From Whence Comes Authority: A Meditation on Luke 20 for the 5th Sunday in Lent

Then began he to speak to the people this parable;

A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen,

and went into a far country for a long time.

And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen,

 that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard:

but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty.

And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also,

and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty.

And again he sent a third:

and they wounded him also, and cast him out.

Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do?

I will send my beloved son: it may be

they will reverence him when they see him.

 But when the husbandmen saw him,

they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir:

 come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.

So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?

 He shall come and destroy these husbandmen,

and shall give the vineyard to others.

And when they heard it, they said, God forbid.

And he beheld them, and said,

What is this then that is written,

The stone which the builders rejected,

the same is become the head of the corner?

Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken;

but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour

sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people:

for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them.

 

Luke 20 opens with a challenge from the chief priests, scribes, and elders (those in charge of public worship for the Jewish people) regarding what authority Jesus had to be publicly teaching and performing miracles.  Because Jesus was not certified, trained, or otherwise credentialed by the Jewish authorities, the leaders who were, wanted to put Jesus to public shame.  Of course, the formal Jewish leaders were also afraid of popular uprisings that might challenge their control, or bring the wrath of the occupying Romans upon them, so Jesus was certainly not the first person they confronted for publicly teaching.  They had also confronted John the Baptist before his imprisonment and martyrdom at the hands of Herod, and Jesus used that against them, because He knew that the Jewish leaders wanted the people’s good will, and the people knew John was a Prophet sent from God.  Jesus also used this opportunity to teach the religious leaders that true authority comes from God alone, and that they would all be held accountable for how they received the Word of God from the Prophets He had sent to them.

 

The story of the vineyard Jesus used in this parable has both familiar and unfamiliar overtones to modern ears.  The Lord of the Vineyard was the land owner, who had legitimate authority over that land and that vineyard, because he was the one who invested in it.  He hired the laborers to manage it, and was entitled to receive the fruit in due season as payment against his investment.  If the land owner was to die, the property would fall by inheritance to his son, but the employees had no entitlement to the property by inheritance law.  What transpired in the story seems almost garish—the tenant farmers and vinedressers refused to give the fruit of the land to the land owner, going so far as to abuse and kill the emissaries sent to them.  Eventually, the tenets concoct an irrational plan that if they can kill the land owner’s heir, they can seize the property away from the owner someday.  Their greed, deceit, theft, and murder was met with just condemnation, and the vineyard was given to others who would heed the word of the land owner and be faithful in their labors.  Justice was served upon the unjust who scorned the mercy and grace of their employer, and grace was given to others who would keep it by faithful service.

 

The Jewish authorities rightly perceived that Jesus had spoken this against them, but we can hear this parable spoken to every self-entitled religious leader (or any leader, for that matter) ever since.  It is God alone who creates, sustains, and redeems the world by His Word, and there is no legitimate authority apart from Him.  Those who think they can go to war with God and refuse Him the fruits of faith which are the just and natural outgrowth of the grace He has given them, reflected in the world of neighbors He has set them within to work, are even more irrational than the greedy vinedressers.  No one is entitled to the grace of God, or to be His workmen, or even to the life they could not give themselves.  The grace of God which creates us, sustains us, and redeems us, is a gift beyond measure or price:  we could not earn it, we do not deserve it, and there’s no way we could take it by our own power or manipulation.  Like breath itself, our lives and our duties before God come to us by His Word, and it is by His Word that we live, and move, and have our being.  God’s Word alone is the ultimate authority in all creation, and the basis upon which all other authority in the world is rightly derived.  What we do with, or how we receive those who bear the Word of God to us, reflects far more about us than it does God, and in light of that Word we can only have two conclusions:  we either live by grace through faith in the Word of God forever, or we are condemned to eternal perdition as unbelieving and unfaithful stewards.

 

To those who reject the Word of God, this is a rightfully terrifying teaching of Jesus.  To live in open rebellion against the source and summit of all life, is to embrace the path of death, and so evil minds wrapped in delusional irrationality use what little life and power they have to wage war against the King of the Universe.  There will be no escape for these souls when the He returns, either at the End of Days or the end of their personal days, and all the schemes of evil demons and men will fall before the King of Glory.  But for those who will hear Him and trust Him, His Word brings a sure and certain hope—for just as no evil scheme can be victorious over God Almighty, so neither will any such scheme be victorious over the people of God.  If the Word of God’s Law is truly inescapable for those who reject Him, so the Word of God’s Grace is unassailable for all those who put their trust in Him.  When Jesus comes to us and speaks His Word of forgiveness, life, and salvation for the sake of His Vicarious Atonement and His victory over sin, death, hell, and the devil, we know that His Word of Love and Grace cannot be taken from us by any power of any creature in heaven, or earth, or hell.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, because the only true authority in the cosmos has spoken it to us by His Word, and there is none who can overthrow Him.

 

Hear the Word of the Lord come to you again this day, as it came in the faithful testimonies of the Prophets and the Apostles who bore witness to the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ.  If you have deluded yourself into thinking you can win a war of rebellion against the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth, hear the Law strip you of your pretensions and clear your befuddled mind before it is too late.  Then hear the Word of Gospel grace that comes to you as love and compassion, forgiveness and mercy, all for Jesus’ sake.  Let the glories of that grace fill your heart and mind with the heart and mind of Jesus, that you might rise up in His image, and bear the fruits of faith in your service of God and neighbor, wherever the Lord has placed you in His vineyard.  For the Word of the Lord endures forever, as do all those who put their faith in Him.  Amen.