Produce fruit in the kingdom of God.

 

Sermon for Pentecost 19, October 8, 2023

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Matthew 21:33-43  ³³“Listen to another parable.  There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower.  He leased it out to some tenant farmers and went away on a journey.  ³⁴When the time approached to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.  ³⁵The tenant farmers seized his servants.  They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.  ³⁶Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time.  The tenant farmers treated them the same way.  ³⁷Finally, he sent his son to them.  ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.  ³⁸But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir.  Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’  ³⁹They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.  ⁴⁰So when the landowner comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?”  ⁴¹They told him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end.  Then he will lease out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his fruit when it is due.”   ⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?  ⁴³“That is why I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruit. (EHV)

Produce fruit in the kingdom of God.

Dear workers in God’s vineyard,

            In our text this morning, we have perhaps the most unique parable Jesus told, in that rather than explain it, He asked His audience to interpret it for Him, and they did so quite well.  Furthermore, Matthew observes in his Gospel account that “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them.” (Matthew 21:45)  In other words, when Jesus asked those religious leaders of Israel to explain His parable, they pronounced, upon themselves, the judgment they would face for rejecting Jesus.  My friends, Jesus’ message for those ancient people, and for you and me as well, is to Produce fruit in the kingdom of God.

The first thing we need to ask is what fruit is Jesus expecting us to produce?  Is He demanding greater works from us?  Does this parable mean we must increase our offerings toward the church budget?  Are we already condemned for past failures?  Are we guilty if this congregation doesn’t grow?  Lots of questions might pop into our minds, many of which leave us feeling guilty.  Because the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day were the hard workers of the Judean religious scene, we might wonder, how could any ordinary believer expect to do better than them, and yet, Jesus’ parable here condemns them as swindlers, thieves, and murderers.  So, where does that leave us?

As Jesus told this parable of the vineyard, the scribes and Pharisees would have immediately connected it with our reading from Isaiah.  They also would have remembered how the Lord had used Isaiah’s words to pronounce judgment upon unbelieving Judeans, the forefathers of these very men Jesus was teaching.  Through Isaiah, God had been calling His wandering people to turn from their idolatry and return to trusting in their Creator and beloved Father, who had built the nation from the ground up, planted the believing patriarchs in it, built a fence around His people to keep them protected from the pagans of the world, and had given them every tool and resource they needed to produce bountiful fruits of faith. 

What God desired of Old Testament Israel is that they would believe and trust in Him—that they would trust the Savior God had promised to send and keep their eyes and their people looking forward to that one promised Messiah.  The foremost fruit God wants of all people is faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.  Then and now, the Father seeks the fruit of repentance.  Why?  Because our works will never measure up to the holiness God’s purity demands.  Yet, through faith in Christ Jesus, sinful humans like you and me are dressed in the unblemished righteousness Jesus lived for us all, a righteousness that is alien to us, yet it covers us with His glory and makes us holy and acceptable to Almighty God.

I know you’ve heard that “God our Savior…wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)  And, I’m equally sure that you know Jesus’ words, “Love your enemies.  Do good to those who hate you.  Bless those who curse you.  Pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28)  So, do you ever wonder how we can measure up to this command and produce the fruit of God’s desire?  If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we often fail to do those good things God commands.  Oh, occasionally, they may pop into our minds and we’ll give them momentary attention, but generally we forget about seeking good for our enemies. 

Understand, though, what Jesus is doing here; it is the last Tuesday of His earthly life, and He takes time to call His avowed enemies to repentance!  Jesus had been praying for these people to turn from their wickedness and believe in Him.  He had preached His salvation to them time and again, healed their sick brothers and sisters, raised some from the dead so all could see His divine power, quoted Scriptures they knew so well in attempt after attempt to get them to see their errors, and even while Jesus knew these men were plotting to kill Him, He reached out to them one more time, trying to turn them from their evil ways so that they might be saved in Him.  Jesus did that for His enemies, but also for you and me.  It’s called His active obedience—the perfect holiness that Jesus lived on our behalf so that you and I could be counted holy in His Father’s sight.

Now, certainly, God puts people in the vineyard of His kingdom so that they can serve His ultimate goal of bringing salvation to many others.  Still, when God looks at our desperate need for a Savior, He doesn’t demand that we earn His forgiveness, for we never could.  Rather, He offers it freely for Jesus’ sake.  And when the Holy Spirit works saving faith in us, He plants us in the vineyard of God’s kingdom, and there as branches grafted onto the vine of our Savior, we produce fruits of faith.  This comes naturally to us who are connected to Christ.  Sometimes, that means we feel an urgency to do even more than demanded.  Always, it means that the everyday things we do out of faith in our Savior are counted by God as good works, for these ordinary things are used by the Spirit to help lead others to faith in Christ Jesus.

Now, do these fruits that Jesus produces in us save us?  Not at all, for we are already saved the moment God calls us to faith.  That is God’s gift to His elect.  We didn’t ask for it, work for it, look for it, or deserve it.  And still, God takes humble people like you and me, plants us in His vineyard through faith and works in us so that His kingdom may be served by helping our neighbors, caring for fellow members of the kingdom, working to spread the Good News so that others might hear and also produce fruit in God’s mercy, and the list goes on.  Fruit is returned to our Father in heaven through souls won to faith in Christ Jesus our Savior, often without us even realizing this is happening, but it is through Christian lives that the Gospel is spread producing an ever larger harvest of believing souls.

Now, you might be asking, “Why were those hardworking scribes and Pharisees condemned by this parable?  Simply, because they were robbing God’s glory by rejecting His Son who had come to save them from their sins.  Instead of recognizing and proclaiming Jesus as God’s promised Messiah, they denounced Him, preferring rather to credit themselves for works they imagined would increase God’s glory while in reality only glorifying themselves.  They didn’t need the Savior, they thought, or maybe more precisely, they didn’t see God’s saving Son in Jesus, so they conspired to do away with Him.  Still, out of love for their souls, Jesus again called them to repentance.  At the same time, Jesus prophesied how they would kill Him, warning them again to turn away from their wickedness.  Like the tenants in the parable, the Israelite leaders would throw Jesus out of their city, strip Him of all honor, and thinking to hold His honor in themselves, they would kill Him.  Therefore, the salvation that could have been theirs was taken away from them and given to people like you and me, to peoples and nations not originally called God’s people.

So, how about you and me?  We should be safe, right?  Good believers like us surely Produce fruit in the kingdom of God, don’t we?  Do you see how easy it is to slip into self-righteousness?  We should never trust in our works, or our heritage as Christian believers, for our hope of salvation.  We are saved only by faith in Jesus and to that we need to cling.  If we ever in our piety begin to exalt ourselves for God-pleasing works, we are in danger of doing as the Pharisees did when they rejected the One who is our Head and Master and Savior.  St. Paul warned that if God is willing to condemn His chosen people for rejecting His Son, He will also condemn any of us who chose to stand without Jesus. (Romans 15:21-22)

That’s why time and again, we are urged to Produce fruit in the kingdom of God.  And when God tells us that, He means that we should trust only in Jesus giving all credit where credit is due.  Jesus paid the penalty for your sins wiping them off your record.  He lived the perfect life you need to please God’s Law.  He died for you, yet rising from the grave, Jesus also lives for you now at His Father’s side, interceding for your eternal salvation, empowering the Holy Spirit to keep you strong in the faith through Word and Sacrament, guiding all things in this world so that more and more people might hear the Word, believe in Him, and live. 

Dear friends, trust in Jesus for your salvation, for your forgiveness and eternal life.  Doing so, you will find yourself overjoyed at the promise of heaven, and sharing that powerful, joyful Gospel with those around you, no matter what this world might throw your way.  In Jesus, you will find yourself producing fruits of God’s love even when you are doing ordinary things.  God sent Jesus to save you from sin and death, from the devil’s snares, and from your own flesh that tries to elevate its own glory.  Trust God’s Son, and by that faith, you Produce fruit in God’s vineyard.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.