"What on Earth did we do wrong?"

by Revd Bruce Waldron - 2nd October 2005

Readings :
Ex 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 The Ten Commandments
Matt 21 33-46 Jesus parable about the wicked tenants

In some of the very oldest fragments of Matthew's Gospel, dating from the 3rd and 4th Centuries, v44 is missing. It appears in a number of the surviving 5th Century copies and seems to be more common in the copies of the gospel after that date. It probably wasn't part of the original writer's work. So when I'm looking at this passage, I'm not going to be dealing with v44.

Jesus has just told a parable about how a man lets out his vineyard to tenants who won't pay the rent, who beat up his messengers and kill his son. Their punishment is eviction and death. Now, when the Chief Priests and Pharisees heard this parable about the wicked tenants of the vineyard, they weren't exactly delighted with the analogy. They thought it meant them. It probably did.

The Vineyard is a traditional symbol of Israel. The tenants who beat up the messengers are obviously the leaders, and the people, who have a history of killing off prophets. Now, they are going to be thrown out, and that implies the current leadership, and the system they support. So the Chief Priests and Pharisees are a bit put out, in fact they are very, very put out. So much so, Matthew tells us, that they plot Jesus death.

But in a way, you can understand them asking the question "Why is Jesus saying these things? What are we supposed to have done wrong? We didn't kill the prophets. We didn't commit the sins of Ahab and Manasseh and Amon. We didn't split the nation up. We don't worship Baal. We've kept the commandments. What does he think we are doing wrong? Why is he pointing the finger at us?"

But its their own reaction that does the condemning. Their response is to plot to kill. There is something utterly wrong with that reaction which points to a deep flaw in their supposed godliness.
The planning of destruction and annihilation of another, and the hatred that this denotes, is evidence of a huge distance from God's will, however much it might be dressed up in a façade of righteousness.

It's a nice co-incidence that today's Hebrew Scripture reading is the Ten Commandments, If obedience to the Ten Commandments was what God was looking for, these people have made a profession out of keeping them. They've spent their lives analysing them, trying to work out what each commandment meant. They dissected them and worked out clauses and sub-clauses, figuring out precisely how the commandments should be done.

They were incredibly exact about it. Sabbath observance meant not working but what was work? To go for a stroll across the common wasn't work, but if you took a load of wood across with you that was.
If you cooked, that was work but if you prepared the meal the day before and just put it in the oven, that wasn't work. They defined it, so they knew how to keep the commandments, and they were really careful about keeping the commandments, and came down on anyone who didn't.

So what was wrong? Why did Jesus tell stories that cast them as the wicked tenants when they spent their whole lives being righteous?

We need to understand what the Commandments were for. They were a gift of God, a living code that would allow people to live in harmony and respect for each other. They were a sign of God's care for the people, giving them a way of living together that would reflect God's love for them.

So fulfilling the Ten Commandments wasn't just about getting it legally right. It was about a response of thanks and love, and a life of respect and care and faith. If you make your spouse an early morning cuppa as a sign of love, it isn't about getting the precise amount of tea and milk right, its about the love that gets you out of bed to get the cuppa. That's what makes the cuppa taste nicest. That's what counts, and the love with which it is received

The use of the law had become a means of power, as conscious self-righteousness can so often be, rather than an expression of love. The evil that lay behind the use of the law was exposed by the murderous intent. The wrong intent had perverted the use of the law, so that it became exactly what it wasn't intended for.

Without God's love, the law was not only useless, it was a wicked parody of God's intention. Without God's love, God's will cannot be done. Not even if it's dressed up in Christian clothes. Sometimes its hard to tell which is the real thing and which is the parody. Not so much just in others, but also in ourselves.

These people, it seems, had got the law really tight, but they'd missed its point entirely. That comes through in almost every page of the gospels.
As Jesus once said to them, 'You've strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel.' Or to put it in English, 'You've strained out a midgee and swallowed a Suffolk Punch.'

And for some reason, they just couldn't see the point. Perhaps power, and fear of losing it, had got in the way. But Jesus wept over these people. He still loved them, even when they put him to death. His whole life showed what God's spirit is all about, and it was exactly the opposite of those who so assiduously kept the rules.

As Paul says in the seventh chapter of his letter to the Roman Christians, it isn't that the law is evil, but sin comes even through the law. As a one time Pharisee, he tells us in Romans 7, it was precisely in pursuing the law that he experienced the very thing the law was condemning. When Paul discovered the grace and love of Christ directed at him, his whole understanding of life, and of the law, changed. And so did he.

These people Jesus is addressing, have got the building stones, all of them, but they've rejected the cornerstone of it all. And without that, the building will fall down. The love of God that stands behind the law and the prophets; that is the cornerstone, that Jesus personifies, and calls us to also personify. The rules are useless without grace.

This Christ-like love is a gift from God. It longs for the best from all people. It longs for healing, for renewal for all people, and lives and dies in that endeavour. And it comes out of communion with God, not out of human natural affection.

This cornerstone is what we are called to hold to. It is this, upon which the whole Christian life is built, as a church, or as a family, or as an individual.