Cornerstone

Reading: Mathew 21: 33-46


Rev. King Duncan tells the story of a journalist friend who made plans to travel to Japan.

1. The journalist was nervous about his trip, because he didn’t speak Japanese.
2. He wondered how he would communicate with the people he came in contact with… What if they didn’t know any English?

Someone suggested to him that when he landed that he find something that had a picture and address of his hotel written in Japanese.

1. That way he could show any cab driver the picture, and he could get to his hotel.
2. After the journalist landed he decided to do some site seeing.
3. When the time came to get back to his hotel he called a cab.
4. The journalist had found a book of matches with his hotel on the cover and the address written in Japanese.
5. When he got into the cab he pointed to the book of matches and waited for the taxi driver to catch what he couldn’t say in Japanese.
6. At first the driver didn’t understand, but after a moment he smiled and nodded.

Half an hour later they came to a screeching halt.

1. The cab driver pointed to the building with a big smile.
2. The building was not the journalist’s hotel, but rather a matchbox factory.

Have you ever had issues trying to communicate with someone?

1. It doesn’t matter if we speak the same language or not, we all have been misunderstood by others.
2. We may be talking to our spouse, children, parents, friends, coworkers or someone else at the time.
3. We think they understand what we are saying, only to find out that they haven’t understood us at all.

This is what Jesus faces in our Gospel today.

1. He has been telling the people and the religious leaders that he is the one they have been waiting for, but he’s not the one they think he is.
2. Yes, he’s the Messiah, God’s anointed one, but he hasn’t come as a conquering king like David… His kingdom is about serving others.
3. The religious leaders don’t like him, because they hear him saying, that he’s God’s anointed one.
4. He also chastises them, and challenges their religious practices.
5. Laypeople hate him, because they see that he isn’t going to be the military leader that they expected.
6. After hundreds of years of being ruled by various countries, Jesus isn’t going to lead them into getting rid of foreign control.
7. This is why on Good Friday so many people are screaming, “Crucify him!”

This brings up an important question for us… In our prayer life… In our worship… In our walk of faith, how do we feel when Jesus doesn’t turn out to be who we think he should be?

1. Maybe our idea of Jesus has been Santa Claus, giving us whatever we want. We read the passage in John’s Gospel where Jesus says, “Ask for anything in my name and the Father will give it to you” and we begin to pull out our shopping list. We argue, “Jesus said ask for anything, so we should be able to ask for ANYTHING!”
2. Perhaps we see Jesus as the great and powerful “Oz” as in the “Wizard of Oz.” We believe that if God is God bad things won’t happen to us and to our world. We think that Jesus should prevent accidents, illnesses, and natural disasters from occurring. We believe that if tragedies should happen that they only happen to really to bad people who deserve it, not us.

Jesus says in our Gospel, “I didn’t come to be this kind of messiah for you.”

1. When John’s Gospel refers to asking God for “ANYTHING” what Jesus is saying is, “Ask God for a deeper relationship with God. Ask God to be faithful as you follow me. Ask God to be His faithful servant within the world.”
2. Jesus is also saying, “Bad things happen in the world to good people… It is a part of life… If I can be nail me to a cross, why do you think you should be immune from hardship… It will come to us all. It’s a part of the world we live in.”

Our Gospel today occurs after Jesus has entered Jerusalem, and after he cleanses the temple.

1. Jesus knows that the religious leaders want to have him killed.
2. He is a threat to those in power.

Often when Jesus tells a parable we scratch our heads saying, “What is he talking about?”

1. The meaning of this parable is so thinly veiled and everyone knows what he’s saying.
2. The servants in the story who go to receive what belongs to the owners are the prophets who have proclaim what God desires from the people. 
3. What the prophets receive for their efforts is abuse and death.
4. Jesus is also saying, “As the tenants kill the owner’s son, so the leaders who feel threatened by Jesus will seek to take his life.”

The point Jesus is making is that the vineyard doesn’t belong to the tenants.

1. In the same way this world doesn’t belong to the religious leaders who oppose Jesus.
2. Just as the owner will cast out the tenants when he comes, so God will cast out the religious leaders, or remove their authority, because they are tenants in this world… They don’t own this world, or their religious practices… God does.

This is why knowing who Jesus is as Messiah is so important for us.

1. He isn’t Santa Claus to give us whatever we want, nor is he the “Wizard of OZ” who will keep us from hardship.
2. He is a servant king who says, “Follow me, follow my example. Know that I am with you in whatever you face in life. Know that my presence in your situation makes a difference.”
3. Jesus in this story reminds us as well, that all that we have is not really ours, its on loan from God; we just get to manage it.

This is a foreign language to many of us.

1.  Especially when we see ads like the one for JG Wentworth Financial on TV where people are screaming, “It’s my money and I want it now!”
2. Try going up to one of the people in the ads and say, “By the way, it isn’t really your money it belongs to God. You just get to manage it… And God hopes you manage it well.”
3. Somehow I don’t think that conversation would go well. (You wouldn’t understand one another.)

In troubled economic times like these we are afraid of not having enough.

1. For some of us who live in poverty… who wonder how we will continue to put food on the table, having enough is a legitimate concern.
2. Others of us may want to look through our storerooms and closets before we begin to worry about having enough… What we often discover when we do this is that we have more than we need.

For many of us our concern about having enough is a foreign language to God.

1. We can imagine God saying, “Your storerooms and closets are full, but you’re wondering if you have what you need (enough)… I’m sorry; I do not understand what you’re trying to say to me.”
2. Jesus tells us that God’s desire is to have our daily needs met. (Food, clothing, shelter, family, friends… As Luther puts it… What we need from day to day). 
3. (Anything beyond this is just stuff.)

The religious leaders in Matthew’s Gospel don’t understand what Jesus was saying.

1. They believe they own their country and that God would never take it away from them.
2. They also believe that because they are descendants of Abraham they have the corner on the market with God. 
3. What this parable is saying is that God owns everything and will do what he chooses with what belongs to Him.
4. (God can take their land, and God can seek another people to build a covenant with if He chooses).

As followers of Jesus we are urged to follow Jesus example of service.

1. A. We are his servants in the world…
2. Our life is not about “What is in it for us?” But rather, “What can we do to serve others (as Jesus does)?”

We are also stewards of this world.

1. We are to care for this world and for one another.
2. (We want to leave this place better than when we found it.)

This is a language God understands, and loves to hear.

1. It’s a language that says, “What can I do for someone else? Send me Lord… I will go.”
2. It’s a language that says, “I know you are the one who provides for me, God. Help me to use the resources you’ve entrusted to me to make a difference in the world.”

We are a blessing to God and to His world as we live as His stewards, and His servants (everyday of our life).

Pastor Mark Jensen