Sending Everyone

The Lord is bound and determined to have fruit from his vineyard, even at the cost of the Son's life, and the Spirit's work in resurrecting dead tenants to become something new.

Transcript

There’s an old movie starring Jean Reno and a very young Natalie Portman called “the professional.” Near the end the organization of a corrupt drug enforcement agent, played by Gary Oldman, is being apart man by man. Realizing he might be about to lose all his agents, Oldman grabs the man beside him and says “Manny, bring me everyone.” The man replies, “What do you mean, everyone?” Oldman’s character screams into his face: “EVERYONE!” It was an improvised scene, but it perfectly captured the idea of throwing everything you’ve got at a problem.

The Lord has tried many ways to get our attention. He did it through the flood of Noah, by confusing our languages at the tower of Babel, he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he rescued his people and drowned the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, and he sent his own people into exile when they refused to keep his covenant with them. Nothing seems to work on the hard hearts of humanity.

Now, at long last, he throws the ONE THING he hasn’t yet: His Son. “Perhaps they will respect him,” he thinks. Perhaps, meaning there’s a fifty-fifty chance. It may work, it may not. But he’s throwing everyone at the problem. There will be nothing left to give.

It does seem rather brutal, though, that the Father would risk the Son’s life on a “perhaps.”  Surely he knows there’s a good chance this is not going to work. And what does the Son think about this plan?

We live in a highly individualistic world where everyone is a free agent.  It’s hard to conceive of a world where it was “all for one and one for all.” The Son going is as if the Father himself went!

There is a bad way of talking about how Jesus has saved us all. Maybe you’ve heard it before. The Father is really angry about sin.  The Son takes the Father’s wrath and anger in our place. He’s a divine “whipping boy.” The Father then says, “I got that out of my system, now I can forgive sinners.”

Does this parable sound like that to you? It doesn’t to me. The family wants their due from their vineyard. Who is the Father angry with? The tenants! Who treats the Son shamefully? The tenants! Who still needs to be dealt with at the end of the parable? The tenants! The Father doesn’t send the Son as a substitute in this way. He sends him in the hopes he will be respected. 

It might even seem like the Father has less reason to forgive the tenants now that they have killed his son. He might have more wrath against their misbehaviour, not less. After all, he still is not getting fruit from his vineyard – and now his Son has been killed!

We cannot and should not pit one member of the godhead against another. If we do, we have three gods, not one. There is only ONE Divine Will, not Three. The Father can’t want one thing, the Son another, and the Spirit split the difference. 

The will of God is to see the vineyard bear fruit. Everyone is involved in solving the problem. First, God sends the prophets. Then, they get involved personally. The Father is involved by giving up his Son on a fifty-fifty chance. The Son is involved by going and ending up giving up his life. The Spirit is involved by dwelling in our broken and black hearts. 

What is the goal of throwing everyone at the problem? What is the problem? The problem is fruit! God isn’t getting any from his vineyard! Why else would you plant a vineyard except to get grapes?

How are they going to get fruit now, having thrown everyone at the problem? They need new tenants. That could mean literally replacing the old ones with new ones. Or it could mean making the old ones into new ones. 

What did the Lord speak through Isaiah? “Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters (the Exodus); “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” (sending prophets) Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (sending the Son).” 

“The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,  the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. (Animals of chaos – the chaos of our hearts – tamed by this new thing).”

Consider Paul:  “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:  circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;  as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” He knew who he was in the vineyard! He was a somebody. A somebody, who killed the heir to get the inheritance. He was one of the “old tenants” who needed to die.

“But whatever gain I had,” Paul wrote, “I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. “ The old tenant becomes the new one who will bear fruit to the Lord!  He killed the Son, and now he receives the inheritance! But not the way he was expecting. He receives it by faith, trust and love of the Son who he rejected, by life in the Spirit who has announced that he is God’s Son.

Luther explained it all this way in his hymn, “Dear Christians One and All Rejoice.” “He spoke to his belovèd Son: "It's time to have compassion. Then go, bright jewel of my crown, and bring to all salvation. From sin and sorrow set them free; slay bitter death for them that they may live with you forever."

God looked at the problem of a fruitless desert of grapeless vines, people without any fruit of the Spirit, and grieved. The Father looks at the Son in the Spirit, and the Lord says, “I’ve sent everyone. Now I’m sending you.” Amen.