Mid-Lent 3
Mt
21:33-46
3/11/15
Most people would agree that Tom
Brady is not just one of the best quarterbacks today, but also one of the best
to ever play the game. Brady, along with Coach Bill Belichick, has been the cornerstone
of the sustained success that the New England Patriots have had during the last
fifteen years. Brady has led the
Patriots six times to the Super Bowl and has won four championships. He has thrown for the most postseason yards
and touch downs in NFL history, and the most touchdowns in Super Bowl history.
Yet even more remarkable than his
success, is the fact that Brady was rejected as a draft pick 198 times before
he was taken in the NFL draft. Brady
played his college ball at Michigan where he was a back up his first two
years. His junior and senior year he
played, but always was in competition with fellow quarterback Drew Henson. Brady had success had Michigan – he was a
honorable mention All Big Ten player both years. But as the “honorable mention”
part of that title indicates, he also wasn’t overwhelming. There was nothing that made you think this
was the next great quarterback in the NFL.
In the 2000 NFL draft, Brady was
chosen by the New England Patriots in the sixth round. He was the 199th player
taken. This means that 198 times, teams
rejected Brady and chose someone else over him.
He was the seventh quarterback taken in the draft – so teams thought
that there were six quarterbacks who were a better prospect. The player rejected
by so many teams – the sixth round draft pick – has gone on to be the
cornerstone of a Super Bowl dynasty.
In our text tonight, Jesus continues
in his Holy Week confrontation with the Jewish religious leaders. He tells a parable that convicts them of their
rejection of Jesus. Using the text of
Psalm 118, he identifies himself as the stone rejected by the builders which by
God’s doing has become the cornerstone.
Last week we heard Jesus tell a
short parable about how a father told his two sons to go work in his vineyard.
The vineyard was a symbol in the Old Testament for Israel. If someone missed this in the last parable,
the beginning of the parable in our text makes it impossible to overlook. He talks about the master of a house who
planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it and built a
tower for it.
It immediately becomes obvious that
the vineyard is Israel because this is the very description found in Isaiah
chapter 5 where the prophet writes, “Let me sing for my beloved
my love song
concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile
hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he
built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it.”
In Jesus’ parable the owner leased
the vineyard to tenants, and went into another country. The absentee landlord
was a common phenomenon in first century Palestine. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent
his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. However the tenants took his
servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other
servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them.
Then the owner did something
surprising. He sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ However,
when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come,
let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out
of the vineyard and killed him.
Jesus then asked the religious
leaders, “When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to
those tenants?” The leaders were caught up in the story and they indignantly
replied: “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the
vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
And in that statement they walked
right into the trap. Our Lord had been
describing Israel and the way that she had treated the prophets sent to her by
God. The son sent by the owner was, of course, Jesus himself. Then Jesus responded with words from Ps. 118:
“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.”
Jesus was the stone which was at
that moment being rejected by the builders – the religious leaders of the
people. In a few days they would reject
him by putting him to death. But in
raising Jesus from the dead, God would show that in fact Jesus is the
cornerstone upon which forgiveness, salvation and the Church herself is
built. In a surprising and marvelous
move, God was taking the stone rejected by the builders and making it the
cornerstone – the most important and foundational stone in the building. And God would do something else
surprising. He would take the kingdom of
God and give it to all people who believe in Jesus Christ – both Jew and
Gentile alike.
The builders – the Jewish religious
leaders – rejected the Jesus for a number of reasons. For the chief and priests and the Sadducees,
Jesus was a threat to their wealth and status. The temple and its worship was
the basis for both of these and they wanted these things more than for God to
provide the temple’s fulfillment.
For the elders of the people and the
Pharisees Jesus was a threat to the perception of their status before God and
before others. They thought they knew
what they had to do in order to have a right standing before God. They thought that they could do it, and also
that they could tell others what they should do.
Jesus Christ blew all of this away,
and so the religious leaders rejected this stone. Instead of a cornerstone, it became a stone
of stumbling – a scandal. The same thing
is true for you. You want Jesus to make
your life comfortable. He can give you
the peace of knowing that you have salvation and eternal life, so that then you
can get on with enjoying life on your terms. Put in an appearance at
church on some Sundays and you’ve got it made.
Yet this is not the way things work
with Jesus. In fact, to think in these
terms is to reject the stone. Jesus said, “If anyone would come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever
would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will
find it.” Jesus calls you to the all encompassing dedication of faith that puts
him first and you second in everything.
As we saw dramatically displayed on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea
not long ago in the witness of the twenty-one martyrs who were beheaded – we
may even be called to place Jesus before our own life.
In our own setting it is more likely
to be the cost of saying my child can’t play soccer or baseball on Sunday
morning because that is when we go to church.
It is more likely to be the cost of the world’s contempt as we speak the
truth about God’s gift of sexuality. It
is more likely to be the cost of having a little less money for the fun things
you want to do, so that you can support the work of the Gospel here at Good
Shepherd and around the world.
The season of Lent calls us to
examine our lives and consider the ways that in which we choose something else
over Jesus. It calls us to repent – to confess
this openly as the sin that it is. It
calls us to embrace in faith the stone rejected by the builders, yet made by
God to be the cornerstone. In the events of Holy Week and Easter we will see
that this is indeed God’s doing for our salvation, and it is marvelous in our
eyes.
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