Tag: parable

A Time for Faithful Service

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(Matthew 25:14-30)

What do you think of the master in the parable? What impression of him are you left with after reading or hearing Jesus’ story? Is he the kind of guy you respect, the kind you could see yourself wanting to spend time with, perhaps getting to know him a bit over a cup of coffee? Or does he rub you the wrong way in how he comes across in the parable? Is he a little too uptight and overly focused on the financials? Do you see him being concerned more about profit than he is about people?

Since the master in the parable represents the Lord, let’s just cut right to the chase and be a little more direct: what do you think about God? What is your view of him? How do you personally see God? When you pray to him, what is the image in your mind of God as you are speaking to him? When you call to mind the promises he speaks to you, what does he look like to you as you are hearing him speak those promises to you? What feelings do thoughts of God evoke in you? How do you describe what he means to you when you’re talking about him with others?

What you make of the Master matters. Why? Because what you make of the Master determines your service to him.

Think about your current job and all of the past jobs you’ve ever held. Didn’t the way you felt about your manager or boss impact your work? If you thought the world of your boss, then you also didn’t think twice about making sure you always did your best and even went above and beyond. But if you couldn’t stand your boss, you were less concerned about wowing anyone with your work and just cared about completing the bare minimum required to keep him off your back. The way we feel about our boss has bearing on the work we do. 

What you make of the Master matters. How you see God impacts how you serve him. If you view him as the third servant did, then what you do with the talents he entrusted to you will be tainted. Fear or guilt will either lead to begrudging toil or burying talents. Either way, it won’t produce the kind of return that God the Giver desires.

So then, how do you view God? Is it possible that you… resent him? Do you hold any sense of spite toward God because you reason that he finds some twisted joy in punishing wrong-doers? If so, where might that perception possibly come from? Might it be driven by our own guilty conscience? Could such a view of God stem from our awareness of our own shameful sins, which at times we carry out so casually? Do we attempt to make God the bad guy for punishing the sins we want to commit, imagining we can somehow shift the blame onto him? Is that how you see him?

Do you perhaps view God as the hard Master who demands far too much of you? Does he place impossible expectations on you? Do you think of him as distant and far off, like the man in the parable going on the journey? Is he out of touch? Do you suppose he cares only about results while being disinterested in you personally? 

Friend, if any of those apply, while I don’t know where those perceptions ever came from in the first place, I do know this: you’ve got the wrong guy. Such views of God don’t line up with how God is portrayed in Scripture. Think about it – would the master really have entrusted his personal property to his servants if he did not care about them, trust them, and yes, even love them? After all, he wasn’t passing along his personal property to strangers, but to his own servants.

Know this about the God who desires grace to be his calling card: his delight in you isn’t dependent upon your faithful service to him, but rather his faithful service to you. He called you to faith. He keeps you in faith. His forgiveness – and all the wealth of spiritual blessings that accompany it – are not extended to you on the basis of how faithfully you manage what he gives you; his forgiveness is extended to you on the basis of how faithfully his Son served by obediently carrying out everything necessary for your salvation. His faithfulness was flawless. That is your Master.

But your Master is even more! He’s also the Suffering Servant. Jesus not only explained the wicked servant’s sentence; he also experienced it. “And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v.30). Jesus was the one who was thrown into the darkness of hell. Jesus was the one who experienced the weeping and gnashing of teeth in the place of eternal separation from his Father. Though his obedient service was flawlessly faithful, he suffered the punishment of the wicked, lazy servant. He suffered our punishment. The Master and Suffering Servant are one and the same – our Substitute and Savior.

Two of the three servants clearly viewed him that right way. We can tell by the quality of their service to him. They set out to put to work what the Master had entrusted to them and their efforts yielded a very nice return – who wouldn’t take a 100% return on any investment? They had faithfully utilized what had been given them, and the Master was delighted, showering them not only with praise, but also entrusting them with greater responsibility. “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” (v.23). 

Then there was the third servant. He chose to manage what had been given to him differently. Rather than put it to work, he was concerned about losing it and facing his Master’s wrath. 

He was playing not to lose. You know when that expression is typically used of a team in any sporting event? It’s most often directed at a team that either is losing or has just lost, because rather than focusing on putting in the work to score more points to either take the lead or keep the lead, they were more focused only on keeping the other team from scoring. It rarely works out well for the team that finds itself playing not to lose. 

It didn’t work out well for the third servant, either. And the Master wasn’t buying his excuses. He didn’t hold back in calling him out bluntly. “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest’” (v.26-27). So while the servant supposed his misguided view of the Master would let him off the hook, it did the very opposite. His Master pointed out that if that truly was how he saw him, then he had even less reason to bury his talent and more reason to put the talent to work in an effort to avoid the Master’s wrath!

As we consider this parable in this time in between Jesus’ first and second coming, it is obvious to us that Jesus would have us live not like the third servant, but like the first two servants. So what does the faithful servant look like today?

Assuming we long to please the Master as the faithful servants did, what is required of us? Sometimes this parable has been used to highlight that God gifts us differently. We notice that he didn’t give the same talents to each of the servants. This is true. We do have different gifts and abilities from God. Some can organize and coordinate. Others have musical gifts. Some build and fix with their hands, some find joy in serving and/or cleaning up. The list goes on and the point is stressed that whichever unique gifts we have been given, we are to put them to use faithfully and not bury them. This application definitely has its place as we understand how God has uniquely gifted us.

But it isn’t the only way to consider the faithful service God calls us to carry out. It might also be helpful for us to think of the talents/bags of gold in terms of the responsibilities we have in our lives. Since we have numerous responsibilities across the board in our lives, whatever those responsibilities may be, God expects us to be faithful in carrying them out.

You have a job – do it well with all the strength and ability God provides. You have a house and a vehicle – take good care of them it and maintain them well. You have volunteered your time for this or that cause – follow through with your commitments and see them to completion. You have a spouse to love and serve – do so sacrificially. You are single – use it to your advantage to serve the Lord in that season of life. You have children – raise them to be grace-filled, Jesus-loving Christians who embrace the privilege of serving in Christ’s kingdom. You have neighbors – befriend and help them whenever possible. And we all share responsibilities to the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those treated unjustly, and so on. Some of us have more responsibilities than others, just as the servants had different amounts of talents. Whatever those responsibilities are, faithful service means we don’t avoid them, we don’t wait for others to carry them out for us, we don’t neglect them, and we don’t carry them out half-heartedly. 

No, because we know the Master, and what we make of the Master matters. It makes our heart sing to do a job well for him. It delights us to delight him. It fills us with joy to know that every single responsibility we have is an opportunity for us to worship him with our whole lives, to give him our best as he did for us. We think so highly of the Master who thought so highly of us as to give us the greatest gift possible in Jesus. 

What a wonder that our Master should respond to our faithfulness as he does, and that we are both the source of his happiness as well as the ones with whom he wishes to share his happiness. Your faithful service makes the Master happy. Doesn’t it make you happy to know that? Go then and put smiles on God’s face with your faithful service. 

A Time for Watchfulness

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(Matthew 25:1-13)

Generally speaking, we typically fall into one of two categories when it comes to packing: the minimalist light packer who prides herself in packing only the bare minimum and nothing that would take up unnecessary space, and the packer who brings essentially everything he owns, just in case he might need it. They’re easy to spot in the airport, since one has either a backpack or small carry-on, while the other is stumbling along, looking as if he’s carrying enough luggage for a small family. 

Regardless of which of those two types of traveler you are, no one likes feeling unprepared. Whether we’re light or heavy packers, we still feel prepared as long as we have everything we think we’ll end up needing.

What we can’t anticipate, however, is whether or not everything will go according to plan. Delayed or cancelled flights, missed layovers, lost luggage, reservation issues with car rentals or accommodations – there’s a lot that can go wrong!

The women in Jesus’ parable who were waiting for the bridegroom found that out, too. They undoubtedly thought they were prepared… until the bridegroom took longer than expected in arriving. Then, five of the women without extra oil found out how unprepared they were. On the other hand, five of the ten had anticipated that might be the case, since they brought extra oil for their lamps for just such an occasion. They were actually prepared. They were ready. As a result, they got to experience the wedding banquet with the bridegroom once he arrived.

The story didn’t end so well for the five who ran out of oil. They were not prepared. They were not ready. So, when the time came to accompany the bridegroom to the banquet, they were in the dark. They were out of oil. Then, by the time they caught up after having to find oil to fill up their lamps, it was too late. The door to the wedding banquet had already been shut and guests were no longer being admitted. They unexpectedly found themselves shut out of the party. 

Doesn’t this parable sound like the kind of warning that would be directed more toward those who are at home sleeping in on a Sunday morning, or out and about, or prioritizing other things in life before worship? Does this parable really have anything to say to those who are active in their Christian faith and engaged in their churches?

Yes it does. First, heed Jesus’ warning for watchfulness in your own heart. Second, sound the warning for others before it’s too late. 

If you are active in your faith right now, how far back do you have to go to a time when you weren’t? Each of us has so many different stories about how we got to where we are today in our faith and relationship with Jesus. Some of us have always only known and believed in Jesus. We were brought up in believing homes with Jesus-loving parents – possibly even pastors or teachers in the church – who made sure that Sunday mornings were spent in church hearing about God’s love for us in Jesus, and it’s stuck with us every day since. 

But those stories among us are more likely the exception than the rule. More of us probably have stories that look more like the tangled up ball of Christmas lights we’re looking forward to unraveling after Thanksgiving. Our stories are a little messier, perhaps a little bit of religion here and some wandering there and a whole lot of back and forth for many years. Some who are newer to life with Jesus all together and know a whole lot more mess in their life and are still fresh in their discovery of how sweet Jesus makes life.

So realize by looking back on your life that just because you’re where you are now is no guarantee of where you’ll be in the future if you’re not continuing to keep watch.

As the weather cools just a bit and mornings and evenings make it nice to get comfortable and cozy, don’t ever fall into the trap of getting comfortable with your faith. As Jesus’ parable showed, it can lead to spiritual drowsiness and leave you unprepared.

Yes, you might believe you’re ready, but so did the five virgins waiting for the bridegroom. They were in the right place, but they still weren’t prepared. You can be in the right place, even doing the right things, but still not be prepared for Jesus’ return.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day are a great example of this. They were in the right place, doing the right things, but for the wrong reason. They weren’t prepared. Their hearts were hollow. They weren’t filled with faith. Rather than living thankfully out of gratitude for the forgiveness and salvation Jesus freely gives, their lives were auditions, lived in expectation that their performances would be more than adequate to cast them in at least some role in heaven. Their lives were pretend, not lived in genuine faith. 

Similarly, a person can worship, can serve, can even give, and all of it can be done in unbelief. There’s certain intrinsic value in each of those things, I suppose. They carry some benefit, depending on what a person is looking for. But if not done in faith, with the desire to grow in that faith, then it is all for naught. It isn’t the pleasing fruit of faith that God desires and grows, but is instead like the plastic fruit bowl displayed on the dining room tables of a furniture showroom.  

One of the applications we can draw from Jesus’ parable is the warning that these kinds of dangers are more likely to happen gradually than they are suddenly. In verse five, Jesus made the point, “The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.” Do not suppose, then, that these dangers are only sudden and immediate. They come over time as we let our guard down.

In our congregation, we’ve been a little more intentional about paying attention to those who have been missing out on worship for three+ months, and there are some consistent findings. Guess who’s most likely to be absent from worship for three months? Those who have missed for two months. Guess who’s most likely to miss worship for two months? Those who have missed worship for one month. Neglecting worship becomes so much easier when we allow it to become a pattern.

So don’t. Be in God’s house every week. Be here several times a month. Don’t let one Sunday turn to two, and then three, and low and behold, four months later you haven’t been to church. That’s not being watchful. That’s not being ready. That’s begging to find yourself out of oil when the bridegroom comes. 

While Jesus’ parable deals with those who had some sense and some expectation of the bridegroom’s arrival, how much more urgent is the warning to those not anticipating the bridegroom’s arrival, let alone aware of the bridegroom or the banquet at all in the first place? How many more either through ignorance or indifference have no “save the date” card for Jesus’ return stuck to their fridge? How many don’t know anything at all or know so very little about Jesus’ first coming that they may not have even a slight clue about his second, when he returns on the last day?

Yes, there is surely a place for those gathered in local congregations to look out for each other and make sure they don’t run out of oil before the end, but what of all those who have no lamps and no oil at all? Who will warn them to be ready, to be watching, to be prepared? While we may be wide awake as to our own salvation, do we need a wake-up call to the urgency of warning the lost and the lukewarm all around us? Are we OK being surrounded but the spiritual dead and condemned to hell or can we all detach from our devices for a moment here and there and have a conversation about Christ? Can we alert others to the impending arrival of the bridegroom?

Remember, you have been forgiven, redeemed, and saved for a purpose, and that purpose is not limited to just the joy of the banquet in heaven; that purpose also includes the joy of bringing more wedding guests along with you.

You have been forgiven so that you can forgive others.

You have been redeemed so that you can pronounce redemption to others.

You have been saved so you can point others to their Savior.

By God’s grace, your lamp has been filled with oil; tell others where to fill up their lamps with oil so that they, too, are ready. 

We’re ready for the bridegroom when we continue to make sure our lamps are filled with oil. We don’t ever get to the point of “it’s good enough” with our faith, but we want a growing faith, always filling the lamp with more oil.

Suppose an absurdly wealthy individual who was feeling particularly generous came to you and wanted to write you a check. You only had to name the amount and he would write the check out to you. However, after you gave him the first amount, he said, “more.” So you gave him a bigger number. Again he said “more.” You then gave him a number with a whole bunch of zeros after it. Still he said “more.” How long do you think this would go on before you’d get sick of him saying “more” each time? I don’t know about you, but I would welcome the opportunity to find out!

May we have the same attitude regarding our faith in Jesus. “More.” Never “good enough” or “sufficient,” but always “more.” Trust me, your lamps can hold a lot more oil, so fill them up with more Jesus, more faith. Don’t hold back in asking God for more – he’ll give it eagerly! What Jesus secured for you and me and everyone else with his perfect life of obedience and his death on the cross is more than we could ever exhaust – but let’s at least try to find out!

Fill your lamp with faith. Then fill it up with more, and you’ll be ready. You’ll be watchful. You’ll be like a giddy child, prepared to go with your Savior to the place he has prepared for us when he comes on that Last Day.

A Story of Liberal & Lavish Invitation

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(Matthew 22:1-14)

How can God possibly convince you? What illustration, what picture, would be enough for it to sink in how good it is to be in Christ’s kingdom? What does it take so that your view of Christianity and Christ’s church is so much more than just a social club or service to tap into when you need it, but so much more? Think about what it would take for that to sink in, because God wants you to know how really great it is to be in his kingdom.

So Jesus tells a story. This story shares some similarities with previous stories – parables – we’ve heard from Jesus, but also a few unique elements. One that stands out: the party! “Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son’” (v. 1-2).

Mind you, this is not just anyone in the neighborhood throwing a party – this is a king. This is someone with the resources to put together a spectacular party! Someone in that position, for an occasion like that – a wedding reception for his son – is able to spare no expense in spoiling all of the guests gathered to celebrate his son’s marriage.

The king even makes sure his servants are highlighting his extensive preparations when he sends them out to personally follow up on the invitations he had extended. “Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet” (v.4). He was not throwing some party on the cheap, holding out and hoarding the best of the best for himself sometime down the road, but was planning to serve the best beverages, choicest cuts of meat, and every delectable treat one could ever hope to sample. It was all going to be there!

And it’s all right here – right here in Christ’s kingdom to which we believers belong. That – this – is the kingdom Jesus is portraying in his parable, and while it certainly includes the fullest measure of what is waiting for us in heaven, by no means are the blessings of the wedding banquet off limits to us until then! While the blessings of being in this kingdom are many, I want to highlight just a few that repeatedly seem to top the list for many believers: hope, peace, forgiveness, and love.

A familiar statement popped up again in a recent devotion. I’m not sure who is credited with coining it, but here’s the reminder of one of the great blessings of being in Christ’s kingdom: “Many people see only a hopeless end, but you have an endless hope.”

In a society that has more resources than it’s ever had at its disposal – in terms of stuff, support, treatment, etc. – it seems to take so little for people to slip into hopelessness. Yes, in recent decades we have done a poor job of teaching younger generations the value of resiliency and how to handle adversity, but there’s more to it than that.

If we don’t have the God of hope in our lives, then should it surprise us that so many are feeling hopeless? Let’s not make it more complicated than it needs to be! Paul captured the blessing of hope in the closing thoughts of his letter to the Christians in Rome. To those who had more than enough earthly reasons to feel hopeless, as persecution in the early church raged, he wrote, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

Without the “God of hope,” where else would we expect to be hopeful? But with him, hope overflows – a hope that is fueled by the certainty of the full-blown wedding banquet waiting for us in the future. And that hope is related to another blessing of being in this kingdom: peace. 

Will peace exist in the middle east when terrorists stop attacking Israel and Israel stops retaliating? Is peace merely a matter of putting down weapons? Of course not. Fear and terror of what could happen at any moment in the future would continue to exist on both sides.

That’s because peace isn’t found in the absence of war and aggression; it’s found in reconciliation. It is found only when two sides have completely hashed out their differences and restored and repaired their relationship. But as long as something – anything – stands in the way of that, there is no reconciliation, and therefore no peace. 

When we are riddled with guilt over what we’ve done wrong, we don’t need someone to merely brush it off and say that what we did was no big deal. No, we need something more. We need reconciliation. We need assurances that what we’ve done doesn’t stand between us and that person. We only have that in Jesus, who alone is able to assure us that because of his saving work, because of the forgiveness he came to secure for us, no sin or guilt remains between a Holy God and a sinner like me. The assurance Jesus gave to his disciples after his resurrection is also our assurance: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). You are at peace. Jesus says so, because Jesus made it so. And just as your peace is related to the hope we have, so is your peace the result of another blessing of being in the kingdom: forgiveness.

Notice how beautifully that forgiveness is depicted in Colossians: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14). We have been rescued! We were dominated by darkness, but having been brought into the King’s kingdom, a kingdom characterized by forgiveness.

It’s what sets this kingdom apart from all others. Other kingdoms are established by a show of might or political gamesmanship, but not this one. This one is far more powerful, for it is based on the authoritative pronouncement of God himself to the whole world, that his forgiveness through Christ means he doesn’t hold our sin against us. 

But what should prompt all of this? Why should the likes of any of us be able to rest in the hope, the peace, and the forgiveness that belong to us in this kingdom?

Simply because the God who is love loves you with a love that will never burn out or be bored of you. His is an eternal love, put into action before creation, carried out at Christ’s crucifixion, and continues to all in his kingdom.

Jesus’ disciple John, who preferred to be known not for his great sermons, his special privileges as being in Jesus’ inner circle, or any of his own accomplishments, but to be known simply as the disciple Jesus loved, wrote, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).

In Christ’s kingdom we have all of these blessings – hope, peace, and forgiveness – because God loves us. In light of these reminders, doesn’t Jesus’ description of the lavish wedding banquet seem like a gross understatement? How could any worldly illustration – even Jesus’ own parable – possibly come close to adequately describing the blessings God lavishes on his people?!?

Yes, Jesus’ story is one of a lavish invitation to a never-ending party that nothing else will ever come anywhere close to imitating. But Jesus’ story tells us even more: everyone is invited. All are welcome! No one is excluded from being invited to the banquet! How liberal is God with his invitation, to exclude no one and include everyone?!?

The details in the parable capture this quite well. The king had already sent out invitations, but he didn’t just sit back and wait for people to show up. Rather, in addition to sending out the invitations, he took the initiative to follow up with all of those who had been invited to remind them of the invitation and urge them to now come and join in the festivities, for everything was ready.

If you’ve ever planned a party or an event – whether it’s been for just a small group or a large one – you know this is no small thing. It’s a lot of effort to make sure all of the details on the invitation are correct. Then, how will the invitations get distributed? Will you mail them with a stamp, send out an email and hope it doesn’t go into their spam, or create an event on social media? Will you invite via a phone call or text message?

There are so many ways to get the word out, which also means so many more ways for the word to get lost, ironically making follow up as necessary as ever! And who of us hasn’t wanted to pull out their hair trying to do that (or from the other perspective, been the ones responsible for causing others to want to pull out their hair because of our lack of response!)? Getting a response from people at a time when ghosting has become acceptable behavior is no easy thing! So see and appreciate what great lengths the king went to in his invitations, sending his servants out multiple times to follow up.

When one goes to such great lengths to plan and prepare a party and thoroughly extend invitation upon invitation, it makes it all the more inexcusable that any should react as they did. Some simply ignored the invitation. Others were preoccupied with other priorities, heading off to work or tending to a project at home. Still others did the unthinkable and murdered the messengers.

Recall that we witnessed this same behavior in the last parable Jesus told of his vineyard. However, this time Jesus included what it looked like to “bring those wretches to a wretched end,” to use the words from the last story of Jesus. He describes it here. “The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city” (v.7).

Yes, there will be punishment for those who reject Jesus’ offer of free and full salvation. While some may conclude that such punishment is unnecessary and that God goes too far and way over the top in carrying out such punishment, they forget that consequence is simply what we brought on ourselves way back at the first sin.

We brought it on ourselves. What’s more, remember that’s the very thing God sent out the invitation to rescue us from! So if we refuse his rescue, then we have just chosen for things to be the way we always deserve – to be punished ourselves for our sin and cut off from God’s grace forever. To those who reject God’s gracious invitation, God will give them what they want instead. 

But for those who do by faith accept his invitation, we notice from this parable that there’s also only one way to get into the banquet: you have to be wearing the wedding clothes.

The king saw one guest who was not properly dressed and he was dismissed – thrown out of the party! He didn’t have on the right fit. The only appropriate dress wear in Christ’s kingdom is Christ’s perfection. His holiness. His righteousness. Anyone who insists on wearing his own good efforts, noble intentions, or positive thoughts and vibes, will end up on the outside looking in. 

So after the invitations went out, who are those left out? Only those who chose not to attend the banquet and those insisting on getting in on their own terms.

So it is with the kingdom of God. The invitations literally could not have been sent out more liberally! They went out to everyone! Not only that, but the appropriate attire – the credit of Christ’s perfect life through faith – is also offered to everyone in attendance. And don’t forget the rich blessings of being in attendance: hope, peace, and forgiveness, all driven by the King’s love for you. How lavish & liberal is the king’s invitation?!?

Who are you in this parable? Wherever you are in life, there is a role depicted in the parable. Are you rejecting the invitation and/or those messengers who bring it? Preoccupied with other things that you don’t have time of the party? You want to come to the party but you insist on getting in on your own terms? Feel like your guilty past means you didn’t make the guest list? All are invited! The servants were sent out repeatedly to others with the invitation? At times we fall into different roles in the parable, but as we wrap up Jesus’ stories, let us make sure we take him up on his invitation. Not only does our eternity depend on it, but we don’t want to miss out on the party – then or now! And it’s so easy for us to miss out if we take for granted what is included in Christ’s kingdom.

The story is told of a family who wanted to travel to America for the chance at a better life. After saving up, they spent all they had on tickets for the family to travel on an ocean liner to America. Friends and family provided bread and cheese for the family of four. Dad figured they could stretch that out to last the ten-day trip and then they’d be much better off after arriving in America.

After six days of cheese & bread sandwiches, their little boy couldn’t take it anymore. Dad mercifully scrounged together enough change for the boy to go to the ship’s store and buy an apple. After quite a bit of time had passed, the boy hadn’t returned and dad, being worried, set out to find him.

As he left the lowest tier of the ship and climbed each level, accommodations became increasingly luxurious. Eventually the father made it into the the grand dining room, where he discovered his son sitting at a table surrounded by an amazing spread of food. “What are you doing?”, dad lamented. “We can’t afford that! I’ll be arrested and we’ll be taken back home!”

As the son replied, he took out the change his dad had given him and returned it, explaining, “Dad, all of the food is included in the price of the ticket. We could have been eating all of this for the past six days instead of cheese bread sandwiches!”

So often that describes how we go through life. We settle for cheese sandwiches instead of tapping into the banquet that God provides for us. Realize how lavish the party is in Christ’s kingdom, and rejoice that you’ve been invited by taking advantage of all of the blessings he provides! Oh, and don’t forget to pass along to everyone else that they’ve been invited, too!

A Story of A Determined Harvester

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(Matthew 21:33-43)

They were a camping family. They knew the outdoors. Their experience level could be considered way above average in terms of handling different types of geography, weather, and wildlife. Being outdoors was almost as natural to them as the daily routine back home, even for the kids.

All of this explains why the parents didn’t bat an eye at giving the okay when their thirteen-year old asked if he could go for a hike, even though they were camping in bear country. When he returned from his hike, everyone was pretty excited when he shared that he saw a bear on his hike, from a safe distance, of course.

The following day his parents again granted him permission to go on the hike, as he was excited by the possibility of seeing a bear again. This time he came back even more thrilled, because not only did he see the bear again, but it had even chased him very briefly this time.

While the parents were certainly a bit more apprehensive about letting him hike the same trail for a third time the next morning, not only were they were both confident in his experience ability to take care of himself, but they also reasoned that after two days in a row, the probability of a third bear encounter a was extremely low.

They were understandably shaken up then, to say the least, when he stumbled back into camp with cuts and scrapes and his clothes all disheveled. Sure enough, once again he had come across the bear’s path, but this time it charged at him and attacked him. He couldn’t get out his bear spray in time to deter the bear, but once he fell to the ground and played dead, eventually the bear became disinterested, left him alone, and wandered off. He was extremely fortunate to get by with only very minor injuries.

What would you think of those parents if they were to let their son go on that same hike a fourth time (let alone the third time!)?

Now, as you consider your answer to that question, how does your view of those parents compare to your view of the landowner in Jesus’ parable from Matthew 21, verses 33-43? Both were knowingly putting others at risk! While the actions of the tenants in Jesus’ story are of course inexcusable, at what point does the landowner bear responsibility for knowingly putting others in harm’s way by sending additional servants – and eventually even his own son! – back to the vineyard? Surely in today’s world he’d be looking at a lawsuit from the other servants or the families of those injured or killed! What justification could there possibly be for such action?

Surely the most shocking element of Jesus’ story is the landowner’s insistence on continuing to send servants after seeing how the tenants treated the servants he sent previously! The landowner appear to be completely irresponsibly, negligent – reckless, even!

But is the “irresponsible landowner” the only view of the vineyard owner can have, or do the details of Jesus’ story possibly provide a different perspective? Consider all the measures the landowner took in the first place. He’s the one who planted the vineyard on his plot of land – it belonged to him, not the tenant farmers. In order to keep the vineyard protected, he built a wall around it, complete with a watchtower to monitor everything. He even had winepress built on-site to make it as easy as possible to press the grapes into wine, so that they wouldn’t first have to be transported somewhere else for that step.

One could say the landowner went to great lengths to set up his vineyard to be successful. And what was the purpose behind all of it? “When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit” (v.34). He simply wanted fruit. That was, after all, the goal. It’s why he got into the business in the first place, so that his vineyard would bear fruit. 

When we keep that in mind, is he so crazy after all for sending additional servants to collect what was his? He simply wanted his business effort to generate a profit. He wanted to see the results of the blood, sweat, and tears he had put into the vineyard.

Moreover, if we put the best construction on the landowner’s continued efforts at sending additional servants, he was giving the tenants multiple opportunities to do the right thing. Each group of servants was another chance for them to realize their mistake, change their ways, and treat the servants well while sending them back to the landowner with an abundant harvest. So not only did the landowner care about his fruit, but also the tenants tending his fruit. He wanted them to do the right thing and serve faithfully in his vineyard. 

What does this parable of Jesus teach us about God? God is a determined harvester. And from that truth, we can draw out two applications for today: 1) don’t belittle the fruit collectors and, 2) do bear fruit. 

Don’t Belittle the Fruit Collectors

“Belittle” is an understatement for how the tenants treated the fruit collectors! Jesus’ parable states, “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way” (v.35-36). The tenants didn’t just tell the fruit collectors to bug off or go fly a kite. They could have just refused to let them into the vineyard at all. But instead they went to the extreme in their treatment, beating, killing, and stoning them. To do so was not just an injustice against the servants who were merely acting on behalf of the landowner, but a direct assault against the landowner himself!

Jesus is clearly addressing his listening religious leaders through this story, as the parable calls out Israel’s past – and present – penchant for persecuting prophets. In that regard, the Old Testament isn’t just a history, it’s essentially a RAP sheet listing the crimes Israel was guilty of committing against the prophets God sent to collect fruit. Again and again God’s people incriminated themselves in their treatment of God’s prophets. In every season of Israel’s history, God patiently sent one prophet after another to speak messages of repentance and promises of comfort for those who turn back to God. And in every season of Israel’s history, God’s prophets were belittled, rarely listened to, but often attacked and even killed.

The culmination of this was unfolding in the present during Holy Week as the prophet Jesus spoke this parable to those who would yet again fulfill it when they would murder God’s only perfect prophet on Good Friday. And, in the verses immediately following this Matthew reading, Jesus’ listeners knew full well that he was accusing and convicting them. “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” (v.45-46). 

Do we realize how Jesus’ story accuses and convicts us as well? Or do we presume that since we’ve never been guilty of assaulting or murdering a man of God that this cannot apply to us?

But have we belittled those God has sent to serve us with his Word? Have we despised the preaching of his Word and reception of his body and blood by tending to other cares and concerns in this world as of much greater priority? Have we ignored attempts of elders to minister to us by not even responding to their efforts to do so? Have we downplayed when the pastor cares enough to call to our attention that we’ve been noticeably absent from regular worship? Have we ignored invitations to study his Word together and deepen our faith? Assuming you are a member of a congregation, have you forgotten that you were not forced into membership in that congregation, but willingly chose to be under its spiritual care?

Though we may convince ourselves otherwise, we have blood on our hands when we belittle God’s efforts at sending his servants to collect fruit and minister to us. It’s so easy for us to convince ourselves of how unlike those rebellious, stubborn OT Israelites we are, and that we’d never stoop to their level. But are we better or worse off if we learn nothing from their example and exhibit what is the same attitude of heart toward God, but refuse to admit it? 

What does that kind of attitude deserve? At the close of Jesus’ parable, even his enemies determined those tenants ought to get what they deserve: “‘Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,’ they replied’” (v.40-41a). They condemned themselves! And if we confess our guilt of the same sin, then we, too, are condemned. We, too, deserve to be brought to a wretched end! There is nothing more wretched than hell and being eternally separated from God and his love – and we’d have no one to blame but ourselves because we admit that’s the sentence that such actions deserve!

But there is more to Jesus’ story. As with other parables, there is a son. The landowner finally sent his own son, thinking his own flesh and blood would surely be respected. Instead he was rejected. Instead he was murdered.

That, thankfully, was by God’s design. Yes, someone had to get what those wicked tenants – what we – deserve! But the one paying that price was not at all the one who deserved it. The Son, Jesus, died for the tenants. They thought they’d kill him and get the inheritance, but the truth is, Jesus came to die to give them an even greater inheritance: heaven. The Son died to satisfy the Lord’s wrath against rebellious sinners. The Son died to satisfy the Lord’s wrath against you and me. 

So we will never bear it. We will never feel it. We will never experience what it’s like for wretches to be brought to a wretched end, even though it’s the wretched end our own actions deserve. Jesus did that for us. And what does he need from us in return?

Do Bear Fruit

Well, he doesn’t need anything, but we can’t but help give him everything. Our firstfruits. Our best. The harvest he longs to have from those that he took such care to bring into his vineyard. We have no fear of repercussion for our sin, as our punishment has already been carried out. Now we are free to bear fruit. 

And oh, there are so many ways for us to bear fruit, aren’t there? So many ways for us to express the depth of gratitude that God hasn’t cast us out of his vineyard, his kingdom, but lovingly keeps and protects and serves us here. Think of the fruit we can bear individually and together! Think of how God uses that fruit to invest back into his kingdom and build it up!

Rather than simply listing all the different ways we can bear fruit, let us consider how we can participate in one particular way: mission work. God bears so much fruit in and through us as we carry out his mission to make the good news about Jesus known everywhere. He does that through us individually and as we work together as Christians to carry this out (here’s an awesome example!). Your prayers will bear fruit in mission work. Your offerings will bear fruit in mission work. Your lips will bear fruit in mission work, as you tell others about Jesus, or consider full-time ministry to lead and equip others to do so.

However you can, in as many was as you can, bear fruit! God will take our fruit and build and bless his vineyard, his kingdom, through it!

A Story of Spiritual Insincerity

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(Matthew 21:23-32)

Can you imagine how hard it must have been for them? How excruciating to have had to utter the words! Surely it went against ever fiber of their being to have to give such a reply, but after having analyzed it from every angle, the best response the know-it-all religious leaders could give to Jesus’ question was, “We don’t know” (v.27).

How true it was, though! They didn’t know. Hardened hearts were not willing to accept the spiritual things that only the Holy Spirit can reveal, and so they truly didn’t know the answer to Jesus’ question. 

Nor did they wish to, which shows us how stubborn a thing unbelief is to overcome. Each possible response they considered showed them to be in the wrong. Either response would have taken them at least one step in the right direction closer to faith in Jesus.

But unbelief is a stubborn thing. It doesn’t wish to be overcome. It prefers to remain blind. It prefers to remain in the dark. It refuses to be humbled or corrected. So rather than acknowledge it is in the wrong, it offers uncertainty as a suitable middle ground.

We see it today. Nonbelievers are content to live in limbo, refusing to believe one thing or another on the basis of “How can we really know for sure?” Or, they deflect their responsibility in investigating Jesus’ claims or the veracity of the Bible by accusing Christians of believing themselves to be superior to everyone else because they’re so sure they’re right and everyone else is wrong. So they hang out in the middle, shrugging their shoulders like the chief priests and elders, while echoing their disinterested “we don’t know.”

And these are the same ones who want to point out how readily they would believe if they simply had any proof of God’s existence. To them, just as he did to the chief priests and elders who refused to acknowledge the proof right before their eyes speaking to them, Jesus says, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things” (v.27).  

Jesus is never one to waste words, not when he knew his time on earth – as well as theirs – was limited. For that reason he chose to steer the conversation in a different direction. Rather than trying to satisfy unbelieving ears with some sort of appeal that would legitimize his authority, Jesus instead focused on the greater issue that had to change before anything else: the unbelief in their hearts. To address that issue – the biggest issue by far in anyone’s heart, Jesus told a story. 

“What do you think? 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. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go” (v.28-30). Jesus’ parable is short and to the point. It would seem to be rather straightforward, and especially relatable to anyone with their own kids, or who has ever been around kids, or who has ever been a kid – so yes, relatable to all of us. At the end of the day, a person may have good intentions, but good intentions by themselves don’t yield good results. 

Jesus’ listeners rightly guessed the answer to his follow-up question, “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” (v.31). They knew the son who ended up actually following through with the father’s request was the one who did what he wanted. While the father would have most certainly been irritated, by the son’s initial refusal to do what told him to do, in the end, the father would have been happy to see the son end up doing the work. Perhaps there would be some additional conversation about how out-of-line it was for the son to say “no” to his father in the first place (a conversation that seems to be far too infrequent in our society today), but ultimately the son did the work he was told to do, even if after initially bucking against it.

On the other hand, how disappointed must the father have been when the other son’s initial, “Okay, I will” resulted in nothing but further inactivity! At least if the other son had done nothing, his inactivity would have matched his initial response. But what a different thing it is when expectations are raised, only to be dashed again! What a different thing it is when someone agrees and then doesn’t follow through. 

What exactly was Jesus’ point for his listeners then? What message did he wish to get through the thick skulls of the chief priests and teachers of the law? They knew Jesus’ teachings. They knew Jesus’ claims. They knew that others, too, were aware of what Jesus was calling for from his disciples – to repent and believe in him.

But since their hearts were hard, they rejected Jesus’ invitation, convinced they were already carrying out what the father, what the LORD, had called them to do: obey and embrace the law along with its “do’s” and “don’ts” as a means of satisfying the Father. In essence, they thought their lives were already a reflection of the perfect son who knew what the father wanted and proceeded to carry it out. But they missed that they weren’t at all carrying out what the father had asked: to believe in the one he sent, the Savior, Jesus. 

It was a different story, however, for the tax collectors and the prostitutes. They were the other son. They looked at what the religious crowd was portraying as far as the father’s demands, and they didn’t even bother pretending to say “yes” to such high demands. They knew such expectations were impossible for the likes of them. They knew they had no chance in following through with such lofty expectations, so they just presumed they’d always be on the outside looking in when it came to meeting religious qualifications. 

But when Jesus comes along and shares the exact same message – “repent and believe in me,” there was a different result. The very same ones who in their own minds were the “No way” sons and daughters to the father’s request were quick to follow through with what Jesus called them to do: believe he was the Savior.

Jesus shared their outcome with the chief priests and teachers of the law: “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you” (v.31).

The chief priests and teachers of the law were doing what they thought the father – God – was asking of them, but in reality they were doing what they in their own self-righteous hearts wished would have been the way to satisfy the father. In that regard, it wasn’t at all the father they were really aiming to please, but their own sense of self-righteousness.  

What does this have to do with us today? After all, when was the last time you came into contact with a chief priest or teacher of the law? Well, actually, we see them anytime we look in the mirror. What do I mean?

In the simplest sense, who can keep track of the number of times we’ve been the son who says “I will” and then doesn’t? We take the time to comment under the prayer request post that we’re praying or we text back the praying hands emoji, but we don’t take the time to actually pray the prayer we promised. We ask someone in need to let us know if there’s anything we can do to help, and when they lay out the specifics of how we could actually help, we fail to follow through. We commit to serving or volunteering in this or that role with a full understanding of what is being expected of us, only to not do what we said we’d do, and instead make excuses or keep putting off what we agreed to get done. It’s not the son in the parable we want to be, but it’s the son we so often are.

We’re that same son even when we do the right things we should do… but for the wrong reasons. Remember, those confronting Jesus did actually focus on obedience and following the rules. They were concerned with doing the right things, and they were sincere about it. But their reasons were sincerely wrong. Their doings and obedience and rule-following were not Christ-compelled gestures of overwhelming appreciation and thanks that stemmed from a vibrant heart of faith overflowing with gratitude. No, their doings and obedience and rule-following were prompted by perfectionist tendencies that believed the lie that peace with God was earned – or even could be earned – by hard work and dutiful effort on their part. As far as they were concerned, the attitude behind that effort didn’t matter. As long as it got done, that’s what God was looking for. 

When instead of joyfully jumping in we resentfully allow ourselves to be “roped in” to service and ministry, we might as well have come clean right from the start and instead been the son who said, “I will not,” because God isn’t looking for a church built on begrudging acts of service. When worship becomes an appearance that must be made to be seen by others instead of an eager acceptance of the King’s banquet invitation to be fed the divine food that satisfies our souls, we are the son who says he will, but doesn’t. When the days sandwiched between Sundays are lived out as if they were our “time-off” from Christian living instead of the actual time to punch in and put in the work of living out our faith, we are the son who says he will, but doesn’t. In so many ways we are the wrong son in this parable!

How much we need a third Son – God’s Son! He alone is the Son who not only said, “I will,” but also carried out the Father’s will perfectly. What’s more, he knew his purpose so well and realized his mission that he invited others to test him as they followed him, listened to him, and watched him carry out his work. His invitation then is still extended to us today – “Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father” (John 10:37).

To those still claiming “we don’t know,” Jesus says, “Fine, put me to the test and see! But if you see me doing what my Father commanded – in a way no one else ever has or ever could, then you have all the reason you need to believe in me!” 

And near the last hours of his, as Satan was preparing to use Judas and Jesus’ enemies to carry out God’s plan and purpose on the cross, Jesus explained why it had to happen: “so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (John 14:31).

This is the Son we need, the son we could never be, the Son who did all that the Father commanded – including the covering of our own failures as sons and daughters by giving up his very life on the cross! This is the Son in whom there is no insincerity or deceit, but only perfect obedience, carried out with a perfect heart, filled with perfect love for the Father. This is the Son through whom we have forgiveness and a place with our Father here and now, and home in heaven.  

Because he did, we are on the receiving end of that same perfect love, a love the Father has for us because of the perfectly sincere Son, our Savior, Jesus. There is no place for “I don’t know,” no place for “I’m not sure.” There is only absolute certainty in the perfect sincerity of Jesus, carried out in his perfect life, death, and resurrection, for you. 

A Story of Faultless Fairness

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(Matthew 20:1-16)

Kids love stories. Before they can even identify letters or read words, they are able to pick out their favorite books and have them read to them over and over and over again. As they are able to read on their own, they learn to like different characters and authors and get into book series and appreciate hearing how story lines play out over longer periods of time.

It isn’t just kids who love stories. Everyone likes stories – adults included. Whether they’re romance novels, gripping mysteries, tales of vigilante justice, or historical non-fiction, good stories will be appreciated. It’s also true of movies. While special effects and star power carry some weight, movies that have staying power are popular because of the story. Stories are powerful. Stories are moving. Stories can be life-changing. And so, stories and those who tell them will always have a measure of influence in the world.

Jesus knew the power of stories. Sometimes he referenced true stories from Old Testament history; other times he told another kind of story: a parable. In fact, parables were one of Jesus’ most popular teaching methods. Through parables, he used earthly stories to convey spiritual truths. In so doing, he helped his listeners grasp the important points he wanted them to learn – and in a much more powerful way than just bullet points. It would have been one thing for Jesus simply to tell his listeners to forgive. It was another thing to tell the parable of the unmerciful servant and showcase forgiveness (or the lack thereof!) in a memorable way. It was a story that left a powerful impact. Throughout this series of posts, Tell Us a Story, we’ll hear Jesus tell us a number of stories. May they not only capture our attention, but also our hearts, and may their truths be reflected in our lives.  

The story Jesus tells in Matthew 20 shows how different God’s idea of fairness is from ours. Our fallen world operates with a flawed sense of fairness. How could we really expect anything different? How could we expect two self-serving sides in any negotiation or arrangement to approach it with anything but a skewed sense of fairness? Each side is most concerned with making sure its own best interests are served. When each side has its own subjective idea of what is fair, achieving fairness will be nothing but a pipe dream. Just consider how many different labor strikes across various industries have happened, are happening right now, or are being threatened. Inevitably, employers and employees disagree as to what is fair.

That’s why the surprise of the workers in Jesus’ parable doesn’t surprise us. We’re not shocked to see their shock when the landowner distributes wages at the end of the day. The reason we’re not not surprised or shocked is because we’d likely respond exactly the same way!

No, the surprise comes not in the workers’ reaction, but in the landowner’s decision to pay everyone equally. The landowner determined that those who barely finished tying up the laces of their work boots were going to make exactly as much as those who put in a grueling day’s work. Ironic, isn’t it, that we scream “inequality!” when in reality he gave everyone exactly the same amount. By definition you can’t get more “fair” than that!

So what was the problem? Not with the payment, but with what the laborers felt they deserved. And that is why our sense of fairness will always be flawed. We simply do not apply the same standards to ourselves as we do others. We look differently at others than we do ourselves.

One explanation for this discrepancy between how we judge ourselves and how we judge others is that we draw our conclusions about others on the basis of their actions, while viewing ourselves on the basis of our intentions. So when someone else lies, we conclude that she is of course a liar. She probably lies all the time and hardly ever tells the truth. But if I lie, well, there’s a good reason behind it or I didn’t mean to lie, and I most often tell the truth.

When someone else cuts me off in traffic, they’re a bad driver and likely drive that way all the time. But when I do it, it was simply a very rare case, and I probably had a very good reason behind it. Do you see how hard it’s going to be to maintain any sense of fairness when we naturally tend to tip the scale in our own favor? 

How does that higher view of self on our part factor in to the relationship that matters most – our relationship with God? If we refuse to see how skewed our own sense of fairness is, we will always find it unsettling how a gracious, generous God deals with fallen mankind. Even though by definition, grace is God’s undeserved love for sinners, we nonetheless have our own personal ideas about those who are more deserving of that undeserved love than others. Do you see how nonsensical that is? 

It will always be that way to us as long as we insist on viewing man’s relationship with God being based – even the slightest, itty-bittiest bit – on what man is giving instead of entirely on what he is getting. We simply cannot base our relationship with God on what we give to him, even on our best days.

So although we might think that ideal family-man father or the dedicated single mom or the polite, respectable hard-working young adult all have so much going for them that God should take notice and factor that in to his final assessment of who’s in and who’s out, the Bible has plenty to say about thinking we could on our own give anything of worth to God or show ourselves to somehow be more deserving of grace. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).

If you want to offer up your dirty, stinky laundry to God in hopes that it’s not as dirty or stinky as the next person’s, you are welcome to try. But at the end of the day, all you’re still offering is dirty, stinky laundry – nothing that would in any way endear God to you anymore, but would actually leave you worse off! So as much as we might try to polish it up or put on a fresh coat of paint or splash some perfume on it, the best we can offer up to God on our own is still nothing but condemning sin.

No, there is no place for our relationship with God being based on what we give. It can only be based on what we get. And in that sense, God’s fairness is faultless, because he treats everyone the same: his undeserved grace is for everyone – no matter when they show up in the work day. So yes, there is grace enough for the death-bed convert. There is grace enough for the death row inmate. There is grace enough for the top-ten list of all-time most wicked, wretched people in history. There is grace enough for your nasty neighbor. There is grace enough for your racist uncle. There is grace enough for the backsliding Christian. There is grace enough for all… so there is grace enough for you. 

If God wants all people to be saved – and he does, based on his own words repeated again and again in the Bible – then the only way that can happen is if he refuses to base salvation on what we pretend we can give him and insists on being the One who gives it to us. What he gives us – all of us – is unmerited, unwarranted, unconditional, unlimited grace. That’s the only way it can be fair. 

That also explains why God is so persistent and committed to making sure everyone is aware of his grace. Did you count how many times in Jesus’ parable the landowner went out to hire workers for his vineyard? Five times! While the number itself is not significant, the message it sends is clear – God continues to make sure his Word keeps spreading. God continues to make sure the good news reaches every ear. God continues to make sure no one misses out so that no one can say, “No one hired us,” that is, that they didn’t know about Jesus and the radical grace God extends through him.

Let us not forget, we are an important part of that. God gathers his church – believers – and uses us to keep sending out the message that God is hiring. There’s more room in his vineyard, his kingdom. There’s more than enough grace to go around. There is more than enough grace to forgive every sin. There is more work that needs to be done in his kingdom, so let us be about that hiring process and bringing others in so that he can lavish them with the grace he eagerly desires to give out. 

Then, let us rejoice – and not resent – when he does. We want to guard against displaying the attitude of the all-day workers in Jesus’ parable, no matter how long we’ve been in the kingdom. When they received their payment, “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’” (Mt. 20:11-12).

If their attitude sounds oddly familiar, it might call to mind the attitude of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. Just as he resented what he felt was the misdirected forgiveness and compassion of the father to his wayward brother, so those working all day long resented the short-shift workers receiving the same payment as the day-long laborers. If God wants all to experience the full measure of his grace, then let’s throw a celebration every time anyone receives it! 

Because there are still far too many who are outside of the vineyard. Some don’t know about the grace God has in store for them. Others are not interested in the grace God has in store for them. Still others are adamantly opposed to the grace God has in store for them or simply don’t think they need it to manage their way into the vineyard. Whatever the reason, there are still far too many on the outside looking in.

Let’s do what is in our power to do to get them into the vineyard. Let’s tell them the greatest story ever – the reality of the Savior they have in Jesus, a story for all people. Then, let us rejoice – not resent – every single victory that God generously grants through his grace.  

Wheat, Weeds, and the Word

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(Matthew 13:24-43)

Weeding is a necessary evil. That is, assuming you want to keep the landscape looking nice or wish to grow anything in your vegetable garden. While I don’t know anyone who would put weeding at the top of their list of all-time favorite activities, most of us acknowledge that it needs to be done whether we like it or not. 

Since Jesus uses so many agricultural illustrations in his teaching (e.g., he likens the life of a Christian to a tree producing fruit or a crop yielding a harvest), we might ex expect that somewhere in his teaching he’d include a spiritual reference to the importance of weeding. Interestingly enough, though, in this section from Matthew 13, Jesus states that when it comes to weeding in his kingdom, we don’t need to weed. It isn’t required. We’re off the hook.

In fact, he goes a step further by actually prohibiting weeding in his kingdom. In Jesus’ parable, notice the question and response regarding the weeds. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull [the weeds] up?’ ‘No,’ he answered” (v. 28-29a). 

“No???” Is it just me, or does that conclusion catch you off guard a bit? On the one hand, it would be perfectly understandable to make the same assumption the servants did: get rid of the weeds so that they don’t choke out the wheat. Don’t let the bad stuff grow and overwhelm the good. This is a natural approach to gardening because if one doesn’t weed, the good stuff doesn’t grow. 

That approach would also seem to line up with warnings elsewhere in Scripture when God warns his people not to have anything to do with the deeds of darkness, to avoid every kind of evil, and not to associate with wickedness. He warns us against being yoked together with unbelievers (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14).

Moreover, doesn’t such wickedness arouse our own sense of righteous anger as we are surrounded by it everywhere? Doesn’t God want us to do something about it? Aren’t we supposed to be ready for spiritual warfare and go to battle against all the kinds of blatant sin and disdain against God that is so prevalent? How can the man’s response to his servants’ request about pulling up the wheat be a straightforward “no”??? How is it that Jesus here can be so nonchalant about the threat of evil growing alongside his wheat, his believers?

Let’s jump ahead to Jesus’ explanation of the parable just to make sure we have all of the details right. Maybe that will help us understand a bit better. “He answered, ‘The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels’” (v.37-39). Jesus’ interpretation is pretty straightforward. He doesn’t really provide any additional insights as to why weeding is off-limits. Now what?

Let’s revisit the man’s rationale for prohibiting weeding. “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them’” (v.29). Ah, there is his concern. God is worried about more than just the possible damage that could be caused by the weeds. He is more concerned about accidentally uprooting the wheat.

Are you surprised by this? In our minds, we view the corruption and wickedness all around us as public enemy number one to our faith. We worry about the world’s influence on our faith. We worry about its open attacks on Christianity. We feel the squeeze of sin and its normalization all around us. Surely the potential damage the weeds could do to the wheat is a greater risk than the possibility of accidentally uprooting some of the wheat?!? Spiritual weed-whacking would seem to be the best option, wouldn’t it?

Apparently, Jesus disagrees. Let that sink in. Jesus is less concerned about the influence the wicked world has on his believers than he is about the possibility of any one of his believers being yanked away along with the weeds.

But how does that even happen? Quite easily, as a matter of fact.

Do you remember when Westboro Baptist Church made headlines? Years ago they were regularly making the news, but not for a good reason. They had groups protesting at the funerals of servicemen and women, claiming that such deaths were deserved and were God’s judgment on the military for accepting gays. They picketed in the name of Christianity, claiming God’s judgment here and there. 

It is one thing to call out sin – and yes, we are to do that; but it is another to do it lacking so much as an ounce of love. Love prompts us to call sin, sin in hopes of repentance that would see a soul turn from sin to forgiveness and grace in Jesus. Guess what was lacking in any of the groups from Westboro Baptist?

Do you suppose their actions had any impact? I imagine they did… but not for the good of Christ’s Kingdom. Instead, their loveless attitude and calloused, insensitive approach most definitely resulted in increased animosity against Christians, as non-believers lumped all of Christianity with “those types of people.”

And undoubtedly, some Christians who were either young in their faith or on the fringes of their faith concluded that if this was how Christians really acted, then they didn’t want anything to do with Christianity.

That’s the concern the farmer expressed when prematurely pulling the weeds – some of the wheat may come with it.

There is another reason Jesus is less concerned about spiritual weed-whacking: his confidence in the Word of God to sustain believers.

When we consider the two parables Jesus tells between this one and its explanation, we see a different emphasis: an emphasis on the power of the Word. In those parables, Jesus compares the Word to a mustard seed and to yeast. It grows exponentially. So it would seem Jesus has such confidence in the Word keeping the wheat that he is less concerned about weeds crowding out the wheat. Maybe we should have the same confidence! 

Another way we might reflect this: let’s focus less on the world’s wickedness and more on how the Word works. The Word works! We can sit around and pout all day about how bad the world, our country, or our state are getting and conclude that Christ’s church is doomed. Or, we can keep trusting that Word still works, it will still bring unbelievers to faith and will continue to keep believers in the faith. Worry less about the weeds and more about how God sustains and grows his wheat, and we’ll be just fine. 

If ever there was reason to fear that the weeds were going to overtake the wheat, it was in the final days of Jesus’ life. Surely it appeared as if the weeds were gaining ground and taking over. In Jesus’ final days, as his enemies had their way with him, It was as if the weeds were going to completely eradicate the wheat. Indeed, that was the conclusion of some as Jesus hung crucified, his life cruelly and undeservedly slipping away from him. 

But it wasn’t as it appeared! The weeds weren’t actually winning. Rather, God was permanently protecting his wheat harvest with a certainty of salvation that no weeds would ever be able to suffocate or choke out. Jesus was guaranteeing a harvest on the Last Day by graciously forgiving all sin and wickedness so that no level of evil could ever overcome it.

Where sin and wickedness have been forgiven – and at the cross they have – what real power do they retain? Who really has the power when sin and wickedness have been forgviven? Christ does! His church does! You do! I do! The weeds don’t win – not so long as forgiveness reigns.

And that is where we stand: in the grace of forgiveness. Surrounded by weeds and wickedness, yes – but they can never touch God’s gracious gifts of forgiveness and salvation in which we stand. So stand in them. Remain in them. Grow in them. Don’t waste your time and attention on how bad the weeds are; focus your time and attention on how God grows and sustains his wheat. The weeds won’t stand a chance. Ask Satan – he already knows it. He just hopes that you forget it and worry more about the damage that he might do than about the saving work Jesus already did.  

What a great reminder for the church to stay on mission. Its mission is not weed-whacking all of the wickedness out of the world. Its mission is to proclaim the gospel and let its light shine. Jesus thinks the potential good from doing that outweighs the potential damage of being influenced by the weeds.

Let’s not forget this. Let’s ratchet up our efforts in trusting the Word by prioritizing it in our lives. Talk is cheap, and frankly, just talking about the importance of the Word isn’t enough to keep the weeds at bay. Reading it, studying it, breathing it, living it, applying it, encouraging each other with it, building each other up with it – these are the things God’s wheat does as we await the glorious harvest. When that harvest comes on the Last Day, God will finally take care of the weeds, and he assures us that his Word-grown wheat will not be left behind, but will “shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (v.43).

Until then Christians, live with the weeds. We aren’t called to douse them with Round-up or feverishly yank them up in hopes of solving the world’s weed problem. Instead, we let the Word do that – in both our own lives and, as it has opportunity, in their lives, too. Focus on being Word-grown wheat, and let God take care of the harvest. It just might be more plentiful than you could ever have imagined.

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.