Lent 5 (Passion Sunday): The Veiled Glory in the Way of the Cross
TranscriptioN
Well, good morning again everybody. It is good to see you this morning. I am delighted to be with you on this fifth Sunday of Lent. As I mentioned before, this is Passion Tide, and during our weekly emails that come out on Wednesdays, if you don't get those, let me know and I'll make sure you get them.
I tried to put a little article on what is Passion Tide, these two weeks of which one is Holy Week, this short two-week season where we shroud the crosses and the icons and it focuses our gaze on the road to Jesus's crucifixion and the glory that will later be revealed but right now is veiled. In our Gospel passage today, we encounter leaders who have forgotten that they had a delegated authority. These are the chief priests and the scribes.
They wanted to hold on to control for themselves of speaking for God through an authority that they thought belonged to them, and it's an easy trap to fall into because power is intoxicating and the idea that Jesus might just be the Messiah threatens to undo the thing they're trying to hold on to. Our passages today encourage us that God's marvelous works of redemption would be done through humility and through the power of what's going to happen on the cross. And so we involve ourselves in the work of Jesus's ministry, this kingdom that is here and to come, when we bear fruits of repentance and when we invite other people to come and taste and see the goodness of the Lord along with us.
And as we look at our passages this morning, let me pray for us. “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. Amen.”
The Parable
So today's parable from Jesus, we find him teaching in the temple courts, and his authority had been questioned by the religious leaders, the chief priests and the scribes, and Jesus is now teaching them through a parable about a vineyard.
A man planted a vineyard, who represents God in the story, and the vineyard itself represents the state of blessing and peace and rest for the people of God. And in this vineyard that the man plants, the vineyard is going to bear fruits. The vineyard owner has tenant farmers that he lets tend the vineyard and cultivate the fruit, do the hiring and firing, etc.
There's a delegated authority to steward the vineyard, and he sends a servant to go collect the produce from the tenants, and then they send him off empty-handed. The tenants of the vineyard have a delegated authority to collect the produce, but it actually belongs to the owner of the vineyard. So the tenants beat this servant, and then they send them back empty-handed.
The owner then sends a second servant to go and collect the produce. They beat, and then it adds, and they insult the second servant, so it's a little bit of the same but more, and they send this second servant back empty-handed. A third servant comes, and he's sent by the vineyard owner, and it's worse.
He's cast out, and he's harmed violently. The word where it says wounded in our translation is the word we get trauma in English. It's a Greek word trauma.
It's wounding, and so you can think of this person having been left wounded and traumatized from the experience of going to collect the fruit for the vineyard owner. The idea here is that God, as we heard really well read by Janet in the book of Isaiah, God has been forming a people for his glory and praise, right? They've gone into subjugation over and over again, and God has freed them and liberated them over and over again, but what he's doing ultimately is forming a people for his praise and his glory to live under his kingship, and so God has continually over and over again sent his messengers, the prophets, to once again call them back to covenant renewal and faithfulness, but those who have this delegated authority, the religious leaders, come from a long line of leaders in history who are under the delusion that they held on to control for themselves and that they spoke for God, despite the fact that their hearts were actually quite far from him, and then they turned the people's hearts away, and the result is that the owner of the vineyard did not receive the fruit of the vineyard. So finally, in this parable that Jesus tells, the owner sends his son.
There's no greater authority than if the father were to actually go himself. Certainly they're going to respect my son, and so the vineyard tenants come up with this absurd plan that, you know, if we kill the son, maybe we can inherit the vineyard. That's ridiculous, right? That makes no logical sense.
That's what you're supposed to feel when you hear Jesus tell this parable. That's illogical, it's nonsensical, and that's the point. So these people, these people with a delegated authority, the tenants, tenant farmers, they have no real authority over the vineyard.
Even if they were to kill that son, it's not like they would have authority over it, and they don't have any right to the fruit that comes from it. So at the time, Jesus speaks this parable in the temple, and the specifics at this point are veiled. They're unclear.
People don't know that he is going to go to a Roman cross to die yet. The story hasn't unfolded, and so this is a good, helpful parable for this Passion Sunday, where we have the crosses and the icons veiled, because we've got glimpses of the story, but we don't have the fullness of what's going to happen yet. The plan of God is veiled, and it's going to be made clear.
So the tenants in this parable, they take the son, they take him outside the vineyard, and they kill him. And in response, the vineyard owner is going to come, and he's going to destroy the tenant farmers, and he's going to give that vineyard to other people. And so Jesus asks the scribes and the Pharisees, what do you think of such a parable? How does that strike you? And they use this phrase that you find in Paul, may it never be! Right? And so it was sort of obfuscated in the ESV a little bit, but the idea is like, may it not be so! We don't want this to be the case.
And so Jesus then, he says, okay, well what do you think about this psalm? What does it mean? Psalm 118. How would you interpret it? Psalm 118 addresses a nation that's been rejected. It addresses a king that's been rejected before the nations, but the psalm reassures the people that the rejected people are going to have an exalted position before God, that the rejected King will have an exalted position before God.
And Psalm 118 comes to its fullest expression in the person and work of Jesus. And that's why as St. Luke is writing the gospel in the book of Acts, Psalm 118 is actually peppered throughout Luke's gospel at really key points, because he's interpreting it through the lens of Jesus's ministry. And so the imagery now moves from the vineyard in the parable to a construction yard in Psalm 118.
Building yards, builders yards, were where people would find the stones they needed to make their buildings. And once the project is near completion, the image here is of finding the stone that would finish off the building, the cornerstone, that it would, it was perfect to finish this off. But the idea here is that this stone that was perfectly ready to cap off the building had been rejected by the builders in Psalm 118.
So the workers, which here symbolized the scribes and the Jewish leaders, they might cast off Jesus as unimportant now, but he is going to come to be honored and vindicated as the Lord's Messiah. There is a timeline to the end of their delegated authority, because his needs to take over. And that's what Psalm 118 is talking about.
And I think what's neat is I was reading several of the church fathers about this passage. They often connect this with Daniel chapter 2. And in Daniel chapter 2, if you'll remember, there is a rock cut out of a mountain. And this rock is going to destroy the clay feet of the statue, which represents the kingdoms of the world.
And then it says in Daniel 2, the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. And so they're bringing together this beautiful imagery of the stone, the cornerstone of Psalm 118, and the rock out of the mountain in Daniel chapter 2. And that connection works together to talk about, then, the rejection of Israel's leaders, because Jesus himself is going to be the true authority. He is King. He is Lord. Their authority is delegated. It is not theirs.
And they find themselves in a long line of authorities who misappropriate delegated authority as though it's their own. But his rule and reign as king is going to fill the whole earth. His rule and reign of new creation.
And so how do we join the work of the vineyard and cultivate fruits from this vineyard? There's three things I want to think about with us this morning.
Avoiding False Securities
We involve ourselves in the work of tending to the vineyard and offering the fruits to God by avoiding false securities. The chief priests and the scribes, they understand the implication of the And as a result, at the end, it says they want to lay hands on him, but they fear the crowds.
They're afraid of the people. And it's a good reminder for all of us, whether one holds public office or ecclesiastical office, that all authority in heaven and on earth is the Lord's and it is not ours. Whatever authority or responsibility we have, it is a delegated authority.
We're just stewards who are tenant farmers in the vineyard of God. And so if you're a parent, it's also a good reminder as a parent that your children belong to the Lord. Ultimately, they don't belong to us, which is really hard, right? And if you're an employer, your employees don't belong to you.
These people belong to the Lord, not even to our company. If you hold public office or ecclesiastical office, your responsibility is to uphold the welfare of people, not to hold on to power by coercing constituents or gaining favor amongst your side. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to the Lord.
But the taste of it can be so intoxicating. And so it's a good reminder that power in and of itself can be used for good, as long as we understand that we have a delegated authority. But power can turn into evil when it outpaces our character and we don't live a life of virtue and understand that our end is to the glory and praise of God.
And that is the kind of power that will corrupt us and those around us. And so the religious leaders of Jesus's day, they had forgotten that. It's easy to forget how our responsibilities and our stations, our callings, the platforms that we have, are our stewardships.
They're platforms for the work of God, the miracles of God that he does in the human heart. And they're not marks of status in the kingdom. That's really important.
Cultivating in the way of Jesus
So Jesus is calling us to offer the fruit of the vineyard to the Lord, that all things belong to him. And this is done by cultivating the work in the same way that Jesus does. Joining the work of Jesus is a work of sowing with tears.
We read one of my favorite psalms today, Psalm 126. This is a pilgrim psalm where there's a leader leading up a group of pilgrims to Jerusalem. And the theme of God making streams in the desert is something that came up both in the psalm and in the Old Testament reading, if you were listening.
It's a common theme. This renewal that people anticipate is God making streams in the desert. It's an analogy for the hope that people have that God will give them new life.
And so the psalmist prays that those who would sow in tears would reap with shouts of joy. That those who go about weeping and bearing seed for sowing would come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves. And so similarly we read in St. Paul in chapter 3 of Philippians that he wants to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, but notice it's not empty triumphalism.
He says, and I want to know the sharing of his sufferings being made like him in his death. So the means of the power of the kingdom and the authority of the kingdom is the work of it is done through the means of the way that Jesus cultivated the work of the kingdom, which is to know the resurrection through the sufferings that led to the cross. So the hard work of weeping over the ways that we in our world is broken will return a harvest of beautiful praise to the Lord.
Because God's at work in us. Like it's easy to take the easy road and manipulate people for our own ends, to not care about them, to be unreflective, to be dismissive or callous to the needs of other people, or disadvantage other people to our own benefit. That would be the easy road.
It's easier to do those things than to recognize the places where we've been wounded, where we might have wounded others, to do the hard work of giving language to those things, teasing out those implications, and tearfully asking God for his grace, and to die to those places that are unbecoming of his life and glory. The ways that we've tried to hold on to control in our delegated authority as though it were ours to hold on to. We're really good at trying to curate our own narratives and control our image to other people.
And so Passion Sunday invites you to be undone before others. It invites the church to be undone with one another. If you feel like you're a mess, you're in the right place with the right people.
Thanks be to God. And so Passion Sunday invites us to the tearful cultivation of the heart in repentance, to let God have his authority and not take it on ourselves, to walk the way of the cross with Jesus, even though the glory might be veiled so thickly right now that we just can't see it. And we're involved in this marvelous work of God of redemption, and we involve ourselves in it when we bear fruits that are in keeping with repentance, when we invite other people to come and taste and see the Lord's goodness with us.
Bearing fruit through command and promise
So third, bearing fruit through love and desire, God would eventually rip away the authority from the tenant farmers to cultivate that vineyard, and then he would give that delegated authority to others, which has in it, in this parable, a veiled reference to the new covenant and the inclusion of unexpected people, tax collectors, sinners, Samaritans, and even as far as the Gentiles, right? This has in it this veiled expectation that God will give the vineyard to others. And one church father said about this vineyard being given to the apostles after the Jewish leaders, he says, they are sowing the seeds of piety to Christ in the hearts of believers and making the nations entrusted to their care into beautiful vineyards in the sight of God. That is the apostolic work, and it's the same one that we're called into as well.
And so what seemed like a catastrophic tragedy on the hill of Golgotha at the cross and the rejection of the Messiah was actually in the plan of God the means by which cosmic renewal would begin. There's the thing that brings the kingdom. And so there are so many subtle distractions that are seeking our attention, and lies, and the disorder, the things that we love, and the things that we desire.
If you think about the chief priests and the scribes, there were a thousand subtle shifts and decisions that these leaders made to make authority their ultimate goal. They didn't get into leadership to hold on to inappropriate authority. There were a thousand subtle shifts and decisions that brought them to that point.
And so on this fifth Sunday of Lent, we remember that it's God who brings into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners. Because we find ourselves in that place often where we've made lots of decisions and choices and things have happened to us that make our affections and desires feel unwieldy and unruly, and we trust in this God who brings them back into order. And so we need God's help to do what the poet prays for, which is to love what he commands, and to actually desire what he promises.
God commands a life that is committed to his lordship and kingship, his rule and reign, to love him and our neighbor, and ultimately to be formed for his praise, as we read in the Old Testament today. And he promises new creation. That's his promise to us, and it is an alternative amongst many false alternatives that are before us that may look attractive, but he offers us new creation in his kingdom.
But we need his help to ask for the desire for what he promises. And this passage is a great reminder to ask God for help, to love the things that he commands when that's really hard to do in the minute everyday moments of the things that we walk through, and to desire what he promises when we just can't see it because we're crowded out by all the things that are in front of us, and all the things that we're hoping for which may be slightly under the standard of the kingdom of God. And it's a good reminder that this delegated authority involves not just the glory of the resurrection, but also sharing in the sufferings and the humility of Jesus.
Conclusion
So the path of the kingdom is paved with the tears of cross-bearing saints that go before us. The glory might be veiled right now, but we're called to cultivate a field of repentance, to hand God a harvest of praise. So there's hope today as well, because he's the one who makes streams in the desert. He makes a way in the wilderness. This is the God that we serve. And he's the one who gives us this vineyard.
He's done all that he needs to to prepare the soil, to tend it, and we are these tenant farmers on the land who give him what is rightfully his amongst our households, our labors, our stations and offices, our children, the relationships he's put as our stewardship, so that by the end of it all, in him, our hearts are fixed where true joys are to be found. Let me pray for us. Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners.
Grant your people grace to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that among the swift and varied changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Edited by the Author