St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
October 5, 2008
Matthew 18:21-35
The Rev. Dr. Joel Huffstetler

The context of this teaching of Jesus is very important to its interpretation, and we need to know who is the ‘them’ that he is talking to when Jesus says to this group of people this parable, who are they and what is their issue with Jesus? That is very important to help us understand what Jesus is actually teaching here. This parable is called the parable of the wicked tenants. It was told to a group of the leading priests and elders of the Jewish people. That is the context, and it is very important. By this point of Matthew’s narrative in Chapter 21, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the final week of his earthly life before his arrest, and crucifixion, and resurrection. His earthly ministry is building to a climax here during this last week of his earthly life. Picture the scene for just a minute before we look at the parable itself. This occurs in the temple so think about this enormous structure, this incredibly majestic building, wherein Jewish people thought God’s very spirit lived. Jesus is in the temple in Jerusalem, one of the great buildings of the ancient world. He has been out in the country teaching, and, no doubt, word has spread to Jerusalem to the leadership of the Jewish people, “There is this rabbi out in the country whose claiming to be the Messiah.” But Jesus didn’t look like the Messiah was thought to look in orthodox Jewish expectations. Jesus wasn’t building an army. He wasn’t mounting a political campaign to restore a political kingdom. That was what most Jews were looking for. They thought the Messiah would be the new David who would restore Israel’s political clout. He would lead a revolt against the foreign oppressors, at this time, the Romans. This young rabbi out in the countryside wasn’t doing that. He was preaching and teaching. It was even said that he could heal people. So by the time he reaches Jerusalem and is in the temple, these chief priests and elders come to Jesus, and their question in verse 23, ten verses earlier than this passage, is, “By what authority do you do these things?” By what authority? In other words, “Who are you? Who do you think you are? You are not one of us. You are not ordained. You are not an elder. You don’t have the official sanction of this glorious temple where God’s spirit dwells. By what authority are you saying these things? Who are you?” So Jesus responds with this parable. It is an allegory. Every character in the parable represents a character in real life. The landowner is God, and the tenants are these Jewish leaders. The tenants don’t represent an average Jewish person. This parable is told to the leadership. The slaves or the servants that are sent by the landowner represent the prophets throughout Jewish history. We can read throughout the Old Testament how prophets were rejected and mistreated, and sometimes killed. John the Baptist was the last in that line. John the Baptist, when you think about it, was the last Jewish prophet before Jesus, and he was killed for his prophecy. The slaves in the parable represent the prophets. The landowner’s son, of course, is Jesus.

Jesus tells this parable where the tenants won’t give the landowner his produce. Then they mistreat his representatives. Jesus turns to his critics, having just told this parable, and says, “What would you do if you were the landowner?” And they say, “He ought to throw those people out and get some new tenants.” Then Jesus quotes from Psalm 118. What follows is an exact quotation from Psalm 118, verses 22 and 23. He says, “Have you never read the scriptures, you who are the leaders of the people: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?” That is a quotation from the Psalms. Jesus quotes these religious leaders a text from their own scripture, and says, “I am that cornerstone.” Some scholars suggest that this is more accurately translated keystone, the stone that holds an arch together. Without the keystone the arch would fall, or without the proper cornerstone the building won’t stand. Jesus says, “You have got the cornerstone right before your eyes and you won’t see me. I am this person that the Psalmist talked about. I am the Son of God, and I am trying to help you see God in a new light, and you won’t listen.” It is an amazing story when we read it in its context.

What I want to say is, Jesus isn’t ultimately condemning these leaders. This isn’t ultimately a condemnatory teaching. He is trying, I would suggest, desperately hard to get them to open their eyes. Imagine how frustrating it must have been for Jesus to go to the religious leaders of the people. The people in the countryside had, by and large, been responding to him. They saw his power. They heard the authority in his voice when he talked, but the religious leaders themselves wouldn’t respond. They were entrenched. They were in power. They were in the temple after all. People came to them. Who was this rabbi to come in from the countryside? But that was what Jesus was trying to do, trying to get them to open their eyes to see the God they have dedicated themselves to. ‘You have chosen to be a priest. You have been selected to be an elder. You have dedicated your whole life to God. Well, I am his Son. His own spirit is right before your eyes.’ And yet they wouldn’t listen to him. Just imagine the disappointment and the frustration of Jesus trying to get these religious leaders to open up their hearts and their minds to see that there is a new avenue to God. God himself is with us in this person. So he hopes that this parable will get them to open their eyes, and see, “Oh, we are those tenants. We didn’t mean to be. We didn’t set out to be, but that is who he is talking about. He is talking about us. We are rejecting God’s own Son.” It is a marvelous parable, very rich in teaching.

I want to close with this thought. We have framed our talk of stewardship in terms of gratitude. Having an attitude of gratitude as we consider our gifts to God for the coming year. I am not going to transition into a stewardship sermon, so relax. I do want to conclude with this point. When we think, from the point of view of faith, what are we most grateful for? From the point of view of faith, what are we most grateful for? Life itself? Family? Dear friends, like people in this room? From a theological perspective, what we have to be thankful for is Jesus Christ. We are here this morning, whether we consciously thought about it or not while getting dressed, we are here to celebrate that God himself came to earth in Jesus Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ himself is with us every minute of every day. That is the foundation. That is the cornerstone of our Christian lives. We believe that through the Spirit God himself is with us, and that we are never alone in this life. Now you talk about an attitude of gratitude. That is something to be grateful for.