Matthew 21:33-46 Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 21:33-46
33[Jesus said:] “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country.
34When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
42Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

  

          Grace, mercy, and peace be to you, from God, the Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.  In today's text we're made aware of THE cornerstone.  Now what is a cornerstone?  It's the block upon which the rest of the house relies on so that the walls are straight and even.   Since Christ is the cornerstone we must realize that something else must be built upon him.  You. So how do we build upon Christ?  Through true and proper administration of the Word and Sacrament and by this the Church will stand forever.  If the church builds upon the cornerstone with other means like gimmicks, feelings, and the latest fads being proposed to attract people to the church what will happen?  It will fall. 

            And lest we think that the church is growing because we did something special, because of our work, we must also recognize that it isn't our work.  It's built up because of Christ.  And guess what? It's often times going to be a thankless and even a dangerous job.  In fact, this month has been set aside to recognize those who do this difficult job day in and day out.

            Recall the servants whom the master sends.  Who are they?  These are the prophets, apostles, the evangelists, missionaries, and yes, also your pastor, Pastor Herrod.  When was the last time you thanked your pastor?  When was the last time you sent him a note of thanks or invited him out in appreciation for his work? Or have you sought to be like the tenants of the vineyard?  Have you spoken poorly of him?  Have you mistreated him?

            We must be aware of what we do in today's world.  Do we become a hindrance to the proclamation of the Gospel, threatening and mistreating those who proclaim the word because we don't like the message delivered from our pastor, or parents or friends, or do we build upon the cornerstone of Christ and those who serve the church through their various vocations? 

WILL CHRIST CRUSH YOU OR WILL HE BE WHAT YOU ARE BUILT UPON?

I

            The cornerstone is perfect.  You can't build on anything else.  If you don't build on this one stone your church and your faith are in danger of falling down.  I have a dear colleague who is a missionary in Africa, His name is Pastor James May.  He goes throughout Africa putting on seminars for pastors, lay people and seminaries to teach Lutheran doctrine.  He recently went to a small Lutheran church body in the country of Burundi and he was confronted with an all too common problem being forced upon the people of Africa. 

            A professor from the liberal, Lutheran, State Church of Germany spoke to them saying you must look past your differences with other Christians and unite with other denominations, in particular the Pentecostal church (which is very influential in Africa).  They were perplexed at this considering the wide differences in teaching between them.  They understood the problem at hand to build on false doctrine is not good for the church, and so they invited Pastor May to strengthen their faith. 

            Today in the U.S. many people are proposing the same thing.  "Our differences are not that great." They say.  "We all at least believe in Jesus."  But this is Jesus' point, yes the differences are great and do divide causing us to build on two different cornerstones.  Let me give you an example from today's text.  Who is Jesus speaking to?  We find out at the end of our text that it is the chief priests and Pharisees.  So did these people believe in the Messiah? 

            Now our inclination is to say, no!  But they most certainly did!  They just didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah.  So would you say that you and the Pharisees should unite into one church?  For in fact you both believe in the Messiah.  But I would hope your answer would be a quick, "No way!"

            We should always be concerned that what we believe, teach and confess is the truth.  For what is the consequence of not having the truth?  Jesus says, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him."  If you try and make Jesus something he is not you most certainly will have him taken away from you, you will fall over him, and you will be broken into pieces which means to suffer eternal death.  For if I say I believe in Jesus and yet believe I must do something to earn my salvation, I have fallen over the very doctrine of grace alone.

            These Jews weren't dumb, they understood exactly what Jesus was saying and who was being convicted.  He had called out these religious leaders for their sin in public without actually saying who he was talking about.  And we know they understood as Matthew writes: "When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them." Each and every one of his parables were directed to convict them of their sin as well as give the promise of eternal life.

            But why convict them of their sin?  He wanted them to be concerned.  He wanted them to see their error.  He wanted to save them.  But he can't be the Savior to those who don't want to be saved from their sins.  He does the same thing to us.  Today you and I know about Jesus, but do we know what he teaches?  Do we know what he condemns and has died for? 

            For example, when we hear the message proclaim to us, "You shall have no other Gods."  What are we being told? You shall not desire anything more than God.  If you place your job, family, sports above hearing God's holy Word and receiving his blessed sacraments you have made them your God.  If I don't speak to my children or friends and tell them that living together outside of marriage is a sin or that refusing to be in the divine service is a sin we will be falling over the cornerstone of faith because we've made these things our God.  For we're not doing the master's bidding.  We're not building upon the foundation.  Paul got to the point of this in 1 Corinthians 3.  He shows us how we may build on the foundation.  He says point blank, For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

II.

            Notice How our Lord is the one at work in our salvation. Hear the verbs of this verse from our text again: The  stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. What are the verbs?  Rejected, has become, was, and is.  It is the builders who past tense have rejected it but guess what it past tense has become the cornerstone, this past tense was the Lord's doing, and it present tense is marvelous in our eyes.  These verbs are crucial for all hearers of this Gospel message today. 

            The builders who have rejected are any who don't trust Jesus Christ alone as the cornerstone.  But Jesus' point is if anyone presently rejects Christ, rejects his way of saving, or rejects his condemnation of their sin, there is still time to repent and turn from these sins.  We are certainly called to have contrition, sorrow for our sins, but the good news is that along with contrition you also have faith worked in you, not faith in yourself, but faith in Christ that he has indeed forgiven your many transgressions and suffered, died on the cross, and risen for them!

            Despite this past tense rejection, Christ has still become the cornerstone.  It is a perfectly placed cornerstone.  Peter recalled Jesus' words in Acts 4 and said to the High Priest and other elders, "This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.  And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” What an amazing confession, and the leaders were stumped, they couldn't do anything against Peter and the disciples, so they merely threatened them and sent them on their way.  The Word did such a wonderful work that in Acts 6 we learn a great many of the priests repented and believed. 

            And notice the placement of Christ as our Cornerstone is NOT dependent on you and me, It is the work of God, "this was the Lord's doing." Jesus says. Your joy is that the Lord, despite you and me, still made and continues to make this happen through His doing!  He already is your cornerstone, as we sang in the opening hymn, Christ is our cornerstone, on Him alone we build, and he even provides the means by which to build. 

            He delivers to you forgiveness.  Gobs of forgiveness, the building materials overflow in generosity.  You have heard the absolution proclaimed.  This is no generic, Jesus died for you.  Oh, how he loved me.  No, you heard, in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins. Your sins are forgiven not because you read about it, not because of some benevolent force that created a feeling of forgiveness in you, but because your Savior works through his called servants to declare you forgiven and you are forgiven even if you don't feel it, because it is the Word that works.  And that's not all today!  He's going to feed you of his very self!  You will receive on your very lips the body and blood of your Savior.  This body and blood is yours, as you focus your eyes upon the bread before you, you see and believe it is truly his body.  As that cup is held before you, it is the blood of Christ shed for you.

III.

            This is for your joy, for your salvation and now recall Jesus' parable today.  You who have received The kingdom of God are now called to work the ground, bear the fruit of the Lord.  Not in order to receive some sort of favor from God.  Not as though he needs your fruit.  But he has planted a vineyard, in you, that is to be worked.  That's what Paul says in Ephesians 2, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  This fruit of faith first worked in you at your baptism and cultivated in your life through the reception of Word and Sacrament results in the fruit of good works.  Through the precious gifts of Word and Sacrament you are strengthened to bear fruit.  You will naturally bear fruit.  The Lord knows that when the Word is proclaimed rightly and Sacraments delivered faithfully it will create fruit and more branches to bear fruit. 

            If we refuse to acknowledge and give to our master, our heavenly Father, what is rightfully due him, namely the confession of the faith to a world that is lost in sin then Jesus says, "It will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits."  My fear is that in our communities we're having it taken away from us and given to those who will be faithful with the Word, and I don't mean non-Lutherans.  I mean to the saints of Africa, Asia, and South America where we're seeing conversions by the thousands in each country, every year. 

            This is a warning by God, repent or the Gospel will be taken away from you.  Already too many have fallen away because we've tried to make the Gospel something it's not, and that is our fault.  repent and turn from that sin.  Do not dismay, the reason that Law and Gospel is proclaimed over and over again is to lead us to receive the good news in Jesus Christ.  Which indeed is, once again, delivered to you.  Listen to Jesus again, "I tell you, the kingdom of God will be given to a people producing its fruits."  He gives it to you. 

            To produce the fruit of the vineyard is to confess the faith already given to you. You don't DO anything.  God has already done the work.  He's planted the vineyard, put up the fence, built the winepress and set up the tower.  That is, he has set up the church.  God has done all the church needs.  He has already planted the seed of faith, he's set up the fence so that the devil cannot sneak in and destroy the good news.  He's built the winepress so that the results of faith may be manifest in the product of faith.  He even sets up a tower so that you can watch for the dangers of false teaching and for the second coming of Christ.  We eagerly await Christ who is our joy, not to be rid of him, but because the heavenly father has sent Christ to love and preserve us. And the fruit produced is the natural result of being part of the Church.

            Remember, we are constantly receiving and being built upon the cornerstone, being built upon Christ.  This is good news for you and me.  For as you rely on this solid foundation you realize that you will be built up for eternity.  The Lord is faithful in his promises as you continue to receive the fruit of the gospel, the forgiveness of sins. This cornerstone is yours.  And what flows naturally from being built on the cornerstone is that we bear fruit, continuing to be built on this cornerstone with the good works we've been given to do.  You need not fear tripping or being crushed for you are built on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ as you receive his Word and Sacrament, the ultimate building blocks of the church which relies on Christ alone.  In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.