’t eke it out and barely squeeze their way in, as we might expect; no, Jesus told the religious leaders that these are the types of people “entering the kingdom of God ahead of you” (v.31). How could the church-going types not be first in line? Frankly, it’s a rather offensive thought, isn’t it? It reminds me of the story of the “upstanding” member of a church who discovered that the pastor had called on a dying delinquent, a non-active member of the church, and assured him of Jesus’ forgiveness and his home in heaven. Upon hearing this, the upstanding member took the pastor to task, incredulous that he would do such a thing. “If that is the sort of person who is allowed in heaven, then I have no desire to go there.” To that the pastor replied, “Don’t worry – if that is truly your feeling on the matter, you don’t have to be concerned about being in heaven with him.”

Here’s where this particular parable leaves us feeling a little unsure of ourselves. On the one hand, when we hear about the types of people represented by the first son, we don’t particularly gravitate toward that crowd! That’s not really how we want to be thought of or considered… yet they’re first in line for heaven, which DOES appeal to us. Well, if we’re not sure about how we feel identifying as the first son, there’s only one more option in the parable, and it isn’t really any more appealing.

The second son gave what we’d all consider was the proper – and particularly polite! – response. “Yes, sir – I’ll get right on it.” But it goes no further than that. There is nothing that follows the dutiful reply. He was merely paying lip service to his father. Though his response made him appear to be the perfect child every parent dreams of, his actions showed something else. The second son bears a striking resemblance to the individual Jesus warned about elsewhere when he said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom’s of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 7:21). Yikes! And if at this point it isn’t clear who does Jesus identify as being represented by the second son? Not necessarily a much more favorable social circle: the pharisees. He pointed out that this was the third time they were being called to repentance. First, they refused to heed John the baptist’s call to repent and believe. Second, they weren’t convinced even after the prostitutes and tax-collectors did repent and believed. Now Jesus comes to them again with his call to repentance through this parable.

The bigger question though, is where does this all leave us? The first son would seem to be the easier one to spot, agree? Are there some hearing this message that need to hear and heed that warning? Yes. The second son may not be as easy to spot, but where would he be more likely to hang out? Wouldn’t it be in church? Wouldn’t it be at a Bible study? Wouldn’t it be in a leadership position? Wouldn’t it be the proper, polite, say-all-the-right things person that everyone would agree on the outside appears to be everything we’d expect of the ideal Christian and much more? Yet, aside from saying the right things and looking the part, there is no actual substance. There is no faith behind the guise of right words and possibly even actions.

So where again does this parable leave us? Believe it or not, with hope. Because you notice that Jesus leaves the doorway to his kingdom cracked open for both sons. The first sons may be entering first through that door, but Jesus explained to the second sons that the door was still cracked open, for “ahead of you” means there’s still room. You hear that? It doesn’t matter if you’re a first son or a second son – the door is still open. There still is room. For you. For me. For every other son! 

How can this be? How can the doorway to heaven remain opened for both sons? Someone once made an excellent point about the missing son in the parable, the unmentioned son one we might call the third son. How was he different from the first two? He not only said “Yes, sir,” but he also followed through perfectly and did what he said he would do. Who is this third unmentioned son? It’s Jesus. The perfect Son. Our perfect Savior. He is the reason heaven is held open to any son, first or second, life-long church-going member, or late-to-the-party prodigal. This third Son Jesus literally did everything the Father asked him. And he did it perfectly, satisfying the Father’s righteous expectations. 

What’s more, he paid the highest price that could be paid so that other sons and daughters would be able to enter the kingdom of God. Only by his blood can we rightly even be called sons and daughters, brought into the family through repentance and faith. The change of mind, the turning away from my way to God’s way; the confession of sin; the confidence of complete forgiveness. These are the blessings the third Son brings for everyone else, for us.

You’ve heard it said that it’s not how you start; it’s how you finish. Regardless then of which son you are, cling to the third Son, Jesus, and live in faith over fear, peace over panic, and hope over helplessness. 

It’s God’s Grace

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(based on Matthew 20:1-16)

Parents can relate to the experience all too well. Mom or dad hasn’t yet made up their mind about whether or not dessert is on the menu for the night. Maybe it depends on how supper goes. Maybe the decision is based on how much junk food the kids have already had over the course of the day. Whatever the criteria, the kids pester with the same question all day – “Can we have dessert?” “Are we having dessert?” “Have you decided if we’re having dessert?” “So, how about dessert?” Finally, the joyous declaration resounds throughout the house, “Yes, we shall feast on dessert this evening.” And, as you would expect, cheers ring out and words of gratitude pour forth from the lips of the children. Only… that doesn’t happen. Instead it sounds like this: “He got more than I did!” “She got a bigger piece!” “We didn’t all get the same amount – it’s not fair!” What should be expressions of gratitude and thanks are instead replaced by outbursts of inequality and charges of unfairness. Parents wonder if their children will ever outgrow this phase. 

But at some point it becomes obvious – or should, at least; we don’t ever outgrow that phase, do we? We spend our entire lives being concerned about the very same thing – making sure that everything is fair and that everyone gets the same or at least no more than they deserve. We find other ways to belt out the adult version of “It’s not fair!” It’s not fair that I got a speeding ticket and that other guy back there going fast enough to zip past me doesn’t get pulled over. It’s not fair that I always get picked for jury duty and she never does. It’s not fair that they got their food first when we ordered before they did. This isn’t fair. That’s not fair. It’s not fair.

“It’s not fair” had the hired hands up in arms in Jesus’ parable, too. It just wasn’t right in their minds. Person A who showed up at the crack of dawn and worked all day long should earn more than Person B who strolled in at the tail end of the work day. That’s how it is supposed to work. That’s fair. And it would be fair if this was a parable to teach us about economics. But, like all of Jesus’ parables as we’ll see the rest of this month, their purpose is not to provide some temporal takeaway, but to provide spiritual insight that gives us a clearer picture both of who God is and who we are. Our parable today achieves both. 

Jesus introduces this parable using what for him is a typical introduction: something “is like” this or that. He is clarifying that what he’s about to say is not a literal occurrence or an actual historical event, but rather a story that is intended to illustrate a particular point or teaching. In this case, he is explaining what “the kingdom of heaven is like” (v.1). What is “the kingdom of heaven,” exactly? It is one way that Jesus reminds us that our sense of belonging in this world – a family name, a town in which we were brought up, or citizenship in a certain country, for example – is vastly different than what it means to belong to the Lord, to be his, or as Paul puts it in his letter to the Philippians, to have “our citizenship [is] in heaven” (3:20). The criteria for belonging to Christ’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, is unlike any criteria on earth for belonging in that it is based on one thing and one thing only: grace. 

We love grace. We celebrate grace. We just sang a hymn about grace that is near and dear to many of our hearts. Grace is what we’re all about. We know forgiveness is extended to us because of grace. We know salvation is ours because of grace. We know that even the gift of faith itself which clings to all these truths is because of grace. From start to finish, through and through, it’s all by grace.

But it is the very thing that makes grace so attractive – that it is underserved – that makes it tough for us to swallow when others receive it. The real irony? It irritates us to see others receive grace when we don’t feel they deserve it! It’s the very definition of grace – undeserved love, that ruffles our feathers when we see it extended to those we don’t think deserve it. But no one deserves it! That’s just it. I don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve it. No one deserves it. 

Yet God desires to extend it to everyone. “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22). “All the ends of the earth” includes everyone – including you, if I’m not mistaken. But “everyone” also includes the estranged family member. Everyone includes that jerk from high school who treated you like garbage. Everyone includes the offensive co-worker. Everyone includes the alcoholic, the addict, the rapist, the racist, the sex-trafficer, and the pedophile.

Here’s where Jesus’ parable challenges us. We know that God wants everyone to be saved. We know that that means everyone needs his grace. So why is it that we can slip into the same thinking as the first hired hands who worked the longest and resent that those who worked the least got paid the exact same amount? Why should such resentment ever creep into our hearts? Well the truth is, it doesn’t creep into our hearts – it’s always been there. It resides there, and a parable like this just exposes it. But why would we ever resent God extending his grace to anyone else if, like him, we also want everyone to be saved?

I wonder if Jesus’ final words in this parable clue us in. He concluded with, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Mt. 20:16). And, if you look at how Jesus concluded his teaching in the previous chapter, he closed the same way. Why does Jesus need to make this statement repeatedly when teaching? Isn’t it rather obvious? It goes against our very nature. We are bent toward self first and foremost. When that happens, you know what we tend to do? We use ourselves as the metric by which we judge others. We are our own measuring stick. When that is the case, we lose our bearings and it throws everything out of perspective.

See what it did for those hired first in the parable? When they got paid the same exact amount as those who put in less time, “they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day’” (v.11-12). The metric by which they determined how things should be was on the basis of the long hard day that they had put in. By comparison then, the workers whose timesheet reflected fewer hours worked didn’t deserve the same wages. 

Worst of all, their skewed sense of comparison led them to resent the landowner who had hired them in the first place. He even called them out for resenting his generosity (v.15). So an ego-fed hard day’s work as their standard resulted in their despising not only all those hired after them, but also the generous landowner who had hired them all in the first place. And, how quickly they forgot that they had even agreed to work all day for the payment that was promised!

Rather than using our inflated sense of self as the measuring stick, there is only one metric by which we can explain this parable, and really understand the kingdom of heaven. Only when grace is the metric does all of this make sense. Grace makes room not just for those hired last, but also for the resentful workers hired first. Grace hires those who never even applied for the job. Grace pays out the same wages to every worker. What a beautiful thing that is for us! What a beautiful thing that is for everyone! Hired first? Work hard, work faithfully, work as long as it is day, because you know that Jesus means your payment in heaven is never in question. Hired last? It’s never too late to get working in the vineyard. Though even the majority of your life may have been a missed opportunity to serve in the kingdom of grace, Jesus means your payment in heaven is never in question. 

So what is our takeaway from this parable? Let it be two-fold: 1) thank God that he deals with us on the basis of grace and not our own standards, and 2) guard against allowing that grace to be taken for granted or despised when we see it extended to others. How do we keep these two points in our hearts and minds? We remember that it’s God’s grace. It’s his. Though he extends it to us, he doesn’t entrust it to us to determine who does or doesn’t deserve it. Then it would no longer be grace. For it to remain grace, it must remain God’s to give freely as he determines. 

Notice the arrangements of those hired later in the day. They didn’t agree to work for a set amount as did the first hired hands, who agreed to a denarius. No, they agreed to work for whatever the landowner determined was right (v.4). They were excited to be asked to work, not even worrying about the payment. They were totally fine with the landowner paying them as he saw fit. So their joy wasn’t based on how much they stood to earn. In fact they weren’t even worried about that. Their joy was found in getting to work in the vineyard. They were elated to be chosen. 

Actually, if we really want to get at the point of this parable, we have to admit that the landowner really was being unfair. Not only did none of the workers apply for the job or deserve to be hired, but none of them actually deserved to be paid. Yet they were all hired. They were all paid. 

When it’s God’s grace, not ours, to dole out, it isn’t fair. No one deserves it. In fact we all equally DON’T deserve it. But rather than grumbling and complaining about God being unfair with his grace, let’s celebrate it, work our tails off in his vineyard, and then when the time comes, look forward to being paid something far greater than a denarius, far greater than even the dessert your kids pester you for… let’s look forward to finding out what it’s like to be on the other side of the kingdom of heaven. We will, by God’s grace.