Contemplating our Reactions in Light of the Resurrection

“Contemplating our Reactions in Light of the Resurrection”

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (North Quincy, Massachusetts)

Year A, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 21:33-46

Sam Melton, MDiv ‘19

A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with child, about 6 or 7 years old, and we were talking about sharing and how to react nicely to other people when they treat you badly. And he began telling me a story about how this other child took his beloved fire truck from him without his permission and so I asked him, “Well what did you do, when they took it from you?” and he replied very matter of factly, in this very obvious tone: “Well, I hit him.”

And as he said this to me, I saw the immediate look of dread on his face as he had one of those moments where you want to take back all the words you just said and stuff them back into your mouth because you know you’re said something wrong. I have certainly had similar moments with friends and family where we find ourselves reacting a bit too quickly and then immediately regretting our actions or words. I’m getting the feeling that this isn’t an uncommon situation to find ourselves in. Maybe you have found yourself reacting a bit too quickly to your spouse or partner, being just a little more impatient than you would like to be with your kids, or wanting to take back all of your words you said to your boss while at work.

I am wondering if the Pharisees in our Gospel reading from today felt similar to the child I was talking to? Though perhaps an overly simplified example, I can’t stop thinking about that child’s response: “So, I hit him.” In that simple response, I know exactly how he was feeling when another child acted unjustly and rudely towards him. It is a universally familiar feeling.

If we zoom out to an overview of the Gospel of Matthew, this is Jesus’ third response to the temple leadership and religious leaders who continue to question his authority. (cf. 21:12-46). First, at the beginning of Chapter 21, Jesus offered a counter-question on the authority of John’s baptism, which the leaders failed to answer directly because of their fear of John’s public reputation (cf. 21:23-27). Second, Jesus offered the parable about “two sons,” an explanation that directly challenged this leadership’s understanding of God’s activity in the world (cf. 21:28-32). And then third, Jesus recalled and re-interpreted Isaiah’s love-song about a vineyard. So here, Jesus is speaking directly to the Pharisee’s and the religious leaders of this time and this audience is a very important note.

The parable we read today is another conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees. He uses an incredibly violent story of the vineyard and the relationship of it’s landowners, slaves, and tenants. In this story, we have landowner, representing God, who entrusts his land to the tenants, presumably the people of Israel, and allows them the responsibility of caring for the vineyard, growing it, and tending to it. And when the vineyard produces valuable grapes and wine, the landowner sends his slaves or workers to collect his portion of the produce. Yet, time and time again the messengers sent by the landowner are met violently by the tenants. This continues to happen, over and over again, throughout the story, until finally the landowner sends his son to collect his produce. Now, I imagine at this point, the landowner believes that if he sends the most important person in his life, his very own son to the vineyard to collect produce, that surely this time the tenants will provide the fruits. And yet once again, the tenants throw the landowner’s very own son out of the vineyard and kill him. It is after this that finally the landowner comes to the vineyard to collect what is rightfully his. It is here that Jesus pauses and asks the Pharisees what they might do if they were landowner and they quickly and swiftly, without hesitation answer, “kill them!” The Pharisees simply can not understand a situation in which violence would not be met with violence. Why would the landowner not kill the tenants who have just killed, beat, and stoned several of his slaves and his very own son? The Pharisees believe that answering with violence is the only option.

Here, at the end, we find this familiar feeling in the Pharisees response to Jesus’ question. Jesus poses this question: “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" And the Pharisees respond with a feeling of sureness, and “They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time." The Pharisees, these powerful religious leaders can’t imagine a scenario in which they would not respond with their own self-interest. Just like the child, they reply, “Well, I hit him.”

Our immediate reaction to this story doesn’t leave us with a hopeful feeling. We are immediately taken aback by the amount of violence taking place in this parable. Yet, the violence of this story is purposeful and intentional. There is a reason that this parable requires violence and if we strip it of it’s violence, it suddenly has less impact.

As we can see when we zoomed out into the overview of the Gospel of Matthew, we know that Jesus has already attempted to reach the Pharisee’s through parables and stories of lesser violence. And if we strip this story of its violent nature, it no longer holds the harsh tone and captures our attention like before. The violence here acts as an abrupt interruption in the Gospel of Matthew. It acts as a bright red flashing warning sign in our reading. If we were driving, it would be a giant construction sign flashing, reading, “SLOW DOWN, WORKERS UP AHEAD.” We are supposed to be taken aback by this violence because this allows us to see that Jesus is the only one who is able to break this pattern of violence.

Immediately, after the Pharisees respond, the text reads in verse 46 that “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them.” This is the moment that they feel like stuffing all of those words back into their mouths. Jesus is convicting the Pharisees of their self-interest and lack of ability to respond thoughtfully and respectfully to the wrongdoings of the tenants. Jesus is the only one who has the ability to see through the violence and offer grace and peace.

This conversation between the Pharisees and Jesus is a foreshadowing of the crucifixion. In this parable, when the landowner sends his only son, the tenants immediately put him to death. Directly referencing a story in which God acts as the landowner by sending God’s only son to care for the people, however, the religious leaders, the tenants, put him to death because they are wanting to keep all of the fruits of the vineyard for themselves. Jesus is the only one that seems to be able to formulate a response of grace towards the tenants, and it is here that we see that Jesus is the only one who is able to interrupt the pattern of violence in this story. If left to the Pharisees, surely more violence and disorder would have ensued, yet Jesus has something else in mind.

Though this parable does so in a roundabout way, it beautifully wraps the resurrection story in these many layers of imagery and stories. While parable leaves us with this sort of icky feeling, it is actually a beautiful story about the grace of Jesus and reminds us that Jesus is the only one that has the ability to interrupt the violent patterns of our lives. David Lose shares that “Because rather than return violence for violence, in the cross of Jesus, God absorbs our violence and response with life, with resurrection, with Jesus triumphant, over death and offering, not retribution, but peace.” The good news of this parable is that, “violence does not have and will not have the last word. That the only response to violence is not more violence. That tragedy, death and loss and hatred are, in the end, no match for love and life and forgiveness and peace.” The message of this story is a very loud interruption to the Gospel of Matthew.

And yet this story leaves us to figure out what our next plan is. If we find ourselves in the shoes of Pharisees, and turn that question in on ourselves, we may be cautioned to slow down our reaction and response. How can we respond calmly, lovingly, and thoughtfully to the disorder, chaos, and violence we find happening all around us? Jesus doesn’t leave us with a solid plan or equip us with every right word or tool to assist us in this mission. The images and stories of the various vineyards that we read today, actually highlight the freedom we have to act in God’s world. We can carefully plan how to plant, care, and tend, to this vineyard.

Though this is simply one reading of this parable, I wonder too, if we are the tenants in this story? If we may be absolutely shocked by the reaction offered by a landowner that does not punish or strip land from us, but instead offers grace and mercy for our wrongdoings. Or how we may feel as slaves, who see no punishment taking place for a tenant who treated us so harshly? How does this story read differently in these positions? Where do we find ourselves in this story?

In all of these positions, I find myself leaving this parable wondering how we can interrupt the patterns we see taking place all around us?

I am sure like many of you, I awoke on Monday morning to my phone full of notifications from news sources and my Facebook feed full of tragedy, violence, and sadness in Las Vegas and beyond. This seems to be a trend that we are becoming all too accustomed to. And then per my usual Monday morning routine, I turned to our readings from today and was met again with violence and disorder taking place in the vineyard. All week, I keep coming back to the violence of this story, not able to turn away from this parable full of stonings, beatings, and murders, knowing that this is meant to serve as an abrupt interruption. If this story is an interruption, what is it an interruption to?

It seems as though it serves as an interruption to our quickness to judge, condemn, push out, or refuse others. I feel unable to shake the feeling of the child who told me his matter of factly response to injustice, nor the feeling of the Pharisees who responded too quickly and surely to Jesus. Jesus calls us to interrupt our actions and responses.

It is here, where we are called to enter the story. As Jesus interrupts, this story causes us to ask what we are reacting to too quickly or where our reactions may be misplaced? Where in our lives do we perhaps need to change our reactions to be less harsh and where are they perhaps not strong enough? Even more, it makes us ask where our reactions are too complacent in the face of injustices or wrongdoings taking place around us. How can we respond more thoughtfully and with a greater impact?

This week, as we continue scrolling through Facebook and opening our phones to new stories, I wonder what is calling us to pay attention? What is the interruption that demands our attention? What is the warning sign that continues flashing in front of us as we drive through our week and how can we formulate our responses more appropriately? And as we contemplate these questions for ourselves, may we also be reminded of the beauty offered in the resurrection of Christ and Christ’s ability to interrupt these violent patterns.