Luke 20:9-20
Respect
We all have people that if they asked us to do something, we would do it without question. We know them well enough; we trust them; we respect them that we know whatever they ask us is worth listening to or doing. This is an especially good trait for those who are leaders, bosses, or simply those who oversee other people. This was something I learned about leadership. There are many different ways to lead, but not all of them work in every situation. You can lead from the front, that is, lead by example. You show what you want others to do by doing it first yourself. This is good for building trust and getting people to follow you. Another way is to lead from behind. You delegate tasks by telling people where to go and what to do. This is effective on big projects because you may not have time to show everyone how to get something done by example. Rather, you lean on your authority and the trust you have built with others. The last kind of leadership is leading from the side. You minimize yourself as leader by getting down and dirty in the work with everyone else. It’s perhaps the best way to get to know those who follow you. With all that said, you might think that there’s a right way and wrong way to lead… and in many situations, this is true. But overall, every type of leadership depends on one thing… respect. Without respect, leadership falls apart. It won’t matter whether you lead from front, back, or side. Respect means that people will listen to you, obey you and your authority, and trust you.
Now, consider our Gospel lesson today as we see some questionable leadership in Jesus’ parable. While numerous of the servants get beaten and tossed aside, every one of them still goes. But then we have the crux of the story when the vineyard owner sends his son. For let us learn:
BY RESPECTING THE SON, WE SHARE IN HIS INHERITANCE!
I.
Of all the parables Jesus tells us, this is one that is fairly straight forward. We know the intended interpretation because those who it’s about get it right away. Parables are stories with either a single layer of comparison or multiple. In this case, there’s really just two points of comparison. The tenants who the owner loans the vineyard out to are the ancient people of Israel, or the religious leaders even in Jesus’ day too. The owner is God, and the servants are the prophets. Jesus is simply retelling Israel’s history in a short story. It doesn’t matter how many prophets God sent to his people; the end of their story was always the same, as we read, “When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed,” Luke 20:10. Israel repeatedly killed the prophets in an attempt to silence them, so they wouldn’t call out the people’s sins and all the ways they had rejected God. But God would also keep sending other prophets. Hence the cycle of three servants with ever worsening results.
For we might ask why the master kept sending these servants or why the servants willingly go if they know what the outcome is going to be? I mean, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But that isn’t really the point. The emphasis is of course on the response of the tenants to these servants, or “messengers” of God. This is where the story takes a weird turn, in human terms. After the third servant, the owner says, “What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours,” Luke 20:13-14. Indeed, we know the rest of the story just as Jesus did. These tenants, ancient Israel, would disrespect the Son and seek to put him to death. They would believe that if the son, the heir of the kingdom would be killed, then the kingdom would be theirs. But disrespect is meet with only one outcome… condemnation. “He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others,” Luke 20:16. This much hasn’t changed. Disrespect for the Son in any generation is meet with God’s righteous condemnation.
II.
Now what does this all mean for us, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ? For our story begins far after the vineyard has been taken from its original tenants. You see, if we’re part of this story, then we would be those other tenants to whom the Lord has given the vineyard. By faith alone, we return to the Lord the fruit of his vineyard. We respect his Son by listening to his Word, following his command, and trusting in his direction. Indeed, we too at times show disrespect through our sins, but we see that our Lord is gracious. He willingly sends us yet others to call us to repentance as is right for us to do. For so, Jesus quotes, “What then is this that is written: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?” Luke 20:17. Christ is our cornerstone. It’s respect for Jesus and his word that enables us to be built up into one body. For we may not always understand God’s word. We may not always understand God’s reasoning for what he commands, however, we’re to trust and respect him that he knows what’s best for us.
We can’t inherit paradise and at the same time disrespect Jesus. These two are mutually exclusive. It’s only through Jesus that we gain our inheritance. It’s only through respecting the Son that we too may share in the inheritance of heaven. For God has sent his Son to win back our respect, knowing full well that his own people would reject him, even put him to death. But the Son goes willingly for us that he may die on the cross. Jesus allows himself to be disrespected so that he may bear our burdens, our sins, our punishment. He leads us in the path we’re to walk so that we may now walk it too. Yes, Jesus goes before us to show us the way. He goes behind us to encourage us. He also walks beside us that we may never be alone. This is why Paul and every servant of God can say, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,” Philippians 3:8.
As Jesus comes to us now, may we respect him and his word. For God has given the vineyard, his kingdom to us that we may yield a rich harvest and so return to him the fruits of faith. By this faith, God has made us co-heirs with Christ that we may even inherit eternal life! In Jesus’ name! Amen!