WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000 We are working our way through the Gospel of Mark and we're here at a parable, 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:11.500 as to read for us a parable. 00:00:11.500 --> 00:00:14.599 A parable is an allegory. 00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:19.480 So it's an allegory where there's an extended series of symbols. 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:24.600 So each of the characters and the places that are mentioned stand for something else. 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:26.600 That's an allegory, that's a parable. 00:00:26.600 --> 00:00:32.600 And so Jesus is trying to teach, he regularly teaches people based on sets of symbols. 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:36.600 And he pulls them all together to try to say something, say something very powerful. 00:00:36.600 --> 00:00:44.600 Here you can look at the sets of symbols and realize that the clear images are in each of the relationships. 00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:50.600 So the tenants, these tenant farmers have a relationship to the owner of the vineyard. 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:55.600 And they have a relationship to the servants that the vineyard sends that they beat up. 00:00:55.600 --> 00:01:00.600 And they have a relationship finally to the sun that comes that they kill. 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:07.599 And so when you look at the tenants relationship to each of the three different sets of people, 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:10.599 there's a symbol there, it teaches you something. 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:15.599 And really the symbol is in one way the story of all of world history. 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:20.599 But let me say three things from these three relationships that we learn. 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:27.599 So in the tenants relationship to the owner, Jesus is trying to teach you something about defiance and suppression. 00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:31.599 About psychology really, about human psychology. 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:35.599 And then when you look at the tenants relationship to the servants, 00:01:35.599 --> 00:01:40.599 you learn something about patience in the midst of illusion. 00:01:40.599 --> 00:01:46.599 And then when you look at the tenants relationship to the sun, the sun that they kill and throw out, 00:01:46.599 --> 00:01:49.599 you learn something about an unexpected redemption. 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:54.599 So those three things, those three movements, it's a drama, an allegorical drama. 00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:57.599 And in each of the three movements, we learn something really important, 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:05.599 really something that is so foundational to all that's ever happened in all world history with a surprise ending. 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:12.599 So first, the tenants relationship to the owner in the story, we learn about defiance and suppression. 00:02:12.599 --> 00:02:16.599 In verse one, Jesus, it says, he continues to speak in parables. 00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:21.599 He likes to teach this way. And he tells this parable of a man that plants a vineyard, 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:26.599 and he builds a wine press, and all you need to make wine, 00:02:26.599 --> 00:02:30.599 and then he leaves and he goes off into a new country and lives there. 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:35.599 Now, this is completely ordinary in the first century. 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:37.599 This sort of thing happened all the time. 00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:42.599 So everybody that's sitting there listening to this parable could have said, that's me. 00:02:42.599 --> 00:02:45.599 You know, I'm one of these guys, one of these tenant farmers. 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:51.599 So it was incredibly usual in this area, because Israel was so fertile for winemaking, 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:56.599 that people from all over the world would come buy a piece of land, build a vineyard, 00:02:56.599 --> 00:03:02.599 plan to make wine, plan to make a lot of money, and then leave and leave it for somebody else to farm. 00:03:02.599 --> 00:03:07.599 Now, this is the same as today. The same situation as we have today. 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:11.599 People still lease their farmland today to other people to actually work it. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:14.599 They'll own land, other people will work it. 00:03:14.599 --> 00:03:18.599 And in a pre-capitalism culture, pre-modern culture, 00:03:18.599 --> 00:03:24.599 you see the same principles at play that you see in a capitalist or post-capitalist society like we live in. 00:03:24.599 --> 00:03:28.599 And that's that when the master, the owner of this piece of property, 00:03:28.599 --> 00:03:33.599 sends somebody to collect the profit from the wine, they beat the messenger up. 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:37.599 And the people in the first century are going to be just as shocked by this as you should be, 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:42.599 as you would be, in any story that's like this in the 21st century, right? 00:03:42.599 --> 00:03:45.599 I tried to think about how to bring this into the context of the city. 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:48.599 What's this like for us today? Well, imagine that you work at a restaurant. 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:51.599 A few of you here do work at restaurants. 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:54.599 And you serve tables, let's say. 00:03:54.599 --> 00:03:58.599 And you serve tables all day long, all week long, all year long. 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:03.599 And the end of the day comes, the end of the week comes, the end of the month comes, 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:09.599 and the owner comes and says, I'm here to collect the money and take it to the bank. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:15.599 And you say, well, you know what? I serve the tables, I brought the food out, 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:19.600 the chef, he made all the, he and she, they made all the food. 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:23.600 So we decided to take all the money and we split it amongst ourselves. 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.600 And there's none left for you. 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:29.600 And so you refuse to give any of the cash, any of the money, any of the digital money or real money 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:31.600 to the owner to take it to the bank, right? 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:37.600 Now you look at that and you say, that's absurd, that a business can't work like that. 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:39.600 The profit is for the owner. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:44.600 And then the owner shares the profit by paying fair wages to an employee. 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:45.600 That's how it's supposed to work. 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:50.600 You see, that's how it worked in a pre-capitalist society and as well in our society. 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:54.600 Now imagine that. You would say that's absurd, it's not fair, it's unjust. 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:58.600 And then all of a sudden you turn and you punch the owner in the face. 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:00.600 Now that's more like what the story reads like. 00:05:00.600 --> 00:05:03.600 It's not just that you refuse to give him his profit, 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:06.600 but you turn around and you punch him in the face and you kick him out of the restaurant 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:10.600 and say, how dare you come into this restaurant even though you own it. 00:05:10.600 --> 00:05:15.600 It's ours now, it's a coup, it's an assault, it's a takeover. 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:19.600 And you look at that and you say, at every level I see how unjust that is. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:24.600 The main audience at the time in the first century saw how ridiculous and how unjust that was. 00:05:24.600 --> 00:05:33.600 Now one commentator says, the tenant farmers pay their rent with blows, with fists. 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:38.600 And with that, all the commentators say that this parable is about one thing. 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:45.600 And Jesus is coming and trying to say that the human heart is a heart of defiance. 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:48.600 A heart of defiance against the owner. 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:52.600 It's a parable. What does it mean? 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:57.600 We'll say what it means and then we'll pause for prayer and silence. 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:04.600 What it means, the main audience of this parable is the religious leaders of the Jewish people, the Sanhedrin. 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:10.600 And they know what it means because 90 times in the Old Testament the word vineyard appears. 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:17.600 So Jesus says a man bought a piece of land and planted a vineyard and they're all thinking we know what a vineyard is from the Old Testament. 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:22.600 And the Old Testament and Isaiah 5 of vineyard is the people of God. 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:25.600 The vineyard of God is God's people. 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:29.600 And Jesus, we're told here in verse 12 is talking directly to the religious leaders. 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:32.600 And he's speaking this parable at them. 00:06:32.600 --> 00:06:34.600 They realize that in verse 12. 00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:39.600 It says they were so angry about this because they knew he was talking directly to them. 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:44.600 The Greek word for owner, master, is the word kyrios here. 00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:47.600 And the other way we translate that word is as Lord. 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:55.600 So the big idea here is that the religious leaders have been given by God the vineyard, the people to care for. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:59.600 And they want the goods of the vineyard and not the owner of the vineyard. 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:03.600 They've taken the vineyard to people and they've used them for their own gain. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:04.600 They've been selfish. 00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:06.600 They've tried to make money off the people. 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:08.600 And that's the real heart of the parable. 00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:09.600 That's who he's speaking to. 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:14.600 Now the religious elite have been given by God the vineyard to tend. 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:18.600 And when you're given a vineyard, you owe the owner. 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:20.600 You owe the profits to the owner. 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:26.600 And the religious elite, Jesus is saying, have taken the people of God and used them for their own benefits, their own goods. 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:28.600 And Jesus is calling them out. 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:31.600 And in verse 12, they realize that and they're so angry about it. 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:34.600 They want the goods of the vineyard. 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:38.600 They want to become wealthy and comfortable without the Lord of the vineyard. 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:48.600 Jesus is trying to say to them and to every single person that when it comes to the owner of the vineyard, the human being has a heart of defiance. 00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:51.600 We say, I want to be the owner. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:53.600 I don't want to be a mere tenant. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:59.600 And the reason we can say this, that it's not just about the religious elite, is because when you look at the word vineyard in the Old Testament, 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:09.600 it doesn't just apply to the people of God, actually sometimes the word vineyard in the Old Testament is used to refer to a human being's personal life. 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:14.600 So God in the Old Testament talks about the vineyard being your own life. 00:08:14.600 --> 00:08:20.600 And so the image is that God has given to every single one of us a vineyard, a life to tend. 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:25.600 In some sense, the vineyard is all of creation and God is the owner. 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:29.600 Now, that means that the message of the parable is really simple. 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:39.600 Jesus is saying that you have nothing in your life that you did not receive from the owner, from the master. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:44.600 That the vineyard of your life and all that you have has been given to you. 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:46.600 You don't take it. 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:48.600 Life is basically receiving. 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:52.600 It's basically gift, not taking, not for the taking. 00:08:52.600 --> 00:09:00.600 We all, he's saying, we all in response to that, we say the owner of the vineyard has given us everything, but we want to take it. 00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:06.600 He's saying that we have a heart of defiance against the owner, that that is the natural human disposition. 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:08.600 Now, Paul comes and says it like this. 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:12.600 He says every single one of us stand today at enmity against God. 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:14.600 It's our natural disposition. 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:23.600 A Christian is not a person who's not at enmity against God, a Christian is a person who's realized they're at enmity against God 00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:28.600 and come to receive the forgiveness that we need in the midst of that defiance, in the midst of that enmity. 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:29.600 And that's what Jesus is talking about. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:32.600 Just think about it for a second. 00:09:32.600 --> 00:09:36.600 Can you, can you, is there anything in this life that you have not received? 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:41.600 Can you account for your origins, where you came from? 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:44.600 Are you responsible for your own existence? 00:09:44.600 --> 00:09:45.600 Of course not. 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:53.600 And you think about you have a mind, you have an intellect, you have this intellectual capacity to think, to reason, to make beautiful things, to create culture. 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:55.600 But where, how does the mind work? 00:09:55.600 --> 00:09:56.600 Where does it come from? 00:09:56.600 --> 00:09:58.600 Did you make it? 00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:00.600 Do you have anything in your life that you did not receive? 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:01.600 You think about your body. 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:06.600 And in the modern world, people say, my body, I do with my body what I want to do with it. 00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:09.600 But your body, is it really yours? 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:11.600 Is it not something that's been gifted to you? 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:14.600 And Jesus is coming to say, don't you see that you can't say that? 00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:22.600 You can't say, my mind, my body, my life, my rights, that everything you have is something that came to you. 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:23.600 It's not something you made. 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:25.600 It's not something you created. 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:26.600 Are you talented? 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:28.600 Some of you are incredibly talented. 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:29.600 Some of you are gifted. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:31.600 Some of you have immense success in your life. 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:43.600 And you've got to be able to say, at least I know that my talents and my successes and all that I've been able to do in this life are not a product merely of my independence and my giftedness. 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:54.600 It's a product of the family I was born to, and the place I was born, and all the people that came around me, and the education that somebody else paid for, and all sorts of things. 00:10:54.600 --> 00:10:57.600 There's nothing in your life that you're independent about. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:02.600 Nothing in your life that we are completely dependent from top to bottom in every single way. 00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:11.600 And Jesus is saying, but the human heart is defiant that we know that and we say, sure, but I want the goods of the vineyard. 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:14.600 I want the wine of the vineyard without the Lord of the vineyard. 00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:19.600 I don't want to have to recognize that there's a giver, an ultimate giver. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:21.600 I want to simply take and he's saying that's at the base. 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:27.600 We are enmity against the vineyard owner, against the one who's actually made us. 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:32.600 Another way to say it is we all have, Jesus is saying something very difficult for us to hear, especially as modern people. 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:36.600 He's saying that every single one of us has an inner golem. 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:37.600 You know, golem? 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:42.600 You know, he took the ring and he said, this is my precious. 00:11:42.600 --> 00:11:47.600 And everybody that came for it, including the master who made it, and this is the Lord of the Rings, by the way. 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:51.600 He said, you know, this is mine, it's my precious. 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:58.600 And at the very few moments in life where golem was tempted to give the ring back, all of a sudden the inner golem came out. 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:04.600 I should say, when Smeagol was tempted to give the ring back, the inner golem came out and he said, no, it's mine. 00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:05.600 Don't you know that? 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:06.600 It's mine. 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:07.600 He became so attached to it. 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:10.600 That's exactly the point of this parable. 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:11.600 We have a heart of defiance. 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:21.600 Everything we have has been given to us and we want to pretend and exist and enmity against the owner as if we created our own successes. 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:28.600 Now, the Bible teaches not only that we're in defiance, but also that we suppress. 00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:30.600 So this is very nuanced. 00:12:30.600 --> 00:12:33.600 This is ultimately a parable about psychology. 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:36.600 Jesus is coming to say something one step further. 00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:40.600 Not only do you struggle with a heart of defiance against the owner. 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:45.600 You want to be an enemy of the living God, even though he's given you everything you have. 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:46.600 We take it further. 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:51.600 We know that this is true and we try to suppress that truth. 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:55.600 We try to pretend that it's not real, that it doesn't exist, that he doesn't exist. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:00.600 And we could talk about this for a long time, but we don't have time today. 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:06.600 But what Jesus is trying to get us to say at least here is something like this. 00:13:06.600 --> 00:13:13.600 I know, I know, can you at least say today, I know I'm contingent, not necessary. 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:17.600 I know that I'm dependent, not independent. 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:29.600 And if all of us in the world are basically dependent and contingent and not necessary, there must be one from whom all come from. 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:36.600 If we're all contingent, if we're all dependent, what if there really is one that is independent and necessary, one being? 00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:38.600 And that's who he's trying to point us to, the real God. 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:46.600 You know, Jesus is saying, do you see that you naturally defy and suppress that truth of your dependence and your contingency? 00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:47.600 You push it down. 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:48.600 Look, let me challenge you. 00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:52.600 The great philosophers of the 19th and 20th century all said it. 00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:55.600 Nietzsche, Camus, they all recognized it. 00:13:55.600 --> 00:14:08.600 They realized that if there really is no owner of the vineyard, if there really is no owner, no master, then I have to be willing to say that there is no meaning in this world. 00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:18.600 If you really want to live life that way and you really want to say that you've got to be willing to come to the facts, that all there is is individuals, everybody making up their own meaning. 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:20.600 That's what Jesus is trying to get us to see. 00:14:20.600 --> 00:14:26.600 Now secondly, when you look at the tenant's relationship to the owner, it's one of defiance and suppression. 00:14:26.600 --> 00:14:33.600 When you look at the tenant's relationship to the servants, then you see patience in the midst of illusion. 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:49.600 Secondly, in Deuteronomy 28, verse 30, God had said to the people of God, if you defy the covenant, the promises I've made to you, if you stop seeking after me and following me, 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:53.600 then he says, I will take the vineyard from you. 00:14:53.600 --> 00:14:59.600 And he says it will be as if one planted a vineyard but never got to eat of its fruit. 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:02.600 Now the first century audience has that in the back of their mind. 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:12.600 They know that if one defies God and pushes against God, that what justice says according to God is that the vineyard life should be taken away. 00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:16.600 If you reject the one who gave you life, then he says then the vineyard has to be taken away from you. 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:23.600 Now this is what makes the Bible so surprising and what makes this parable so surprising. 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:28.600 That simple fact because there's a twist here and it's this. 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:39.600 You see from verse 2, the season comes and the master, the owner, the Lord sends a servant to the tenants and he comes to take part of the prophet. 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:44.600 And when he comes, they take the servant and they beat him up. 00:15:44.600 --> 00:15:50.600 And then here's the great twist, the master, the owner, the Lord keeps doing it. 00:15:50.600 --> 00:15:56.600 And you say it from Deuteronomy 2830, you know, if you reject the owner of the vineyard, then you lose the vineyard. 00:15:56.600 --> 00:16:00.600 And yet in the parable Jesus is explaining all of world history. 00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:04.600 That's what he's doing and he's saying, don't you see what's been taking place? 00:16:04.600 --> 00:16:12.600 They came, here's the key, the word servant in the Old Testament is often used for the prophets. 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:15.600 So in Isaiah 49, the prophets are called the servants. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:18.600 So he's clearly referencing here the prophets of old. 00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:33.600 And if you saw this, you know, if this happened in the 21st century or the first century, if you're the owner, you send your servant, the messenger, the prophet to go collect the payment and they just beat the guy up. 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:35.600 What do you do? 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:37.600 And you say, I'm not going to stand for this. 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:38.600 No more. 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:39.600 I'm calling the police. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:40.600 Justices has to be served. 00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:47.600 Right? You're saying there's no chance that these guys, you know, if you're, if you own the restaurant and you come and the waiter says, I'm not giving you any of the money. 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:48.600 I'm keeping it all for myself. 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:50.600 You say there's, I can't stand for that. 00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:52.600 We have to do something about this. 00:16:52.600 --> 00:16:59.600 The shock of the story to the first century mind should be the same to our 21st century mind. 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:03.600 God keeps sending servant after servant after servant after servant after servant after servant. 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:09.599 It literally says not only did he send three, but did you catch that he goes on in verse five and it says, 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:15.599 And so with many others, many, many others, some they beat and some they killed. 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:18.599 And so the violence keeps escalating. 00:17:18.599 --> 00:17:23.599 He sends the prophet, the messenger to say, don't you see that you didn't make yourself? 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:26.599 Don't you see that you owe everything to the owner of the vineyard? 00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:30.599 Don't you see your dependence and they just keep getting more and more violent. 00:17:30.599 --> 00:17:32.599 And that's the great shock of the story. 00:17:32.599 --> 00:17:33.599 You see what he's trying to say. 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:40.599 Jesus is trying to say that in all of world history, the whole of creation is God's vineyard. 00:17:40.599 --> 00:17:50.599 And in every single individual human life, the vineyard God's given you that you don't realize how overwhelmingly patient God is. 00:17:50.599 --> 00:17:52.599 He is so patient. 00:17:52.599 --> 00:17:53.599 He is. 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:57.599 He so desires to show mercy. 00:17:57.599 --> 00:17:59.599 He wants to give forgiveness. 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:04.599 And so the modern world looks at Christianity and says Christianity is very traditionalist. 00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:08.599 It holds to this great image of this vindictive, angry God. 00:18:08.599 --> 00:18:14.599 And Jesus comes in this parable of judgment and says, are you awake to how patient God is with you? 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:16.599 To how much mercy God wants to show? 00:18:16.599 --> 00:18:18.599 How much forgiveness God wants to give? 00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:28.599 And it's so important to hear because it's important to say today that God is so much more patient with every single one of us 00:18:28.599 --> 00:18:32.599 than anybody else in our lives is with us. 00:18:32.599 --> 00:18:37.599 Get on social media for a moment and realize that human beings are not patient with one another. 00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:41.599 And this is coming to say God is so patient with us. 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:45.599 God is more patient with you than you've ever been with yourself. 00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:52.599 And you tend to struggle with shame and guilt and beat yourself up about the things maybe that you've done in your life. 00:18:52.599 --> 00:19:00.599 And this passage comes and says, don't you see how much God wants to show mercy and how much God wants to give forgiveness? 00:19:00.599 --> 00:19:01.599 You reject. 00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:04.599 We by our nature reject the Lord of the vineyard. 00:19:04.599 --> 00:19:06.599 We want the goods of the vineyard. 00:19:06.599 --> 00:19:09.599 We want the wine, but not the owner, not the master. 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:11.599 And he just keeps sending messengers. 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:13.599 He's so patient. 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:17.599 Now let me give you, ask you two questions and we'll move to the final point. 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:23.599 Do you have a story like this in your life? 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:30.599 Can you today, if you're a follower of Jesus this morning, I just want you to ask yourself, is this your story? 00:19:30.599 --> 00:19:35.599 Can you say today, I doubted God and he was patient with me. 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:43.599 I denied God and his existence over and over and over again for so long and he was so patient with me. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:48.599 Can you say I rejected him, but he overwhelmed my rejection. 00:19:48.599 --> 00:19:49.599 He was so patient with me. 00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:56.599 Can you say I chased after sex, money and power and all the vineyards of this life, all the wine of this life. 00:19:56.599 --> 00:20:01.599 And he was so patient with me in the midst of that and he still came. 00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:05.599 Can you say today, I have been religious for so long. 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:07.599 I've been chasing religion for so long. 00:20:07.599 --> 00:20:12.599 I've pretended and God has been patient with me all this way. 00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:13.599 And he's still being patient. 00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:18.599 He's still saying come home, come to the owner, the master, the Lord of the vineyard today. 00:20:18.599 --> 00:20:21.599 Now that's, if you're a follower of Jesus, do you have that testimony? 00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:23.599 Do you know that that's your story? 00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:27.599 But today, maybe you're coming and you're curious about Christianity. 00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:29.599 You're not a believer in it. 00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:35.599 You don't know what to think about the claims that God exists and all the other things that a religion like Christianity makes. 00:20:35.599 --> 00:20:43.599 Let me just ask, could it be the case that you are in the midst of having God's messengers coming into your life right now? 00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:50.599 The prophets, the messengers, the servants, they're actually coming into your life all the time right now. 00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:51.599 Do you see that? 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:53.599 Is that happening to you? 00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:57.599 Maybe it's in the form of your parents for some of you younger folks. 00:20:57.599 --> 00:21:04.599 And maybe it's in the form of your friends that you have friends in your life that you know, believe in God and follow Christianity, 00:21:04.599 --> 00:21:08.599 follow Jesus, and they've said some things to you. 00:21:08.599 --> 00:21:16.599 And all of a sudden you realize you're at a place in your life where you've had these strange encounters with so many people who are Christians 00:21:16.599 --> 00:21:20.599 in the midst of a city where there aren't very many Christians and it keeps happening and it keeps happening. 00:21:20.599 --> 00:21:25.599 You know, there's messengers coming into your life, prophets, servants. 00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:31.599 Maybe is it unfulfilled longings? 00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:39.599 Sometimes God speaks to you through unfulfilled longings and you realize, I've chased after all these things and I've gotten them 00:21:39.599 --> 00:21:48.599 and they haven't fulfilled me, there's got to be a message there that maybe I'm made for something much greater than the things of this life can give me. 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:57.599 Or maybe the greatest messenger, the greatest prophet, the greatest servant of God has come into your life to teach you that you are not the owner of the vineyard 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:00.599 and that is the prophet of suffering. 00:22:00.599 --> 00:22:06.599 When suffering comes into your life, you have to come to a place where you say, I am not in control. 00:22:06.599 --> 00:22:12.599 I tried to control everything in my life, I tried to make it as comfortable as possible and I realized that I'm not in control. 00:22:12.599 --> 00:22:14.599 The owner is sent a prophet. 00:22:14.599 --> 00:22:20.599 You know, some people come and say, how can you say that God exists in the midst of suffering and pain? 00:22:20.599 --> 00:22:26.599 And I just want to ask, we can't work out the philosophy of that today, but I want to ask the opposite question. 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:38.599 How can you say that there is no God in the midst of the reality of such evil, such injustice, such suffering, such pain that we all go through the fact of good and evil 00:22:38.599 --> 00:22:45.599 and that we're all walking between the two, experiencing the weight and the pain of the plight of this world? 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:46.599 That's a messenger. 00:22:46.599 --> 00:22:49.599 That's God coming and saying, don't you know there's a hope? 00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:51.599 Don't you know there's good, true good? 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:53.599 That's a messenger that's coming to your life. 00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:54.599 Do you see it? 00:22:54.599 --> 00:22:56.599 Are you willing to see it? 00:22:56.599 --> 00:23:02.599 Aldous Huxley wrote the book, many will have read Brave New World in the middle of the 20th century. 00:23:02.599 --> 00:23:13.599 Aldous Huxley spent most of his life as an agnostic person, an atheist somewhere in between, but he was really honest and at one point he said, 00:23:13.599 --> 00:23:17.599 he said, the truth is this, I don't want there to be a God. 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:23.599 He said, that's the truth, because I want to be able to do with my life what I want to do with my life. 00:23:23.599 --> 00:23:30.599 And then more recently, Thomas Nagel, the great philosopher, probably one of the greatest philosophers alive today at NYU. 00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:31.599 This is what he says about it. 00:23:31.599 --> 00:23:33.599 He says, I speak from experience. 00:23:33.599 --> 00:23:34.599 He's an atheist. 00:23:34.599 --> 00:23:40.599 And he says this, I speak from experience, being strongly subject to the fear of religion. 00:23:40.599 --> 00:23:43.599 He says, what I mean by that, the fear of religion that I have. 00:23:43.599 --> 00:23:53.599 He said, I want atheism to be true, and I'm made so uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people that I know are religious believers. 00:23:53.599 --> 00:23:58.599 It isn't just that I don't believe in God and naturally hope that I'm right. 00:23:58.599 --> 00:24:00.599 It's that I hope there is no God. 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:03.599 I don't want there to be a God. 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:07.599 You see, Nagel, he knows, he says, I know that that's my heart. 00:24:07.599 --> 00:24:12.599 I know that there's a posture of the heart at the base of my unbelief. 00:24:12.599 --> 00:24:15.599 He says, I know, I know I don't want there to be a God. 00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:18.599 You see, Nagel says, I look around at all my friends who are brilliant people. 00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:20.599 So many of them are Christians. 00:24:20.599 --> 00:24:24.599 And there's messengers, messengers in his life, and he's wrestling with that. 00:24:24.599 --> 00:24:26.599 Is that you today? 00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:36.599 Lastly, the tenants and the owners tell us that the human heart, the tenant and the owner tells us that the human heart is one of defiance. 00:24:36.599 --> 00:24:45.599 But the tenants and the servants, the prophets tell us that God is so patient with us and he sends messengers, messenger after messenger after messenger to try to speak to us. 00:24:45.599 --> 00:24:53.599 And then lastly, we can explain that patience in more detail by looking finally at the tenants and the owner and the son. 00:24:53.599 --> 00:24:56.599 An unexpected redemption as we close. 00:24:56.599 --> 00:25:02.599 Verse seven, the tenants say to one another, here comes the son. 00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:08.599 The master, the Lord says, if I send my son, maybe they'll respect him. 00:25:08.599 --> 00:25:11.599 And you see that they don't respect him. 00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:12.599 They beat him up. 00:25:12.599 --> 00:25:13.599 They kill the son. 00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:15.599 They kick him out of the vineyard. 00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:17.599 Now, here's why they say it. 00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:21.599 They say, if we kill the son, the inheritance will be ours. 00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:23.599 In verse seven at the end there. 00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:31.599 And the reason for that is because in the first century, the law was that if the owner dies and there is no direct air, 00:25:31.599 --> 00:25:36.599 then the one who works the land can build a fence around it and claim it. 00:25:36.599 --> 00:25:42.599 So the first person to build a fence around a piece of land that's open, you know, this is like the great land rush. 00:25:42.599 --> 00:25:44.599 You can claim the land for yourself. 00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:54.599 So they have, you know, they're saying literally, if we kill the owner, if we kill the air and then the owner dies, this is going to be ours. 00:25:54.599 --> 00:25:59.599 If the Lord of the vineyard is gone and the heir of the vineyard is gone, then the vineyard is mine. 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:01.599 That's the logic in them killing him. 00:26:01.599 --> 00:26:04.599 Now, Jesus is taking this to the next level. 00:26:04.599 --> 00:26:13.599 He's saying that the human heart is not just a heart that's defiant and suppresses the reality of the owner of all creation, the owner of the vineyard. 00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:17.599 He's saying something even harder for us to hear. 00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:19.599 He's saying it's not just that you're defiant against God. 00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:24.599 He's saying that the human heart actually wants to get rid of God. 00:26:24.599 --> 00:26:34.599 And there's no greater proof than that than the Christian claim that in the middle of human history, God came in human flesh and we human beings, we killed him. 00:26:34.599 --> 00:26:35.599 We want to get rid of him. 00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:43.599 You go all the way back to the Tower of Babel and the point of the Tower of Babel, they build this great religious tower to the sky in order to get beyond the clouds. 00:26:43.599 --> 00:26:48.599 That was the hope to find the place of God in order to slay God. 00:26:48.599 --> 00:26:52.599 And the idea was that if we can get to the heavens and kill God, we become gods. 00:26:52.599 --> 00:26:55.599 Now, the great philosophers know about this. 00:26:55.599 --> 00:27:11.599 Nietzsche, the greatest thinker, the greatest atheist thinker of the modern world, he said in one of his, a couple of his famous books, he said that the madman, the modern person, runs into the town square and says, God is dead, we've killed him. 00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:17.599 And then Nietzsche says, he recognized, he says, so that now we ourselves can become God. 00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:22.599 And what Jesus is saying here is that every single human being has religion. 00:27:22.599 --> 00:27:24.599 There's no escaping religion. 00:27:24.599 --> 00:27:28.599 That's been one of the great lessons of the new atheist movement, how it failed. 00:27:28.599 --> 00:27:33.599 And everybody's mind, academic and at a popular level too, it failed. 00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:38.599 And one of the reasons it failed is because it failed to recognize that new atheism is a religion. 00:27:38.599 --> 00:27:39.599 It is a religion. 00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:40.599 Everybody's got religion. 00:27:40.599 --> 00:27:46.599 And it's Jesus is saying here, it's either that you recognize that there really is an owner of the vineyard, a true God, 00:27:46.599 --> 00:27:48.599 or you try to become your own God. 00:27:48.599 --> 00:27:51.599 That that's the real reality of this parable. 00:27:51.599 --> 00:27:54.599 Now here's the uniqueness of Christianity as we close. 00:27:54.599 --> 00:28:02.599 Pay close attention with me just to the very end here and how he talks about God's patience and God's love. 00:28:02.599 --> 00:28:06.599 Verse nine, okay, they've killed the son. 00:28:06.599 --> 00:28:08.599 They killed the son of the master. 00:28:08.599 --> 00:28:15.599 And then Jesus says to all the first century people and to you, what will the owner do? 00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:20.599 And if you're the owner, you know they knew Jesus gives the answer that they all expect. 00:28:20.599 --> 00:28:23.599 The owner will come and destroy the tenants. 00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:25.599 He will bring justice. 00:28:25.599 --> 00:28:27.599 They beat all of his servants. 00:28:27.599 --> 00:28:28.599 They killed. 00:28:28.599 --> 00:28:29.599 They murdered his own son. 00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:31.599 Justice has to be had. 00:28:31.599 --> 00:28:34.599 But look, look at verse 10. 00:28:34.599 --> 00:28:38.599 Jesus then goes and connects the parable to something else, a new idea. 00:28:38.599 --> 00:28:40.599 He says, have you not read this scripture? 00:28:40.599 --> 00:28:44.599 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:28:44.599 --> 00:28:49.599 Now what in the world, how in the world does this metaphor connect to the parable? 00:28:49.599 --> 00:28:53.599 We've got this parable of the tenants and the farmers and the owner and the servant and the son. 00:28:53.599 --> 00:28:59.599 And all of a sudden Jesus switches metaphors and says they rejected the stone. 00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:02.599 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:29:02.599 --> 00:29:04.599 Now he's got a building metaphor. 00:29:04.599 --> 00:29:12.599 And the idea is that if you're building a building in the ancient world, you come across a stone and it's cracked. 00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:14.599 It's abnormally shaped. 00:29:14.599 --> 00:29:16.599 You throw it into the rubbish pile. 00:29:16.599 --> 00:29:18.599 And you say, we can't use that. 00:29:18.599 --> 00:29:21.599 We've got to place every stone's got to be perfectly square rectangle. 00:29:21.599 --> 00:29:23.599 We've got to put it in the right place. 00:29:23.599 --> 00:29:25.599 And he's saying, he's connecting the two. 00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:37.599 You see, he's saying the son that they beat and murdered and threw out of the vineyard is the same metaphorically one that was this misshapen cornerstone in the eyes of the people. 00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:38.599 Cracked. 00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:40.599 They threw it out to the rubbish pile. 00:29:40.599 --> 00:29:45.599 And then here's where the parable makes no sense, where the whole story makes no sense. 00:29:45.599 --> 00:29:48.599 The son is dead. 00:29:48.599 --> 00:29:49.599 The stone is cracked. 00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:55.599 And then all of a sudden Jesus says, and now has become the cornerstone of the whole building. 00:29:55.599 --> 00:29:57.599 And they say, this is marvelous in our sight. 00:29:57.599 --> 00:30:01.599 You see, there's a step missing along the way there. 00:30:01.599 --> 00:30:04.599 How could a dead son become the Lord of the vineyard? 00:30:04.599 --> 00:30:06.599 That's the implication. 00:30:06.599 --> 00:30:11.599 How could a cracked stone become the cornerstone of an entire new temple, a pyramid? 00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:12.599 How? 00:30:12.599 --> 00:30:15.599 How could something broken become whole? 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:19.599 How could something dead become the Lord of the vineyard? 00:30:19.599 --> 00:30:21.599 That's the implication he's given here. 00:30:21.599 --> 00:30:27.599 And here's how there's a black gospel hymn in the American church that I really like. 00:30:27.599 --> 00:30:30.599 And it says, it's talking about Jesus. 00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:33.599 And they say, it says, it's they sing, you know, I'm not going to try. 00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:40.599 They say, they hung him high, they stretched him wide, and then he bowed his head and he died. 00:30:40.599 --> 00:30:42.599 Now that's the end of our parable. 00:30:42.599 --> 00:30:43.599 They hung him high. 00:30:43.599 --> 00:30:45.599 Jesus is talking about himself. 00:30:45.599 --> 00:30:46.599 He's the son. 00:30:46.599 --> 00:30:47.599 They beat him. 00:30:47.599 --> 00:30:48.599 They kicked him out of the vineyard. 00:30:48.599 --> 00:30:49.599 They murdered him. 00:30:49.599 --> 00:30:50.599 They hung him high. 00:30:50.599 --> 00:30:51.599 They stretched him wide. 00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:53.599 He bowed his head and he died. 00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:54.599 And then the parable just ends. 00:30:54.599 --> 00:30:56.599 What's going to happen? 00:30:56.599 --> 00:30:57.599 What do you expect? 00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:00.599 You expect everybody to be destroyed that participated in this. 00:31:00.599 --> 00:31:04.599 But all of a sudden, there's something marvelous. 00:31:04.599 --> 00:31:06.599 And here's how the rest of the hymn goes. 00:31:06.599 --> 00:31:08.599 But that's not how the story ends. 00:31:08.599 --> 00:31:10.599 Three days later, he rose again. 00:31:10.599 --> 00:31:12.599 And that's what's missing in the parable. 00:31:12.599 --> 00:31:13.599 That's the implication. 00:31:13.599 --> 00:31:17.599 That's how they can all of a sudden say, this is marvelous in our sight. 00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:25.599 You see, the parable is saying this, Jesus Christ will die the death the tenants should have died. 00:31:25.599 --> 00:31:28.599 And then there will be glory. 00:31:28.599 --> 00:31:31.599 And the implication is that they hung him high. 00:31:31.599 --> 00:31:32.599 They stretched him wide. 00:31:32.599 --> 00:31:33.599 They killed the son. 00:31:33.599 --> 00:31:36.599 We in our defiance against God, he came into the world and we killed the son. 00:31:36.599 --> 00:31:37.599 We kicked him out of the vineyard. 00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:40.599 And then he became the Lord of the vineyard. 00:31:40.599 --> 00:31:41.599 How? 00:31:41.599 --> 00:31:42.599 Because of the resurrection. 00:31:42.599 --> 00:31:45.599 That in the midst of that, three days later, he rose again. 00:31:45.599 --> 00:31:51.599 That Jesus Christ, who is God become human, really did die and really did rise from the grave. 00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:54.599 That's the claim of Christianity. 00:31:54.599 --> 00:31:57.599 And that's how the people can say, this is marvelous in our sight. 00:31:57.599 --> 00:31:59.599 It's saying, you see what it's saying? 00:31:59.599 --> 00:32:10.599 It's saying the murder of the Son of God at the hands of the tenants is the very way God will slay our enmity against him. 00:32:10.599 --> 00:32:13.599 He saves us when we rejected him. 00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:16.599 He says yes to us when we said no. 00:32:16.599 --> 00:32:21.599 And he does all that by coming back to life and claiming victory over the vineyard. 00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:27.599 Now, let me say three sentences, three implications, and we're finished. 00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:30.599 The first is that Jesus Christ came. 00:32:30.599 --> 00:32:38.599 That means to die for anybody who realizes, I spent my life chasing the goods of the vineyard and rejecting the owner. 00:32:38.599 --> 00:32:40.599 He came for that. 00:32:40.599 --> 00:32:48.599 He came to show love to anybody, anybody that has rejected the owner. 00:32:48.599 --> 00:32:52.599 Now, here's the second thing. Maybe let's make it more specific. 00:32:52.599 --> 00:33:02.599 Realize that Jesus is talking to the very people in his passion week that are going to be the ones that very much participate in literally killing him. 00:33:02.599 --> 00:33:05.599 You see, remember the apostle Paul. 00:33:05.599 --> 00:33:12.599 Paul was holding the clothes of the people that he demanded be executed. 00:33:12.599 --> 00:33:16.599 He was dragging Christians out of homes and demanding they be executed. 00:33:16.599 --> 00:33:18.599 And he was holding their clothes. 00:33:18.599 --> 00:33:22.599 And then Jesus came into his life and changed his life forever and forgave him and saved him. 00:33:22.599 --> 00:33:25.599 Same with these guys. Here's the shock of the story. 00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:30.599 The Lord of the vineyard is saying to these people, you're welcome to come back. 00:33:30.599 --> 00:33:33.599 You're welcome to come home. You're welcome to come and drink the sweet wine. 00:33:33.599 --> 00:33:36.599 You're welcome to come and taste the wine of the vineyard maker. 00:33:36.599 --> 00:33:44.599 What he's saying here is that no human being, no person is beyond the hope of redemption. 00:33:44.599 --> 00:33:49.599 Now, lastly, what do you do today as we come to the Lord's table? 00:33:49.599 --> 00:33:51.599 What can you do about this today? 00:33:51.599 --> 00:33:55.599 All you need to do today is stop being the Lord of the vineyard. 00:33:55.599 --> 00:33:59.599 Give away your ownership of your life. 00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:03.599 Say today, I am not the center of the universe. 00:34:03.599 --> 00:34:05.599 God is the center of your universe. 00:34:05.599 --> 00:34:10.599 And Jesus Christ, let Jesus Christ today be the Lord that he really is. 00:34:10.599 --> 00:34:15.599 And we will come together and drink the wine of the vineyard maker. 00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:16.599 Let's pray. 00:34:16.599 --> 00:34:22.599 Father, we pray now that you would make the Lord's supper real to us, 00:34:22.599 --> 00:34:30.599 that we would really taste and see the goodness of the gospel in your blood shed and your body broken for us. 00:34:30.599 --> 00:34:43.599 And we give thanks for this gospel message in Christ's name. Amen.