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Pastor Dan Eddy

Luke 20: 9-20

Respect: Is it earned or deserved?

3-21-10

 

THE GOSPEL READING………………………..……………Luke 20:9-20 NIV

P:  The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 20th Chapter:

C: Glory to you, O Lord.

 

Jesus teaches the parable of the tenants, predicting future events. This is the text for today’s sermon.

 

9He 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. 10At 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. 11He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. 12He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.

 13"Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.'

 14"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.' 15So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

   "What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When the people heard this, they said, "May this never be!"

 17Jesus looked directly at them and asked, "Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
   " 'The stone the builders rejected
      has become the capstone'? 18Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."

 19The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.

 20Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.

 

P: This is the Gospel of the Lord.

C: Praise to You, O Christ.

 

In Christ Jesus, dear friends assembled here this morning.

 

I.              Introduction…Respect: Is it earned or deserved?

Years ago the story was told that in the first few months that Ronald Reagan was President of the United States, a reporter would follow him around saying things like “Ron, Ron what are you going to do about the recession?” Or “Ronald, hey Ronald how are you going to get the Soviets to agree to arms reduction?” Or “Ronnie, why are the interest rates so high?” After tolerating this for a time, the 40th President of the United States finally responded to this “reporter” with “Look, you may not have respect for me but you’d better have respect for the office I hold.”

To the President, respect is deserved by title. To the reporter, I suspect, respect was something the president needed to earn for him to be addressed accordingly. Can you imagine addressing any president by strictly his first name, in this manner, whether or not you voted for him or her?

It’s hard to see the distinction between the titles we hold in life and taking disrespect personally. Lack of respect shows contempt for who we are, and exhibits outright rejection for what we stand for. How do you feel when you are disrespected? Parents and grandparents…when your children or grandchildren disrespect you. How about your boss or employees when they disrespect you…or students and teachers when they disrespect you, or even a life-long friend.  Few emotions are as upsetting as the feeling of being disrespected. Rejection hurts.

True respect is the solid rock foundation for great relationships. Today’s parable is about respect for God, His teachings, and what He has given His believers. But is His respect earned or deserved? And how do we live His respect? Today’s parable offers insights into answering these questions.

 

I.              What is the parable saying?

Who’s who in this parable? God the Father is the owner of the vineyard. The Israelites of the Old Testament period and Jesus’ day are the chosen tenant farmers. The vineyard is Israel, the Kingdom of God on earth at that time, set up to produce the fruit of good works to draw people to it from all nations so they would know who the one real God is. The servants are the progression of prophets and other leaders God sent to Israel over the thousands of years to gather fruit for His Kingdom. And the capstone?…Well, I’ll get to that in a moment.

Jesus is teaching this parable in the temple court area of Jerusalem with the Chief Priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders. They were questioning where Christ got His authority to speak on behalf of and as God. Pharisees disrespected Jesus by refusing to answer a direct question, and rejected many of His teachings from Scripture. They felt Jesus neither earned nor deserved their respect.

Note in the parable: the progression, escalation, and increasing degrees of disrespect with each servant sent by the owner to collect the crop from the tenant farmers. From just a beating for the first servant, to then beating and insulting the second, to severely wounding the third. From physical abuse to emotional…all leading to the killing of the owner’s son. 

Christ was basically saying that the Israelites of the Old Testament and the Jews of Jesus’ day didn’t respect God and His Word. They didn’t respect His prophets and leaders like Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah…all were threatened and as history progressed, with each prophet, the abuse increased, climaxing with God’s Son…THE Prophet, Priest and King.

Jesus told them this parable so He could expose the unbelievers in Him and their plot, and to shake up the weaker believers.

It’s an indictment of Israel’s history for failing to not only respect the prophets and true leaders, but failing to produce the fruit of good works and not being a light to all people. Jesus was pronouncing judgment on all the Jews who disrespected Him as they would face the destruction of Jerusalem in their near future as a result of rejecting Him as God’s Son. The capstone was going to crush them as Jesus said Psalm 118:22 predicted.

Christ was saying how the Kingdom of God was going to be turned over new tenants…implying the Gentiles. And did you note the response in verse 16 from the Jewish audience?  "May this never be!" In other words, “God forbid.”

Now it might be easy in our warm comfortable seats to pile onto Christ’s judgment of the Jewish leaders and say to ourselves “How could they disrespect someone as great and loving as Jesus?” But let’s admit all of us many times don’t respect God, His Word, or His modern day prophets? Today we are the tenants of His vineyard…the Church. What fruit of good works have we produced? Who have we reached out to recently with the Good News of Christ to bring them into His community of faith? Or are we producing fruit and keeping it to ourselves and not sharing it with others? In other words, doing good works but the unbelievers in our lives don’t see us giving the credit and glory to God. They see our good works as just our own. The progression of our disrespect for God increases as drift further and further away from His blessings given in worship, through meditation and prayer, producing either no fruit or keeping the vineyard to ourselves.

Is this congregation viewed as a country-club for members only? We’ll accept visitors if they come on their own…but encouraging people to come here ourselves…no…even though Christ has asked us to go out from here and to make disciples of all people.

What do you think happens to churches, congregations, that don’t produce the fruit of good works to share with others for God’s glory? The vineyard is turned over to new tenants. In other words, other churches grow. Congregations, whose collective faiths do not grow, do not grow numerically, eventually whither and die. The fruit is not there, because the respect for Jesus is no longer there.

 

II.            Why is the parable saying this?

In this parable, Christ was predicting His own death and pointing out who was going to be behind it. Jesus presented this parable, three days before His death on the cross.

In verse 14 the tenants in the parable thoroughly debated, reasoned and thought through how they were going to kill the Son for their own benefit. Their plot was not developed on a whim.

Jewish law provided that a piece of property unclaimed by an heir would be declared “ownerless” and could be claimed by anyone. The tenants assumed that the son came as an heir to claim his property and that if he were slain, they could claim the land for themselves.

Moments after Jesus spoke this parable the Jewish religious leaders who were part of the Sanhedrin…the Council of 72 men plotted to have Jesus killed…because He threatened their religious monopoly…their political power base, their prestige. But like a rock, Christ was there to crush them for their iniquities.

But ultimately we all played a role in killing the Son, ourselves. We often thoroughly debated, reasoned and rationalize our sinful habits, for our own benefit, not realizing that long ago God sent His Son, knowing our sins would kill Him. We often think we can get on God’s good side without Christ Jesus…that’s how little respect we can have for our Lord and Savior. 

And building our faith on this very shaky foundation would make some of the poorly constructed buildings that crumbled recently in Haitian Earthquake seem strong and sturdy by comparison. Faith in God apart from Christ Jesus is the ground that’s the sinking sand as we sang in our opening hymn. Like the saturated ground around our many of our houses that flooded our basements this past week. Houses built on solid rock foundations don’t have to worry about flooding conditions.

You have to have a good cornerstone, capstone, a foundation stone. That’s what Jesus was saying in verse 17.  This capstone is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All over stones will be set in reference to this stone, and thus determine the position of the entire structure. Jesus is that stone that determines the position and stricture of the entire vineyard of the Church.

So this morning I would like to ask the ushers to come forward to give you the next Cross Piece…a Rock with a cross on it to remind you that Jesus is the Cornerstone or Capstone of your faith in Him. (Pull out big rock with cross on it.)

Jesus is the Capstone the Israelites rejected. He is still the stone rejected today. (Set rock on the ground then trip over it without falling) He is the Cornerstone that can trip us up and break us to pieces if we don’t believe we are born with sin and continue to sin. But, as verse 18 says, He is also the stone that has crushed or pulverized Satan on your behalf and all others who ultimately reject Him as the foundation of their faith in God. (Point to cross) You need this stone or the structure of your faith will not stand.

Christ as the cornerstone can be your friend or your foe…(take rock and put baptismal shell over it and place on font) He is the solid rock your baptism stands on and supports you in this life, or (take rock and put over hand) He crushes you for trying to make it to God on your own without Him. It’s the faith in the Capstone by the power of His Word that makes the difference.

Normally when you are an enemy of someone, what do they want to do to you? They want to hurt you and possibly destroy you…just like the tenants in the parable. They have no respect for you.  But Jesus said in Luke 6:37 ESV, “Love your enemies…do good to those who hate you.” We are natural enemies of God because of our sins. But if God wanted to, He could have said, “To hell with you” in the very literal sense. And showed no love for you; no respect for you, because we have neither earned it nor deserved it. But He didn’t make that pronouncement.

In verse 13, the word “respect” translated from the Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament, can also mean “put to shame” when used in a different form.

God the Father proved His love for you, respecting you, His created by putting His Son to shame, through making Him the enemy…and allowing Him to be beaten, insulted, wounded and killed for our transgressions. That’s how much God the Father loves and respects you.

 He did it so that we can believe and therefore not face being crushed by the rock that can trip us up.

(Point to Chancel Cross) This Capstone broke through the huge stone of His tomb, His grave to come back to life to show that He crushed death and Devil and becomes the foundation for us having the power over death. Jesus earned our respect before God the Father. Therefore, He deserves our respect for what He has done as the Capstone that holds together our eternal life with God the Father.

 

III.           What is the text asking us to do, and why?

So how do we show respect for Christ Jesus, for ourselves, and for others, today?

Showing respect to God comes when we listen to His Word and then put into action. That’s how we show respect for ourselves, embracing and living the forgiveness Christ gave to you. Showing respect comes when we love others, especially the ones who shame us for believing in Christ. Showing respect for others comes….when we listen to their needs and care for them, so they can be a part of Christ’s vineyard…and become His capstone for life everlasting.

            We work to earn people’s respect in Christ Jesus, because God’s gifts deserve their attention.

            And did you note the incredible patience that the owner of the vineyard had with the farmers? Nobody would tolerate that kind of disrespect, expect God. And it’s that respect for our Lord that we use as we are patient with the people who are disrespectful to our faith.

Let me give you an example as I conclude this morning’s sermon. One of my many bosses while working in broadcasting was a man named Bob Elliot. He looked like one of the bad guys you’d seen in those old Western movies. Tough, rugged with the rough skin. When I met him he was a man in his 60s…and he was a body builder. Very strong, very intimidating, and he talked like the Clint Eastwood character, Dirty Harry. He was a very successful radio general manager for over 30 years…overseeing stations he helped get to the top of their ratings and #1 in sales.

But he lived a life of sex, drugs, and Rock-n-Roll. He not only didn’t believe in God, he hated Christians, and would go out of his way not to hire them…or harass them on the job. Bob was not a nice man. Maybe it was because he was born very poor. Maybe it was because he witnessed his mom murder her boyfriend. Maybe it was because he was sexually abused as a child. Behind this rough and tough man was someone sinking on very unstable ground as he attempted to commit suicide a few times and failed.

But the Holy Spirit used many people who shared and showed their faith in Christ to lead Bob to salvation. It did not happen overnight. The Lord was patient with him, even though he disrespected God. It took 60 years for Bob to realize what Christ did for him on the cross. Bob received Christ kicking and screaming, and he’s one of the reasons I stand here today. He went from a disrespectful mean man to one who after he retired became one of the most active people in his congregation. He told me…in no uncertain terms…that he wanted to see me and others in Heaven.

Bob’s faith was even tested as he suffered much pain and died from pancreatic cancer at age 70. But you know what didn’t die? His faith in Christ. I look forward to the Day I can introduce you to Bob as we meet all the saints where we will celebrate for eternity with Christ in the vineyard that will produce endless fruit and where no one will be beaten up, insulted, killed or thrown out.

I want to you to think of Bob Elliot’s in your life when inviting them here for Easter Sunday worship or for any other service.

 

IV.          Conclusion

Let us pray: Lord Jesus. Forgive our disrespect of You. You earned respect for us; You deserve our respect. Let us not trip on You as the Capstone of our Salvation and of Your Church. Help us produce much good fruit in respecting those who don’t respect You by bringing them into this congregation. Help us be patient with them as You are with us, and help us build this vineyard with a fruity faith that always gives You glory. In Your Name we pray. Amen.