You're listening to audio from Faith Church, located on the North Side Of Indianapolis. If you'd like to check out more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindy.com. Now, here's the teaching. If you're visiting Faith Tonight for the first time or you're here from out of town joining us maybe with family, we've been spending the weeks of Lent leading up to Easter by exploring the the parables, some of the parables that Jesus told about the kingdom of God. Parables are like little stories with a with a point.

Sometimes they shock us into realization. Sometimes they woo us into a new understanding. They're designed maybe to to show us what life in the kingdom of God is like or to invite us into a new way of living in the kingdom. Sometimes they show us a reflection of ourselves back to ourselves. This parable we're gonna explore tonight does a little bit of all three.

It encourages us us to look in the mirror. It encourages us to look through the window. It opens a door and invites us into life. I'm gonna read from Matthew chapter 21 verses 33 through 45. It's okay.

We'll stay seated. It's kind of a longer parable. But Matthew twenty one thirty three through 45, it's on page nine eighty two if you wanna grab one of those Bibles underneath the seat in front of you. This comes in the context of Jesus' authority has been challenged by some of the religious leaders, and so in the way Matthew has arranged it, you know, then Jesus follows up with three parables in a row. This is the middle one.

So verse 33, Jesus says, hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it to tenants, and then went into another country. So when the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get the fruits, But the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them saying, surely they will respect my son.

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Come. Let us kill him, and we will have his inheritance for ourselves. And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. So when therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?

And they, the crowd, said to Jesus, well, you will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease out the vineyard to other tenants who will actually give him the fruits in their seasons. And then Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone? This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits, And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. Now when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.

This is the word of the Lord. Now this parable begins by setting the scene. We're talking about a vineyard. It's a vineyard that's been planted, cultivated by its owner who then leases it to tenants and continues on in his travels. Right?

It's an investment property. Build the vineyard, lease it out, take your share each season when the harvest pays off. Pretty common in those days, but the people listening to Jesus tell this story, to them, they realize this isn't really about an investment property. Over and over in the Old Testament scriptures, the people of Israel themselves are likened to a vineyard. It's one of God's favorite metaphors for his people.

So if you were listening to this firsthand, you'd hear Jesus setting up a story, a metaphor about Israel, about the people of God, the people who belong to God. God's the master of the house. He's the one who planted the vineyard. That's the nation of Israel. That's what you'd begin to hear and think.

This story must be about God's relationship to Israel. But as Jesus continues to tell the story, God leases the vineyards to some tenants. That's new. It's variation on the story we've not heard before. Who is he talking about?

We don't know. We keep listening. Verse 34, when the season for fruit drew near, you know, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit and the tenants took the servants, they peed one, they killed another, they stoned another. He sent more servants, more than the first, and they did the same things to them. Okay.

Maybe maybe now it's becoming clear in your mind if you're hearing this for the first time as Jesus is saying it. Wicked tenants killing God's servants. That's the Romans, we can all agree. Maybe if this is the past history of Israel, maybe this is the the bad kings that we'd had in the past. Because the servants, we know who they are.

They're the prophets. God sent the prophets. They came to the nation. They tried to help the people get back on track with their relationship with God. This is making sense.

It sounds like Jesus is saying, well, bad kings in the past, Romans now, they're the tenants. They're abusing and taking advantage of the people of God. I love where this story is going. Or at least they think they know where the story is going, but it may not be Jesus's point. Verse 37, finally, this master of the house, the owner of the vineyard, he sent his son to them saying, well, surely they will respect my son.

But when the tenant saw the son, they said to themselves, you know, this is the heir. If we kill him, we get the inheritance. And I know you're hearing this right now going, that's not how inheritance works. And you're correct. In the story, the the tenants probably thought, well, the only reason the son would come is because the father has passed away.

So the son is now the owner, the one who has inherited it. Kill him and there's no one left to argue about who really owns this property, and they'll get to keep using it and keep, you know, reaping the fruits of it. So they say to themselves, this is the heir. He's the only owner left. If we kill him, there's no one left to argue, and we get it.

They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, killed him. And now the first century hearers are confused again. This analogy, like, it no longer lines up with history. Who is the son? Maybe Jesus is talking about the righteous son.

The Psalms always sing about the one who is going to come and rule over Israel with perfect righteousness someday, but he hasn't come yet. And when he comes, he's not gonna be killed. It's not the way the story goes. But before, of course, he can they can get their thinking straight, Jesus asked them a direct question in verse 40. So when the owner of the vineyard himself comes, what do you think he's gonna do to those tenants?

Well, we know the answer to that question. We can figure that one out. God will enact his righteous judgment. He's gonna put those wretches to a miserable death. And then, of course, because it's an investment property, he'll lease it out to some other tenants.

And these tenants, in contrast to the first ones, will actually respond in relationship to the owner of the vineyard and give him the fruit in its in its season. If they've killed the sun, they deserve death. And once they're out of the way, others will be invited in. Others who will live out a right relationship with the master. That brings us to verse 42, which feels a little bit like a non sequitur, like it doesn't connect, it doesn't follow, it doesn't fit, Jesus responds, have you never read in the scriptures the stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone?

You're like, I thought we were talking about vineyards. Where did where did stones and walls come in? Well, it's a quote from Psalm 118. It's one of the best known and most loved Psalms because it's a song about how God continually cares for his people, even when all hope seems lost. But how does it fit here?

Well, it fits here because Jesus is playing off of a rather well known pun. Before you groan, I want you to keep in mind, puns are the highest form of comedy. They require the most intellect. Okay? Jesus is playing off of a a pun.

It doesn't work in English. It's a little bit labored in Greek, but it's classic in Hebrew and Aramaic. It kills every time. I'll give you a hint where the pun is. A few years after Jesus, when the city of Jerusalem was under siege and Romans were using their catapults to hurl stones over the walls, the sentries who were on on duty to watch for incoming fire would shout out, here comes another sun.

Because in Hebrew and Aramaic, sun and stone are are almost identical words. But there's another layer to why he used the quotation because the word builders is a word that's often used to refer to the religious leaders themselves, the chief priests. They're the builders of Israel. It's one of the words they use to describe themselves. So when Jesus says the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, they heard him say the son you rejected has become the cornerstone.

It's a searing condemnation. God has sent a son, a man after his own heart, his clearest representative yet, and you've rejected him. But God is going to reverse that rejection, and you yourselves gonna lose your place in God's purpose. And suddenly the whole story flashes into focus. Right?

The master is God for sure, but the tenants aren't Romans or evil kings. The tenants are them. Jesus is holding up a mirror and saying, when you see a tenant, you see yourself, these religious leaders. They've rejected God's envoy, a special representative, his own son. And if if that's true, then their own words condemn them.

So Jesus makes it clear just in case they're not getting it, their role in the kingdom of God will be taken away. It's not that the whole nation of Israel is now out of God's will. They are these leaders, no longer part of God's plan. And in verse 45, Matthew gives his own observation. They knew quite clearly that Jesus was talking about them, and they couldn't do a thing about it.

Now what do we do about it? Reading this story some two thousand years later. Jesus told this story to a specific group of religious leaders at a certain point in time in history, so does it have anything to say to us, especially on on Good Friday? Well, like all of Jesus's parables, there are so many more layers to the story that we won't take the time to unpack, but just think about how different groups at different times would hear this same story. The leaders in that moment certainly heard a condemnation against them, and the average folks around also listening heard it as condemnation.

It's no wonder they are immediately moved to trying to shut Jesus up you know, permanently. But followers of Jesus now hearing this story told and retold and retold over the years after Jesus's own death and resurrection would say, I know that son. He's the son, not just figuratively, but but literally. He's the son who was sent to Israel and was cast out and was killed. And followers of Jesus, in all of the years since he first told this story, all the way through to today, when we read this story, when we hear it read, we're struck again by the irony that these wicked tenants, these miserable wretches who deserve death, thought that if they could just kill the son, they would get everything the father owns, all his wealth, all of his riches.

Surely, there's some way to have everything, all the blessings that the father owns, but none of the obligation, none of the relationship. It's dripping with irony because the the parable points to a greater and a deeper reality God planned from the very beginning for the death of his one and his only son to be the way through which we receive all of the blessings and all of the riches that God longs to give to us. They deserve death. We deserve death for our sinful sinful rebellion against God, but his own son died on that good Friday night all those years ago so that we could live, so that the inheritance really would come to us, and we would receive the riches of his glorious grace. Would you pray with me?

Father, on this Good Friday, on this night that we can't help but live backwards, knowing what Sunday brings, we look to today to a death, to an event that were it to happen in our own lives, we would mark it and remember and grieve, and yet when it is the death of your son, we mark it and remember and celebrate because of the resurrection to come. Still, we must wait through tonight, through tomorrow, and into the dawn of Sunday morning before we can celebrate that the son that we killed has brought with him out of the grave life and riches and glory for each of us to the praise of his glorious grace in the father almighty. We give thanks, and we say amen and amen.