Do you love surprise endings? Do you remember the Ransom of Red Chief? The little boy gets kidnapped and what you expect doesn’t happen at all because at the end of the story, the kidnappers ended paying the dad to take his own little boy back. Or how about The Sixth Sense? Do you remember that movie? The boy that said he could see dead people? I won’t tell you how that ends, but the ending is very surprising, a little shocking even. Then Usual Suspects also has a great surprise ending. There is a different kind of “gotcha” at the end of that story isn’t there?
That is what happens in the parable that Jesus tells in today’s gospel. He has the chief priests and elders along with a crowd that has his disciples and lots of pilgrims and people from Jerusalem all around him. Jesus has just made the chief priests and elders look pretty bad. We talked about the parable of the two sons last week. As soon as he finishes Jesus says, “Listen to another parable.” And because of the power of his personality, his personal magnetism, everyone is drawn into the story.
The situation of an absentee landowner was not unusual. In fact, the odds were that the chief priests and the elders of the people were owners of some sort of farm land in this manner. The landowner in this story went to very expensive lengths for his vineyard. He put in a fence, dug a wine press and put up a tower. Jesus made it clear to his audience that this landowner had sunk some serious capital into his property. Then he hired some local guys to take care of it and tend it and he left the area and went back to another country. He may have purchased his property in Galilee and then gone back to Jerusalem, which would fit the parameters. As was the custom, the owner would either return in person but most likely send some servant to pick up his percent of the profits or perhaps some of the produce. But what happens? To the horror of the chief priests and elders, all of whom are wealthy, the tenants have rebelled and they refuse to hand over the landowner’s rightful share to his slaves. This happens not just once but a number of times. Then, relying on his status he sends his son. He knows that those lowborn peasants wouldn’t dare to disregard his son. Well, in the story they do and they do not simply disregard his son, they murder him. So Jesus asks his audience, what will happen now? The chief priests and elders know the right answer to this question! Jesus isn’t going to make them look foolish again! No sir! They know what is going to happen because that is exactly what would happen if this situation were real. Those tenants would be put to a miserable death, that is, a painful and humiliating death. They wouldn’t just die; they would be punished with as much possible pain, embarrassed, and then killed. These rebellious tenants had crossed the line; they had crossed the line big time. Those guys were going to die horribly and then the landowner would get some people he could count on. He would find dependable tenants. Everyone in the audience is right with Jesus now.
Here is where Jesus pulls the rug out from under their feet. You see, the chief priests and elders have been identifying with the landowner. They, after all, are landowners. They know how that feels. They can relate to him. As he begins to pull the rug, 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’?” And then the final yank, he says, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”
The stone that the builders rejected… Jesus moves from a vineyard to a building. The reference is from the Psalms. When Solomon built the temple, he did not allow any hammers or chisels to be used in the area where the temple was being constructed. So those huge quarried blocks of stone would have to be cut very precisely but cut in the area around the quarry and then brought by the sweat and muscle of humans and animals to Jerusalem to be fitted into where they were supposed to go. The blocks of stone used for building the temple were huge. The corner stones would be even larger because they spanned the depth of two walls and bore the heaviest weight. It is estimated that the corner stones in Solomon’s temple were around 20 feet long and 7 feet thick. How many tons those blocks would weigh, I don’t know, but certainly many tons.
Jesus tells the chief priest and elders, Yes, I know that you have rejected me, but the Lord is making me the most important building block of the temple. Then he says that God is going to take away your authority in his kingdom. You have been like those tenants. You have betrayed your trust. God is going to give this authority to others; this is a prophecy concerning the church that Jesus is establishing. Now the chief priests and elders realize that the slaves in the parable symbolized prophets. So wham! The surprise ending jumped up and bit them hard! They were furious.
Jesus’ prophecy certainly did come true! The entire Sanhedrin was either destroyed or dispersed as a cloud of dust after the Jewish wars in 70 AD just 30 some years after Jesus spoke these words. And then, in the days, months, and years that have gone by the church rose and has taken the authority in the kingdom of God. And here we are today.
So what about the parable for us today? What we need to do, just like the high priests and elders had to do, is examine who we are in the parable Jesus told. Who are we in this parable? We tend to relate to the landowner because we see the injustice of how he was treated, just like the chief priests, elders and the crowd did so many years ago. But in the parable the landowner is God. We certainly are not God. We have been left here to work in God’s vineyard, that is, to do God’s work. We are the tenants! It is a surprise ending for us too!
Now the question is what kind of tenants are we? How are we doing on that? When God sends us messages, how do we respond? Are we even aware God has sent us messages? How are we doing with the work he has given us to do? Are we being responsible workers?
We have two responsibilities that are apparent from this parable. We are supposed to work in the vineyard and we are supposed to obey our Master – the one who put us here. First, what kind of work are we supposed to be doing in the vineyard? That work varies from person to person. What kind of gift has God given you? Are you using that gift to serve Him and his people? That is why you have it. If you do not know your gift and or you know it but don’t know how to use it for God or others, talk to me or one of the other priests. We will get you set up. Second we are supposed to be obedient to our Master and we have all kinds of specific commands given to us in His Words to us. Are we aware of what he has told us? Are we paying attention? Are we even looking at those words? If not, what kind of excuse can we possibly give for not knowing what God has told us? Sorry God, I had to watch TV. Sorry God, I was busy reading something else. Sorry God, I was playing golf. (For those of you who saw me play golf at the Men of Redeemer golfing event you know that’s one I will not be using.) Whatever our excuse is, our excuses are not very good are they?
The reason all this is really important is because God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. That means, if it was important to Jesus that the religious people of his day not only pay attention to God’s word but obey it—it is important for us today to do the same thing. We do not want to come under God’s judgment! We need to be faithful tenants in God’s vineyard