Matthew 21:28-44, 22:1-14
Good morning
and welcome. We are closing in on the
end of this summer’s series on the parables of Jesus. Today’s message is next to last. Fred will close out the series next Sunday.
Somewhere
back when Carl was putting the series together, he mentioned that we would be
grouping the parables more topically rather than reading them chronologically
which is exactly what we’ve done. That’s
one advantage of the series. Each message
stands on its own. You should be able to
pick up in any message without feeling lost.
It could
just be a figment of my imaginative memory, but I also thought he mentioned
back in those early discussions, we would not or might not cover all the parables.
How many
parables did Jesus tell? I’ve seen
estimates between 40 and 46. You might
object, “How can you not know how many parables there are!” Well, Jesus told parables more than
once. And, there are clearly parables
that are similar but not the same. The
two parables last week were like that.
So, do you count those two as being the same or different? There are other parables which are the same
parable told at the same time, but recorded in more than one gospel. If you count in order to get the maximum
number of parables recorded including duplicates, you’ll end up with more than
60 in total.
After saying
all that, excluding duplicates, it turns out that this series will cover all of
Jesus’ parables, except one. Which
one? It is the parable of the sheep and
the goats found in Matthew 25. It has
relevance to today’s message, and it was the one parable which stood alone
apart from the series, so I would like to graft it in the opening of this
morning’s message.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and
all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the
nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from
another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep
on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his
right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the
kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and
you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I
was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord,
when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to
drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and
clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth,
whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for
me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left,
‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was
thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not
invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in
prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we
see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in
prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth,
whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal
punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”--Matthew 25:31-46
I will keep
the observations brief. Here are just a
few thoughts:
2.
No one will escape that judgment. All nations, all people will be gathered.
3. There will be a separation, a distinction. Good and bad.
Righteous and unrighteous.
4. The distinction that Jesus focuses on here is
what actions the two groups took. There
is a song by Keith Green from the early 80’s which ends, “My friends, the only
difference between the sheep and the goats according to this Scripture is what
they did and didn't do!”
5. The difference fueling their action or lack of
is whether or not they had compassion or love for those who were suffering or
in need.
“If anyone has material possessions and sees
his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear
children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This
then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at
rest in his presence …” --I John 3:17-19
Let’s pray
and then we’ll jump into the three parables planned for today’s message:
Lord Jesus,
I pray for clarity. Please help me to
share in such a way that each of us takes away understanding and truth. Help us to hear your call and respond rightly
to it. Thank you that it is your desire
that none should perish and each one of us should come to you. Transform us into agents of your love that
meet the needs of others and draw others to You. I ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
That first
passage I shared came from Matthew 25.
We’re going to back up a few chapters to chapter 21 in the book of
Matthew. The scene is the temple courts. There are lots of people around. Jesus is teaching and there is a group
listening to him. It is the day after
His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Monday after the first Palm Sunday. Into the midst of what appears to be a fairly
orderly scene, the chief priests and elders of the people (i.e.- Pharisees)
barge in and demand under what authority is Jesus “doing these things.” The day before, Jesus had driven out the
people who were buying and selling in the Temple, He healed people there, and
then He was teaching there that morning.
Jesus
replies that He will tell them if they can answer His question. Jesus asks them if the baptism of John is
from heaven or from men. These religious
leaders decide that they can’t say “from heaven” because Jesus will ask them
why they didn’t believe John. They also
decide they cannot say “from men” because the people believed John was a
prophet, and they are afraid of the people.
After short
deliberation, they reply to Jesus, “We don’t know.” And Jesus says in return that He will not
answer their question either.
That brings
us to our passage:
“What do you think? There was a man who had
two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the
vineyard.’
“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he
changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and
said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
“Which of the two did what his father
wanted?” --Matthew 21:28-31
What do you
think? In our post-modern, self-esteem
obsessed, all views are valid culture, are the two sons the same? Did they both do something? Yes, one spoke words the Father wanted to
hear. One did not. One did not take action. One went to the vineyard.
“The first,” they answered. --Matthew 21:31
I have to
confess that this is a favorite parable as a parent. I have used it more than once to illustrate
what true obedience looks like. The
answer comes easily even to the hardest heart.
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth,
the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of
you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not
believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you
saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”
--Matthew 21:31-32
So, do
Jesus’ words make the chief priests and elders have a warm fuzzy? It’s got to get their dander up, right? These leaders believed themselves to be the
“holy ones.” They were the ones who
outwardly had it all together. Jesus has
said that the lowest of the low (socially and self-righteously) are entering
the kingdom of God ahead of them.
There is
something genuine going on in the lives of these people, the tax collectors and
prostitutes who believed John. They must
have been following the way of righteousness.
John had said things like, “Repent,” “Produce fruit in keeping with
repentance,” “The one with an abundance should share with the one who has
none,” “Tax collectors should not collect more than they are required to,” and “Soldiers should not extort money or
accuse falsely but be content with their pay.” John also confronted other
illicit behavior.
Those who
had repented and been baptized were no longer behaving in their old sinful ways. They were living lives that were no longer
unrighteous. The spiritual leaders had
seen this transformation and did not change their own behavior.
We need to
be careful to listen to Jesus’ words, too.
We need to look at those living lives of humble repentance and follow
their example. Let’s be open to let the
Lord penetrate into all areas of our lives and clean us up and set things
right.
Listen to another parable: There was a
landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in
it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went
away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to
the tenants to collect his fruit. --Matthew
21:33-34
Jesus is not
finished with this theme, yet. If you’re
not familiar with farming, it may not seem normal to rent land, but it happens
quite a bit even today for a number of reasons.
My grandmother rented the farm after my grandfather was no longer able
to work it. I have a colleague in
Germany who inherited a farm. He works
as an engineer, but in Europe, you just don’t sell land. Rather than putting on the overalls, he rents
his farm.
In this
case, the landowner has done the work to make the land profitable. They are his vines. He’s made adequate protection. He’s set up the winepress to collect the
harvest. All that is left to the farmers
is to care for the vines and pressing out the grapes. Not a bad deal. The terms of the landowner’s share of the
produce was most likely discussed up front in the rental agreement.
The tenants seized his servants; they beat
one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them,
more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of
all, he sent his son to them. “They will respect my son,” he said. --Matthew 21:35-37
Yikes! These tenants have no respect for the
landowner or his servants. In this
parable, the landowner is God the Father.
The tenants are the Jews or more specifically, their leaders. The servants are the Old Testament
prophets. Many of those prophets faced
death and some martyred.
The son, of
course, refers to Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. This parable is also related in Mark 12. There it says, “He [the landowner] had one
left to send, a son, whom he loved.”
But when the tenants saw the son, they said
to each other, “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his
inheritance.” So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed
him.
Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard
comes, what will he do to those tenants? --Matthew 21:38-40
This is the
very thing the religious leaders are going to come to in their opposition to
Jesus. They want Him out of the
picture. They want their place
preserved. In less than a week, they
will have Him killed.
Jesus pauses
again at a question. The people are
quick to answer in right judgment.
“He
will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent
the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at
harvest time.” --Matthew 21:41
It is
interesting to note that this answer of the people is going to come true. Jesus’ death on the cross was to atone or pay
for the sins of all people. By the
second century, one hundred years after His resurrection, the church is made up
of far more Gentiles than Jews.
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in
the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the
Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” --Matthew 21:42
Jesus is
quoting here from Psalm 118:22-23. Psalm
118 is a messianic psalm. It is about
Jesus. It talks about Jesus’ triumphal
entry and how the people will lay down their cloaks for him. It describes them waving branches. It even says what they are going to say, “Blessed
is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Jesus indeed
is rejected by the spiritual leaders of Israel.
And yet, after dying on the cross, God will raise Jesus up.
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of
God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its
fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it
falls will be crushed.” Matthew 21:43-44
Either the
Lord is the cornerstone of our lives or He is a rock over which we fall. This theme come up repeatedly in
Scripture. We can see both sides in Isaiah. In chapter 8 (Isaiah 8:11-18), it speaks of
how we should not believe hearsay or follow conspiracies. Instead, we should regard the Lord Almighty
as holy. “He is a stone that causes men
to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”
Over in Isaiah 28:16, we find what the Sovereign Lord says. “See, I lay in Zion a tested stone, a
precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trust will never be
dismayed.” Romans 9:30-33 combines these
two passages and uses the word ashamed rather than dismayed. “The one who trusts in him will never be put
to shame.”
Jesus
interprets the parable here. We’re not
talking about vineyards anymore. He says
the kingdom of God will be taken away and given to a people who will produce
its fruit. What is that fruit? We saw those things in the parable of the
sheep and the goats at the beginning.
And we also heard them again in the preaching of John the Baptist. As in the words of the prophet Micah, it is doing
justly to others and loving mercy and walking humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8)
We’re going
to step over a couple verses here that describe the indignation of the chief
priests and Pharisees. They knew he was
talking about them. They wanted him
arrested, but they were afraid because the people believe that Jesus was a
prophet.
Jesus spoke to them again in parables,
saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet
for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet
to tell them to come, but they refused to come.” -- Matthew 22:1-3
We started
with the parable about the father. Then, it was the landowner. Now, it is a
king.
We have also
changed from working vineyards to attending a wedding banquet.
We are
dealing with another invitation, but the type is different. First, it was an invitation to work. The second parable had an invitation to give
to the landowner what belonged to him.
Now, it is an invitation to join the celebration, giving honor to the
king and his son.
It’s almost
as if the effort and power or authority are inversely proportional. Higher authority or power (father à landowner à king) but less demand
on those invited (work à
giving what is owed à
attending a wedding feast).
The response
is the same though. The invited guests
have refused.
Then he sent some more servants and said, “Tell
those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and
fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the
wedding banquet.”
But they paid no attention and went off—one to
his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated
them and killed them. --Matthew 22:4-6
The
celebration is imminent. The animals are
already butchered. In those days, you
didn’t leave raw meat lying around. You
cooked it and served it. Sending that
kind of invitation meant to drop what you were doing, because “dinner is on the
table.”
The “good”
invitees pay no attention and go off on their own business. Others attack the servants and kill
them. The king’s response is appropriate
in response to this crime.
The king was enraged. He sent his army and
destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
Then he said to his servants, “The wedding
banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street
corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” So the servants went out
into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and
bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. --Matthew 22:7-10
The wedding
of the king will not go unattended.
There must be guests at this gala event.
Come in one and all, join this great celebration. They brought them all, anyone who would come.
And … they
all lived happily ever after … right?
But when the king came in to see the guests,
he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. “Friend,” he asked,
“how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” The man was speechless. --Matthew 22:11-12
Have you
ever been caught flat footed like that?
I don’t belong here. I’m not
dressed right. I’m not doing the right
things. I couldn’t think of any great
examples. I have had this fear often
enough, but I don’t remember being called out on it. Traveling in other countries, I’ve often been
worried, but so far, I’ve avoided making a catastrophic faux pas. I’ve certainly been thought of as ignorant
and stupid. I’ve been mooned and flipped
off and cursed at, but generally that’s been because the other person was being
mean, not because I was doing something horribly wrong.
I’ve never
driven cars that would impress people.
Even though I now drive a BMW, I drive a 23 year old BMW. It’s a rag top. I mean it is a convertible, but what I really
mean is that it has a rag top. There are
holes in the top the biggest being about six inches long. You’d think with all the torrential
thunderstorms we’ve had that at some point I would have opened the door of my
car and water would’ve run out. I can’t
explain it, but no it hasn’t happened.
By God’s grace, it’s almost always dry inside.
I used to
drive this minivan that had rust covering 98% of the roof. Melissa and I went to a nice restaurant
driving it once. When I say nice, I mean
that it had valet parking. I joked to
Melissa that I should have let them valet park my rust bucket next to the new
Mercedes and Lexus. It would surely have
been a hoot, but I think Melissa would probably have died from
embarrassment. Actually, I think my
longsuffering wife is living proof that you can’t die from embarrassment, so if
you were wondering, there you go.
This
situation though is no laughing matter.
We can laugh at some social civilities.
We can consider requirements of etiquette to be over bearing. But there are cases where such things are
inappropriate to the point of being restricted.
The wedding of the crown prince is not a place for making a statement
against cultural mores.
Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him
hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
For many are invited, but few are chosen. --Matthew 22:13-14
What’s going
on here? Is Jesus, the friend of
sinners, really concerned about what you and I are going to wear to his
wedding? Do you need to be afraid about
what to wear? Well, yes and no. No, I don’t think we need to worry about
having something to wear. Jesus is very
clear that He is going to make us spotlessly clean. We can have white robes from Him that will be
appropriate for any Royal occasion.
But yes, I
do think we need to be concerned about keeping our robes clean. This is drawn out in Revelation 3:1-6. It talks there about a few people from Sardis
who have not soiled their clothes. We
need to walk in such a way that we do not soil our clothes. How do our clothes get dirty? It’s not by doing the “dirty work” of
service.
We get dirty
by sinning. Romans 13:12 says put aside
the deeds of darkness. James 1:21 says “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and
all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which
is able to save your souls.” It’s
wickedness and wrongdoing that we need to put aside. We need to put aside our selfish ambitions
and vain conceit. We need to lay aside
our pursuit of the world. Being dressed
in white is the symbol of purity.
“Jesus explained the absolute necessity of
this being clothed by God with His garments of purity and righteousness in His
parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:11-14).” --David Guzik
Jesus says
many are invited. II Peter 2:9 says that
God is slow in bringing His judgment because he wants everyone to come to
repentance. And yet, there is judgment. There will be ones chosen and ones sent away.
Salvation
comes by the blood of Jesus. Our sins,
our wrongdoing, has to be set right. Jesus’
death accomplished that for us. Our
response must be to live lives that are set apart. He calls the life that we are to live a holy
life.
In the lives
of the improperly dressed guest, the initial invited wedding guests, the wicked
tenants, and the disobedient son, there is an attitude and supremacy of pride
in their thinking. They are not
humble. They don’t submit even to their
own commitments by their own word.
I told you a
couple of weeks ago that we are working in the basement to fix up a room for
Taryn. I don’t even remember what she
and I were talking about now, but there was some aspect to what we were doing
that caused Taryn to get frustrated. I
told her not to worry about messing something up by trying to move forward in
the work. I gave her two rules for our
mini-construction project.
Rule number
1 – No self-loathing.
Rule number
2 – Don’t cut off anything that you might want to use later. (By anything, I mean body parts.)
I explained
that I constantly make mistakes. It’s
just that she’s not watching me closely enough to see that I am also constantly
fixing my mistakes. God has called us to
work for him. We get to choose how we
respond. Are we always going to have the
right thing to say? No. Are we always going to connect well with
people? Probably not. Are we always going to feel like loving other
people? Nope, sorry.
Our response
though should never be a sense of self-loathing. Oh, I am such a terrible bad person. Well, honestly, you are. We all are terribly bad, and I am likely the
chief. But if we hit that point though
of wanting to hate ourselves, we need to run to Jesus just as fast as we
can. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our needs. Worldly sorrow sends us into a tailspin of
depression and ultimately leads to death.
Despite what the self-help books say, we can’t pull ourselves up by our
own bootstraps. Godly sorrow though
brings repentance and leads to salvation and leaves no regret. (II Cor 7:10)
It’s like
trying to get most kids to jump into your arms in the pool. I think every one of our kids went through
that stage of you’ve got to be practically holding on to me, touching me,
before I’m going to “jump.” I mean if
I’m holding on to you when you “jump,” can we really call it jumping
anymore? Their fear exceeds their
confidence and trust in the parent or sibling to catch them.
I’d like to
close with a couple of paragraphs from a column by writer Andree Seu Peterson.
“What is
wise to say then? Only this: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion” (Hebrews 3:7-8). And this: “It is appointed for man
to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). As for the dead,
“their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever
they have no more share in what is done under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 9:6)
“But you and
I are not dead, but alive! Here, among the living, is the land of choice, sweet
choice, thrilling choice. Here is the only place of actualization. If we are on
a bad course, we may turn from it and get right with God before we even finish
reading this column of print. Ebenezer, waking from time travel, found it so,
and he rejoiced: “Yes! And the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the
room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to
make amends in” (Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol).”-- “Summer time travel”
Andrée Seu Peterson, World Issue: "Question authority," Aug. 22, 2015
Time to
respond to the invitation …
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus,
give us ears to hear Your call. May we
respond to You day by day and moment by moment.
Thank You that You are patient with us.
Teach us how to love You and to love others. Soften our hearts, soften my heart, I
pray. Thank You for working in each
heart here. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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