He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.
“Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’
“But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”
Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
-Luke 20:9-18 NRSV
Be Found in Him
I love the Bible. I love the Bible’s stories, its sacred message, its unembarrassed references to immortality. But more than that, I love its shocking singularity of Gospel message (amidst its great diversity of authorship and genre).
The Bible is especially fun when one author references another author. Today, Luke, quoting the Son of David, has that same Jesus, quoting David himself in Psalm 118. That stuff will preach, friends.
But first, let us listen to the man of the sixteenth century himself, Dr. Luther, reminding us of the purpose of the Old Testament:
They think of it as a book that was given to the Jewish people only and is now out of date, containing only stories of past times…But Christ says in John 5, “Search the Scriptures, for it is they that bear witness to me”….The Scriptures of the Old Testament are not to be despised but diligently read….Therefore dismiss your own opinions and feelings and think of the Scriptures as the loftiest and noblest of holy things, as the richest of mines which can never be sufficiently explored, in order that you may find that divine wisdom which God here lays before you in such simple guise as to quench all pride. Here you will find the swaddling cloths and the manger in which Christ lies…Simple and lowly are these swaddling cloths, but dear is the treasure, Christ, who lies in them.
“…the richest of mines which can never be sufficiently explored” OH, HOW I LOVE THIS: “Here you will find the swaddling cloths and the manger in which Christ lies”
If in fact that is true; if your Old Testament is, in fact, a more reliable guide to Jesus than Time magazine or the Interpreter’s Bible Commentary; and in fact comes with a helpful little guide—the Holy Spirit’s illuminating work—then let us sit awhile with the Psalms and the Prophets. And let us further suppose that its subject—Jesus Christ—is co-eternal with the Father, as suggested in the Creeds; then let’s take a bath in the Bible already!
Either way, David’s Psalm—a clear reminisce of all that it took to get him this throne—is one steeped in love for God. Despair and victory both are detailed throughout, and Jesus’ quote falls right out of the middle (humorously, everyone’s favorite wedding verse is the one that follows in verse 23, and a key part of our weekly liturgy falls out of verse 26).
So, given David’s clear devotion to expanding on the love of God a thousand years prior, how is love stirred afresh in Luke 20? And what has this to do with Advent—a season of present apocalypse?
Well, the passage is sandwiched between two challenges—one of Jesus’ authority, and one of his homage to Caesar. Here we find our answer. If the world- system is your reference point, Jesus will never make sense. Take him out, beat him, and kill him in hopes of manipulating your inheritance already (like the evil tenants in the story).
But if instead we read the world as Blessed Mary did, for example, then we draw a very different conclusion: If God the Son is instead the one who first sides with the lowly handmaiden, the humble and meek, the hungry, and the poor; and if that same God the Son—the stone the builders rejected—is the one upon whom we break our pride-dripping lives, so that we, too, are lowly of heart; we too are hungry and thirsty for a righteousness-not-of-our-own, and find ourselves identifying with the poor more than power; then the undulating love of God shall break fresh into our hearts.
I admit--Advent makes some immediate sense to my need for instant justice. I’m ready for white-horse Jesus to ride in with a sword in his teeth to restore Mary’s vision immediately. My heart might even be ready to beat a few servants up in the process. Let’s take no names and clean house. Stay awake, says Matthew 24! Let’s do this!
But Jesus’ first coming is remarkably shocking. Lord have mercy, let me not reject that precious stone.
The one who comes to judge WILL FIRST BE JUDGED. Be found in him.
The one who comes to rectify WILL FIRST BE REJECTED. Be found in him.
The one who comes on a white horse WILL FIRST BE TRAMPLED. Be found in him.
For me, the tenant. Be found in him.
Advent is the rock upon which my self-righteousness, impatience, and hatred of people will be dashed to pieces, and Jesus is the rock upon which the entire thing shall be rebuilt.
Praise God for the Old Testament.
The Rev. Nathan Carr
Vicar
St. John’s, OKC