Fifth Sunday in Lent [c]                                              April 7, 2019



 



Luke 20:9-20



9 And [Jesus] began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. 10 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. 13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.' 14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.' 15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When they heard this, they said, "Surely not!" 17 But he looked directly at them and said, "What then is this that is written: "'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'? 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." 19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. 20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.



 



In the Name of Jesus.



 



Jesus speaks to free sinners. He speaks to cover shame, to release from the accusation of the Law.



 



The people to whom Jesus speaks this parable know the Law’s accusation. Not just the Law, but the Law as taught and used by the Pharisees and scribes.



 



Jesus speaks this parable of the workers on the vineyard to the people at the Temple. They are the audience. The same people who the Pharisees and scribes are trying to keep under the control of the Law. But that’s not the only audience. The Pharisees and scribes are there—they’re going to listen in. They want to hear if Jesus will say anything to free the people from their control of the Law.



 



So Jesus speaks this parable to free the people from their sins, to stand them in honor, not in shame, and to release them from the Law’s accusation. Jesus wants the same for the Pharisees and scribes. He wants them, also, pulled back from justifying themselves by obedience to the Law, and pulled into his gift of life, into his word of grace.



 



So Jesus tells this strange parable. A vineyard owner goes away to a distant country for a long while.  He gets tenants to manage his vineyard while he’s away. How far away is this distant country? We’re not told. It’s indeterminate. For how long will he be gone? We’re not told. All we know is, it’s not close—it’s left with being a great distance in the future.



 



So here these tenants are, profiting from the vineyard, and the day when they have to face the vineyard owner is, to them, way off in the future, undetermined.



 



Then, the really strange thing about the parable, the part that makes no sense. The owner sends a servant to collect what is due him, and the tenants beat the servant. He sends another servant. Same result. Then a third, same result. Each time, the tenants beat the servant and send him away empty-handed. So the vineyard owner sends his own son. And this is the part that makes no sense,