Matthew 21:33-46
The Parable of the Tenants
33 “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 moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “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.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “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.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’[a]?
43 “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. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”[b]
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them.46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
Let us pray,
May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts, be pleasing and acceptable to you, our rock and our redeemer…
Today is a special day in the life of our church. Today is World Communion Sunday. We celebrate World Communion Sunday on the first Sunday in October. On this day we celebrate our oneness in Christ with our brothers and sisters throughout the world.
World Communion Sunday was first celebrated at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in 1933. Rev. William Kerr, the pastor of Shadyside at the time, wanted to celebrate the interconnectedness of brothers and sisters in Christ. During a rough moment in American History, The Great Depression. When asked how World Communion Sunday gained popularity, Rev. Kerr said:
It was during the Second World War that the Spirit caught hold because we were trying to hold the world together. Worldwide Communion symbolized the effort to hold things together in a spiritual sense. It emphasized that we are one in the Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am particularly looking forward to this year’s celebration of World Communion Sunday. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we have not celebrated communion together in person since February. While I’m grateful for the gift of technology that allowed us to practice virtual communion. Communion is a practice best celebrated in person. It’s hard for us to reflect on our unity in Christ when we’re calling in from homes all over our city.
When I first read through our Scripture reading for today, the Parable of the Tenants, I wasn’t sure how it related to World Communion Sunday. What does a story of tenant farmer rebellion have to do with unity in Christ? But after sitting with it all week, I am convinced that this parable serves a warning of what happens when we take our unity in Christ for granted. Because when we trust more in our own authority than Jesus’. We can justify all sorts of bad behavior.
In our parable for this morning, a landowner plants a vineyard. At harvest time he sends his servants to his tenant farmers to collect his fruits. This would have been a very common practice in the Ancient Near East. Typically, the tenants would have handed over the fruit and gone about with their day. In our parable, instead of handing over the fruit, the tenants kill the landowner’s servants.
The landlord is very confused by their behavior. He thinks the tenants killed his servants because they do not respect them. So instead of sending additional servants to collect his fruits, he sends his son. In the Ancient Near East, the landowner’s son would have been the one expected to take over for his father when he dies. It was not unreasonable for the landlord to assume that his tenants would respect his son more than his servants. That they would treat the landowner’s son as if the landowner himself was coming to collect his fruit. But instead of respecting the son they kill him too.
Now here is where the parable gets interesting. Jesus asks the chief priests and the elders what they think the landlord will do with the tenants? They say of course he’s going to kill the wicked tenants then rent his land out to new tenants. It is now that Jesus realizes the chief priests and the elders don’t understand the parable.
In the parable, the landowner is a metaphor for God, his son for Jesus. If the landowner killed the wicked tenants, the tenants would never have a chance to repent and be forgiven. Instead, God chooses to demonstrate his love for us. God loves us so much that he sent his Son into the world, knowing that he would die, so that we might live. This is the point of the parable. There is nothing we can do to put us outside of God’s loving care.
So how does this parable relate to World Communion Sunday? I’m glad you asked. I think the problem of this parable is that the tenants do not trust the landowner’s authority. They don’t trust that the landlord will protect them, or that the landlord has their best interest at heart when he makes decisions they disagree with. This parable also illustrates that the chief priests and the elders don’t understand the vastness of God’s love. They focus so much on the wrath of God that they can’t see why God would choose to sacrifice his son so that they might live.
When we gather at the table for communion, we publicly profess our trust in God’s authority and love for us as we remember Jesus’ last meal with his disciples. We profess that our unity in Christ is the most important reason that we gather for worship each and every Sunday. As we pray, By your Spirit make us one with Christ, that we may be one with all who share this feast, united in ministry in every place. As this bread is Christ’s body for us, send us out to be the body of Christ in the world…
The challenge for us this week is to remember that our celebration of communion does not end at the table. The table is only the beginning of this celebration. Having received the elements, we are called to rise from the table and become the body of Christ in the world. In a world that is sometimes hostile to the gospel. But a world that is nonetheless hungry and thirsty for the good news of Jesus Christ.
Friends I feel it is particularly important to celebrate communion together in this time and in this place. We live in a world where unity is hard to come by. Where good, rational, intelligent people strongly disagree about how we should live our lives in the midst of a global health pandemic. When we gather at the table, we proclaim that that which divides us is not as strong as that which unites us. That while we may disagree with one another, this does not change the fact that we are all beloved children of God. And that God has called each and every one of us to a life of discipleship in the context of this particular community of faith.
All is ready. Let us prepare ourselves to receive the feast that Christ has prepared for us. Knowing that we don’t deserve it. And we certainly didn’t earn it. But Christ provides it for us anyway.
Thanks be to God.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.