In the Name of Jesus
Mark 12,1-12 (Matthew 21, 33-46; Luke 20,9-19)
Reminiszere (2. Sonntag der Passionszeit) 025 „Remember“
Archippus, relative of St. Paul. Colossians 4,17
20. March 2011
1. O Heavenly Father, You gave us Your Holy Word and the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, Your only and beloved Son, who paid for our sins on the cross. Your Church is tempted to usurp the vineyard from You and plant her own doctrine and practice that is centered on man rather than the Triune God. Send forth pastors to be prophets in Your Church who will call the Church and all Christians who have strayed from Your word and will to repentance and bring them again with penitent hearts, look to Your grace upon all who have gone astray from Your ways, being steadfast in the faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word, Jesus Christ, Your Son. Amen.
2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Mark where the holy evangelist writes: 1And Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10Have you not read this Scripture: »The Stone that the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone; 11this was the Yahweh’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes« (Psalm 118,22-23)? 12And they were seeking to arrest Him but feared the people, for they perceived that He had told the parable against them. So they left Him and went away. This is our text.
3. Jesus spoke this parable during Holy Week which was the last week of His public ministry. Jesus had entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and had already cleared out the temple. Jesus was teaching in the temple courtyard when He tells this parable. His audience was probably diverse, including, His disciples, some from the crowds who had heard Him teach before, Jewish religious leaders, including Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees, and any number of extra-national Jews who lived outside Judea but were in the courtyard to celebrate the Feast of Passover.
4. With this parable, Jesus teaches what the reaction will soon be regarding Yahweh’s plan of salvation (Heilsgeschichte). He begins by recounting the Prophet Isaiah who compared Israel to Yahweh’s vineyard. Yahweh had made Israel the choicest of His vineyards, and after all His meticulous care for the nation, Israel nevertheless (dennoch) yielded wild grapes instead of the expected grapes, meaning that Israel historically rebelled against Yahweh and His prophets. Israel opted more often than not to worship the idols held in high esteem by the nations around them. Eight centuries later, Israel’s intractable stance toward Yahweh and His prophets had not changed. O to be sure, the Pharisees and the scribes could boast that by and large the nation as a whole worshipped Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that the feasts and the covenant were properly celebrated and administered. Yet, when Yahweh sent His prophets, the religious leaders were apathetic towards John the Baptizer and His successor, Jesus.
5. While on the outside Israel looked like a faithful nation who truly worshipped Yahweh, on the inside they were a tomb of decay for many did not heed or believe John or Jesus. The religious leaders were constantly at odds with Jesus and His preaching. Many in the crowds failed to believe what Jesus taught them. Only a small band of apostles and disciples, perhaps roughly 120 in number could be counted as actual believers and disciples of Jesus (Acts 1,15). The rest of the nation was either indifferent or openly hostile.
6. Jesus knew this about Israel and the crowds, thus He began His public ministry by preaching, »The time has been fulfilled, and the reign of God has arrived; repent and believe in the gospel« (Mark 1,15). Jesus called His chosen people to repent of their wrong and distorted view of Yahweh’s deliverance from sin. Repent, O Israel, for seeking and attempting to take the vineyard, which is Yahweh’s free gift to you, to take the vineyard for yourselves and in the attempt you ignored and murdered the prophets and the very Messiah sent to you. Repent, O Church, for making the ministry all about you rather than about Christ crucified for you.
7. Christ, in this parable, exhorts His people to „remember“. The antiphon of the Introit gives us the theme for each Sunday’s Divine Service (Gottesdienst). Today’s antiphon proclaims: »Remember Your tender mercy, O Yahweh, and Your steadfast love, for they have been from of old« (Psalm 25,6). Yahweh’s remembrance extends all the way back to the beginning of human history when He made the first gospel promise spoken against the devil and spoken to encourage Adam and Eve who had sinned: »I put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He will bruise your head, and you will bruise His heel« (Genesis 3,15). Yahweh reminded each patriarchal generation of this wonderful promise of redemption from sin, death, and the devil. Yahweh’s covenant of salvation was manifested and fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord.
8. »The Stone that the builders rejected became the Cornerstone; this was the Yahweh’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes« (Psalm 118,22-23). After three years of preaching, teaching, and miraculously showing that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, many of the religious leaders and the crowds nevertheless refused to have Jesus as their heavenly-sent Messiah. Failure to repent of this sin had drastic consequences: Jerusalem was attacked, the temple was destroyed, and many Jews were exiled from Judea.
9. Jesus’ judgment upon those who refused and rejected Him as the Messiah was harsh: My Heavenly Father will destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others (12,9). Those who reject Jesus will likewise be rejected by God the Father.
10. Now before we castigate those wicked, unbelieving Jews in Jesus’ day, we must also recognize that each one of us stands under the law as a likewise wicked sinner whose sinful life rejects and refuses Christ Jesus. Today’s Introit reminds us of our fallen nature: »For Your Name’s sake, O Yahweh, pardon my guilt, for my guilt is great« (Psalm 25,11).
11. For the very reason that our guilt is great, and because Yahweh’s chosen people historically and continually rejected Him, Christ Jesus was made man. Jesus arrived for sinners like you and me, like Israel and the Gentiles, yes, for the entire world. And what was God the Father’s great plan of salvation (Heilsgeschichte) for this world of sinners? His Son becomes the Rejected One in order to ransom the very ones who reject Him! The inescapable plan of God calls for His eschatological prophet to die in Jerusalem (Just 764), and this death happens on the cross at Passover. Christ Jesus was crucified in our place and for our sin; He became the ransom price.
12. In the 21st century this Christ crucified is a stumbling block for people just as it was a stumbling block in the 1st century. Paul the Apostle explains why this is: Jews ask for signs and Gentiles seek wisdom (1 Corinthians 1,22). Yahweh has given them Christ suffering and dying on the cross. Thus ministers preach Christ crucified which is a stumbling block for the Jews and foolishness for the Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1,23). Today in our culture people want Jesus to simply be a life coach like Dr. Phil or Oprah. People want Jesus to be a teacher of morals and values like Joel Olsteen. Such a Jesus is a safe Jesus. Anyone and everyone can accept and have this sort of Jesus no matter what philosophical or religious persuasion.
13. Life coach Jesus and Moral Jesus, however, is not the Crucified Jesus. Life coach Jesus and Moral Jesus do not redeem people from the problem they have with God and His fierce anger against them and their sin. Only the Crucified Jesus solves the God problem. Christ crucified delivers people from their sinfulness. Christ crucified appeases the Heavenly Father’s wrath against sinners and reveals His true and deep love for sinners. Christ crucified saves people.
14. The world does not want the Crucified Jesus, because the Crucified Jesus is divisive. Christ crucified is exclusive because Christ declares that only He is the way, the truth, and the life. The road to heaven runs through Christ dying on the cross for our sins. That cross causes all manner of people to stumble, but Christ crucified is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. Christ crucified is our salvation and eternal life. The vineyard, then, is ours, for it given as a gift by Yahweh, and that gift is ours through Christ the Cornerstone. It is Yahweh’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Remember. Amen.
15. Let us pray. O Heavenly Father, You show His love for us in that Jesus Christ died for us while we were still sinners, may we never stumble over this proclamation nor reject this great gift of grace so that we may remain in the Christian faith unto eternal life. Amen.
One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Luke © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
Just, Arthur A., Jr. Luke 9:51––24:53. Copyright © 1997 Concordia Publishing House.
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