April 6 – Sermon
Blessed Lord Jesus, Compassionate Shepherd, please guide us into a life of truth and repentance. May we follow Your path faithfully and embody Your example of love with every step we take. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
People in love often do goofy things to impress each other. So by all accounts, God must really love us! Jesus tells us the landowner in the parable—who represents God the Father, is a bit goofy the way He deals with the tenants. God sent prophets to the people of Israel several times—they were all killed. Then he sent His son. Here’s the goofy part: Why would the people of Israel treat His son any better than what they had done to His servants? It must be love. Scripture makes that abundantly clear. God loves us more than we know.
In contrast to God’s love is the attitude of the tenants. They were selfish and greedy, wanting the entire vineyard for themselves. But it even went beyond that. Selfishness then grew into hatred which grew into bitterness which grew into anger— all of which are born out of sin.
As tenant farmers, they had a pretty good arrangement. They got to live on the land and work it and keep most of what they produced—giving the landowner a percentage of the profit. But they wanted it all for themselves. And so they killed the landowner’s son. How would that have solved the issue they were having?
Jesus told them what would happen. The time will come when those wicked tenants would be thrown out and the vineyard given to others.
The scribes and the chief priests clearly understood what Jesus was saying. It made them the tenants in the parable – the solution to the problem was to get rid of the son.
We all know, Jesus was thrown out and killed. The stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone. It had been prophesied, and every prophecy of God happens.
What else could the landowner have done? Well, I suppose He could have gone in there with an army and wiped out the tenants. But would that have solved the problem? Many people think in terms of revenge or getting even to solve the problem.
Instead, the owner gave them another chance. Time after time. A victory not of might, but of love; sending His Son was God’s ultimate sign of love.
People often ask why God doesn’t just wipe out sin; why does He let it continue? Well, God could do that very easily, but to what end? and where would that leave us?
The truth is a sinner can’t be changed by force. God could certainly round us all up with a whip or sword or worse, but all He would have is a rebellious, unhappy herd of slaves. That’s not what our Heavenly Father wants – He wants a family. Children who love Him. Force can’t do that. Only love can. Love like the landowner showed.
If someone harms you and you strike back, you have your revenge, but the hatred is still there and hatred is not of God. By not returning evil for evil, anger for anger, hate for hate; by not retaliating, the first step toward the victory of love is taken; create in me a clean heart O God. Love is the only way to be set free from sin.
But that often means suffering. For the Father, it meant sending His Son. For the Son, it meant the cross. For God’s children it meant victory.
That’s what God the Father in heaven wants and so He loves you.
           But we can refuse that love . . . and if we do, we have no cornerstone upon which to build our lives. It may look good and feel good for a bit, but in the end, every Word of God comes true. Anyone who chooses not to build on that cornerstone, will be broken and crushed just as the wicked tenants were crushed.
Our Heavenly Father is not about revenge, He wants to love completely, abundantly, sacrificially.
He has given you your life and daily provides all that you need to support this body and life. He does all this not because you deserve it, but because God has an extravagant love for you.
           He sends servants to tell you and encourage you. He sends His Spirit to work in your life, in your words, in your thoughts, in your heart. His Body and Blood have been poured out for you. Through Holy Baptism He has adopted you into His family.
Like the servants in today’s parable, you can reject it all. But rejecting His love does not get you more, but far, far less.
But loved by God, you are loved into the body of Christ which is the church built upon Jesus as the cornerstone – a building which will not and cannot fall. Even while Jesus was hanging on the cross, He was the cornerstone, speaking God’s Word of love, forgiveness and hope in the face of hatred and bitterness and anger. Who got the victory?? It belonged to love, not hate; To life, not death.
That’s what changed the apostle Paul, to count everything that he had, everything that he had accomplished in life – which was considerable – as loss, as rubbish. For he now knew something far greater: the love of Christ. So for him there was no going back, there was only forgetting the past – because Christ had forgiven his past and all his past sins. It meant moving forward, to the love of Christ and in the love of Christ.
We may not always perceive it, given the dullness of our minds and the hardness of our hearts. But the Lord is still loving you, offering you His forgiveness that you might be refreshed by His love.
          So God’s love isn’t so goofy after all, but the way things should be. The way they are in the Church, though we are still sinners in need of forgiveness. The way they will be when Jesus comes again. When all sin is banished and there is only love. My Savior’s love to me, and our love to Him and to one another, because God’s love shines out through the cross. Amen
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