17th Sunday after
Pentecost
Matthew 21:33-46
Using Faithfully What is Given to Us
I
spent almost as much time this week attending to details of our upcoming spring
break trip to Germany as I devoted to studying the lessons for today. The two activities blended together as I
remembered one of the things I wanted the tour guide in Wittenberg to point out
on our tour of the city. It is a
sculpture on the exterior of the Town Church.
During
Martin Luther’s lifetime, there were two churches in Wittenberg. The reason for the two churches, in this
small village is that one of the churches was the castle church. Prince Fredrick lived in Wittenberg. The castle church was his church. The commoners would not worship in this
Cathedral, so they had their own church.
A much more modest structure located about half-a-mile away. While it is in the Castle Church that Martin
Luther was buried – it is in the Town Church that he spent the greatest amount
of time. Luther was assigned to this
church by his superior. He preached in
this church for nearly 3 decades.
There is a stone carving on the situated on the southwest
exterior corner of the Town Church. This
corner of the building faced the part of town where once there had been Jewish
residents. I say “once” because there
were none during the days of Luther. In
fact, it is doubtful that Luther, in his whole lifetime, ever met a practicing
Jew. But there had once been Jewish
residents in Wittenberg and facing the part of town where they lived there was
this carving on the church. The
illustration was of a sow, a mother pig carved as a reference to the Jewish
people. This sow had a number of
sucklings, but they were not cute little pigs.
They were men; men whose features were meant to leave not doubt as to
their ethnic heritage. The sow was being
driven away by a townsman. Even as she
attempts to flee, the suckling children cling to her.
Our teacher spoke of how the Jews were repeatedly
expelled from Europe. There would come a
time when they would be forced to leave, driven out of the provinces by the
Lords and Princes. They would be
expelled, sometimes for generations. But
after a while, there would come a time when they would be welcomed back, a time
when they would be begged to come back.
Such a time would come when the Princes realized they just couldn’t make
it without these wise stewards and caretakers.
They needed the Jewish expertise at handling money matters.
The undeniable biblical prohibition against usury meant
that the Christian Lords could not use their wealth in order to make more money
or stimulate the economy. Christians
could not loan money to other Christians and charge them interest. Unable to use money to make money, these
Princes were poor business managers.
When things got desperate, they would beg the Jews to return and teach
them what they did not know how to do.
Throughout the dark ages and into the era of
enlightenment, there was this moving in and out of those whose to whom the
vineyard of God had first been entrusted.
They would come and put things in order only to find themselves later
considered unwelcome aliens. Then, there
would come a time of expulsion, usually involving death and destruction.
My concern is that in reading Matthew 21 (or Isaiah 5)
Christians might develop the idea that such treatment of the Jews is
warranted. Christians have all too often
read into theses lessons justification for condemnation and punishment of our
Jewish neighbors. We have to be careful,
in reading these passages, to remember the setting and to understand that it
isn’t a people who are being condemned – it is a lack of obedience to God.
In
telling this parable, it is doubtful that Jesus is rejecting the whole of
Judaism. Rather he is calling for a
change of heart. He isn’t looking to
destroy the people in which he found his own identity – he is attempting to
call them back from the behaviors and practices which have allowed God’s children
to go unattended.
Jesus is in a tiff with the leaders of the
synagogue. It all started when they
challenged his authority. They wanted to
know why he had set himself up as a teacher and healer. They have been going back and forth for a
while and this is actually the second parable Jesus tells them. In each, Jesus addresses those who had been
asked to perform a task and then just didn’t do it. He is condemning those who have not honored
the commitment they made to God. It is
in response to this lack of faithfulness that the parables speak of driving out
and replacing.
Let me be consistent with what you may have heard me say
in other settings: The Gospel of Matthew
does make a case for supplanting the Jewish authorities with the leaders of the
“Church.” Matthew’s use of many Old
Testament passages serves the purpose of proving that it is right and proper
that the group organized around the message of Jesus should now be looked upon
as God’s chosen. In today’s parable Matthew
is saying that the leadership of the Temple has not proven faithful to their
task; but this is a far cry from insisting that all those who share the blood
lines of Mary and Joseph are to be expelled from God’s Holy City. Matthew writes to a Jewish community. His words could never be construed to mean
that the destruction of the Jews is called for.
His purpose is to point out God’s frustration with the leadership - with
the servants sent to manage affairs until God’s return.
Similarly, we should understand the prophecy of Isaiah,
as recorded in the fifth chapter. Isaiah
was very dismayed with the way in which God’s people were living their
lives. He is critical of the selfish
lifestyles and lavish festivals. He does
not understand how God’s people, God’s Chosen People, could have become so
blind to the needs of the poor and the plight of the orphans.
The book of Isaiah is a long book. Its oracles speak to events which cover in
excess of 120 years of history. Isaiah’s
open chapters speak warnings; the middle chapters are address to the exiles during
their time in captivity; and the final section speaks of the events surrounding
the return of the children of Abraham to their Promised Land. This book contains it all. Its length allows its message to come full
circle. And come full circle it does. By
the end of the book, Isaiah rejoices at the restoration of Jerusalem and the
establishment of those who will faithfully care for God’s vineyard.
Isaiah 66:13 reads:
As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you, you shall be
comforted in Jerusalem. You shall see,
and your heart shall rejoice; your
bodies shall flourish like the grass;
and it shall be known that the hand of the Lord is with his servants,
and his indignation is against his enemies.
Isaiah is not condemning the whole of the Jewish people –
he is pointing out that God will not tolerate those who are unfaithful
servants. It is not a people who are to
be destroyed – rather he seeks to root out poor management of his vineyard.
These lessons do form a consistent pattern. Both speak plainly of God’s unwillingness to
stand by while His people are ignored.
God will not tolerate unfaithful stewards. God, who has planted the vineyard; God, who has put up the fence and built the
watchtower; God, who has given us all
that we would ever need will not stand by and accept mismanagement, or
ungrateful misuse of that which He has established.
If we are looking to these verses for justification of
our hatred of the Jews, we are looking for what we want to see and ignoring
what God is saying. God speaks to all
those who serve as stewards – stewards of His people, stewards of his
gifts. God is encouraging us to use
these resources wisely, to use them in a manner which is consistent with God’s
intentions.
God has given us many gifts. We have received many talents and
possessions. Our lives, our whole
society, could easily be compared to the wonderful vineyard described in Matthew
21. Living in this land of plenty,
drinking the wine of success, it is way too easy for us to begin to think that
we are the masters. We forget that we
are stewards, caretakers of that which is the rightful possession of One much
greater than we.
Rather
than contribute to any thoughts of the unworthiness of the Jewish people, these
lessons should fill us with dread. What
nation has amassed greater wealth? What
people have benefited from a more prosperous harvest? Remember that in the parable God is
represented by those who come asking for a portion of the profits. The conflict arises when the managers beat
them and send them away empty-handed.
These
lessons are not intended to be wholesale condemnations of the Jewish
people. They are warnings to everyone who
has accepted the call to make the care of others a higher priority than their
own achievements.
Just
as a footnote – allow me to tell you that in Wittenberg they have erected
another sculpture, at the southwest corner of the Town Church. Directly below that awful carving, there is a
bronze casting of four square tiles.
These tiles are bulging upward from a molten mass making its way upward. The inscription notes that the souls of 6
million neighbors will not remain hidden; they will make their presence felt
and they will plead their case before God.
This later sculpture is a wonderful corrective to the ancient carving.
We
may be able to disguise the evilness of our deeds – for a while. But in the end, God’s justice will be done
and the wickedness of unfaithful stewards will be exposed.
Amen.
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