The Parable of the Wicked Tenant | Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (ELCA) Manchester MO

Pastor:

Suzie Everingham

Sermon audio:

Matthew 21:33-46

The Parable of the Wicked Tenant

I am 7 years old. I was awake before the door creaked open. It was early morning and bitterly cold. Winter had started early - the cold and snow had continued for days without a break. The noise of mom stoking up the fire had broke into my sleep. (You see . . . as a child, our home was heated by a huge furnace in the basement that we fed with wood.) The familiar voice of my mother spoke, “Sue - it’s time to get up.” It was Saturday . . . but the cows didn’t know that. I was used to getting up early because I usually fed a bottle of milk to an orphaned baby calf . . before catching the school bus. But . . . crawling out from under that warm mountain of blankets and having my feet hit that cold wood floor was NEVER easy. I heard my brothers and knew I didn’t want them to come in - I knew how they would “help me” out of bed and it wasn’t pretty. So, I jumped out of bed and the minute my feet hit the floor – I was awake.

This is the way life was when I grew up on the farm. In the winter time we had the barns filled with hay bales, and the silos filled with silage. At this time in my life my three brothers and I would load up in the truck and drive to our farms (3 we owned and two we rented from the land owners.) We would feed the cattle, the pigs and chop ice in the ponds.

I learned early how to climb up the silo - very slowly - one hand - opposite leg - hold on tight - one hand opposite leg - hold on tight. If the silo was completely full the climb to the top was 4 ½ stories high. One of my brothers usually climbed behind me as further protection and another brother stayed on the ground to take the silage down the trough in a wooden cart.

I noticed the higher up I got the more prayers I said. Now . . . I acted brave - but - just like today - my hands deceived me and shook . . . just a little.

When we finally reached the top - we could see a long way over the farm. You looked down on all the fields that had grown the corn and hay. It had taken hours, days and months of hard work. The fields had been turned up and planted in corn and then when time - the corn had been harvested, chopped and blown into the silo.

It took two full weeks – dawn to dark to get the square hay bales out of the fields and into the barns. By the end of summer, we knew we couldn’t have worked ANY harder to produce more corn OR put up more hay. We had a good idea for worst case scenario - what we would need for the livestock to survive the winter and, that is the amount that we, hopefully, had produced.

We started shoveling the silage down the opening to the cart WAY below.

You know, I know that the amount of silage that I threw down was minimal

compared to my brothers. But, what I did, though minimal in my eyes, was something that they didn’t have to do. I guess I learned early, from working on the farm, that my life wasn’t solely about me, my needs, my comfort - BUT it was about working together (as a family or a community) doing whatever you could to help others!! We worked hard . . . but we, also, truly had fun working together.

Today . . . I have shared with you a story about filling silos and barns on the farm where I grew up. And, I have shared with you some things that I learned from that experience.

Jesus used stories - or parables - to illustrate points. Perhaps, he did this because it was a verbal society at that time and Jesus knew stories could be retained easier to share with others. Stories are something we can wrap our mind around and remember. These parables also empowered continued thought and discussion.

Let’s look at the scripture message for today again. When I initially read this parable - I thought – hey – look at all the work that that landowner did prior to the tenants taking over. The vineyard was planted - the fence & watchtower was built . . . and . . . . . . wait a minute . . . why would you need a watchtower for a vineyard?

You know - the hard thing about parables is that - sometimes . . . you want to put a literal spin on them when actually they are stories that perhaps, don’t have such a literal meaning.

They jolt us with the very Lutheran question . . . “what does this mean?”

And, you know what - there isn’t an answer sheet for that question –

because “the answer” may differ on how the parable touches each of our hearts.

As we look at this parable together, let us try to understand who are the key players in this story . . . or perhaps who were they alluding to. One interpretation that Biblical Scholars suggest is that the Landowner is God, the vineyard is Israel, the tenants are the Jewish leaders, the produce “fruits” signifies “good conduct” – the slaves, could be Israelite prophets, “other slaves” later Israelite prophets or early Christian prophets or apostles. The son, of course, is Christ.

And, perhaps, the watch tower signifies the fact that God was and is watching over us always – there is nothing that gets in the way of God’s view of us.

So . . . looking at this parable with the characters as named: God claimed and named the Israelites . . . put a protective fence around them, watched over them, and planted the initial seed of faith to be nurtured and grown into “good fruit.” But “Jewish Leaders” the Pharisees took over the vineyard. Their ownership and teachings were so self serving they wished to claim the fruit as theirs to the point of trying to destroy all that God had nurtured . . . grown . . . and loved.

Both building and nurturing the vineyard and . . . the inward thinking of the Pharisees took a lot of work. However . . . one was for the good of humanity and one was turned inward for the perceived good of the Pharisees. And, when confronted with the truth . . . when the Pharisees realized that the story was about them . . . they had one more choice . . . they had the choice to come with penitent hearts. But, they didn’t . . . they wanted to hurt the person who spoke the truth . . . Christ. The reason given as to why they didn’t arrest Jesus, was that they feared the crowds – he was protected because of the community.

In this day and age, we come together as children of God in community. God has named and claimed us. We profess our sin as a community and receive forgiveness as a community. We hold each other up, worship, work and pray together. God’s fence surrounds this community . . . but if you look over there – you’ll see . . . there is a gate. That gate is always WIDE open – just like God’s heart.

God gave us the gift of this community to learn, to grow and go out . . . as we care for God’s vineyard . . . the world.

So - as you go today - look at your hearts to see the ways that you are sharing

“good fruit” God’s love to the world . May you prayerfully use God’s heart living in you - filled with love turned outward . . . not inward as you share your . . . .“good news” story.

And, just like I climbed the silo – I pray you spend your life climbing slowly closer to God - one hand - one foot - at a time. Don’t worry about the hanging on tightly part though - because as a child of God - God is hanging on tightly to you. Because you see – God knows how scary the world is. There is nothing in the way of God’s view nor God’s love for you!!

God will be with you as you reach your shaking hands up . . . for each rung . . . .

Thanks be to God.