Oct 4, 2020  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our heavenly Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, AMEN.

The text for our meditation today is the Gospel Lesson for the 18th Sunday After Pentecost, Matthew 21:33-46. There we read these words:

“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. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They 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.” Jesus 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’? 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.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

We begin in Jesus’ Name, AMEN

No one chooses to be a laughingstock. You might deliberately act foolish and try to get a chuckle out of people, but that is only fun and games. No one wishes to be derided or mocked. No one wants to be the fool.

No one, that is, except for your God.

The Scriptures do more than proclaim that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). The Scriptures also depict the Lord our God as having no self-respect and no sense. The Scriptures portray God the fool.

For example, Jesus once compared the heavenly Father to a man who had two sons (Luke 15:11-24). When the younger son demanded his inheritance—essentially wishing his father was dead—the father foolishly agreed. (Who would ever do that?) Later, when the son desperately crawled back home, having lost it all, the father abandoned every semblance of dignity in his rush to reconcile with his son.

That father is your heavenly Father. The younger son is everyone who has ever needed to be forgiven. The younger son, is you. Honor, decency, pride and self-respect have nothing to do with fatherly love.

Another example of God’s foolishness: Jesus compared himself to a farmer who scattered seed in every direction, throwing seed even in places where it. The farmer did not seem to notice or care that most of the seed was wasted by drought and thorns and hungry birds. The seed is the Word of God.

The foolish farmer is Jesus. Without consideration of the cost, Jesus continually throws the living, forgiving, cleansing Word of God into His creation, cascading and abundant and never-ending, even only a few shall receive it.

God’s foolishness shines also today’s Gospel: 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. … When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.

Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” Outside of this Gospel, where would you ever find such a fool as the owner of this vineyard? People like to quote Albert Einstein as having said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

If that is true, then the owner of this vineyard is insane. He sent servant after servant, doing the same thing over and over again, hoping the result would be different. Anyone else would have dealt with those wicked tenants after the first two servants limped home, carrying the dead body of their fellow servant. The second wave of servants only makes the situation outrageous. (You don’t need to be Albert Einstein to predict the result.)

Then the owner of the vineyard sets himself up for the deepest tragedy of all. “I will send them my son. They will respect my son.”

The owner of this vineyard is God the heavenly Father. Jesus is His Son. Paul says in 1 Cor 1:18, “The Word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to use who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Is the Lord our God truly a fool? Of course not. The Scriptures remain immovable and true:

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

“Brace yourself like a man,” says the Lord. “I will question you, and you shall answer Me: Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell Me, if you understand. Have you ever given orders to the morning? Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you comprehended the vast expanse of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this” (Job 38:3-4, 12, 16, 17, 18).

Wisdom and might are with God. He has counsel and understanding. With Him are strength and sound wisdom. He leads counselors away stripped and He makes judges into fools (Job 12:13, 16-17).

And what do the angels sing? “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen!” (Revelation 7:12).

If the Lord our God possesses such infinite wisdom, then why does He play the fool? Why send another wave of servants when those wicked tenants treated the first servants so shamefully? Even more, why risk your own dear son to such men?

God plays the fool because love demands it. You see, dear friends, though you may be unwilling to admit it, each one of you has very specific limits to which you are willing to go for your neighbor. Those limitations are defined by self-love:

Jimmy Jingle Change will give his worldly goods, but only so much. Billy Butler will help out now and again, but do not lock him into a long-term obligation. Betty Broad Shoulder will patiently carry your burden for a while, but only if you can find no one else.

Father, mother, sister, brother, wife, workers and occasional angels: your dignity stands in the way of your love. Self-respect comes at the cost of love.

The Lord our God knows no such limitations. God abandons all—even the semblance of wisdom—for the sake of His love. Jesus is the stone the builders rejected because He looks like a fool; because “Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23), humiliated, derided, the Scorn of the Nations.

Dignity is not the issue in His rush forward to receive you back and welcome you and clothe you again. Cost is not the consideration as His hand dips again and again into the bag, flinging the Word of His forgiveness and life far and wide and onto your soil. Wisdom did not deter Him from walking into the vineyard of the men who sought His life.

Jesus took the role of the fool for you without regret because love demands it.

Becaue, dear friends God is nothing, if not love (1 John 4:9-10), Jesus said, Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends.”

“I will send them My Son,” He said. “They will respect My Son.”

Christ is Risen.