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He Sent His Servants, Then Sent His Son

            How far is too far when fighting crime? Two weekends ago sheriff’s deputies pursued a stolen station wagon speedily escaping on I-94 and county highways between Milwaukee and Racine. After 40 minutes of speeds topping 90 miles per hour, the stolen car darted out of Racine County back into Milwaukee County where deputies and officers declined to pick up the chase. A police spokesperson said that the risk of an accident outweighed the benefits of the chase. About the same time a concerned citizen on his way home with a carry-out fish fry for his pregnant wife and daughter was almost run off a winding road near Big Muskego Lake by a weaving pickup truck. After the out of control truck slammed into a snow bank the driver maneuvered the truck out of the snow and into the parking lot of a local tavern. The concerned citizen followed, called the police, and engaged the drunken driver in conversation to stall long enough for the police to arrive and arrest him. Just before they showed up the driver escaped by driving out onto the still-somewhat-frozen lake; he said he’d spend the night in a fish shanty. Muskego police have a policy of not driving squad cars onto the frozen lake, and declined to pursue the suspect.

            Not the kind of police tactics you’d expect from rogue federal agent Jack Bauer on the TV series 24. Whatever ridiculously risky maneuvers the bad guys pull to get away from Jack, he performs even more ridiculously risky maneuvers to catch them … and save the planet. Only on TV, right? Today Jesus tells us a parable about the ridiculously vicious abuse against God by the religious leaders of his day, countered by the even more ridiculously risky behavior of God to save them … and the planet. He Sent His Servants, Then Sent His Son.

            Earlier on this Tuesday of Holy Week the religious leaders had publicly reprimanded Jesus for claiming to be God, questioning his authority to teach in the temple courts. It was time for Jesus to publicly reprimand the religious leaders, so he hit them between the eyes with this parable. “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.” Jesus borrows a few terms from a similar Old Testament parable where “the vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel” (Isaiah 5:7). So God is the owner who plants the vineyard which is the chosen people of Israel. God goes away and leaves the responsibility of the vineyard to tenants or caretakers, who are the religious leaders of Jesus’ day and their predecessors, reminding the religious leaders that they are responsible to God for the spiritual care of the people. To help with this over the years, God had sent to Israel his prophets, who are the servants in Jesus’ parable, the first of which the caretakers “beat and sent away empty-handed. [The owner] sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.”

            Not once, not twice, but three times the caretakers assault the servants. In what was an expected operation of a normal transaction between owner and operators, the operators viciously abuse the owner not just with words but with blood, like a mafia family or street gang sending a message. When the owner sent his own son, “They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” More than once, more than twice, more than three times the religious leaders of Israel had persecuted the prophets. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” Jesus would cry later that day, “you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you” (Matthew 23:37). The religious leaders of Israel had, over the years and up to this point, rejected, even physically assaulted, prophets of God sent with messages of forgiveness through Jesus. They rejected Jesus and his messengers because they refused to be forgiven for sins they refused to admit. Ultimately, on top of murdering the prophets, they murdered Jesus too. “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” Finally the owner will come, but not for the same purpose he sent his servants and his son. He will seek not fruit from them but justice on them – in order to save his vineyard.

            More than once, more than twice, more than three times we have set our own selfish agenda against God’s will and abused his patient mercy. He has sent people to us, parents who demand from us no more and no less than God demands and we have dismissed them and “wounded them” in heart, friends who tell us what we’re doing is wrong and we “treated [them] shamefully,” pastors and teachers who lay before us the paths and promises of God through Christian baptism, through Bible and Catechism learning, through promises made in Christian marriage and we “threw [them] out.” It’s not just that we’ve “sent away empty-handed” the servants of God whom he has sent to us, but we’ve hurt them and abused their labors of love. In abusing them we’ve abused Jesus. “Be afraid,” the Bible warned even the chosen Israelites when they rejected God, “he will not spare you … you will be cut off” (Romans 11:20-22). It doesn’t matter how privileged you are, if any of us persists in abusing God by rejecting his ways, the owner of the vineyard will finally come not for fruit, but for justice.

            During the winter I officiate basketball. With the games concluding for another year I reflect on the season and think back to the technical fouls I had to call on coaches and players. My goal is to never call a technical foul without giving a coach or player every opportunity possible to act respectfully according to the rules. That opens up a gray area in officiating because some officials have a quick trigger when it comes to technical fouls, while others let coaches and players get away with too much bad behavior. Everybody, of course, has a different opinion depending on who is involved. I find the same is true when it comes to how people see God. Some see God as too harsh and his quick trigger fires unnecessarily harmful shots at innocent victims, while others see God as lax and lenient, putting up with too much bad behavior in the world. Of course, people ping pong between both of those views depending on who is involved. Most Bible scholars refer to the parable Jesus tells us today as the parable of the wicked tenants; while that is inaccurate and captures the original situation, I find plenty of material in the parable that applies to the extreme lengths to which God stretches his mercy for people who behave badly, giving them every chance. I hope that the following ten truths about God’s mercy in this parable will melt our hearts too often cemented into our own agendas, lead us to repent for rejecting God’s ways, and strengthen us to never dismiss God or those who lead us in his ways again.

“One day as [Jesus] was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel” (Luke 20:1). In three days Jesus would die with the world on his shoulders, and he knew it. What would you be doing if you knew in three days you’d be dead? Three days before he dies Jesus is calmly, compassionately meeting with sinners directing them to the message of promised hope and life in God. Today, despite needing to hold this planet together, Jesus always makes himself available to meet with any of us, any time, for any reason, to calm us with his promises.

“A man planted a vineyard.” You didn’t volunteer to be God’s friend, he chose you. God planted you and now nurtures you. He calls you, “my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise” (Isaiah 43:20,21). When you wonder who you are, why you are here, or where you are going remember God chose you, planted you, and forms you to praise him with the fruits of good works.

“[He] went away for a long time.” The owner shows extreme trust placing his vineyard in the hands of operators. God shows trust in you by placing you in the lives of others for their spiritual blessing: children, friends, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, fellow members here at Grace. God trusts you. Be faithful with that trust.

“He sent a servant … he sent another servant … he sent still a third …” and then he sent his son. No father in his right mind would send his son to a mob of murderers with blood still dripping from their hands. The very point Jesus wants to make is that God’s mercy goes beyond the norms of reality. We cannot imagine the limits of God’s patient mercy as much as we cannot see the edges of outer space. When you realize how bad you really are, then remember how unimaginably good God is.

“I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.”

• God initially responds to evil by increasing doses of his patient love, even if it costs him his own Son.
• Sinners send victims of their abuse against God to him with the blood of their victims speaking a message of retaliation, God sends himself to sinners as the bloody victim with his own blood speaking a message of salvation.
• God never gives us leftovers, but treasures. He gives the Son whom he loves. In return we want to give God not our leftovers, but our treasures. We show God that we love him more than anything by giving him what we love.
• To what kind of people did the owner send his son? To vicious, violent abusers. God did not send his Son just for all the good people who have it all together, but for the wicked, for the terrible, for the repeat offenders, for the faithless … for me.
• “Perhaps,” the owner says, “they will respect [my son].” Perhaps? He has no guarantee or contract; he actually sees the pattern of abusive behavior and yet holds out only an iffy perhaps? To send his Son as a perhaps is quite a risk, but a risk God cannot hold back. Let this maybe of God find its end in you today. Let the perhaps of God be not a naïve failure but a hope of God fulfilled in you because you will respect his Son. God will know that you respect his Son. People see that you respect his Son. God didn’t make a mistake when he sent his Son for you.

“When all the people heard this, they said, ‘May this never be!’” Jesus flabbergasted the people that day with unheard of wickedness on the part of the religious leaders, and unheard of patience and mercy of God that sent even his Son. “That’ll never happen,” the crowd responds. But we know it did, and we believe it still does. When all the people heard this, they said, “Amen.”

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (http://www.gracedowntown.org/) on March 21, 2010

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Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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