God’s Patience Towards Our Rebellion

2003-05-01

This was originally prepared as a sermon on Luke 20:9-19.

Introduction to the Homily

GOD!! HELP!! ARE YOU LISTENING??

Who has not prayed a prayer like this? Or at least had this type of attitude? I know that I have. If there is sin, or something going on in my life, or if I do not see Him working in my life I am often like this. What about me, Lord? Life is filled with these moments. Remember Jeremiah and how he spoke to God in Lamentations 3. Yet ‘great is thy faithfulness’ in verse 23 is the refrain of a popular hymn. The song does not mention the previous verses describing Jeremiah’s pain. Sometimes, it takes us to get to the point of Jeremiah’s pain before we actually see God and recognize who He is. It takes us to the point to see how broken, miserable and sinful we are, and how we need Him in every way. We are often very impatient with God. We forget that we are on His schedule, and He is not on ours.

Now think about it this way, from God’s perspective. He says to me, why is that happening in your life? Do you not hear My word? Do you not care that I suffered for you? How am I supposed to use you if you are hiding from Me? Maybe if you were to stop rebelling from me, maybe you might hear what I have to say.

God is patient toward our rebellion. God loves us, and wants us to turn toward Him. There is a passage, Luke 20:9-19, that shows the awesome nature of God’s patience toward our rebellion. Though this passage is very specific toward the religious rulers of ancient Israel, this timeless truth is very evident for all peoples in all times: God is patient toward our rebellion.

The God of Second, Third, and Fourth Chances

Jesus was speaking to the crowds when he began the parable, but we also know that the chief priests and Jewish leaders were near by. He surely is speaking to the people, as we will see in verse 9, but this is most appropriate to the leaders, because these will be the main force behind the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus. We will see that in verse 19.

This parable is a story that the crowds would have been able to connect with rather easily, because what this vineyard owner did was a common practice in first century Palestine. Because of economically hard times in those days, such a man might lease his vineyard for rent to people and move away. He would return periodically to collect the rent in either the form of money or part of the produce of the land. He would either collect a set amount, or a set ratio of the amount of produce. Dishonesty often occurred. It is also not unheard of for the tenants to try to usurp power over the land.

There is a lot of symbolism in this parable, so the audience would have understood the images Jesus used. One would think of the image of Israel as the vine in Isaiah 5:1-7. The layout of the story resembles the history of Israel remarkably. In Judges, we recall Israel falling into sin, then they would be captured, in which afterward they would cry to God, and a judge would come to deliver them. When peace came, they were back where they started, in sin. In the later days when the Assyrians and then the Babylonians were taking over the world, God sent many prophets to preach to them that they had a choice: repentance or judgment. These servants that Luke mentions are clearly such messengers, because the leaders of Israel often killed the prophets. God is truly patient toward the rebellion of humankind. He sent so many prophets, hoping that they would change their ways. God is truly the God of second, third, and fourth chances, as we see in this text.

The man who owned the vineyard had personally planted the vineyard and built on the property around it, such as a fence, a winepress, and a watchtower. We know this from Matthew and Mark’s versions of the parable. Then he went away, allowing others to reap the blessing of it for a certain cost. We know that the man had left for a long time, as it says in verse 9. When harvest time came around, he sent a servant to the vinedressers to collect part of the produce. This could have been as long as five years, because it takes some time for a substantial produce to abound. So the servant comes asking for the portion that the owner specified. What does he get in return? He gets beaten, literally struck on either the face or body, and then sent away empty-handed. It is as if this servant was not only beaten, but ‘empty’ means he was probably robbed as well.

How does the owner respond? He does not retaliate like one might think. And this is the first thing we can understand about God’s giving of second, third, and fourth chances. God in His mercy does not retaliate against us as often as He should. When we sin, He is quick to forgive, not because we confess our sins quickly, for sometimes we do not. It is His way of showing His patience toward our rebellion. Next, instead we see that the vineyard owner sends the tenants a second servant, and the tenants did the same thing to him, but also treated him shamefully. They were worse to this one than they were the last one.

One thing we can see from this repetition of the owner’s patience is that he simply wants to receive what is rightfully his, and is not interested in vengeance for the sins against him. God, likewise, expects what is rightfully His. He deserves praise, and that is what we should be giving to God, not more grief just as in our sinful pasts.

Again a third servant is sent, just as in before. And the tenants then wounded him, and cast him out. They really afflicted him and traumatized him in an extremely harsh way. Then they cast him out from there. There is an escalation of violence in the tenants’ response to the owner’s servants. We know from Mark’s account that there were more than three, and sometimes there were a couple sent. Not only that, but some of them were murdered. Yet the owner was slow to retaliate, hoping that they would finally give in and give him what he wants.

This is much like the prisoner in Les Miserables, who escaped from prison and found asylum in the house of a priest. After the prisoner was fed freely, he stole silver candlesticks from the priest and fled. Did the priest retaliate against him? Not at all, but gave freely to him. This is the type of God we have, who is slow to anger. A landlord today would not exercise such mercy, nor would the government find it kindly if we did not pay our taxes.

God is patient toward our rebellion

1. God is a God of second, third, and fourth chances

The God of Justice

God, though He may be slow to anger, also is a God of justice. In verse 13, the owner of the vineyard becomes a little frustrated. “What shall I do?” he asks. So he does what would have been customary in those days to do, to send a symbol of authority, like his son, to collect the portion of produce that was due the owner. So the conclusion of the owner is that they ought to respect him. God must have been thinking the same thing: though He knew the real outcome, it would be a logical conclusion that the very Man Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who can right the wrongs of the Jewish people, would be respected by the Jewish leaders.

But as the son was approaching the vineyard, as we can see from a close look at the text, the tenants started to devise a plan. As the son came up to the door to knock, the thought came into their head. “Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.” This seems to be a ridiculous conclusion they would come at. Why would they think this way? Some say that perhaps they thought that after such a long period of time, the owner must have died, and that is why the son came in his place. The most logical conclusion is to think like the scribes and the chief priests, not as the tenants. Before Jesus came, they had all the answers. God had been silent for four hundred years. They had a monopoly on the worship in the kingdom, and the people listened to them. Now their audience is gone, listening to this poor man from Nazareth, without the stamp of approval of being trained under elite rabbis. Get rid of Jesus, and they can have the inheritance: Israel would be theirs to rule again (only with the supervision of the Romans), they would have the monopoly of religious authority, and they would be the objects of glory, praise, and worship. Get rid of the vineyard owner’s heir, and the profits would be theirs alone.

The tenants acted quickly to kill the son. Likewise, when Jesus was telling the parable, it was this very week when Jesus was going to be crucified: this is a prophecy of His death. God, as we have seen is merciful, but He also demands respect. The vineyard owner expected his son to be respected. The son is one of authority, just like Jesus was far elevated above any of the prophets. As we know from Luke 3:22, God spoke from heaven, saying, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” Surely, in His power of the miracles He had shown Himself, yet the rulers of Israel held that to be of no significance.

Knowing that the event of the crucifixion had not yet happened, Jesus challenges the crowd: What will the owner of the vineyard do to them? This statement is in the future tense after the rest of the verbs in the parable were in the past tense. Jesus is making sure the people understood that this parable actually was in the process of happening. Then He answers His own question: “He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others.” He affirms that this event will come to pass. The fulfillment of this as we know was ascertained when Titus came and destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Even so, God held back His judgment for slightly over 37 years, in His longsuffering. God will only wait so long for repentance from His people.

Now the crowd listening answered “God forbid.” Let it never be so! Let us say if someone were to foresee that our own country was going to be laid desolate by a war with another nation. We would say the same thing: God forbid! We’re comfortable here, we do not do anything wrong. We’re the righteous and virtuous ones with our democracy, our values, and our rich heritage... never! Well, how much more right did Israel have to say such, being God’s chosen people in the Old Testament? God alone is the source of blessing, and there is nothing intrinsic about anyone to warrant blessing (in fact, the opposite is true).

God is patient toward our rebellion

1. God is a God of second, third, and fourth chances

2. God is a God of justice

The God of Warning

God is a God of warning. Think of how solemn this moment must have been, once the crowd started to quiet themselves. Jesus stopped, looked at them intently, and then said this:

“What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?”

We see here that God is a God of warning, and God warns us of judgment from His word. Then He continues speaking in verse 18:

“Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”

This stone is not a keystone for an arch, but it is a stone that would have bore the weight of two intersecting walls, so this is a very important stone. Verse 18 is a verse that is not mentioned by the other authors Matthew and Mark, but it is important because it puts things into perspective. Think of it this way, take a plate, or a glass, and drop it on a boulder. Will it not break? Now try it the other way around. Put the plate or the glass on the ground and now drop a boulder on it. Either way, it is bad for the plate. Jesus is telling them, and us in our modern world, that God’s judgment is certain.

Of course, the leaders that were there knew that they were talking about them, as we see in verse 19. It is interesting to see that if they knew that they were talking about them, and they saw what had happened throughout history as the prophets were being slain, why did they not recognize that, or at least examine themselves? But as Jesus said, they did fulfill their destiny, and they brought Him to the Romans and together put Jesus to death.

God is patient toward our rebellion

3. God is a God of warning.

What are we going to take away from this?

God, indeed, was patient toward our rebellion. Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:9, that “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

God is patient toward our rebellion.

We know this because:

1. God is a God of second, third, and fourth chances.

2. At the same time, God is a God of justice.

3. And because of this, God is a God of warning.

Now those events have long past, but we face something very similar today. God is still giving people today chance after chance. That includes us who believe, but it also pertains to the unbeliever. We know that God is also going to be just; there will be a time when He will say ‘Enough!’ and bring the world into judgment. And lastly, God has warned us that He is going to do this by His word. Likewise, we need to be that mouthpiece of God to the world. People need to hear that Jesus is the hope to be saved from everlasting judgment.