and the Swift Current Corps, 25 July 2010
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Click HERE to read the sermon: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/06/matthew-2133-46-john-31617-tenant.html
Showing posts with label July 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label July 2010. Show all posts
Friday, July 23, 2010
Matthew 21:33-46 (John 3:16,17): Tenant Farmers.
Presented to the Nipawin Corps, 21 June 2009
and the Swift Current Corps, 25 July 2010
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Click HERE to read the sermon: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/06/matthew-2133-46-john-31617-tenant.html
and the Swift Current Corps, 25 July 2010
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Click HERE to read the sermon: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/06/matthew-2133-46-john-31617-tenant.html
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Matthew 8:11-12: Keep Your Eye on the Ball
Presented to the Swift Current Corps on 18 July 2010
By Captain Michael Ramsay
We just finished the World Cup of Soccer. This is by far and away the world’s most popular sporting event – actually I think it is the most popular ‘anything’ on the planet: did you know that there are more member countries of FIFA (208) than there are members of the UN (192)? I can’t remember how many billions of people they said tuned into the games but it was quite amazing. Did anyone notice those horns they had, the vuvuzelas? It was an earlier international soccer tournament (Gold Cup or Confederations Cup in 2009) where I noticed them for the first time (apparently they have been around since the 1980s and were heard at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico). They are really quite something – on the TV they just sound like a big buzzing of giant bees attacking the soccer stadium. Susan says those horns actually sound like a hungry baby. (Isn’t that right, baby vuvuzela?) I have a friend of mine from Rotary in town here who actually was able to go down to see the games in South Africa. He said it was quite something to be in a stadium with all of those people; the atmosphere he said was amazing. The only thing is that from some places you can’t see very well and in soccer there may be only one goal scored in a game. They don’t show replays at the stadium so if someone stands up in front of you or if you are distracted by a nearby vuvuzela - or something else causes you not to watch the game - when someone scores you miss it and there is no replay in a live match. Those who do not continue to watch, miss the goal. You need to keep our eye on the ball. The goal will have still been scored but those that don’t continue to watch will miss it. I am not sure what happened to my friend but it would be quite frustrating to watch hours of games and never see the winning goals. Depending on Divine providence and distracting vuvuzelas you could literally watch all the games and never see a goal so it is important not to be distracted. To continue to see the winning goal depends on your continued faithful watching of the match.
Doctrine 9 of The Salvation Army: We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.
Those who do not continue to watch the game miss the goal. The goal will still have been scored but some will miss it. We need to keep our eye on the ball.
The portion of this pericope that we are looking at today has certain elements of this reflected in it, Matthew 8:11-12: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Some will be thrown into the darkness missing the banquet.[1]
Rather than a soccer game Jesus, when he tells this parable about the Kingdom of God and who will miss it and who won’t, he is talking about a feast. First, does anyone know what a parable is? It is story with a point, a moral. The word literally means a ‘casting alongside’. It is an analogy, a metaphor, telling a story about something to make a point.[2]
Jesus, speaking about aspects of the Kingdom of Heaven here, when he says that ‘many will recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’ he compares God’s Kingdom to sitting at a big feast. The text says that they will be ‘reclining at the table’. In first century Palestine that was how they ate – especially on formal occasions (cf. John 13:23). Instead of sitting on chairs, they recline. They sit on the ground (or sometimes on cushions of some kind that were on the floor) with each person reclining, sort of leaning on the person next to them. This reclining at the table is a part of everyday life that the people around Jesus here can understand; so it is a natural choice for a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven.[3] This is not an uncommon analogy either. Luke records another version of this parable by Jesus or at least a similar illustration and Matthew uses it again in his gospel (Luke 14:15-23; Matthew 22:1-14; 25:10; 26:29). Also this same analogy is used in Jewish tradition and in our Old Testament scriptures as well. It is actually a prominent theme in Jewish eschatological expectations (cf. Isaiah 25:6-9, 65:13-14).[4]
The context of this parable is important for us to note as well as we begin to understand it. Jesus has just healed the servant of a Roman centurion. Remember, it says, Matthew 8:5-9:
“5When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6"Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."
7Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."
8The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
When Jesus hears this he is astonished and then he tells the parable that we are looking at today. There are some things that we need to know about this exchange here too. This man who has such a powerful faith that he astonishes Jesus, who is he? He is a Roman centurion.[5] What is a Roman centurion? We remember that Palestine/Judea/Israel is an occupied territory at this time and that it is occupied directly by the Superpower of their day, Rome. This centurion is a ranking occupying soldier and as such to many people in the occupied territories he would not be very welcome. We know that just like there are roadside bombs and suicide bombers in occupied countries today, there are people in Jesus’ day who risk their life and limb and others’ lives by attempting to assassinate the occupying soldiers in crowded marketplaces. These first century terrorists and their supporters are referred to as Sacarii, the fourth philosophy, or Zealots (cf. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18.23ff. See also Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:8; Luke 6:15; John 18:14; Acts 1:3).[6] At least one of Jesus’ very close followers, Simon, is a Zealot and many other people (including I suspect his disciples) expect that Jesus as Messiah, himself, will be the one to defeat these Romans, free Palestine and establish God’s Kingdom via violent revolution (cf. Luke 2:31-32; see Isaiah 42:12, 49:13, 57:18, 60:1-3, 61:2; Zechariah 8:20-23). Now we know that Jesus is establishing God’s Kingdom here on earth as it is in Heaven but he is doing this in contrast and opposition to violent superpowers and we know that Jesus does not achieve his aims through violence (Matthew 5:39, 44; 6:12-14; Luke 6:27, 25; 11:4).
Now there is something else that is very important to note about the proleptic Kingdom to come that Jesus is telling us in our passage today, verses 11 and 12: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The Kingdom of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, is not just for people born into Judaism. The Kingdom of Jesus, the Christian Messiah (same person), is not just for people born into the churches. Jesus implies that some citizens of even violent, militaristic superpowers like Rome will be a part of the Kingdom of God and some of God’s so-named ‘chosen people’ and some of the children of God’s ‘chosen people’ will NOT be a part of this Kingdom (Luke 2:30-32; Acts: 13:47; Isaiah 49:6; cf. Matthew 4:16; Luke 17:24; John 1:4-9, 3:19-21, 5:35, 8:12, 9:5, 11:9-10, 12:36, 12:46; Acts 26:23; Romans 2:18; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6; Ephesians 4-5; Colossians 1:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:5; 1 Timothy 6:16…). Some of them, instead will be ‘thrown into the outer darkness’ where there is ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (cf. 4 Ezra 7:93; 1 Enoch 63:10; Psalms 14:9, 15:10; Wisdom 17:21; cf. Matthew 22:13). This is quite a thing for the Messiah to say; it goes against what many at that time would have believed.[7] Jesus says that some from the east and the west will be a part of the Kingdom and some who are a part of it now will not see it (Ps. 107:3; Isa. 43:5–6; 49:12).[8]
Those who do not continue to pay attention to the game will miss the goal of eternal life. The winnig goal still has been scored (between the cross and the empty tomb) but some will miss it. We need to keep our eye on the ball.
Doctrine 9 of The Salvation Army: We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ. This is (part of) what Christ is saying here.[9]
This would be quite a shock to many people hearing Jesus say this because it was the contemporary belief that no descendant of Abraham could possibly be lost.[10] Jesus disagrees. Many who are seemingly born into the Kingdom will be ‘thrown out’ – now we should quickly note that we are not endorsing the notion of ‘replacement theology’ here: God is not here replacing the Jewish people with the Gentiles or anyone else. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still all reclining at the table. They haven’t been removed. Jesus is simply fulfilling the prophecies that state that he is Saviour of not just one group of people but rather of the whole world (Genesis 12-17, Luke 2:30-32; Acts: 13:47; Isaiah 49:6; cf. Matthew 4:16; Luke 17:24; John 1:4-9, 3:19-21, 5:35, 8:12, 9:5, 11:9-10, 12:36, 12:46; Acts 26:23; Romans 2:18; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6; Ephesians 4-5; Colossians 1:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:5; 1 Timothy 6:16…). Everyone -whether ethnically, culturally Jew or Gentile or whatever - stands equally before God. The sins of the one will not be judged differently from the sins of the other.[11] Doctrine 6 of The Salvation Army states,‘We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by his suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved’. Jesus establishes his Kingdom so that whosoever will may be saved and this is very good news.
However, there is a flip side to the coin: in this parable Jesus drives home the point here as well that some will reject the salvation that he has provided for the whole world and so they will not be a part of his Kingdom. They, no matter who their parents are; they, no matter who or what else they know; they, no matter whether they even once sat at this very table of salvation or not; they who walk away from the banquet of eternal life will not get to eat of it. And this is sad. Christ has prepared this great feast for whosoever of us will have it since the creation of the world but some of us will reject it (cf. Matthew 22:1-14, 25:34, Luke 14:15-23).
Those who do not continue to pay attention to the game will miss the goal of eternal life. The goal has still been scored (between the cross and the empty tomb) but some will miss it. We need to keep our eye on the ball so we don’t miss it.
Jesus was born (as God incarnate), lived, died and rose from the grave so that we all may have eternal life but some of us will choose to reject that gift; some of us will walk away from the banquet table; some of us will not keep our eye on the ball and some of us, we will miss that all important goal of our salvation.
I encourage us today not to miss that goal. If there is anything that is distracting us from keeping our eyes upon Jesus, I encourage us today to put it aside. Let us not be distracted by the vuvuzelas of this world such as selfishness, self-indulgence; the vuvuzelas of worrying about our own personal life, liberty, and happiness. Let us not be distracted by the vuvuzelas of earthly cares and worldly concerns. Let us not let any vuvuzelas tempt us to take our eye off the ball. Instead let us turn, repent, hunger and thirst for righteous (Matthew 5:6). Let us continue to read our Bibles daily. Pray regularly. Keep our eyes focussed on the Lord and then when all is said and done, we will indeed see the goal and celebrate that great victory of the eternal abundant life with Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let us pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
---
[1], R. T. France, ‘Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary’. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), S. 160
[2] Cf. Luke Timothy Johnson, ‘The Gospel of Luke’ (Sacra Pagina Series 3: Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991), 134. More than one third of Jesus’ recorded teachings are parabolic in nature. These “sayings perform the classic function of Hellenistic histories of interpreting the meaning of the narrative”
[3] But cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Jesus use of Parabolic and Metaphorical Methods to Affect the Listeners of the Parable of the Sower', presented to William and Catherine Booth College (Fall 2006). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com./NT_Michael_Ramsay.htm#Sower : “Jesus tells us directly his purpose for speaking in parables. Luke records Jesus as saying in Luke 8:10, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that ‘looking they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand.’”
[4] R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), S. 160
[5] Cf. Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1993), 90. Cf. also Andreas J. Kostenberger, Note on John 12:20-50 (ESV Study Bible: Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Bibles, 2007), 2048. That he is a non-Jew is very important to this parable as are a number of other elements such as the fact that Jesus did this from a distance. Some commentators see Jesus’ reaching out to Gentiles as a foreshadowing of their inclusion into the Kingdom which they maintain can only happen after Jesus’ death.
[6] Clayton Harrop, ‘Jewish Parties in the New Testament’ in Holman Bible Dictionary, Editor, Trent C. Butler, (Holman Bible Publishers: Nashville, Tenn., 1991), pp. 791-794. Cf. http://www.theradicalreformation.com/media/audio/worldview%20class/lecture%2010%20--%20five%20types%20of%20judaism%20at%20the%20time%20of%20Jesus.pdf
[7] cf. Edmond Fleg, ‘Why I Am a Jew’ (New York: Bloch, 1929), 97.
[8] R. T. France, ‘Jesus and the Old Testament’ (London: Tyndale Press, 1971; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1982), p.63. Cf. also Christopher Leighton & Adam Gregerman, 'Isaiah 11:1–11' in Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology Volume 64 Number 3 (July 2010), pp. 284-289.
[9] Cf. Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1993), 90.
[10] J. Jeremias, Jesus’ Promise to the Nations (1958), p. 48.
[11] Douglas J. Moo, 'The Epistle to the Romans' (NICNT 6: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), p. 126, cf. also N.T. Wright, The Letter to the Romans, p. 440, where he acknowledges that God’s national impartiality was not totally unconsidered in Jewish tradition.
By Captain Michael Ramsay
We just finished the World Cup of Soccer. This is by far and away the world’s most popular sporting event – actually I think it is the most popular ‘anything’ on the planet: did you know that there are more member countries of FIFA (208) than there are members of the UN (192)? I can’t remember how many billions of people they said tuned into the games but it was quite amazing. Did anyone notice those horns they had, the vuvuzelas? It was an earlier international soccer tournament (Gold Cup or Confederations Cup in 2009) where I noticed them for the first time (apparently they have been around since the 1980s and were heard at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico). They are really quite something – on the TV they just sound like a big buzzing of giant bees attacking the soccer stadium. Susan says those horns actually sound like a hungry baby. (Isn’t that right, baby vuvuzela?) I have a friend of mine from Rotary in town here who actually was able to go down to see the games in South Africa. He said it was quite something to be in a stadium with all of those people; the atmosphere he said was amazing. The only thing is that from some places you can’t see very well and in soccer there may be only one goal scored in a game. They don’t show replays at the stadium so if someone stands up in front of you or if you are distracted by a nearby vuvuzela - or something else causes you not to watch the game - when someone scores you miss it and there is no replay in a live match. Those who do not continue to watch, miss the goal. You need to keep our eye on the ball. The goal will have still been scored but those that don’t continue to watch will miss it. I am not sure what happened to my friend but it would be quite frustrating to watch hours of games and never see the winning goals. Depending on Divine providence and distracting vuvuzelas you could literally watch all the games and never see a goal so it is important not to be distracted. To continue to see the winning goal depends on your continued faithful watching of the match.
Doctrine 9 of The Salvation Army: We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.
Those who do not continue to watch the game miss the goal. The goal will still have been scored but some will miss it. We need to keep our eye on the ball.
The portion of this pericope that we are looking at today has certain elements of this reflected in it, Matthew 8:11-12: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Some will be thrown into the darkness missing the banquet.[1]
Rather than a soccer game Jesus, when he tells this parable about the Kingdom of God and who will miss it and who won’t, he is talking about a feast. First, does anyone know what a parable is? It is story with a point, a moral. The word literally means a ‘casting alongside’. It is an analogy, a metaphor, telling a story about something to make a point.[2]
Jesus, speaking about aspects of the Kingdom of Heaven here, when he says that ‘many will recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’ he compares God’s Kingdom to sitting at a big feast. The text says that they will be ‘reclining at the table’. In first century Palestine that was how they ate – especially on formal occasions (cf. John 13:23). Instead of sitting on chairs, they recline. They sit on the ground (or sometimes on cushions of some kind that were on the floor) with each person reclining, sort of leaning on the person next to them. This reclining at the table is a part of everyday life that the people around Jesus here can understand; so it is a natural choice for a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven.[3] This is not an uncommon analogy either. Luke records another version of this parable by Jesus or at least a similar illustration and Matthew uses it again in his gospel (Luke 14:15-23; Matthew 22:1-14; 25:10; 26:29). Also this same analogy is used in Jewish tradition and in our Old Testament scriptures as well. It is actually a prominent theme in Jewish eschatological expectations (cf. Isaiah 25:6-9, 65:13-14).[4]
The context of this parable is important for us to note as well as we begin to understand it. Jesus has just healed the servant of a Roman centurion. Remember, it says, Matthew 8:5-9:
“5When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6"Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."
7Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."
8The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
When Jesus hears this he is astonished and then he tells the parable that we are looking at today. There are some things that we need to know about this exchange here too. This man who has such a powerful faith that he astonishes Jesus, who is he? He is a Roman centurion.[5] What is a Roman centurion? We remember that Palestine/Judea/Israel is an occupied territory at this time and that it is occupied directly by the Superpower of their day, Rome. This centurion is a ranking occupying soldier and as such to many people in the occupied territories he would not be very welcome. We know that just like there are roadside bombs and suicide bombers in occupied countries today, there are people in Jesus’ day who risk their life and limb and others’ lives by attempting to assassinate the occupying soldiers in crowded marketplaces. These first century terrorists and their supporters are referred to as Sacarii, the fourth philosophy, or Zealots (cf. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18.23ff. See also Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:8; Luke 6:15; John 18:14; Acts 1:3).[6] At least one of Jesus’ very close followers, Simon, is a Zealot and many other people (including I suspect his disciples) expect that Jesus as Messiah, himself, will be the one to defeat these Romans, free Palestine and establish God’s Kingdom via violent revolution (cf. Luke 2:31-32; see Isaiah 42:12, 49:13, 57:18, 60:1-3, 61:2; Zechariah 8:20-23). Now we know that Jesus is establishing God’s Kingdom here on earth as it is in Heaven but he is doing this in contrast and opposition to violent superpowers and we know that Jesus does not achieve his aims through violence (Matthew 5:39, 44; 6:12-14; Luke 6:27, 25; 11:4).
Now there is something else that is very important to note about the proleptic Kingdom to come that Jesus is telling us in our passage today, verses 11 and 12: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The Kingdom of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, is not just for people born into Judaism. The Kingdom of Jesus, the Christian Messiah (same person), is not just for people born into the churches. Jesus implies that some citizens of even violent, militaristic superpowers like Rome will be a part of the Kingdom of God and some of God’s so-named ‘chosen people’ and some of the children of God’s ‘chosen people’ will NOT be a part of this Kingdom (Luke 2:30-32; Acts: 13:47; Isaiah 49:6; cf. Matthew 4:16; Luke 17:24; John 1:4-9, 3:19-21, 5:35, 8:12, 9:5, 11:9-10, 12:36, 12:46; Acts 26:23; Romans 2:18; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6; Ephesians 4-5; Colossians 1:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:5; 1 Timothy 6:16…). Some of them, instead will be ‘thrown into the outer darkness’ where there is ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (cf. 4 Ezra 7:93; 1 Enoch 63:10; Psalms 14:9, 15:10; Wisdom 17:21; cf. Matthew 22:13). This is quite a thing for the Messiah to say; it goes against what many at that time would have believed.[7] Jesus says that some from the east and the west will be a part of the Kingdom and some who are a part of it now will not see it (Ps. 107:3; Isa. 43:5–6; 49:12).[8]
Those who do not continue to pay attention to the game will miss the goal of eternal life. The winnig goal still has been scored (between the cross and the empty tomb) but some will miss it. We need to keep our eye on the ball.
Doctrine 9 of The Salvation Army: We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ. This is (part of) what Christ is saying here.[9]
This would be quite a shock to many people hearing Jesus say this because it was the contemporary belief that no descendant of Abraham could possibly be lost.[10] Jesus disagrees. Many who are seemingly born into the Kingdom will be ‘thrown out’ – now we should quickly note that we are not endorsing the notion of ‘replacement theology’ here: God is not here replacing the Jewish people with the Gentiles or anyone else. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still all reclining at the table. They haven’t been removed. Jesus is simply fulfilling the prophecies that state that he is Saviour of not just one group of people but rather of the whole world (Genesis 12-17, Luke 2:30-32; Acts: 13:47; Isaiah 49:6; cf. Matthew 4:16; Luke 17:24; John 1:4-9, 3:19-21, 5:35, 8:12, 9:5, 11:9-10, 12:36, 12:46; Acts 26:23; Romans 2:18; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6; Ephesians 4-5; Colossians 1:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:5; 1 Timothy 6:16…). Everyone -whether ethnically, culturally Jew or Gentile or whatever - stands equally before God. The sins of the one will not be judged differently from the sins of the other.[11] Doctrine 6 of The Salvation Army states,‘We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by his suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved’. Jesus establishes his Kingdom so that whosoever will may be saved and this is very good news.
However, there is a flip side to the coin: in this parable Jesus drives home the point here as well that some will reject the salvation that he has provided for the whole world and so they will not be a part of his Kingdom. They, no matter who their parents are; they, no matter who or what else they know; they, no matter whether they even once sat at this very table of salvation or not; they who walk away from the banquet of eternal life will not get to eat of it. And this is sad. Christ has prepared this great feast for whosoever of us will have it since the creation of the world but some of us will reject it (cf. Matthew 22:1-14, 25:34, Luke 14:15-23).
Those who do not continue to pay attention to the game will miss the goal of eternal life. The goal has still been scored (between the cross and the empty tomb) but some will miss it. We need to keep our eye on the ball so we don’t miss it.
Jesus was born (as God incarnate), lived, died and rose from the grave so that we all may have eternal life but some of us will choose to reject that gift; some of us will walk away from the banquet table; some of us will not keep our eye on the ball and some of us, we will miss that all important goal of our salvation.
I encourage us today not to miss that goal. If there is anything that is distracting us from keeping our eyes upon Jesus, I encourage us today to put it aside. Let us not be distracted by the vuvuzelas of this world such as selfishness, self-indulgence; the vuvuzelas of worrying about our own personal life, liberty, and happiness. Let us not be distracted by the vuvuzelas of earthly cares and worldly concerns. Let us not let any vuvuzelas tempt us to take our eye off the ball. Instead let us turn, repent, hunger and thirst for righteous (Matthew 5:6). Let us continue to read our Bibles daily. Pray regularly. Keep our eyes focussed on the Lord and then when all is said and done, we will indeed see the goal and celebrate that great victory of the eternal abundant life with Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let us pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
---
[1], R. T. France, ‘Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary’. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), S. 160
[2] Cf. Luke Timothy Johnson, ‘The Gospel of Luke’ (Sacra Pagina Series 3: Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991), 134. More than one third of Jesus’ recorded teachings are parabolic in nature. These “sayings perform the classic function of Hellenistic histories of interpreting the meaning of the narrative”
[3] But cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Jesus use of Parabolic and Metaphorical Methods to Affect the Listeners of the Parable of the Sower', presented to William and Catherine Booth College (Fall 2006). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com./NT_Michael_Ramsay.htm#Sower : “Jesus tells us directly his purpose for speaking in parables. Luke records Jesus as saying in Luke 8:10, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that ‘looking they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand.’”
[4] R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), S. 160
[5] Cf. Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1993), 90. Cf. also Andreas J. Kostenberger, Note on John 12:20-50 (ESV Study Bible: Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Bibles, 2007), 2048. That he is a non-Jew is very important to this parable as are a number of other elements such as the fact that Jesus did this from a distance. Some commentators see Jesus’ reaching out to Gentiles as a foreshadowing of their inclusion into the Kingdom which they maintain can only happen after Jesus’ death.
[6] Clayton Harrop, ‘Jewish Parties in the New Testament’ in Holman Bible Dictionary, Editor, Trent C. Butler, (Holman Bible Publishers: Nashville, Tenn., 1991), pp. 791-794. Cf. http://www.theradicalreformation.com/media/audio/worldview%20class/lecture%2010%20--%20five%20types%20of%20judaism%20at%20the%20time%20of%20Jesus.pdf
[7] cf. Edmond Fleg, ‘Why I Am a Jew’ (New York: Bloch, 1929), 97.
[8] R. T. France, ‘Jesus and the Old Testament’ (London: Tyndale Press, 1971; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1982), p.63. Cf. also Christopher Leighton & Adam Gregerman, 'Isaiah 11:1–11' in Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology Volume 64 Number 3 (July 2010), pp. 284-289.
[9] Cf. Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1993), 90.
[10] J. Jeremias, Jesus’ Promise to the Nations (1958), p. 48.
[11] Douglas J. Moo, 'The Epistle to the Romans' (NICNT 6: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), p. 126, cf. also N.T. Wright, The Letter to the Romans, p. 440, where he acknowledges that God’s national impartiality was not totally unconsidered in Jewish tradition.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Matthew 21:33-46 (John 3:16,17): The Parable of the Tenant Farmers.
Presented to the Nipawin Corps of The Salvation Army, 21 June 2009
and the Swift Current Corps, 25 July 2010 and 08 March 2014
and Warehouse Mission 614 in Toronto, 20 May, 2018
by Captain Michael Ramsay
To read the 2018 sermon, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2018/05/mark-1127-1212-mt-2131-46-resentful.html
To read to 2015 version of this sermon, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/03/mark-1127-1212-mt-2131-46-tenant-farmers.html
This has been an event-filled week. We are all packed up now and ready to go. Evelyn Waldner, Barry’s mom was called home, she was promoted to glory on Wednesday evening. As sad as it is for us, her friends and family, we know that it is good that at the resurrection there are no more tears, no more death. We encourage everyone to keep the family in your prayers.
Also this week there was a celebration of 25 years of Handi-Works in our community and all that God has used that organization to do in so many people’s lives. It was uplifting to see that the event was opened with grace and closed after re-dedicating Hand-Works, their people and their work before the Lord to His service in the community.
It is neat too that the word for ‘spirit’ many places in the scriptures, including both at creation and at Pentecost, the word for ‘spirit’ - when God, the Holy Spirit shows up at these events - the word to describe Him is exactly the same as the word as the word for ‘wind’ (Acts 2; Gen 1:2; cf. Eze 37:9, 14; Jn 3:8) and I can testify that there was plenty of wind, I thought that it was going to knock the tent over as it filled that place as God was present on that Wednesday evening. I was so pleased to see how our Heavenly Father was involved in the ceremony from the opening grace to the official re-dedication in His name. It is important to honour our Heavenly Father for what He does in our lives and our community and today, of course, is Father’s Day.
Father’s Day is always neat. It is a chance to celebrate with our kids and our fathers and reflect upon some of the commonalities, some of the joys and some of the fun stories. I can remember when I was a child about Sarah-Grace’s age: my dad was my soccer coach. These days another parent and I have been coaching Sarah-Grace’s team. Last year I co-coached with Bryan Hildebrandt, Len and Gladys’ son. Now I’m not necessarily the most reliable coach in that every once and a while I get called away to an emergency or something and I remember last year with Bryan having never coached before, he was hoping to learn a little from me (of all people) only to have me called away on the very first day of the season for Emergency Disaster Relief work of some sort. He had a baptism by fire as it were and he did great. I’m also sure that now that he is a much better coach then am I too.
I think of my role out there as more of an encourager than a coach per sae. I like to try to rally the troops and cheer the team on - celebrate their successes with them. I find myself often calling out from the sidelines ‘Go so and so go!’ ‘Go score a goal!’ or ‘pass to so and so, she’s open’ or more commonly, ‘Goalie wake up!’ ‘Goalie, don’t lie on the ground!’ or ‘Goalie, stop talking to your friend and untangle yourself from the net – the ball is coming’… encouragements like that.
The other week, Sarah-Grace made an excellent header. The ball came right to her and she headed it to her teammate – that was really quite something, particularly at this age, so at the break I complimented her on her head ball and she, in front all the parents, told me her secret. She said, ‘Dad, you know how I did the head ball? …I saw the ball coming to me but I forgot to move out of the way’. I like being a dad. It is a lot of fun. And being a coach of your kids’ teams can be fun and it can be a bit of work too.
Here in Matthew 21:31b-46 (cf. Lk 20:1-19, Mk 11:27-12:12) we read about an employer who, as Jesus tells us, has a bit of a challenging team working for him. This businessman is in the grape business. He is farmer of sorts and it is recorded in verse 33 that he put a bit of work into his farm. (He must love it!) It says that he plants his vineyard, he puts a wall around it, and he even builds a watchtower (cf. Isa 5:1-7 and Ps 80:6-16). It sounds like it is a pretty good setup that he has here. It says in verse 33 that he could even afford to go on vacation or a family trip or a business trip of some sort; it says in verse 34 that he had enough time and money that he could leave the vineyard. This is pretty good especially remembering that all this is happening in first century Palestine. It says that he could afford to go away and hire the fields out to some tenant farmers. Now I realise there are a number of people who do that in this area right?
Now the absentee landlord’s fields, his vines, are doing pretty well. He is still away doing whatever he is doing – sitting in his big corporate office or on the beach in Hawaii or Saskatoon or wherever it is that the rich farmers spend their time when they aren’t at home. The landlord is away and it is time to collect his rent. The harvest is in and he wants his cut. He wants his share so he sends some of his employees up from the big city – briefcases, laptops, and calculators in hand (okay their were neither briefcases, laptops nor calculators then) – to collect the rent and it says in verse 35 that the tenant farmers, the fruit pickers, the contractors working the land, want to renegotiate their contract or something like that…it says in verse 35 that they seize his employees, they seize his servants and they beat one of them pretty severely, they kill another and they stone a third: stoning at that time often involved throwing someone into a pit and then hitting them with large rocks until they were dead. The farmers aren’t very nice to the landlord’s employees at all.
Now when the landlord hears about all this, what does he do? Well, what would you do? What would you do if you rented out your land for a season so that you could head down south and you send some property management company to go get the rent and they wind up getting themselves beaten up and killed? What are you going to do? Call the RCMP, right? Get the authorities. You’re going to want to do something, right? But what does the landlord do?
The landlord sends another group of servants (21:36). Now I don’t know how keen I would be to head out in the second batch of employees to collect the rent after hearing what had happened to the first group. (I think I might rather take that road crew job out near Red Earth first.) Nonetheless the employees are good and the employees, I imagine, know full well the risks ahead. The Landlord sends even more of them this time to go out to get the rent from these surely, stingy farmers just like he sent his earlier employees to try to get the rent before. And just like when the first group of rent collectors headed out, this second group is met with more resistance, more beatings, and more death.
Now. I don’t know about you but if I were the employer I would be getting quite upset right now. I have been a landlord before. I know what it is like when your tenants try to pull the ‘midnight move’ on you. I know what it is like when they don’t want to pay their rent. I also used to be a magazine publisher for quite a few years and I know what it is like when your clients give your commission employees a really bad time and don’t want to pay them – It isn’t good. After all, good help isn’t all that easy to come by – and in our story today those bad farmers are even killing them off. So what does the landlord do? Does he call the residential tenancy board? Does he call the American ATF to storm the compound? This landlord is a powerful landlord. He can do so much more than even that in first century Palestine. He can literally have their heads. He has a lot of sway but what does he do?
As we’re reading this story on Father’s Day and as Jesus, God’s son is telling the story, we read how this landlord, a loving father who has absolute faith in the ability of his son. Verse 37: he says, ‘they will respect my son.’ They didn’t. The tenant farmers didn’t respect his son. Verse 38: “But when the tenants saw the son they said to each other, ‘this is the heir. Come let’s kill him and take his inheritance.” Verse 39, “So they took him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” So Jesus stops the story here and he asks those listening to the story, verse 40, “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes what will he do to those tenants?”
He will have them killed. He will be rid of them once and for all and he will rent out the vineyard to other tenants, to some good farmers, who will pay the rent and give him what is due him (vs. 41).
Now Jesus is telling this parable to the Jewish religious leaders who are a part of the crowd he is addressing. The chief priest, the Pharisees, and the elders of the people (vss. 23, 45) have asked Jesus upon what authority he is doing his ministry and this parable is part of his answer[1] and he tells the elders and he tells the chief priests and he tells the Pharisees who are present – verse 43 – he tells them “…the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who would produce its fruit” and – verses 45, 46 – “when the chief priests and Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him but they were afraid of the people because the people held that he was a prophet.”[2]
They knew what he was talking about, it says. Do we know what he is talking about? God, the landlord, sends his prophets, the servants, to check up on the tenants and how they are doing at looking after his vineyard and as we know the Israelites and their religious leaders stoned and even killed many of the prophets of God (cf. 1 Kings 18:4, 13; Jer 26:20-23; 2 Chr 24:21-22; and Matt 23:37; Heb 11:37).[3] God, the landlord, then sends his own son to the people chosen to tend his vineyard and the Israelites and their religious leaders kill him and because they kill him, the religious leaders who reject the landlord and his son, the religious leaders who reject Jesus die outside of the vineyard and the vineyard is given to others (cf. Romans 2, Romans 11).[4]
You and I here today, how are we doing with what God is entrusting us?[5] Do we heed his servants when they are sent with messages or to collect our rent? What do we do when Jesus shows up to tell us what we need to do? Do we obey him? Do we pay our rent?
This is an important question. Matthew’s account of this parable that Jesus tells, answers questions about his authority and who gave it to him (Matthew 21:23; cf. Luke 1:2, Mark 11:28). Jesus has the ultimate authority, as he is God’s only begotten son who was killed (and raised from the dead) and if we reject him like many of the religious leaders of the first century, we will not have the blessing of remaining in the eternal vineyard either;[6] we will die. As this is the case, let us make sure that we submit to our master, that we serve him and that we will live forever with him.
There is even more than this – of course – there is more than is addressed specifically in this parable that we should probably look at on this Father’s Day. Parables only go so far.[7] They parallel the story.
There is even more to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as Susan promised we would talk about this week: We know that God knows that Jesus is going to die before he sends him to the world (Cf. John 3,15). We know that Jesus’ death is necessary so that anyone can live and have eternal life. We know that He chooses to send His son to die so that we can live. Still some will hear this story and instead of concentrating on the authority of Jesus and the sacrifice of God they will fixate on the fact that God punishes these farmers and ask how come there is so much death? How come God punishes some people? In our world today we often hear the question, how can a supposedly loving God arbitrarily punish people and even condemn some to Hell?”
Well, He doesn’t. You heard me right but listen carefully to what I am saying here… Jesus doesn’t condemn people to Hell (John 3:17). Hell is real but Jesus does not send people there. Those who are going there, like the tenant farmers in our story today who lose their lives in the vineyard, they make that decision all on their own. Those who stand condemned, condemn themselves by denying (like the Apostle Paul makes clear in Romans Chapters 1 and 2) what is plainly obvious to everyone.[8] I truly believe that God gives us all we need to know in this life from our experiences and even creation itself (cf. Ro 1:18-24) just like he sent more and more servants to give the tenants more and more opportunities to repent and submit to His authority and indeed there will actually still be a time when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Ro 14:11, Philip 2:10) and then some, some who believe in the Lord and obey His commandments will go off to spend eternity with Him[9] and some, some who deny Christ (Matthew 10:33) and do not obey His commandments (John 14:15), some who simply refuse His love will go off to the hear the weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mathew 25:31ff). This is sad.
This is particularly sad because we know that God loves us. John 3:16 says that He loves the entire ‘Kosmos’[10]. He loves us so much that He laid down His life for us (John 15). God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten, his only natural, his only sired Son to die so that we may live.
I can’t imagine how much this must hurt God that some of us do actually perish. I am a father. Many of us are parents here. It is Fathers’ Day today. Think about this scenario for a moment. The house across the street is on fire; there are children asleep in that house. Your child is able to save them. Your son or daughter – your ONLY son or daughter can reach them so you encourage her “…Go, go, go! Save those people.”
Your daughter goes. She goes. She suffers every peril in that burning house that everyone else in there is suffering (Cf. 1 Cor 10:14; Lk 4). There is the smoke – the deadly smoke, there is the fire, and there are the falling beams. She is successful. She gets to where the children are. She can see them. She is able to make an opening in the wall. She points them to the way out. She yells for them to walk through the opening in the wall. She has made a clear path so that all of the kids can be saved - and then she dies. Your daughter dies so that all these kids can be saved. Your child dies so that none of these kids need to die but – here’s the kicker: the children don’t want to be saved. They choose to die. She died so that they could be saved but – on purpose – they die. They did not need to die but they choose not to walk through the opening. They choose to die. Your daughter dies for them and they all die anyway; they refused to be saved.
This is what it is like for God when our loved one’s reject Him. This is what it is like when any of us perish. He sent His son to this house, this vineyard, this world that is perishing. He sent His Son to this house that is on fire – and His Son died so that we may live but yet some still refuse His love for us and some still reject His Salvation. He sent Jesus not to condemn us to burn in the eternal house fire (John 3:17) but to save us but like those children some of us refuse to obey Him and walk to safety. Some of us simply refuse to walk through that opening that Jesus died to make. John 3:18: “Those who believe in Him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already…” of their own accord because, John 3:19, “people loved darkness rather than light.”
So today we are in the vineyard of that parable that Jesus told 2000 years ago. We are in the privileged position of knowing the truth that the religious leaders of Jesus day were. We have access to the light. We have knowledge of our salvation; so, I ask us in our own lives, when Jesus comes back, when God returns to the vineyard will we experience the same fate as the tenant farmers, those religious leaders in Jesus’ day? Will we experience the same fate of those who choose to perish in the fire or will we accept salvation through the path that Jesus provided and live our life tending to in his perfect vineyard. He is standing at the door. It is time for us to decide. What will we do? Will we turn our backs on Him and die or will we meet him with open arms and live? It is time to decide.
Let us pray.
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* The Swift Current and Toronto versions were not presented on Fathers' Day thus the Fathers' Days references were not included in that sermon; neither were other time or location specific references.
[1] M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 409: “by adding two additional parables [he incorporates] the woes into the full-blown speech (23:1-25:46).” This parable is not meant to stand in isolation.
[2] Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 14-28. (WBC 33B: Dallas, Texas: Word Books, 1995), 612. The purpose of this series of parables then is “the depiction of the unfaithfulness of the Jewish leaders. It is for this reason Jesus asks the Jewish leaders for their opinion concerning which of these two sons was the faithful one.” The religious leaders’ response in the affirmative to Jesus question is then, through typically parabolic procedure, a self-indictment.
[3] Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew (Sacra Pagina Series 1: Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991), 302: “Mark 12:2-5 has three servants sent individually and then many others. It is pointless to try to identify them as Moses, Joshua, David, and so forth. Matthew simplifies the story by having the master send two batches of servants.”
[4] Cf. NT Wright, “The Law in Romans 2,” Paul and the Mosaic Law, ed. James D. G. Dunn (WUNT 89; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1996), republished with English translations of German essays (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001): 136. The equality of the Gentile to the Jew before God, as expressed by Paul in Romans in no way negates the primacy of the Jews (cf. Romans 11:7, 11). Cf. Romans 11:12-13, where it is recorded that it was only “through their stumbling [that] salvation has come to the Gentiles…Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!.”
[5] It is important to note as Douglas J. Moo does that, “contrary to popular Jewish belief, the sins of the Jews will not be treated by God significantly different from those of the Gentiles.” Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT 6: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 126. Cf. also NT Wright, The Letter to the Romans (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 440
[6] D.A. Carson, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VI. Opposition and Eschatology: The Triumph of Grace (19:3-26:5)/A. Narrative (19:3-23:39)/8. Opening events of Passion Week (21:1-23:39)/d. Controversies in the temple court (21:23-22:46)/(3) The parable of the tenants (21:33-46), Book Version: 4.0.2 : “that the "son" motif in the parable itself depends on the logic of the story and therefore must not be judged inauthentic…even the most skeptical approach to the Gospels acknowledges that Jesus enjoyed a sense of special sonship to the Father. It is almost inconceivable therefore that Jesus could use this "son" language in defending his mission and not be thinking of himself. It is far more natural to read the "son" language of the parable as yet another veiled messianic self-reference, especially in light of the use of "Son of God" as a messianic title.”
[7] More than one third of Jesus’ recorded teachings are parabolic in nature. They are a ‘casting aside. Cf. Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke (Sacra Pagina Series 3: Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991), 134: These “sayings perform the classic function of Hellenistic histories of interpreting the meaning of the narrative”
[8] Cf. Michael Ramsay. “Paul and the Human Condition as Reflected in Romans 1:18-32 and 2:1-16”. Available on-line at: http://www.sheepspeak.com/NT_Michael_Ramsay.htm#Paul%20and%20the%20Human%20Condition
[9] Cf. N.T. Wright, “Romans and the Theology of Paul,” Pauline Theology, Volume III, ed. David M. Hay & E. Elizabeth Johnson, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995): 37.
[10] Gail O’Day. NIB IX: The Gospel of Luke The Gospel of John. ‘John’, p.552.
and the Swift Current Corps, 25 July 2010 and 08 March 2014
and Warehouse Mission 614 in Toronto, 20 May, 2018
by Captain Michael Ramsay
To read the 2018 sermon, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2018/05/mark-1127-1212-mt-2131-46-resentful.html
To read to 2015 version of this sermon, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/03/mark-1127-1212-mt-2131-46-tenant-farmers.html
This has been an event-filled week. We are all packed up now and ready to go. Evelyn Waldner, Barry’s mom was called home, she was promoted to glory on Wednesday evening. As sad as it is for us, her friends and family, we know that it is good that at the resurrection there are no more tears, no more death. We encourage everyone to keep the family in your prayers.
Also this week there was a celebration of 25 years of Handi-Works in our community and all that God has used that organization to do in so many people’s lives. It was uplifting to see that the event was opened with grace and closed after re-dedicating Hand-Works, their people and their work before the Lord to His service in the community.
It is neat too that the word for ‘spirit’ many places in the scriptures, including both at creation and at Pentecost, the word for ‘spirit’ - when God, the Holy Spirit shows up at these events - the word to describe Him is exactly the same as the word as the word for ‘wind’ (Acts 2; Gen 1:2; cf. Eze 37:9, 14; Jn 3:8) and I can testify that there was plenty of wind, I thought that it was going to knock the tent over as it filled that place as God was present on that Wednesday evening. I was so pleased to see how our Heavenly Father was involved in the ceremony from the opening grace to the official re-dedication in His name. It is important to honour our Heavenly Father for what He does in our lives and our community and today, of course, is Father’s Day.
Father’s Day is always neat. It is a chance to celebrate with our kids and our fathers and reflect upon some of the commonalities, some of the joys and some of the fun stories. I can remember when I was a child about Sarah-Grace’s age: my dad was my soccer coach. These days another parent and I have been coaching Sarah-Grace’s team. Last year I co-coached with Bryan Hildebrandt, Len and Gladys’ son. Now I’m not necessarily the most reliable coach in that every once and a while I get called away to an emergency or something and I remember last year with Bryan having never coached before, he was hoping to learn a little from me (of all people) only to have me called away on the very first day of the season for Emergency Disaster Relief work of some sort. He had a baptism by fire as it were and he did great. I’m also sure that now that he is a much better coach then am I too.
I think of my role out there as more of an encourager than a coach per sae. I like to try to rally the troops and cheer the team on - celebrate their successes with them. I find myself often calling out from the sidelines ‘Go so and so go!’ ‘Go score a goal!’ or ‘pass to so and so, she’s open’ or more commonly, ‘Goalie wake up!’ ‘Goalie, don’t lie on the ground!’ or ‘Goalie, stop talking to your friend and untangle yourself from the net – the ball is coming’… encouragements like that.
The other week, Sarah-Grace made an excellent header. The ball came right to her and she headed it to her teammate – that was really quite something, particularly at this age, so at the break I complimented her on her head ball and she, in front all the parents, told me her secret. She said, ‘Dad, you know how I did the head ball? …I saw the ball coming to me but I forgot to move out of the way’. I like being a dad. It is a lot of fun. And being a coach of your kids’ teams can be fun and it can be a bit of work too.
Here in Matthew 21:31b-46 (cf. Lk 20:1-19, Mk 11:27-12:12) we read about an employer who, as Jesus tells us, has a bit of a challenging team working for him. This businessman is in the grape business. He is farmer of sorts and it is recorded in verse 33 that he put a bit of work into his farm. (He must love it!) It says that he plants his vineyard, he puts a wall around it, and he even builds a watchtower (cf. Isa 5:1-7 and Ps 80:6-16). It sounds like it is a pretty good setup that he has here. It says in verse 33 that he could even afford to go on vacation or a family trip or a business trip of some sort; it says in verse 34 that he had enough time and money that he could leave the vineyard. This is pretty good especially remembering that all this is happening in first century Palestine. It says that he could afford to go away and hire the fields out to some tenant farmers. Now I realise there are a number of people who do that in this area right?
Now the absentee landlord’s fields, his vines, are doing pretty well. He is still away doing whatever he is doing – sitting in his big corporate office or on the beach in Hawaii or Saskatoon or wherever it is that the rich farmers spend their time when they aren’t at home. The landlord is away and it is time to collect his rent. The harvest is in and he wants his cut. He wants his share so he sends some of his employees up from the big city – briefcases, laptops, and calculators in hand (okay their were neither briefcases, laptops nor calculators then) – to collect the rent and it says in verse 35 that the tenant farmers, the fruit pickers, the contractors working the land, want to renegotiate their contract or something like that…it says in verse 35 that they seize his employees, they seize his servants and they beat one of them pretty severely, they kill another and they stone a third: stoning at that time often involved throwing someone into a pit and then hitting them with large rocks until they were dead. The farmers aren’t very nice to the landlord’s employees at all.
Now when the landlord hears about all this, what does he do? Well, what would you do? What would you do if you rented out your land for a season so that you could head down south and you send some property management company to go get the rent and they wind up getting themselves beaten up and killed? What are you going to do? Call the RCMP, right? Get the authorities. You’re going to want to do something, right? But what does the landlord do?
The landlord sends another group of servants (21:36). Now I don’t know how keen I would be to head out in the second batch of employees to collect the rent after hearing what had happened to the first group. (I think I might rather take that road crew job out near Red Earth first.) Nonetheless the employees are good and the employees, I imagine, know full well the risks ahead. The Landlord sends even more of them this time to go out to get the rent from these surely, stingy farmers just like he sent his earlier employees to try to get the rent before. And just like when the first group of rent collectors headed out, this second group is met with more resistance, more beatings, and more death.
Now. I don’t know about you but if I were the employer I would be getting quite upset right now. I have been a landlord before. I know what it is like when your tenants try to pull the ‘midnight move’ on you. I know what it is like when they don’t want to pay their rent. I also used to be a magazine publisher for quite a few years and I know what it is like when your clients give your commission employees a really bad time and don’t want to pay them – It isn’t good. After all, good help isn’t all that easy to come by – and in our story today those bad farmers are even killing them off. So what does the landlord do? Does he call the residential tenancy board? Does he call the American ATF to storm the compound? This landlord is a powerful landlord. He can do so much more than even that in first century Palestine. He can literally have their heads. He has a lot of sway but what does he do?
As we’re reading this story on Father’s Day and as Jesus, God’s son is telling the story, we read how this landlord, a loving father who has absolute faith in the ability of his son. Verse 37: he says, ‘they will respect my son.’ They didn’t. The tenant farmers didn’t respect his son. Verse 38: “But when the tenants saw the son they said to each other, ‘this is the heir. Come let’s kill him and take his inheritance.” Verse 39, “So they took him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” So Jesus stops the story here and he asks those listening to the story, verse 40, “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes what will he do to those tenants?”
He will have them killed. He will be rid of them once and for all and he will rent out the vineyard to other tenants, to some good farmers, who will pay the rent and give him what is due him (vs. 41).
Now Jesus is telling this parable to the Jewish religious leaders who are a part of the crowd he is addressing. The chief priest, the Pharisees, and the elders of the people (vss. 23, 45) have asked Jesus upon what authority he is doing his ministry and this parable is part of his answer[1] and he tells the elders and he tells the chief priests and he tells the Pharisees who are present – verse 43 – he tells them “…the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who would produce its fruit” and – verses 45, 46 – “when the chief priests and Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him but they were afraid of the people because the people held that he was a prophet.”[2]
They knew what he was talking about, it says. Do we know what he is talking about? God, the landlord, sends his prophets, the servants, to check up on the tenants and how they are doing at looking after his vineyard and as we know the Israelites and their religious leaders stoned and even killed many of the prophets of God (cf. 1 Kings 18:4, 13; Jer 26:20-23; 2 Chr 24:21-22; and Matt 23:37; Heb 11:37).[3] God, the landlord, then sends his own son to the people chosen to tend his vineyard and the Israelites and their religious leaders kill him and because they kill him, the religious leaders who reject the landlord and his son, the religious leaders who reject Jesus die outside of the vineyard and the vineyard is given to others (cf. Romans 2, Romans 11).[4]
You and I here today, how are we doing with what God is entrusting us?[5] Do we heed his servants when they are sent with messages or to collect our rent? What do we do when Jesus shows up to tell us what we need to do? Do we obey him? Do we pay our rent?
This is an important question. Matthew’s account of this parable that Jesus tells, answers questions about his authority and who gave it to him (Matthew 21:23; cf. Luke 1:2, Mark 11:28). Jesus has the ultimate authority, as he is God’s only begotten son who was killed (and raised from the dead) and if we reject him like many of the religious leaders of the first century, we will not have the blessing of remaining in the eternal vineyard either;[6] we will die. As this is the case, let us make sure that we submit to our master, that we serve him and that we will live forever with him.
There is even more than this – of course – there is more than is addressed specifically in this parable that we should probably look at on this Father’s Day. Parables only go so far.[7] They parallel the story.
There is even more to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as Susan promised we would talk about this week: We know that God knows that Jesus is going to die before he sends him to the world (Cf. John 3,15). We know that Jesus’ death is necessary so that anyone can live and have eternal life. We know that He chooses to send His son to die so that we can live. Still some will hear this story and instead of concentrating on the authority of Jesus and the sacrifice of God they will fixate on the fact that God punishes these farmers and ask how come there is so much death? How come God punishes some people? In our world today we often hear the question, how can a supposedly loving God arbitrarily punish people and even condemn some to Hell?”
Well, He doesn’t. You heard me right but listen carefully to what I am saying here… Jesus doesn’t condemn people to Hell (John 3:17). Hell is real but Jesus does not send people there. Those who are going there, like the tenant farmers in our story today who lose their lives in the vineyard, they make that decision all on their own. Those who stand condemned, condemn themselves by denying (like the Apostle Paul makes clear in Romans Chapters 1 and 2) what is plainly obvious to everyone.[8] I truly believe that God gives us all we need to know in this life from our experiences and even creation itself (cf. Ro 1:18-24) just like he sent more and more servants to give the tenants more and more opportunities to repent and submit to His authority and indeed there will actually still be a time when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Ro 14:11, Philip 2:10) and then some, some who believe in the Lord and obey His commandments will go off to spend eternity with Him[9] and some, some who deny Christ (Matthew 10:33) and do not obey His commandments (John 14:15), some who simply refuse His love will go off to the hear the weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mathew 25:31ff). This is sad.
This is particularly sad because we know that God loves us. John 3:16 says that He loves the entire ‘Kosmos’[10]. He loves us so much that He laid down His life for us (John 15). God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten, his only natural, his only sired Son to die so that we may live.
I can’t imagine how much this must hurt God that some of us do actually perish. I am a father. Many of us are parents here. It is Fathers’ Day today. Think about this scenario for a moment. The house across the street is on fire; there are children asleep in that house. Your child is able to save them. Your son or daughter – your ONLY son or daughter can reach them so you encourage her “…Go, go, go! Save those people.”
Your daughter goes. She goes. She suffers every peril in that burning house that everyone else in there is suffering (Cf. 1 Cor 10:14; Lk 4). There is the smoke – the deadly smoke, there is the fire, and there are the falling beams. She is successful. She gets to where the children are. She can see them. She is able to make an opening in the wall. She points them to the way out. She yells for them to walk through the opening in the wall. She has made a clear path so that all of the kids can be saved - and then she dies. Your daughter dies so that all these kids can be saved. Your child dies so that none of these kids need to die but – here’s the kicker: the children don’t want to be saved. They choose to die. She died so that they could be saved but – on purpose – they die. They did not need to die but they choose not to walk through the opening. They choose to die. Your daughter dies for them and they all die anyway; they refused to be saved.
This is what it is like for God when our loved one’s reject Him. This is what it is like when any of us perish. He sent His son to this house, this vineyard, this world that is perishing. He sent His Son to this house that is on fire – and His Son died so that we may live but yet some still refuse His love for us and some still reject His Salvation. He sent Jesus not to condemn us to burn in the eternal house fire (John 3:17) but to save us but like those children some of us refuse to obey Him and walk to safety. Some of us simply refuse to walk through that opening that Jesus died to make. John 3:18: “Those who believe in Him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already…” of their own accord because, John 3:19, “people loved darkness rather than light.”
So today we are in the vineyard of that parable that Jesus told 2000 years ago. We are in the privileged position of knowing the truth that the religious leaders of Jesus day were. We have access to the light. We have knowledge of our salvation; so, I ask us in our own lives, when Jesus comes back, when God returns to the vineyard will we experience the same fate as the tenant farmers, those religious leaders in Jesus’ day? Will we experience the same fate of those who choose to perish in the fire or will we accept salvation through the path that Jesus provided and live our life tending to in his perfect vineyard. He is standing at the door. It is time for us to decide. What will we do? Will we turn our backs on Him and die or will we meet him with open arms and live? It is time to decide.
Let us pray.
www.sheepspeak.com
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* The Swift Current and Toronto versions were not presented on Fathers' Day thus the Fathers' Days references were not included in that sermon; neither were other time or location specific references.
[1] M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 409: “by adding two additional parables [he incorporates] the woes into the full-blown speech (23:1-25:46).” This parable is not meant to stand in isolation.
[2] Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 14-28. (WBC 33B: Dallas, Texas: Word Books, 1995), 612. The purpose of this series of parables then is “the depiction of the unfaithfulness of the Jewish leaders. It is for this reason Jesus asks the Jewish leaders for their opinion concerning which of these two sons was the faithful one.” The religious leaders’ response in the affirmative to Jesus question is then, through typically parabolic procedure, a self-indictment.
[3] Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew (Sacra Pagina Series 1: Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991), 302: “Mark 12:2-5 has three servants sent individually and then many others. It is pointless to try to identify them as Moses, Joshua, David, and so forth. Matthew simplifies the story by having the master send two batches of servants.”
[4] Cf. NT Wright, “The Law in Romans 2,” Paul and the Mosaic Law, ed. James D. G. Dunn (WUNT 89; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1996), republished with English translations of German essays (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001): 136. The equality of the Gentile to the Jew before God, as expressed by Paul in Romans in no way negates the primacy of the Jews (cf. Romans 11:7, 11). Cf. Romans 11:12-13, where it is recorded that it was only “through their stumbling [that] salvation has come to the Gentiles…Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!.”
[5] It is important to note as Douglas J. Moo does that, “contrary to popular Jewish belief, the sins of the Jews will not be treated by God significantly different from those of the Gentiles.” Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT 6: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 126. Cf. also NT Wright, The Letter to the Romans (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 440
[6] D.A. Carson, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VI. Opposition and Eschatology: The Triumph of Grace (19:3-26:5)/A. Narrative (19:3-23:39)/8. Opening events of Passion Week (21:1-23:39)/d. Controversies in the temple court (21:23-22:46)/(3) The parable of the tenants (21:33-46), Book Version: 4.0.2 : “that the "son" motif in the parable itself depends on the logic of the story and therefore must not be judged inauthentic…even the most skeptical approach to the Gospels acknowledges that Jesus enjoyed a sense of special sonship to the Father. It is almost inconceivable therefore that Jesus could use this "son" language in defending his mission and not be thinking of himself. It is far more natural to read the "son" language of the parable as yet another veiled messianic self-reference, especially in light of the use of "Son of God" as a messianic title.”
[7] More than one third of Jesus’ recorded teachings are parabolic in nature. They are a ‘casting aside. Cf. Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke (Sacra Pagina Series 3: Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1991), 134: These “sayings perform the classic function of Hellenistic histories of interpreting the meaning of the narrative”
[8] Cf. Michael Ramsay. “Paul and the Human Condition as Reflected in Romans 1:18-32 and 2:1-16”. Available on-line at: http://www.sheepspeak.com/NT_Michael_Ramsay.htm#Paul%20and%20the%20Human%20Condition
[9] Cf. N.T. Wright, “Romans and the Theology of Paul,” Pauline Theology, Volume III, ed. David M. Hay & E. Elizabeth Johnson, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995): 37.
[10] Gail O’Day. NIB IX: The Gospel of Luke The Gospel of John. ‘John’, p.552.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Are You The One To Come Or Should We Expect Someone Else? (Matthew 11:1-11)
Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on December 16, 2007
Presented to the Swift Current Corps on July 11, 2010 & Jan 25/15
Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries on December 22, 2019
By Captain Michael Ramsay
The original presentation began with a quiz: the congregations were shown pictures of famous people that are readily recognisable and asked to identify them and at the end they were also shown a decades old picture of myself: the latter they weren’t able to successfully identify.
I remember - about the time these pictures were taken – I was a janitor; I worked nights for a big janitorial company. They have many buildings all over the city and I worked for this company since before I ever went to university so when I did go back to school, they were kind enough to work around my schedule.
They made me a ‘floater’: now a floater is a very important position because we are given the keys and alarm codes to banks and other important businesses all over the city and our shifts often end late at night or early in the morning so one doesn’t want just anybody walking around some of these buildings (for security reasons) in the middle of the night.
I remember one night. I’m on ‘floater’ duty. I have four buildings to clean. The first one, I have a staff working with me and I am given the unpleasant job of letting one of them go and that doesn’t go over so well. My second building takes me twice as long to clean as it should and when I get to my third building, it is well passed midnight and I have never been in this building before and I can’t find the light switch anywhere. As a result, I am late turning off the alarm and the thing goes off: it is loud. So while it is still ringing and the place is still dark I run and trip over a desk trying to turn it off and then the phone rings (the alarm company always calls to see why an alarm is going off) so I’m off and running again and this time it is in the other direction -still in the dark - to find the phone before I miss the call and the alarm company phones the police. I get to the phone just in time but not before crashing into another desk in the pitch black and yelling out some words that – don’t worry – I won’t repeat here.
I finally get this alarm mess sorted out but by now my leg that I have bashed twice is killing me as I am limping around the whole building still looking for the light switch in the pitch black. I am very lost in a maze of cubicles and I really can’t see anything and I am not feeling too happy at all when I hear something.
I hear something. I hear something growl. I hear something growl and bark loudly. This is not good. So what do I do? I yell. I yell quite loudly as I hit the floor. Peering up I can see a couple of police dogs and a police officer staring down at me. I can tell you – I don’t know if you have ever encountered an angry police dog but that was one of the scariest moments of my life.
What happened was when I spoke with the security company on the phone – remember I was just a spare, not the regular cleaner – my name wasn’t on the list of people who were approved to be in the building after midnight and instead of calling the company I worked for, like they are supposed to do, they called the police and so I almost got seriously hurt by a police dog.
Even though I told them my name they didn’t really know who I was.
This is not entirely unlike our story here today. Look at 11 verses 2 and 3, “When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’”
John knows Jesus - just like the alarm company knew my name from our phone conversation – John knows Jesus, just like we know who many of those people whose pictures flashed on the screen at the beginning of the sermon are but here, it seems, John, like the alarm company with me and like many of us with those famous people, John is not entirely certain who exactly Jesus is.
Now I don’t know if you remember from when we were studying Luke earlier in the year, John is Jesus’ cousin. Not only that. Jesus’ mom and John’s mom are fairly close. Remember from Luke chapter one, that when Mary finds out she is going to have a baby; it says, she gets ready and hurries to meet Elisabeth and when Elisabeth hears that Mary is going to have a baby –the baby in her stomach – John the Baptist – leaps, it says. John and Jesus are family but still in the passage before us today John asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
And not only that, as we read last week as well, if you’ll remember, John is actually the one who baptises Jesus. These two know each other in this way but still John asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Not only do they know each other. Do you remember the interchange between the two of them – you can flip back to Chapter 3 if you want – when Jesus comes to be baptised? John says, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? (Matt 3:14).” John obviously knows Jesus and he obviously knows something about Jesus, even before and right at the beginning of Jesus ministry but now, now for some reason, John asks of him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
But there is even more: remember the heavens open up and God declares, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (Matt 3:16)” and still John, who is there at the time asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Well this is interesting then – if John knows Jesus so well, who, other than the Messiah, the expectant King, could John be expecting?
Could John be expecting that Jesus is Elijah?[1] Some theorists have posited that John may have thought Jesus was Elijah; certainly other people did (cf. Matt 17:10-12; Mark 6:15, 8:28; Luke 9:19). After all – even though Jesus claimed that John was Elijah later in this very chapter we are looking at here today, in 11:14 (cf. also 9:11-13; Luke 1:17), John himself at one point denies that very claim (John 1:21). So if here John does not realise that he himself is fulfilling the role of Elijah and if he does not realise that Jesus is the Christ, he could have thought Jesus was Elijah – maybe.
Maybe John was just asking this questions for others and he really knew the answer all along. This was a popular view of the Reformers evidently– an unlikely view given the context of the passage, I would think, the gospels don’t tend to be quite so tricky – but maybe?[2]
He could be a prophet (Jeremiah; cf. Matt. 16:14)– much like John himself– only greater. If John saw the dove at Jesus’ baptism he may even recognise that, yes, Jesus is God’s son but maybe he just doesn’t know what that means? After all aren’t we all the children of God? Weren’t angels in the Genesis account sometimes referred to as ‘sons of God’ (Gen 6:2-4)? So then what does it mean to be the ‘Son of God’ and who, who is Jesus? Is he the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?
Well this is an important question for us today then too, isn’t it? Who is Jesus? The most educated, religious people of Jesus day, the Pharisees and Sadducees did not accept him as the Messiah, the Christ, the King to come, and in our story today John the Baptist, someone who knows Jesus even before he is born, someone who is his cousin, someone who baptises him, someone who teaches the same message of ‘repent for the Kingdom is near’ (cf. Matthew 3-4), someone as close to Jesus as John asks the question, are you the one to come, or should we expect someone else? Well, is Jesus the one to come or should we expect someone else; who do we say Jesus is?
A good man? - I have heard people say that. An imaginary figure? - I have heard that too –this one is rather silly though since we have much better evidence for Jesus as Christ than we do for Julius Caesar as Roman Emperor or the even the very existence of Socrates.
Was Jesus just a prophet as some – such as the Muslims and the Jews – suggest? Was he a mere man? Was he only a voice calling from the wilderness? Much of the world today would say that he was some kind of the prophet.
Could he just have been a religious teacher from a minor Roman province who developed a cult following that continued to grow for well – thousands of years now – there are more Christians in the world than ever before and, of course, the Bible is the world’s best-selling book. But all that aside, could he be just a dead teacher?
These are all answers with which people today answer the question, ‘Who is Jesus?’ Is he the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?
I think this is important because it changes everything doesn’t it? If Jesus is our Lord; if he is our king and his kingdom is at hand; if he is our wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace (Isa 9:6) – then we need to submit to his authority don’t we? So who is this Jesus?
Of course Matthew answers this question right in our text today. He does it in a couple of different ways. First, he does actually call him the Christ / Messiah (same word, different language) in Verse 2 and even more than that, look at how Matthew records Jesus’ response to the question, ‘are you the one to come?’
He says, verses 4-6, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” Jesus is drawing John’s attention to the glory of the Kingdom of the Messiah mentioned in Isaiah 35:5-6 and 42:18.
Here, listen to part of Isaiah 35 again - we read it earlier today - where the Christ’s Kingdom is described:
The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendour of our God.
And more, look at verse 5, HERE IT IS. It says that in the Messianic Kingdom to come, “… the eyes of the blind be opened (just like it says is happening now in our passage in Matthew) and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. - And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.
Isn’t this great?! And Isaiah 42 is much the same: this is what Jesus is answering to John’s question. John asks, are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? And Jesus answer gives John tangible evidence that indeed this Kingdom of God is at hand. The Kingdom of the Christ, the Messiah is being established now; it is here. Just like John and Jesus proclaim – it is now at hand.
Who is Jesus? He is this Messiah. He is this Christ. This kingdom is being established and the wondrous aspects of it are available now. This is what Jesus lets John know and he reveals it in His own way in His own time. It reminds me of a story I read about just recently in the Expository Times.[3]
James V, the King of Scotland used to go around the country dressed like everyone else: a common person. That is because he wanted to meet the everyday people of the country not just the rich and powerful. He wanted to see how the normal people lived.
One day he was dressed in very old clothes and was going by a place known as Cramond Brig, when he is attacked by robbers who don’t know who he is. There is a fierce struggle and he is nearly overcome when, at just the right moment, a poor farm worker - Jock Howieson - hears the commotion comes to the disguised king’s aid.
Now Jock, the poor labourer, who works on this portion of the King’s land, known as Cramond Brig, now Jock unawares takes the undercover king home and gives him a dinner of broth and Jock - as the king is recouping – naturally asks the man who he is.
The King responds – in a Scottish brogue that I am not even going to attempt – ‘Ach, I’m a good man of Edinburgh.’
‘And where do you live in that city and where do you work?’
‘Well,’ says James, ‘I live at the palace and I work there too.’
‘The palace, is it? I’d like to see the palace; if I could see the King, I’d tell him a thing or two…’
‘About what?’ asks the man.
‘I’d tell him that I should own this land that I am on. I work it every day and he never comes here & gets his hands dirty working this land’
‘You’re right enough’, says the man. You come tomorrow to the palace at Holy Rood and I’ll show you around. Come at two.’
So the next day at two o’clock, Jock Howieson, is washed, dressed and at the palace to meet his new friend at the back door. The good man, whom Jock had saved the day before, shows him around the kitchen, the dining room, the bedrooms – the whole place. Then, at last, the two of them come to the great rooms of the State.
‘Do you want to see the King?’ the man asks Jock.
‘Oh yes indeed’, says Jock, ‘I do. I do want to see the King.’
So they enter the great hall and as they come in, men bow and ladies curtsey. It is really quite a thing to see.
So Jock whispers to his friend, ‘How will I know who the king is?’
‘He’s the only one who keeps his hat on’
Jock says, ‘But… there’s only us two with our hats…’ and Jock immediately takes off his hat as he realises that James is indeed the King of Scotland.
And so it is with us today. Jesus is King. He is walking around with each of us showing us his domain here on earth and just waiting for us to take off our hats as we realise that indeed Jesus is the one to come and he has arrived (and he’s coming back too, soon!)
Appeal: If there are any of us here today who have not taken off our hats and lain them before the Lord, I invite you to come up front here to the mercy seat and do just that – acknowledge the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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http://www.sheepspeak.com/
[1] Cf. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/IV. Book Version: 4.0.2. re: Schweitzer.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Margaret Forrester. The Expository Times. Vol. 119 Number I Pages 47-48.
Presented to the Swift Current Corps on July 11, 2010 & Jan 25/15
Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries on December 22, 2019
By Captain Michael Ramsay
The original presentation began with a quiz: the congregations were shown pictures of famous people that are readily recognisable and asked to identify them and at the end they were also shown a decades old picture of myself: the latter they weren’t able to successfully identify.
I remember - about the time these pictures were taken – I was a janitor; I worked nights for a big janitorial company. They have many buildings all over the city and I worked for this company since before I ever went to university so when I did go back to school, they were kind enough to work around my schedule.
They made me a ‘floater’: now a floater is a very important position because we are given the keys and alarm codes to banks and other important businesses all over the city and our shifts often end late at night or early in the morning so one doesn’t want just anybody walking around some of these buildings (for security reasons) in the middle of the night.
I remember one night. I’m on ‘floater’ duty. I have four buildings to clean. The first one, I have a staff working with me and I am given the unpleasant job of letting one of them go and that doesn’t go over so well. My second building takes me twice as long to clean as it should and when I get to my third building, it is well passed midnight and I have never been in this building before and I can’t find the light switch anywhere. As a result, I am late turning off the alarm and the thing goes off: it is loud. So while it is still ringing and the place is still dark I run and trip over a desk trying to turn it off and then the phone rings (the alarm company always calls to see why an alarm is going off) so I’m off and running again and this time it is in the other direction -still in the dark - to find the phone before I miss the call and the alarm company phones the police. I get to the phone just in time but not before crashing into another desk in the pitch black and yelling out some words that – don’t worry – I won’t repeat here.
I finally get this alarm mess sorted out but by now my leg that I have bashed twice is killing me as I am limping around the whole building still looking for the light switch in the pitch black. I am very lost in a maze of cubicles and I really can’t see anything and I am not feeling too happy at all when I hear something.
I hear something. I hear something growl. I hear something growl and bark loudly. This is not good. So what do I do? I yell. I yell quite loudly as I hit the floor. Peering up I can see a couple of police dogs and a police officer staring down at me. I can tell you – I don’t know if you have ever encountered an angry police dog but that was one of the scariest moments of my life.
What happened was when I spoke with the security company on the phone – remember I was just a spare, not the regular cleaner – my name wasn’t on the list of people who were approved to be in the building after midnight and instead of calling the company I worked for, like they are supposed to do, they called the police and so I almost got seriously hurt by a police dog.
Even though I told them my name they didn’t really know who I was.
This is not entirely unlike our story here today. Look at 11 verses 2 and 3, “When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’”
John knows Jesus - just like the alarm company knew my name from our phone conversation – John knows Jesus, just like we know who many of those people whose pictures flashed on the screen at the beginning of the sermon are but here, it seems, John, like the alarm company with me and like many of us with those famous people, John is not entirely certain who exactly Jesus is.
Now I don’t know if you remember from when we were studying Luke earlier in the year, John is Jesus’ cousin. Not only that. Jesus’ mom and John’s mom are fairly close. Remember from Luke chapter one, that when Mary finds out she is going to have a baby; it says, she gets ready and hurries to meet Elisabeth and when Elisabeth hears that Mary is going to have a baby –the baby in her stomach – John the Baptist – leaps, it says. John and Jesus are family but still in the passage before us today John asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
And not only that, as we read last week as well, if you’ll remember, John is actually the one who baptises Jesus. These two know each other in this way but still John asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Not only do they know each other. Do you remember the interchange between the two of them – you can flip back to Chapter 3 if you want – when Jesus comes to be baptised? John says, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? (Matt 3:14).” John obviously knows Jesus and he obviously knows something about Jesus, even before and right at the beginning of Jesus ministry but now, now for some reason, John asks of him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
But there is even more: remember the heavens open up and God declares, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (Matt 3:16)” and still John, who is there at the time asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Well this is interesting then – if John knows Jesus so well, who, other than the Messiah, the expectant King, could John be expecting?
Could John be expecting that Jesus is Elijah?[1] Some theorists have posited that John may have thought Jesus was Elijah; certainly other people did (cf. Matt 17:10-12; Mark 6:15, 8:28; Luke 9:19). After all – even though Jesus claimed that John was Elijah later in this very chapter we are looking at here today, in 11:14 (cf. also 9:11-13; Luke 1:17), John himself at one point denies that very claim (John 1:21). So if here John does not realise that he himself is fulfilling the role of Elijah and if he does not realise that Jesus is the Christ, he could have thought Jesus was Elijah – maybe.
Maybe John was just asking this questions for others and he really knew the answer all along. This was a popular view of the Reformers evidently– an unlikely view given the context of the passage, I would think, the gospels don’t tend to be quite so tricky – but maybe?[2]
He could be a prophet (Jeremiah; cf. Matt. 16:14)– much like John himself– only greater. If John saw the dove at Jesus’ baptism he may even recognise that, yes, Jesus is God’s son but maybe he just doesn’t know what that means? After all aren’t we all the children of God? Weren’t angels in the Genesis account sometimes referred to as ‘sons of God’ (Gen 6:2-4)? So then what does it mean to be the ‘Son of God’ and who, who is Jesus? Is he the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?
Well this is an important question for us today then too, isn’t it? Who is Jesus? The most educated, religious people of Jesus day, the Pharisees and Sadducees did not accept him as the Messiah, the Christ, the King to come, and in our story today John the Baptist, someone who knows Jesus even before he is born, someone who is his cousin, someone who baptises him, someone who teaches the same message of ‘repent for the Kingdom is near’ (cf. Matthew 3-4), someone as close to Jesus as John asks the question, are you the one to come, or should we expect someone else? Well, is Jesus the one to come or should we expect someone else; who do we say Jesus is?
A good man? - I have heard people say that. An imaginary figure? - I have heard that too –this one is rather silly though since we have much better evidence for Jesus as Christ than we do for Julius Caesar as Roman Emperor or the even the very existence of Socrates.
Was Jesus just a prophet as some – such as the Muslims and the Jews – suggest? Was he a mere man? Was he only a voice calling from the wilderness? Much of the world today would say that he was some kind of the prophet.
Could he just have been a religious teacher from a minor Roman province who developed a cult following that continued to grow for well – thousands of years now – there are more Christians in the world than ever before and, of course, the Bible is the world’s best-selling book. But all that aside, could he be just a dead teacher?
These are all answers with which people today answer the question, ‘Who is Jesus?’ Is he the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?
I think this is important because it changes everything doesn’t it? If Jesus is our Lord; if he is our king and his kingdom is at hand; if he is our wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace (Isa 9:6) – then we need to submit to his authority don’t we? So who is this Jesus?
Of course Matthew answers this question right in our text today. He does it in a couple of different ways. First, he does actually call him the Christ / Messiah (same word, different language) in Verse 2 and even more than that, look at how Matthew records Jesus’ response to the question, ‘are you the one to come?’
He says, verses 4-6, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” Jesus is drawing John’s attention to the glory of the Kingdom of the Messiah mentioned in Isaiah 35:5-6 and 42:18.
Here, listen to part of Isaiah 35 again - we read it earlier today - where the Christ’s Kingdom is described:
The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendour of our God.
And more, look at verse 5, HERE IT IS. It says that in the Messianic Kingdom to come, “… the eyes of the blind be opened (just like it says is happening now in our passage in Matthew) and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. - And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.
Isn’t this great?! And Isaiah 42 is much the same: this is what Jesus is answering to John’s question. John asks, are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? And Jesus answer gives John tangible evidence that indeed this Kingdom of God is at hand. The Kingdom of the Christ, the Messiah is being established now; it is here. Just like John and Jesus proclaim – it is now at hand.
Who is Jesus? He is this Messiah. He is this Christ. This kingdom is being established and the wondrous aspects of it are available now. This is what Jesus lets John know and he reveals it in His own way in His own time. It reminds me of a story I read about just recently in the Expository Times.[3]
James V, the King of Scotland used to go around the country dressed like everyone else: a common person. That is because he wanted to meet the everyday people of the country not just the rich and powerful. He wanted to see how the normal people lived.
One day he was dressed in very old clothes and was going by a place known as Cramond Brig, when he is attacked by robbers who don’t know who he is. There is a fierce struggle and he is nearly overcome when, at just the right moment, a poor farm worker - Jock Howieson - hears the commotion comes to the disguised king’s aid.
Now Jock, the poor labourer, who works on this portion of the King’s land, known as Cramond Brig, now Jock unawares takes the undercover king home and gives him a dinner of broth and Jock - as the king is recouping – naturally asks the man who he is.
The King responds – in a Scottish brogue that I am not even going to attempt – ‘Ach, I’m a good man of Edinburgh.’
‘And where do you live in that city and where do you work?’
‘Well,’ says James, ‘I live at the palace and I work there too.’
‘The palace, is it? I’d like to see the palace; if I could see the King, I’d tell him a thing or two…’
‘About what?’ asks the man.
‘I’d tell him that I should own this land that I am on. I work it every day and he never comes here & gets his hands dirty working this land’
‘You’re right enough’, says the man. You come tomorrow to the palace at Holy Rood and I’ll show you around. Come at two.’
So the next day at two o’clock, Jock Howieson, is washed, dressed and at the palace to meet his new friend at the back door. The good man, whom Jock had saved the day before, shows him around the kitchen, the dining room, the bedrooms – the whole place. Then, at last, the two of them come to the great rooms of the State.
‘Do you want to see the King?’ the man asks Jock.
‘Oh yes indeed’, says Jock, ‘I do. I do want to see the King.’
So they enter the great hall and as they come in, men bow and ladies curtsey. It is really quite a thing to see.
So Jock whispers to his friend, ‘How will I know who the king is?’
‘He’s the only one who keeps his hat on’
Jock says, ‘But… there’s only us two with our hats…’ and Jock immediately takes off his hat as he realises that James is indeed the King of Scotland.
And so it is with us today. Jesus is King. He is walking around with each of us showing us his domain here on earth and just waiting for us to take off our hats as we realise that indeed Jesus is the one to come and he has arrived (and he’s coming back too, soon!)
Appeal: If there are any of us here today who have not taken off our hats and lain them before the Lord, I invite you to come up front here to the mercy seat and do just that – acknowledge the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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[1] Cf. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/IV. Book Version: 4.0.2. re: Schweitzer.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Margaret Forrester. The Expository Times. Vol. 119 Number I Pages 47-48.
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