Exploring My Strange Bible - Love Poems, Vineyards, and Rocks - Gospel of Matthew Part 28

Episode Date: November 19, 2018

We look at a story from a controversy that Jesus was involved in in this episode. During his final week in Jerusalem for Passover, he ends up telling this famous story of God’s covenant with Israel leading up to Jesus. He tells it through a story about a landowner who owns a vineyard and then has some hired hands who end up hijacking the farm and getting violent about it. Jesus really confronts his contemporaries with the squandered opportunity of Israel’s history. This teaching of Jesus shows a level of challenge for all generations of his followers as Jesus can get under our skin and bother us sometimes.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right, well, in this episode, we're going to continue exploring the gospel according to Matthew. We're going to consider a story from a controversy Jesus was involved in during his final week in Jerusalem for Passover.

He ends up telling this parable. It's actually one of his most famous stories, retelling the whole story of God's covenant with Israel leading up to himself through a story about a landowner who owns a vineyard and then has some hired hands who end up hijacking the farm and getting violent about it. Here, Jesus is involved in a really amazing set of hyperlinks to Old Testament texts. There's Hebrew word plays going on here. But also, Jesus really confronting his contemporaries with the squandered opportunity that has been Israel's history. This is a very powerful challenge Jesus offers to people in his own day. But also, I think the reason why Matthew still presents it to us in his gospels, because he thinks this teaching of Jesus has a word of

challenge for all generations of his followers, not just the people who are standing right there when he said it. So let's open our minds, and Jesus wants to stir the pot and get under our skin a little bit and bother us. And sometimes that's—it's not just that it's okay that he does that, it's that it's good for us that Jesus bothers us and get into our business sometimes. So that's what he's going to do in this parable. And I trust that he'll guide us to know what we're supposed to do in response to it. So there you go. Let's dive in together. And so I invite you to grab a Bible or turn it on, whatever you do, and go to Matthew chapter 21 with me.

What I'm going to do is open with a reading to you from a love poem. Do you guys read love poetry? I don't, really. I don't really. But you know me. I'm a Bible nerd. And there's actually quite a lot of love poetry in the Bible. A lot of it.

So I won't tell you where this line's from. And I'll let some of you guess. And we'll find out who else is a Bible nerd here. But this is the opening of a famous love poem in the Bible. I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard. Anybody? It's kind of a leading question. It's really a trick question because some of you, yeah, you know your Bible some.

And you know that there's a whole book of semi-erotic love poetry in the Bible. It's called the Song of Songs, or also called the Song of Solomon, and the garden imagery is all metaphorical for different things, and so here you go. I'll sing a song about his vineyard, but you're wrong. You're wrong if you thought Song of Songs. This is a good one. Do you know there's other love poems, other love poems in the Bible? This one is written by a prophet, the Hebrew prophet named Yeshahu, Yeshahu ben Amoz, or in English we refer to him as Isaiah, son of Amoz. And in Isaiah chapter 5, he composed this short, compact love poem that is a parable that actually summarizes what he sensed as his own calling and message to the people

of Jerusalem. And this is the poem. I will sing a song for the one I love, a song about his vineyard. To the eye, here's the poet, Isaiah. The beloved, well, just pay attention to who you think the beloved is. A song about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up. He cleared it of stones. He planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it. He cut out a wine press as well. And then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only rotten fruit. It's

not even that like the fruit sat there too long and rotted. It yielded rotten fruit. Now, Isaiah says, you who live in Jerusalem and people of Judah, why don't you judge between me and my vineyard? Tell me what I ought to do. Next slide. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have already done for it? I mean, I looked for good grapes. Why did it yield only rotten?

Now I will tell you what I'm going to do for my vineyard. I'll take away its hedge and it will be destroyed. I will break down its wall and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland neither pruned nor cultivated and briars and thorns will grow there. Last part. It's my favorite part. The vineyard of the Lord Almighty, it's the nation of Israel. And the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in.

And he looked for justice. Don't pay attention to the gibberish yet. We'll talk about that. He looked for justice, but saw only bloodshed. He looked for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. The parable, love poem of Yeshahu ben Amoz. Do you get it? terrible love poem of Yeshahu ben Amoz. Do you get it? Do you get it? This was the difficult message that Isaiah, son of Amos, had to bear towards his people, that he believed and was accusing the leaders and the people of Israel. They had so squandered the opportunity God gave them to become a light to the nations that they had so forfeited their responsibility that the time was up and that the moment of decision has passed that judgment day, the day of God's justice is coming. And this is a difficult message because Isaiah was like a really prominent person.

He was well known by politicians and kings in Jerusalem. People didn't like his message, got him in trouble, but he felt called to speak it to the leaders of Israel. And so he used every poetic tool in his arsenal, his literary arsenal, to communicate to his people. So he uses love poetry and parable and wordplay. Did you see the end there? This is so brilliant. This is Yishahu ben Amot. That is best right here. So the whole point is God planted his covenant people. He rescued them out of slavery in Egypt. He brought them into the land promised to Abraham. He would plant them there. He gave them abundance. He gave them the laws of the Torah, that they would be shaped by God's justice and generosity

to become a light to the nation. This is Isaiah's language, that they would be a light to the nations, that they would be the city on the hill, that the nations would look to these people who would be shaped by God's love and see what human communities ought to really be like. And so God planted the vineyard

and he looks for the grapes and what does he see? It's just stinky grapes. Stinky, rotten grapes. That's the metaphor. But when Isaiah cashes it out, right, literally, he says God comes to the vineyard looking for fruit. What's he looking for? He's looking for fruit. What's he looking for? He's looking for justice. What's he looking for? He's looking for righteousness. So he's looking for these communities of Israel. Righteousness, we'll start with the third term right there, tzedakah. Righteousness is a key, key word in the Old Testament scriptures to describe relationships, healthy, right relationships. That's what the word means, right relationships. The people of whatever their differences, you know, social, economic class, ethnicity, gender, it doesn't matter, that there be right,

equitable, fair relationships in Israel. And justice, that's tzedakah, justice up there at the top, mishpat, are the actions, specifically legal actions that judges or the people were to take when tzedakah was violated. So when people are abusing each other or mistreating them or cheating one another, there's no tzedakah. So you do mishpat. It's the action that you take to create tzedakah and to make things right once more. And so God comes to his people that he planted out of his love and generosity, and he looks for mishpat, but what does he find? Mizpach. He looks for mishpat, but what he sees is mizpach. And he looks for tzedakah,

righteousness, but what does he actually find? Tse'aka. Tse'aka. Come on. This is good. This is good, isn't it? Really, look at that. That's beautiful. And this is the thing about parables and poems. Some people might think, like, why didn't they just say what they really meant? But parable and poetry actually communicates more than what is meant, right? I mean, that's the thing about the parables and poetry. It invites you in and there's ambiguity and a surplus of meaning. And so there's something about human communities

where the distance between a community of people living in tzedakah and mishpat is just one letter different from becoming a community of mishp living in tzedakah and mishpat is just one letter different from becoming a community of mispach and tzedakah. Right? It's a fine line between the two. It's beautiful. And this was the message of Yeshahu ben Amoz.

And he used love poetry to communicate it in parable. And he wasn't the last one to do so. We have been following for a year now the career of another Israelite prophet whose name is very close. It's not Yeshiyahu, but it's from the same Hebrew root, Yeshua. Yeshua may not set it. Jesus, who is from Nazareth. And he has a similar message. He sees himself as another Isaiah, 700 years later, coming to the leaders of Jerusalem to hold them accountable for their mismanagement of God's vineyard. And that introduces us to the parable we're looking at here today. We're in Matthew chapter 21, and just hold this poem in your mind and its language, and

you'll see why I read it to you. Jesus is in Jerusalem. If you've been following with us, Jesus, just like Isaiah, confronts the leaders in Jerusalem. And actually in this moment, we're going to look at a parable that starts in verse 33 of Matthew 21.

But he's in this long conversation that we're taking like four weeks to unpack. But it's just with one confrontation. If you go back to verse 23 in Matthew 21, if you go back to verse 23, Jesus had entered the temple courts, and while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him and said, essentially, you know, who do you think you are? Smarty pants, right? Well, actually, essentially, you know, who do you think you are? Smarty pants, right? Well, actually, no, not smarty pants. I mean, he just came in to the temple in Jerusalem

and disrupted everything, right? You remember, he was like, he acted like he owns the place. He's acting like a king. And they're ticked because they run the place, right? And Jesus disagrees. And so, he does, pulls the stunt, remember, turning over the tables in the temple, and they're ticked off. So then they confront and challenge him. Who do you think you are? And first, Jesus, it does pull a smarty pants move because he's like, I'll answer your question if you answer mine, you know.

And then, you know, they can't answer his question. He's like, yeah, I thought so. And then he goes on to tell them three parables, three parables. And we're looking at the second one here today. But just so, I mean, the parables are all connected in a flow of thought. They're all about why and how and what the results will be of Israel's leaders rejecting Jesus and the kingdom of God movement. So, oh, sorry, let's go back to that. Here we go. So the first parable Josh explored last week, it was the two sons. The father, there's a father who asks his sons to go work in a vineyard, the family vineyard.

And the first son says, yeah, of course I will. And then he walks out and he's like, oh, that's a lot of work. I want to watch TV or something. So he doesn't actually go work. And then the second son says, like, no, I don't want to work. And then he sees his other brother on the couch, and he's like, oh, I don't want to be like him. And so he goes out and works anyway. The TV part was my addition. But there you go. And so he actually does the right thing.

And then he says, you leaders of Jerusalem, you are like the rebellious son. You've rejected the offer. The second parable we're looking at today is about Jesus is telling in parable form what's happening in the moment as these leaders reject Jesus. The third parable that Tom, who was up earlier, he's going to help us explore next week is the parable of the wedding banquet where Jesus is talking about the rejection of the messengers that he then will send on after him. But all three of these parengers that he then will send on after him. But all three of these parables are exploring what's going on in the hearts and the minds of God's people as they reject their Messiah.

Verse 33, let's hear this parable. Listen to another parable, Jesus says. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it. He dug a wine press in it. He built a watchtower in it. Come on, come, come now. Really?

Do you see it? It's right there. I mean, it's virtual quotation from Isaiah's love poem. All right, the poem of the God of Israel singing to his beloved Israel how they've broken his heart, how they've produced rotten fruit. So here again, Jesus, another Isaiah, talking about an owner and a vineyard.

But the focus here, Jesus is a poet of his own. He's not just going to copy. So this isn't going to be about the rotten fruit. This is going to be about the rotten farmers. So he planted a vineyard, put a wall around it, wine press, watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some other farmers, and then he moved on to another place. So think here, this is as familiar in our day as it was in theirs, where this is like an investment property. So somebody makes an investment in a vineyard, sets it all up perfect, and then hands it over to be cultivated by these vine growers, these farmers, we could call them,

or tenants, as they're called in this translation. So it's very common. There you go. Set up. Day-to-day situation. Verse 34. Now, when the harvest time approached, he sent his servant to the tenants to collect his fruit. Who's been cultivating the vines

so that they will produce the fruit? Who's putting in the work? Farmers. Whose fruit is it? It's the owner's. Like, it's his land. He invested it in the land, purchased it, invested it. Do you see?

It's his. They work it, but it's his fruit. There's nothing wrong with that. It's right. That's just. Now, if you know the parable, just pretend like you don't. But what? What on earth is going on?

It's like bad soap opera now at this point. It's like, what is happening here? There's a mutiny, right, on the farm, in the vineyard. So what does the owner do? Okay, I'll send some more. This is one of those parables where it's a day-to-day situation that Jesus describes. Then all of a sudden it gets really intense. Is he referring to some, you know, situation that they would have known? Probably not. Is he referring to something that many hired workers wish they could do? Probably. Probably. Everything we know about Galilee in Jesus' day is nobody was honoring the family land set up from, uh, the laws of Israel where, like, people couldn't lose their land. Uh, everything we know about the economics of the farming territory, it's still a rich farming country till, still today,

but it was being bought out by wealthy landowners, many of whom were not even Jewish. They were living in Rome. They're living in Caesarea, and they just are buying up all of the land, while the people whose ancestral land it is are now working on their own land, but have hired workers, and they wish they could kill the owners. So he's tapping into some Freudian dream of the people or something like that. But that's the image here. So it's really intense. They kill the servants. So what does he do? He sends more servants.

I think that's logical. Maybe he should send them armed. But he doesn't because more than the first time, but the tenants treated them the same way. So it's this bloody massacre now. The owner has this mutiny to deal with. He's hired these farmers, and they're killing people. It's just not oppressive. He hired them to work the farm, and just rebellion and mutiny.

Last of all, verse 37, he sent his son to them. Now you might think, boy, this guy's stupid. It's a parable, right? So just don't miss the point here. So he sends his son. The son has the most authority of all, right? The son's like the embodiment of the family authority and the father's authority and the estate and so on. And so he says, surely they'll respect my son, he said.

Now, stop. The prophets and the poets of Israel love to tell love poems. They love to write poetry. They love to make word plays. The word son in Hebrew, anybody? It's a Hebrew word that you know, but you probably don't know that you know it. Ben, anybody, any Bens in the room? Cheers, Ben. You're a star in this parable. Except you get killed. So, Ben. Ben, just tuck that away.

So the father sends the Ben, but the Ben is rejected and murdered. So here we go. Here's how it goes down. Verse 38. When the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, oh, this is the best, best situation that could have happened. Come on, let's kill, kill the Ben and take his inheritance. So they took him, they threw him out of the vineyard, and then they killed him. Now you might think that they're stupid,

because you're going to kill someone, and that's how you get their inheritance? Is he carrying it in a bag with him? Maybe the vineyard is the inheritance. Maybe that's what's good. They'll take control of the vineyard. We don't know. I think part of the... What's happening here?

Jesus is telling this story, maybe about what some farmers wished that they could do to get back their land from the wealthy landowners who live in Rome. But there's something within the story right here, like something shifted. How on earth do hired workers who signed a contract that says, yes, I will work here for six months or whatever and then produce as much fruit as I possibly can for the owner.

How does a worker go from that mindset, totally a fair contract, to then killing any representatives of the owner and then killing family members so that we can have this vineyard that belongs to us? What's happening here? And the fact that Jesus doesn't paint in the details, it's part of this parable. He invites you to participate in the meaning of it. What's happening here?

Somehow, we don't know how, somehow these farmers have gotten it in their minds that this vineyard actually should belong to them. And then they begin to foster this delusion. And this delusion that it actually is theirs motivates this really irrational, violent behavior to kill, kill people, and then to kill the son of the owner of the vineyard. Something's shifted in their thinking. They think it's theirs. It's not. I mean, it's not their vineyard, very clearly. You know, it's not their land. Likely it's not even their own tools that

they're working with or like houses that they're staying with. None of it's theirs. It doesn't belong to them. But they've come to think that it ought to and that it is. Jesus finishes the parable by asking a question verse 40 he says so when the owner of the vineyard comes so he sent servants then he sent his Ben now the owner himself is going to come and then Jesus doesn't close it himself

he actually pitches it to his listeners he says so what will he do to those tenants? You tell me. What should he do? What should he do? Well, you don't have to say what you really think. I don't know, maybe you're embarrassed to say it, I don't know. But the people who are listening to him, and who are the people listening to him? The chief priests and the Pharisees who said, who do you think you are? They, you know, so they're enveloped in the story now. And they're like, well, of course he's going to, look at this, they're going to, he's going to bring those wretches to a wretched end, they replied. And then, so they're going to face justice. And then

he's going to rent the vineyard to some other tenants, other farmers, who will give him his share of the fruit or the crop at harvest time. So let's not forget, like, this whole thing's about fruit. The owner invested in a vineyard to produce fruit. So one way or another, the fruit's going to happen. Those farmers didn't work out. It,. It really, really didn't work out. So we're going to get some new farmers who are going to produce the fruit. How are you guys doing? Do you get it? Maybe it took a few minutes to process Isaiah's parable. Now we're processing Jesus' parable to the same type of person, the leaders of Jerusalem. Do you get it? type of person, the leaders of Jerusalem. Do you get it? So let's just pause for a moment. So let's take stock of the parable, what you think it is. Popular vote. What's the vineyard? Okay, we'll answer that one later, apparently. Who are the farmers? Who are the farmers?

So the leaders of Israel, right? The priests, the Pharisees, the leaders of Israel. Good job. Who are the servants? Yeah, so here, again, this is, you know, Jesus is a Bible geek too. So one of the most common ways the prophets of Israel were referred to, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, were my servants the prophets, God calls them all over the Old Testament. And he sends the prophets to his people as servants who will warn Israel, accuse them of mishpach and tzedakah and so on, and call them to mishpat and tzedakah, justice and righteousness. Who's the son?

We should all get that one right. We should all. Who's the son? We should all get that one right. We should all. Who's the Ben? Ben obviously represents, Jesus is presenting himself as the culmination of the owner trying to communicate to his people, and it's actually the very embodiment of the father. So what does this mean, and who are the other tenants? What does it mean that they're going to face justice and that the vineyard will be given over to other farmers? Well, Jesus kind of explains, but he explains by quoting even more ancient Hebrew poetry. Verse 42, Jesus said to them, have you never read? Have you read your Bibles? I'm sorry, it's every week. I've gotten these like three messages in a row, but it doesn't get old. Have you read your Bibles?

He says to the Bible scholars. And then he quotes from another ancient poem. Well, I'll just read it. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Where's he quoting from? You should have a little footnote, probably. Psalm 118. Psalm 118 is what he's quoting from there. And as with Jesus, he's got the whole poem in his head, and he assumes you do too. So here we have, so you go read Psalm 118. It's a remarkable poem. It was a poem that was actually sung along Psalms 113 through 118. They're called the Great Hallel, and they were sung in the temple liturgy, we know, all throughout Passover week, which is precise. So Jesus quotes a poem that is being recited every day in the temple. And it's a poem about this individual.

It doesn't say they just are called the I. They call themselves I. And it's an individual who undergoes great suffering because of persecution from enemies. And he calls out to God, save me, deliver me. And God delivers the suffering one of Psalm 118. He vindicates him and exalts him over his enemies. And then as the poet reflects back on how God vindicated him,

he uses a metaphor of stones and quarries and cornerstones and rejected rocks. So here's the image, just to get a picture in your head so this is a picture of the southwest corner of the walls that still to this day support the Temple Mount what was the Temple Mount in Jerusalem so if you stand right at the foot of this these are 2,000 year old stones

and you look up it's about three or four stories up, and then up there is the huge plaza where the Dome of the Rock is today and where the temple was in Jesus' day. And this was a major intersection in the city, and there were shops and so on all along this. So here's my point. These are 2,000-year-old stones as a part of a wall that was built. Like, Jesus certainly walked by these stones in this intersection when he went into the temple. And these stones were actually architected, commissioned by King Herod, the Herod that tried to kill Jesus when he was a baby and killed the babies in Bethlehem.

And just look at the steps. Just get the dimensions of it. Think of, put yourself walking down those steps, the really big stone steps, and just, do you see the size of that cornerstone? Do you see it? I mean, just put it, you know, if you put yourself on the steps, it's like this, about this tall and this wide. It's almost a perfect square on that side. And then it's about 15 feet long. Look at that massive stone. And these would be the best stones because they're on display in a way that none of the other stones are. It's the cornerstone. So the poem is inviting us into another little parable, almost, where imagine all of these stones before they were carved out, super smooth and so on, and they're at the rock

quarry, and it's like a rough, huge, massive, rough boulder. And there's a whole bunch of them, and the architect is invited. You know, they've been hewn out of the rock, and then the builders are like, invite him to come inspect the stones. And so the builder's going like, yes to that one. Yes. Ooh, crack, you know. That's all this other stuff in there. No, no, that one's bad. Throw it out.

This one, yes. This one, yes. That's the scene right here. And so this poem, the poet depicts himself as a rejected stone. depicts himself as a rejected stone. The builders have looked at the stone and say, no, it's ugly, it's compromised, it's cracked, it's not going to be the showcase stone.

But in reality, the poet says, no, in God's eyes, yeah, that's the one. It's totally the one. And the stone that the builders have rejected is the stone that God will make, the showcase. And it's not just going to be in the wall, it's going to be the cornerstone. And if it's near the bottom, then that means it's a stone that is so strong, it can hold the weight of the whole edifice, the whole structure right there. Do you see what's happening in the little stone parable right here? Okay, now this is brilliant. Jesus is brilliant. Because the word for stone in Hebrew, wait for it,

Eben. Eben. Do you get it? It's great. It's beautiful. And it almost works in English, because look, S-O-N here, but somehow the T just doesn't. It would be better if it was sun, like S-U-N, but you can't have a rejected sun. We can't reject the sun in the sky, we would all die. So there you go. But it works in Hebrew. So Jesus is telling a story about the rejected Ben. And then he quotes from another poem that has its own parable about a rejected Eben. And in both cases, it's this crazy reversal. In the first case, it's a parable about the ludicracy of these farmers to reject the Ben and to murder him. And in this poem, it's also about the sadness,

the tragedy of the builders rejecting, because actually, in reality, that was the most important stone all along. Do you have ears? You should listen. We should listen. That's not me. That's Jesus, by the way. So how is the rejected Ben and Eben going to, what does that mean?

The son was killed. The Ben was killed, the Ben was killed, but the Eben gets, the decision of the builders is reversed. So what does that mean about the farmers and their murder of the son? What does it all mean, Jesus? Verse 43. Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God

will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce what? Fruit. Because that's what this is all about, producing fruit. Who's the you? Therefore I tell you the kingdom of God is taken away from you. Who's the you? So again, who is he talking to, right? So to go,

you have to just trace back, back, back. All of a sudden, Jesus entered the temple courts. He was teaching the chief priests, the elders, the leaders of the people of Israel. So Jesus sees himself as another Isaiah. The leaders of the people, they were called to curate and steward the temple, the meeting place of heaven and earth where God met with his people. They were called to teach the people the laws of the Torah that would guide Israel to become the light to the nations, to become the city on the hill, and to show everybody else what God designed human

communities to look like, at least in their day and in their context. And they just botched the job. They botched the job horribly. They did in Isaiah's day, and they did in Jesus' day. And so he's calling them to account. And he says, you guys lost your opportunity. In the kingdom of God, the place in the community where God reigns over his people, it's a new regime. You're being ousted from leadership, and God's going to found a new building, a new ebb and a cornerstone, a whole new temple structure. But this temple structure is not going to be a physical one.

It's going to be the bend. Do you get it? Do you get it? Do you remember in the Gospel according to John when Jesus goes into the temple and he pulls his stunt? And then they're like, what? What do you? He says that the temple's going to be destroyed.

And then they say, what? It took us so long to build destroyed. And then they say, what? It took us so long to build this. And then he says, do you remember what he says? He says this temple, holy cow, I'm quoting from it. And I don't remember what it says right now. This is such poor form. I didn't know I was going to, here we go. That's right, that's right.

I get the wording right. Destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in three days. Thank you. Thanks for bearing with me on that one. And then John whispers in our ear and says, the temple he was speaking about was himself. It's the Ben, the Eben, the Eben. Jesus, in Jesus' mind, he's here to restart God's covenant people. The job's been botched. He comes as the king of Israel, and he's going to restart the covenant people of God. And he's going to call the leaders of Israel to account. What he's not saying right here is that somehow the people of Israel as a whole, yeah, you're done, we're going to do this new thing called the church.

No, no, no, no. Jesus, he's the Messiah of Israel as a whole, yeah, you're done. We're going to do this new thing called the church. No, no, no, no. Jesus, he's the Messiah of Israel. And who's following him right now? Lots of people. What's their ethnicity? They're all Jewish, and they actually will continue to be for a couple decades. Jesus is reconstituting the covenant people of God around himself as its leader. And this people group was always meant to be a people group and a family that would encompass and wrap its arms around the nations, but it is a Jewish messianic movement, which is why Christianity,

throughout much of its history, Christians have been trying to distance themselves from their Jewish heritage, and it's like cutting off the branch that you're sitting on. Literally. Or metaphorically. Go read Romans 11. Anyway.

So here's the point. Jesus, he's appointing himself as the new leader of the covenant people because they botched the job. And then he gets really intense. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken, verse 44. Everyone who falls on the ebon will be broken to pieces. Anyone on whom it falls will be crushed. Holy cow, Jesus. So once again, we don't have time to go,

and we have been talking about rocks for far too long this morning already, but he's actually quoting from Isaiah again, chapter 8, and Daniel chapter 2. He's predicting the destruction of Jerusalem because they've rejected their Messiah. Let me close it down. Verse 45. When the chief priests and the Pharisees

heard Jesus' parables, they realized, he was talking about them. Like, I mean, have you ever been in a conversation where you realize you've been insulted, but like 20 seconds ago? You know what I mean? You're like, oh, I'm so, I didn't get it. No, I look extra stupid. Worth being insulted. Anyway, so that's what, I can just imagine the scene. It's like they, oh, what? And so they look for a way to arrest him.

We already know they've set in motion a plan to murder him. They were afraid of the crowd because the people believed that he was what? A prophet. And a prophet he was. So how are you guys doing? So Jesus comes. He warns the people of Israel. He accuses them of total mismanagement of the kingdom of God. They had this opportunity to be brought into God's story and what God wanted to do in the world. And something happened inside their minds and

their hearts. And now they're going to murder the Ben and reject the Eben. But in reality, God's going to do something marvelous, and he's going to reverse their decision, and he's going to actually undo the murder by taking the rejected Eben and raising the Ben from the dead. It's beautiful how this whole passage works together. I've been staring at this story for weeks now, wondering what on earth it has to say to us. Because, so just think about this. This is cool. I mean, I hope it, I'm trying to make it as lively

and interesting as I possibly can. But who's Jesus talking to? I mean, he's talking to chief priests and elders of the people of ancient Israel. I've never been either of those. I've never been either. My hair makes me look like an elder, but I've never, you know, like, he's not talking to his disciples here. He's talking to the leaders of Israel. But go back to verse 43. Let's remind ourselves what all of the vineyard, the stone, the Pharisees, the elders, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce what? Fruit. What's this whole, what is God's purpose in the world,

in this metaphor? To produce fruit. What kind of fruit? The fruit of the kingdom of God, right? Mishpat and tzedakah, right relationships. God's on a mission to somehow redeem and restore and set right what we have made of his good world. And he's doing so through Jesus and the people and the family that Jesus is forming. And that's a fact. Just put your thumb here or no or not, but go to the very last page of Matthew with me. Let's just see how all of this cashes out. The last sentences of the Gospel according to Matthew. It's chapter 28.

This is Jesus' parting words to his disciples. Matthew chapter 28, verse 18. Jesus came to his disciples. He's raised from the dead. And then he says to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. The kingdom of God, the reign and the rule of God over his people in this world has been taken away from you,

chief priests and elders, and given to who has the authority over heaven and earth now? King Jesus. King Jesus. Therefore go, Jesus says to his farmers, make disciples of all of the nations, baptizing them, initiate them into the community in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to produce fruit. Or as he says it here, to obey everything I've commanded you. Now we've, you know, we're taking a year and a half to work through the gospel according to Matthew, but just think through in the gospel according to Matthew, can you think through any of the places where Jesus

has been teaching his disciples? Oh yeah, there was like, we took four months to work through this thing called the Sermon on the Mount. It's a big block of Jesus' teaching. It's the first one in the Gospel according to Matthew. And it's like following Jesus 101, right? It's the whole thing about, like, loving your neighbors, yourself, and treat people the way you want to be treated. It's bearing fruit for the kingdom. Justice and right relationships and forgiveness and sexual integrity and generosity and extreme loyalty and commitment to each other and our well-being and to the well-being of those around us in our city and in our communities. It's producing fruit. God's whole point is to form a people who will produce fruit. And so the warning to the leaders of Jesus' day is not directed at me,

but there's a warning implicit in it because the whole point is, why is Jesus forming a new people? So that they will be the ones to produce fruit. And so the warning and the challenge, it comes right to us as his disciples. What's the whole point of following Jesus? To produce, he wants to produce fruit

in and through his people. And so here's where I want to just camp out as I close and to lead us to the bread and the cup. Because all of a sudden, the leaders of Israel, their failure becomes its own parable of warning to us. What is it? How do you get into a mindset? All the way back to the farmers in the parable. How do you get to a place where you reject the bend? Where there's someone who's invited you to be a part of their deal,

but then you come to think of it as your deal. And then all of a sudden you see everything as owed to you and belonging to you, and then you start behaving in these ways that are totally irrational and destructive. And they don't make any sense. Like, what happened there? And in the parable, what happened is they ceased to see that this land, that this opportunity, that the tools they're using, that the vineyard, it doesn't belong to them, and it's not about them. They've been invited to participate in somebody else's story, and that someone else is on a mission to produce fruit.

And the shift happens when all of a sudden, I begin to view things as mine. That was their shift. They clearly at some point begin to see the vineyard as belonging to them. This is our, it's mine. And so I'll do whatever it takes to defend what is mine, because who's this guy like coming to claim the fruit? This is our vineyard. You see what's happening. That's the shift. like coming to claim the fruit. This is our event. You see what's happening.

That's the shift. And it seems to me, just speaking personally, what mindsets do I find myself in that prevent me from following the teachings of Jesus and becoming apathetic as his disciple? And one, there's always many pieces to answer that question, but one of them is really insightful. And it, there's always many pieces to answer that question, but one of them is really insightful. And it's precisely this. It's that I forget that I've been invited to participate in Jesus's vineyard. And I come to see my life and my opportunities and my resources and my

relationships as mine. If you think back to the Sermon on the Mount, one of the main themes that Jesus was constantly trying to help us cultivate is the sense that life is a gift. Remember his teachings about the flowers and the trees and anxiety and stress and worry and so on. And the key part of what he put his thumb on right there is the reason you're stressing out is because somehow you think like life is about you and everything that you have belongs to you and is either owed to you. And then when you don't have it, you're stressed or you're

angry about it. And he just flips everything on its head and he just says, no, no, no. Like everything's a gift. Everything is a gift from the God that he called the generous father. everything is a gift from the God that he called the generous father. So somehow it's when I stop, when I view my life as mine. And that seems silly for us to say because we're like, well, yes, but it's my life. It is my life. Well, it kind of is, but it's actually kind of not. Like I wasn't owed to exist.

It's actually very improbable that any of us should exist right now. We are aware of that, I hope. And, you know, Wizard of Oz, it's a strange, weird movie or whatever, but we're living in something that, for real, is actually more strange than the Wizard of Oz, that any of us are even here right now. You know, having this, sorry, this is not a conversation, having this listening to me speech or whatever. But you know what? This is such a strange, remarkable world. It's not owed to me that I should exist, but somehow when I view my life as mine,

then the possessiveness begins. It's the delusion. It's the delusion. And so Jesus challenges us to cultivate this mindset. Every day, it's a gift. Every day, it's a gift. Every breath, it's a gift. The people in my life, the circumstances that I'm in, they're a gift. And with gifts come responsibility.

Christmas is coming up, and I am not going to give my two toddler sons their pocket knives because they would kill each other with them and stab me in the leg. Certainly, if I were to give it to them, but I know, like I know, what I'm going to give them for their first pocket knives because it'll be similar to the one I got and still use around the house. It's so handy, a little Swiss Army pocket knife. And with that gift, my dad had a conversation with me. This is for like, you know, like using the screwdriver for screws, buddy. And like using the knife to whittle sticks and make bows and arrows and that kind of thing. But not for shooting people.

It's a gift that comes with responsibility. And the responsibility in this parable is to produce fruit. So just like, let's just make this very practical. And this is just a very practical thing to lead us into taking the bread in the cup. You have a job, most of you, right? And whether you get paid for your job or not, you put your efforts towards something. Why are you in that job? I think Jesus would ask you. Why are you there? You may love the job. You may hate the job. When it comes to this matter, I actually don't think Jesus cares. I think what he cares about is do I view this job as a gift

and do I view it as an opportunity to love God, to love my neighbor, to love these people that I work with, and to produce fruit for the kingdom? All of us are in a family of some kind. It's your family. You may love your family. You're going to be spending probably a lot of time with them over the next month.

You may hate your family. You're going to be spending probably a lot of time with them over the next month. You may hate your family. And I think Jesus would urge us to see our families as part of the gift, part of the vineyard that he has called us to work in to produce fruit. By doing what? By obeying everything that I commanded you, loving God and loving your neighbor. By doing what? By obeying everything that I commanded you, loving God and loving your neighbor. Some of you, most of you, have roommates or you live with your spouse. You may love that setup. You may hate it. Jesus wants us to see it as a gift. It doesn't, the set of circumstances doesn't belong to me. I don't own any of this. These aren't my people. It's not my house. It's not your job.

It's a gift. It's a gift. And we've been hired to work in the vineyard to produce fruit. But the moment that I, the moment I see this, everybody owes me, God owes me, this is mine. It just all goes downhill. And that's the delusion that Jesus exposes in this parable. So here's what I'd encourage us to do as we go into the bread and the cup. And as we take the bread and the cup, we're eating the parable of the rejected Ben, who gave his life as an act of love and sacrifice for people who reject him all the time, as an act of love and sacrifice for people who reject him all the time because he loves us and he's committed to us. And the rejected Ben becomes the vindicated Eben

who despite our rejection, God vindicates and brings back to life because he loves us and he's committed to us. And he's committed to you. Whether you live into the delusion or whether you're trying to wake up to reality from the delusion, he loves you and he's committed to you. Whether you live into the delusion or whether you're trying to wake up to reality from the delusion, he loves you and he's committed to you. And so as we take the bread and the cup, let's just ask, like very practical,

ask Jesus to bring the family member to your mind that you hate or that you don't like, that you're estranged from. And you're likely gonna be around them in the next month. What are you going to do? How can you produce fruit for the kingdom? Get the work co-worker or the work scenario in your mind. You hate the situation.

You don't like the person. What are you going to do? And Jesus would encourage us, I think, to see it as a gift and as an opportunity to produce fruit. So I'm going to pray for us, just that Jesus will guide us and give us wisdom. You guys, thank you for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible. Our next episode, we'll keep doing the thing that we have been doing, and that's exploring the gospel according to Matthew. So, we will see you next time.