What Will the Owner Do? (Luke 20:9-20)
Rev. David French
04/03/22

This parable is the last lesson Jesus taught at the temple before His crucifixion. And the truth it teaches is as ominous today as it was when those who first heard it cried out literally, “May this never be!” implying that they desperately wanted there to be time to avoid the unimaginable ending it describes. 

The parable takes place in and around a vineyard. This vineyard represents the Promise Land God had given to His people, Israel. He is, of course, the owner of the land. The tenants are the religious leaders of Israel, some of whom were in the crowd that day. The servants that the owner sent to collect what was due Him are the prophets that God, for centuries, sent to His people often with words of warning. Finally there is the Son, Jesus who was the last to be sent to receive some of the fruit from His Father’s vineyard.

And as we know, like the tenants in the parable, the “teachers of the law and the chief priest” in Jerusalem will succeed in having the Son dragged out of the city and killed. Jesus then ends the parable with a death sentence against the current tenants saying, “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?  He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.  When they heard this, they said, ‘May this never be!’”

Now, human wisdom would certainly indicate that the last thing anyone in that situation would do is send their son into that death trap, but that’s exactly what the God we worship, in His wisdom, did. He sent His Son to what was a certain death because of His love for you and me.

 Did you know that while all Christians believe that Jesus loves us and all people, and He does, but never once in all four gospels does Jesus actually say, “I love you”? Isn’t that strange? Once He said, “... as I have loved you,” but that’s not the same. Why then are we convinced that He loves us? Well, the reason we know Jesus loves us is not because He says so, but because He showed His love with His life, death, and resurrection. Understand, Jesus came into this world not to talk about love, but because of love. 

Certainly, you know that Jesus suffered more than just the physical pain of the crucifixion. When He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” he was experiencing something that no one on this side of hell will ever understand. The best we can do is imagine that being forsaken by God to be far more terrifying and painful than anything Jesus ever suffered at the hands of man. At that moment Christ was living His love for you in a way that simply cannot be expressed with human words or understood with the human mind and can only be believed by the faith the Holy Spirit creates in each of us through the gospel. The Scriptures are clear. You simply can’t talk about God’s love without the cross because the cross is what God’s love is all about.

My friends, Jesus has a vision for His church. In Luke 24 (46-47) we read, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Clearly, Jesus tells His church that we are to share His love by proclaiming repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His name to all nations. And since God has placed us here in Lafayette, Jesus’s vision for us is to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His name beginning right here. 

And because this is our Savior’s vision for His church, I have no choice but to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name every time we gather together around His Word and sacraments. That’s how Jesus has commanded me to serve you His love. If I don’t call on you to repent so that you might be forgiven all your sins, then I have not served you the love of God.

Consider your baptism. In the book of Acts we read the words, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Every time you see a baptism, you are seeing God’s love in action. Every time you think about your baptism, you are remembering how God, because of His love for you, combined His Word with water for the forgiveness of your sins and the birth of a new life. As that new life in us continues to be nurtured throughout our earthly lives, we regularly confess our sins to God and receive His absolution, His Word of forgiveness. Jesus is showing His love for you.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and wine and instituted His Supper.  He has promised that in, with, and under those earthly elements, combined to His Word, He gives His very body and blood for the forgiveness of your sin. Again, this is how Jesus pours out His love for us.  

Every time we confess the Creed, we recite a summary of the love that Jesus has shown for us as He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and buried, descended into hell, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and promises to return to take us home with Him. All of these are acts of love which were done by Christ for you and me and all who are born of sin. 

In the first chapter of Genesis, God tells us about His love in creation. In the last chapter of Revelation, God tells us about the love of Christ for His bride the church. You see, the Scriptures are, from beginning to end, based on love, but the focus of that love is found in Christ on the cross, which is the salvation of mankind.  

For those without faith who don’t see God’s love when they look at Jesus on the cross, who don’t see their salvation coming through Christ’s death, then the rest of the Bible, especially the parable in today's lesson, will never be anything but nonsense. But for those who do see, as St. Paul writes, “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

I could go on and on about all the different ways that God demonstrates His love for us every moment of our lives, but that’s because, in the end, God is love; and love, as we learn from Scriptures, is patient and kind. It does not envy or boast, it is not proud or rude or self-seeking, it is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love (or our God) never fails.

So, what will He do? I mean, the One who owns us. Mercifully, He will show love and all that that means, because the One who was rejected by mankind is He who with His blood paid our debt for sin, and by His resurrection overcame death and the power of the devil. And with that, the barrier between God and man was removed. Christ is now and forevermore the capstone of our salvation. Even now His Word and Spirit are working within your heart so that you might know in your heart that you and all who repent are forgiven and so Holy in His sight.

In His name, Amen.