Jesus speaks the words of today's parable in response to a question that was put to Him by the Jewish religious leaders. The chief priests, scribes, and elders inquire of Jesus regarding His authority: "By what authority are you doing these things?" Jesus had just caused a disruption in the temple by chasing out the vendors of religious goods. He upset more than the tables of the merchants and money changers; He upset those who thought that they were in control of God's House as He quoted the Scripture "It is not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of robbers." They had turned the worship of God into a business and a rather profitable one at that. Now there steps a man into the holy courts with a message of repentance, calling on those who came to the temple to do more than pay their respects to God. He called them to give to God what was His!

The chief priests and scribes didn't like what they heard. They want to know who authorized Jesus to say these things and to behave as though the temple was His own house. Jesus answers their question about authority by telling them a parable. Now the parable of the wicked renters is based on today's Old Testament Reading from Isaiah 5 where God describes the people of Israel as the vineyard that the He had planted. The Old Testament Reading ends on a rather bitter note for that vineyard gets judged and destroyed. Those who heard Jesus tell the parable would have immediately recalled the imagery of Isaiah 5.

It is clear that Jesus' parable is a parable about the history of Israel. God is the landowner who planted and prepared the vineyard. He leased it out to renters who were to take care of it. The landowner dispatches servants to collect the rent, to bring back the owner's portion of the harvest. Those servants come back empty handed, bruised and beaten. They come back with black eyes and bloody and beaten. Some don't come back at all because the renters get so annoyed with these pesky collectors that they kill them. That doesn't stop the owner of the vineyard. He finally sends his son, reasoning that the renters will show respect for the son.

But the tenants have another notion. With perverted logic they reason amongst themselves "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours." And kill him they did. Tossed his lifeless corpse right out of that vineyard. By getting rid of the son they thought that the old man would leave them alone. That will teach him to try to collect rent from us! Now he'll know that we've taken care of the vineyard and it is ours now!

Not! The owner of the vineyard comes and he destroys those evil vinedressers and he turns the vineyard over to others. "Have you not read this Scripture?" says Jesus, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing. And it is marvelous in our eyes?"

Clearly Jesus is speaking of Himself. He is the son sent into the vineyard of Israel to be despised and rejected by those who think that they own the vineyard. He is the stone that the architects and builders of Israel reject as unusable in their building plans.

By what authority does Jesus do these things? By the authority that is His from the Father. By the authority that is His as the only begotten Son who comes to suffer and die to establish a vineyard for His Father.

By His cross and resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ has reclaimed the vineyard. God will get what belongs to Him. The Son who is murdered by those mutinous workers in the vineyard is resurrected in to reign in glory as Lord over His vineyard. The stone that is rejected is made to be the chief cornerstone-the block that holds up the building.

The vineyard belongs to God. By His grace, He has given us a place in His vineyard to live and to work, to bear fruit for Him. But there is also a warning in this parable to us who are the new Israel of God. To abuse the vineyard, if we treat it as though it were our property and not God's means that it will be taken from us and given to others.

That is what happened to the rebel renters in the parable. They forgot that they were tenants and not property owners and so they refused to render unto the owner what belonged to Him. Is that not a temptation that we face as well? We live in a culture that tells us that our bodies belong to us and that we can do with them as we please. So abortion and euthanasia are justified, as is sexual immorality. But you are not your own. The Lord who created you and redeemed you has claim on you. So the Apostle Paul writes "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you have been bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's'."

The Lord who has a claim on us as individuals has a claim on His body the church. It is not our church but the Lord's church. We are in his church solely by His grace through faith in Christ. Most of us were made members of His church before we could even realize what was happening to us as by water with the Word, the Lord adopted us into His family while we were still infants. We did not create the church and we certainly don't sustain it. It's the Lord's church and He builds it by His Word, by the washing of regeneration in Holy Baptism, and by His body and blood given us to eat and drink in His Supper. If we start thinking and living as though the church belongs to us and not to the Lord, it, like the vineyard will be taken from us and given to others.

By grace we have a place in the Lord's vineyard. He has called us by His Gospel to draw our life from His cross and so to live faithful and fruitful lives that give all glory and honor to Him. Amen.

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