The Price of Wickedness
Tony E Hansen
Sermon based upon Matthew 21: 33-46; Psalm 80; Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 3:4-14
Opening prayer
Jesus delivers this damning parable, loosely based upon Isaiah, about some truly awful people and a landowner that gives up his own son.
This parable describes violence against people in many ways and may even offer a foretelling of the crucifixion of Jesus. Yet, in telling this to the people whom Jesus is criticizing, do they even see that warning? Do they care? Should we care?
Well they want to arrest Jesus for this. So they see it but they don’t like the description. People don’t like to be criticized, even when it is a harsh truth.
Yet it is a harsh truth, and someone is, some people are, paying the price for it.
Who pays the price for the violence that is shown because a price is paid ? Who pays the price, especially when the wickedness goes unchecked?
Nobody provokes these people. They just do terrible things. (Furtchbar)
There is, after all said and horrible done, The vineyard is given to those who will produce at harvest time.
God has laid a cornerstone and some people have rejected. But God isn’t done.
The Lord’s work is mysterious to us, but well thought out, planned and ready for us , like the landowner. Some want to contort that plan into a masterful way of enriching one self or excluding.
Then, Someone comes along and points out the trouble that leadership has made. We see it, we know it. We live it today.
When leadership has little regard for the flock or the fruit, people pay a price. This isn’t a sticker on the box that a clerk punches into a cash register. There is no cash amount, but there is a cost for people that abuse systems, take advantage of people, contort laws only for wealthy fortunes, exclude wide swaths of people, or actual violence to ensure these “rewards”remain.
Dictatorships and criminal regimes wear this mark as a badge. Yet we see it in our own political system, and only a few raising a fuss. Who pays for the neglect? Who pays for corrupt or violent systems?
People do… you and me and so do the people inflicting the damage.
They may not realize they are the cause of their own pain and misery.
Power and wealth corrupts because it is path of broken dreams, hoarding and greed. That path is full of holes, deceptions, misbehaving, and plots that do not lend well for trust, peace, forgiveness or love.
When those broken lies rule you, us, then the social structure bends towards preserving that corruption because corrupt leadership wants to preserve their sins and make excuses for them.
They even build walls to keep the corruption in.
Yet, there is hope. The Lord made this vineyard for us to yield grapes, not violence. The Lord will break down the wall so that the people can be restored. That restoration needs us to break through the lies and brokenness that you see all over YouTube, Facebook or wherever you get your news… to see that instead, God means for us to have something real, tangible and loving.
This parable is not just a complaint against religious elders of Jesus's day, but of all those who desire to lead people anywhere, whether in church walls, courtrooms, legislatures, neighborhood associations or even a simple household. This parable serves as a warning about broken deceptions having a cost and the people will bear that cost.
The garden has been set, the produce is there and the expectation from God is that we tend and steward this God-given garden for all people. Like we saw last week, we can course correct because Gods forgiveness is always there and ready for us.
The fruit of the garden is to be shared, not hoarded. A miserable death is not needed because there is time to change, but a miserable death will be all that is left for those who continue this evil path.
The price of that evil (bröse) is your souls because when they lead us and then we follow that path, then we are just as guilty as them.
The fruit of heaven, fruit of God, is for you and me.
Don’t let them take that away. Don’t let the lies and mischief rule you and rob you of what God has for you.
Justice, equity, fairness, forgiveness, and love is all part of God’s abundance poured out for us, all of us. No suit and tie can take that away from us. No person in a fancy Sunday robe can deny that.
We can pray the lament of the psalm and ask for restoration when we have went down wrong paths.
God cleared ground and planted a vine. Let us be the ones who help that vine grow. Let us help nurture the vine and its fruit, not just for ourselves but for all.
Let us be diligent about staying true to that good path.
Yes, Let us invite others in the gift of that vine, the love and wisdom of God.
Thanks be to God, Amen
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