Sermon -- 5th Sunday in Lent (April 3, 2022)

LUKE 20:9-19

THE LORD LOOKS FOR FRUIT FROM THE FAITHFUL.

In the name + of Jesus.

     When the Lord Jesus told a parable, he used images from every day life to make a comparison to the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God is like a man sowing seed.  The kingdom of God is like a woman kneading yeast into a batch of dough, and so on.  In the case of the parable from today’s Gospel, Jesus utilized a story that would have been familiar to all the people.  Jesus’ parable began, “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while” (Luke 20:9). 

     Compare that to the allegory told by Isaiah: “Let me sing for my loved one a song about my loved one’s vineyard.  My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile ridge.  He dug it up and gathered the stones out of it.  He planted it with the best vines.  He built a tower in the middle of it.  He also cut a winepress into it.  He expected it to produce clusters of sweet grapes, but it produced only sour grapes.  So now, you residents of Jerusalem and you men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.  What more could have been done for my vineyard that I have not already done for it?  When I expected it to produce clusters of sweet grapes, why did it produce sour grapes” (Isaiah 5:1-4)?  The Lord looks for fruit from the faithful. 

     The vineyard is the kingdom of God.  The Lord is the one who built it and owns it.  He graciously brings people into his kingdom, rescuing them from the power of the devil.  Satan entices us into sin and then accuses us to bring us shame, and then mocks us over our guilt.  The devil seeks only to destroy.  The Lord has rescued you from that.  He has worked saving faith in you to make you one of his faithful disciples.  He has set you apart to be his saints.  You have been set apart from sin, death, and the devil.  If you are set apart from something, then the Lord also sets you apart for something.  Jesus tells us what that is in his parable.  “When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard” (Luke 20:10).  Jesus seeks fruit from the faithful.

     Being delivered from the domain of the devil into the kingdom of God is not trading in one set of rules for another.  The Lord had created a perfect world.  The rules that God had set for his creation are not repressive rules which choke the fun out of life.  God created everything according to a good order.  Everything was created to be a blessing for us as it is used according to his design.  The sun provides light and heat to the earth.  The earth orbits around the sun at a distance where it is not too hot or too cold to sustain life.  The pattern of day and night allow for productive work and needed rest.  Seeds produce crops for us to eat.  Husbands and wives produce children for succeeding generations.  These things are God’s good order and design.

     Now, you have also been included in God’s good order and design.  Everything God has created in you and about you is to serve for God’s glory and according to his purpose.  But the devil perverts God’s good gifts, meaning that he teaches us to abuse them, corrupt them, and use them against their intended design.  Examples of this abound, but we will limit ourselves to God’s gift of speech.  St. Paul briefly expressed how God designed our mouths and speech to be used.  He wrote, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).  This gift is perverted by obscenity, slander, lies, mockery, and arrogant bluster.  Such use of our mouths dishonors God who gave us speech to use for his glory.  It harms our neighbor who is the victim of our self-glorifying speech.  Our mouths are to be devoted to positive and truthful communication.  It is not to be perverted for our own egos.  Jesus looks for fruit from the faithful.  The fruit is the good work that God has set us apart for.  If we do not give him this good fruit, then how could we call ourselves the faithful?  Repent.

     Jesus told the parable to give a stern warning to the Pharisees.  It was during Holy Week, just days before Jesus would be crucified, so the warning is a sort of final warning.  God had brought the people of Israel into his kingdom.  They were the workers in the vineyard.  The Lord wanted to see fruits of faith from these people who had graciously received a place in his kingdom.  He sent prophets to find the fruits among them.  Instead of gladly giving to God, they abused the prophets.  Some they beat; others they mocked; still others they killed.  They refused to give God what he was due.

     “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do?  I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’  But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir.  Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’  And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him” (Luke 20:13-15).  It was not only a warning; it was also a prophecy which ended up being fulfilled.  God the Father had sent his Son, Jesus, to the people of Israel.  Many did not believe in him, which means they dishonored the Father who sent him.  And the religious leaders were plotting to kill Jesus.  It was not a well-kept secret.  Jesus knew it, and others even talked about it.  But the leaders would not heed the warning.  They would not give the Lord the fruit he sought.  Instead, “the scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people” (Luke 20:19). 

     Eventually, they did lay hands on Jesus and put him to death.  Sinners are convinced that the solution to sin is to silence God.  We do not want to hear God confront us for our actions.  Rather than change our ways, we want to change God’s word.  And when we discover that God’s word cannot and will not change, we plug our ears to it.  We cast God out, convinced that this is for our own benefit.

     But this just goes to show how foolish sin is.  God cannot be overthrown, and his word cannot be overruled.  Listen to the foolishness of the tenants when the master sends his son to them.  “They said to themselves, ‘This is the heir.  Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’  And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him” (Luke 20:14-15).  What makes them think they would inherit the vineyard for murdering the Son?  That’s now how inheritance works.  The vineyard still belonged to the master.  Likewise, what makes any sinner think that rejecting God’s word and refusing to produce the fruit he desires will gain anything?  On the contrary, “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?  He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others” (Luke 20:15-16).  Jesus looks for fruit from the faithful.  If they will not give it, Jesus will find others who will be faithful and fruitful.  The sad reality is that the kingdom of God has been forfeited by most of the children of Israel.  Our Lord has given his kingdom mostly Gentiles to whom he has granted saving faith and from whom he is looking for the fruits of faith.  Be warned: If the Lord does not find fruits from us, we will lose our place in the kingdom, too.

     Whether people are faithful and fruitful or not, everyone will have to face the Lord.  There are two ways that we may encounter our Lord.  After Jesus quoted the prophets to highlight that he is the stone on which the kingdom of God is built, he says, “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him” (Luke 20:18). 

     To those who do not believe in Jesus, judgment will fall upon them.  They will be crushed by Jesus.  Anyone who denies Jesus may feel like he gets away with his defiance throughout his lifetime, but this lifetime does come to an end.  When it does, Jesus demands an answer for your life.  Whoever is not found pure will damned because he rebelled against God’s good order and design.  The stone will fall, and it will crush all rebels.

     The right way to encounter the Lord is the first way Jesus mentions: “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces” (Luke 20:18).  We come before the Lord with a broken and contrite heart.  We do not come trying to explain ourselves, making a defense of our actions, or insisting that there are some good things we’ve done.  Rather, we come to our Lord crushed by his Law and reduced to nothing.  We are broken to pieces, wholly repentant.  We know that we have not lived up to God’s purpose.  We have perverted God’s design for us.  Therefore, we acknowledge that we are nothing. 

     But when God creates, he takes what is nothing and makes it a new creation.  The Lord makes you a new creation with a clean heart.  This is why you are pure in his sight.  The Lord credits you for works you have not done because Jesus did those perfect works for you.  His life was lived perfect for God’s glory and by his good design.  Jesus also takes credit for sins that he did not do.  He takes your sins for you and suffers for you.  He delivers you out of death and hell by going into death and hell for you.  The Lord renews in you a right spirit so that your will and your actions are according to God’s good purpose. 

     The Lord has called you into his vineyard to serve him for his glory, according to his design, and for the good of your neighbor.  Since the Lord has given you a clean heart and a right spirit, you recognize, “Now I see the good God intends for me and the good God designed me to be.  Just as God made the sun to provide light and heat to bless this world, so he has redeemed me and set me apart to honor him and to find direction in his word.  Now I make every thought captive to Christ, turning from everything the Lord has called wicked and perverted and devoting myself to every good work.  Yes, this is what the Lord has made me for.” 

     The Lord looks for fruit from the faithful.  By his word and sacraments, he has made you faithful; by his word and sacraments, he will make you fruitful.  Just as the Lord gives you saving faith, so he works in you to produce good works.  Then the Lord will reward you for the faith and the fruits he has given you.  This is God’s design to save you.  Taste and see that the Lord is good.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.