well, i've never been so sure

& i've never led no one astray 

('cept in the fall of '94)

The holy Gospel according to St. Mark the 12th chapter!

We may not be residents of Missouri, but we’re all “show me” people…

That’s what’s so frightening about this novel coronavirus. Isn’t it? We can’t see it. You can be infected, but not show any signs. 

We are a people who trust our eyes, living in a time when our eyes fool us.

But, I want you to know that, that’s always been the case. In fact, seeing that we can’t trust our eyes, may actually help us see what’s God’s doing in our midst.

Because the truth is, today’s parable is about the folly of relying upon what you see.

And, not only is this true for the parable, it’s also true for you.

None of what’s about to happen will make any sense unless you close your eyes to everything else and set your heart on these words:

Here they are: In Jesus Christ everything IS actually taken care of. Right now. Not a week from some Tuesday, but now.

Now I know how hard these little words are to trust. You open your eyes and are bombarded with headlines and empty shelves. But, to trust what you see, is disastrous.

Isn’t that what Jesus is telling us in his parable today?

Jesus tells a parable about an owner, not tenants, who gets an entire vineyard operation up and running; planting vines, putting in the fence, digging the winepress and building the watchtower. 

Then, and only then, once everything is complete, does the owner lease the vineyard out to tenants. 

Tenants who, looking at this fully operational vineyard, only see work to do.

And, their ambition spoils a pretty good situation in short order…

At high-time, the owner sends a servant to collect a share of the produce.

The tenants, though, are so focused on their work they can only see the servant as an impediment to progress. So, to get back to work as quickly as possible, the tenants beat the servant and send them away empty-handed.

At this clear provocation, the owner doesn’t seem to see anything too troubling. Unconcerned the owner just sends another servant!

And again, the servant comes back empty-handed. Only this time the tenants escalate the situation; adding insult to the servant’s injury.

We’re all heard the saying; “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” So at this point we all know what the owner’s going to do; administer some swift justice. 

Maybe hire some toughs to kick the good-for-nothing tenants out. Or if that’s not the owner’s style, if the owner’s more refined than all that, maybe hire a lawyer and let the litigation begin.

Only that’s roundly not what the owner does! Instead, the owner just sends another servant! Just as unarmed and unhurried as the other two!

And as anyone who knows a thing or two about recidivism could have predicted, the tenants behave in the same way. They continue to escalate the situation. This time, they kill the servant.

The owner, though, seems to be unflappable! Instead of letting the tenants have it, the owner just keeps sending servants!

And they all meet the same fate. Some servants the tenants beat, and others they killed.

On and on this goes, until the owner finally tries something different!

Something foolishly different! 

This time the owner sends the beloved son. Assuming the tenants, who have not shown any respect to a single one of the owner’s servants yet, will finally show some to the beloved son.

Predictably, though, that’s not what happens. 

The tenants continue in their well-established pattern, killing the beloved son. Throwing his corpse outside the vineyard. Denying him a proper burial…

Now, for as plainly foolish as it was for the owner to send the beloved son. The tenants are just as, if not more, foolish to think that murdering the beloved son would land them the inheritance!

In my study I did actually learn that if someone died without an heir, their proceeds could go to those who had the nearest claim on it. Which may be what the tenants have in mind.

Only problem is, like all estates, the proceeds can only be distributed once the decedent is dead! Which, the owner plainly is not! Seeing as they are still living and breathing down the tenants’ necks!

And in the end that’s exactly what happens to the tenants’ foolish plan. It all amounts to nothing as the owner comes and puts the kibosh on the whole enterprise.

…COVID-19 is something of a living illustration of this parable. Isn’t it? 

Our refusal to stop is endangering us and everyone else, too.

Which is why something you may have never seen coming may happen, as this virus brings all our efforts to a halt, YOU may find yourself taking shelter in Jesus the rock in a weary land like ours right now!

To interpret this odd parable Jesus quotes Psalm 118; “The stone that the builders REJECTED.”

And builders ALWAYS do reject Jesus the rock of ages. Don’t they?

Those who can only see what needs to be done will always reject, always have no use for Christ the solid rock. Christ the rock who comes, telling us not what needs to done, but declaring from his cross-shaped throne, “it is finished!” Done! Complete!

…Now, if you think I’m playing fast and loose with today’s obviously troubling parable, take a look when Jesus tells it. 

At this point, he's already turned the tables. He’s already entered Jerusalem triumphantly. Palm Sunday has come and gone. This parable is told during Holy Week! Holy week when there’s literally nothing left to do, but wait for that first Easter morning!

This parable is about the sad and silly consequences of refusing to stop once when there’s literally nothing left to do anymore!

…Which is exactly where YOU stand this morning! This parable isn’t about theoretical tenants who won’t stop. It’s about us!

Coronavirus, or no. Either way, stopping is in store for us all!

Because here’s the deal, not only do you live well after that first Good Friday and Easter Sunday. You’ve also already been baptized into it! And now, the time doing a little more than what God has already done for you in Jesus Christ has come and gone!

You see, what you can’t see is what actually happened in your baptism. Our eyes told us was a hapless pastor and nervous parents were pouring a little water and saying some words over you. 

But, something much more dramatic actually happened; YOU died!

That’s what we say happened in baptism! You died.

But you didn’t die just any ol’ death, you died in Christ! (Rom. 6.4)

Way back in your baptism, God brought all your efforts, like the tenants’, to nothing! They were destroyed in your death in Christ!

…Now, you may have noticed I didn’t quote all the scripture Jesus used to interpret his plainly strange parable. Well, now that you’re good and dead, you finally ready to hear that all this is the Lord’s DOING! 

Not our doing, but the Lord’s DOING!

And it is amazing in our eyes, because you see, what you can’t see is that when you died in your baptism into Christ’s death, something else happened! Something you couldn’t see, but is nonetheless true; YOU were also raised with Christ! 

You are risen in Christ! Right now. You are not going to get more risen some day. You are fully risen with Christ right now!

And now, the life you live, is not your’s anymore! Now, it’s Christ’s! (Gal. 2.20)

Christ! Christ that sold rock!

In Christ the solid rock you stand. And sit. And sleep. And eat and breath. And everything else, too!

Now, your life, your death, and everything else too, is covered in what Jesus has promised you; life in him. This is true for you right now. Come hell or high water. Come COVID-19. Come quarantine. Come thin banks accounts and cancelled trips. It’s all your’s.

When you look around and all that you can see is a world falling apart and work to be done. Close your eyes and rest in these words. Paul said them nearly two-thousand years ago. They haven’t failed to prove true in all those years, and I don’t suppose they’ll start now:

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? If is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? If is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, of famine, or nakedness, or peril, os sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor lie, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:31-39)

Rest in these words. They're the truest thing about you.