Sermon April 5-6, 2025

Title: Sons and daughters of the Lamb!

Text: Luke 20:9-20

Facebook live: Sons and daughters of the Lamb!

13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ 14 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.’ 15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

As we begin, I’d like you to think about someone else.
Someone who you know or knew.
Someone that you maybe even love.
Someone who has fallen victim to some sin or addiction.
You’ve tried to help. You’ve talked to them, prayed for them, and probably did many things to help but … nothing seemed to work.

I know a few and I’m sure you do too.
You’ve tried to get them therapy, bring in professionals, and even engaged others to help.
Nothing’s worked.
Some have even been hurt, emotionally or physically.
Do you give up? How far do you go? When is enough?

If we look at the parable that Jesus is telling in our gospel through the lens of today, maybe in a sense, we can see a contemporary example of the vineyard and the tenants.

Last Sunday afternoon, I took a ride with my friend Bow to Midland as he did a home inspection for a friend of ours.

On the way home we talked about houses, values, maintenance and the problem of renting and renters.

He told me on a friend of his who some years ago had bought a small house to fix up and rent out. He did some work himself and hired others, painted it, put in new carpet, appliances, and fixtures and rented it out hoping to have a small income from it for his future. When he rented it, he got a small security deposit and first month’s rent.

That was the last payment the renters made.

It took him quite a long while and even through the police and courts to get the renters evicted, and when he did and got the house back after they were removed, he found the house in shambles.

There were holes in the walls.
Every fixture was broken off.
Animals had ruined the carpets.
What had been fixed up nice with hard work and money was now destroyed and unlivable.

He closed the door and left to drive home, I’m sure thinking of all he had done and lost. When they found his car, he was still in the driver’s seat parked in a lot having died of a heart attack.

The tenants having in a sense killed him.

Jesus, brings to the ears of his hearers, a similar story of a home that others were living in and caring for.

“A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while.

The perfect creation had been broken, but the owner of the vineyard had gathered his children into a promised land and had planned for their rescue.

Until the proper time they were to care for this vineyard of his, that had been provided.
It could be a long while before he returns.
They seemed unconcerned and unaware.

The owner desired to see what was his and how it was cared for, and to receive, as it were, some fruit from what had been planted there.

Those whom he sent to get what was his were beat, and treated poorly, wounded, and cast out, and no fruit was found or given by those in care of the vineyard.

13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’

14 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.’

Those in the vineyard didn’t listen to the owner and what he desired.
They didn’t listen to the servants that were sent.
Or, to the prophets who spoke the words of the owner to them.
They didn’t even listen to their own conscience.
Or even to the son, whom the owner thought they might respect.
What was sent in a sense, had been destroyed.

Friends, this more than a history lesson.
Those who heard the parable from Jesus had to know the story.

In chapter 5 of the book of Isaiah, God had told a story of a vineyard that He had built and how he had taken care of it, looking for a yield of grapes.

A vineyard was on a very fertile hill.
It was dug and cleared of stones, and planted with choice vines;
a watchtower was in the midst of it, as was a wine vat
and the owner of the vineyard looked for it to yield grapes

… but it only yielded wild grapes.

What else could I do he asks?

“I gave the vineyard everything and it only yielded wild grapes!”

So He makes this statement.
“I will remove the hedge from my vineyard and let it be overrun. I will break down its wall allowing it to be trampled becoming waste. No longer will I pruned or hoe it and briers and thorns shall overtake it and rain will no longer fall on it.” Isaiah 5:1-6 paraphrased

Those hearing Jesus, knew the history.
It is good to know the past, for you, and for me too.
Many times, it is good to learn from it and at times not repeat it.
For we are tenants of the Lord’s creation as well, the past is now - and the owner expects his fruit.
Not an earthly fruit as some might expect, but an eternal fruit fitting of the Lord’s creation.
He has sent his son.

14 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.’ 15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

The story is a serious reminder for us all.
The story is then and the story is now.
Unfortunately, the problem remains.

16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” 17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?

Jesus was talking again to the Scribes and the Pharisees. They had abused the vineyard, and had not provided the fruit the owner desired or expected.

But, what about you and me?
Have we been better at caring for what we have been entrusted with?
When the owner returns what will he find?

18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

That is the Law.

 
The Law condemns and gives no hope.
Apart from Christ you can do nothing, and only expect nothing.
So, we hear how the Pharisees responded:

19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. 20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

This might have worked if he were just a man.

But we too, as they, have an invitation from the Lord. To bear fruit in keeping with repentance. What has been given into our care must bear fruit.

The gift we receive is not from an ordinary man, at all.
God himself, is the one who moves in our lives.
He calls us to faith in his blessed son and through that gift we receive the kingdom.
He marks us as his in baptism.

He calls us to follow him - and to be blessed with the work that God in Christ does in each one of us by his word and through his Spirit, and through that to receive the promise he has secured, by faith.

By faith the promises of God are ours!

When we think of the natural branches, and the destroying of those tenants, and the giving of the vineyard to others - we must not be blind to the expectation of the Lord. To bear fruit!

He desires that we who have been grafted in, to bear fruit and to tend his vineyard well.

He has given us the call to follow him and the blessing of knowing that he will grow, and bear fruit in each one of us.

We should also realize how broken and unworthy we truly are to understand the price God paid for your redemption, and mine - and just how truly precious you are in his sight.

So, as we return to the opening premise.

Those we’ve tried to help. How far do you go? When is enough?

The joy is that Christ desires all to be saves and he has paid the price for all.

So, our Lord will not give up on us, and will continue to seek and save the lost. And will continue to seek those we love and witness too as well.

That is his promise.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen

And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in and through Christ Jesus our Lord Savior now and forever. Amen

Modified: Concordia Pulpit Francis Rossow 1976

Sermon April 2, 2025 – Lent 5

Title: Following Jesus, Our Greatest Giver

Text: John 19:25-27

 
Facebook live: Following Jesus in Loving care for family

25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

Following Jesus in Loving care for family

 
Here's a question for you: “What is the best gift God has given you?”
I suppose just about all of you are thinking,
“Well, that's easy; it's Jesus and His salvation.”
Or, “It's everlasting life in Jesus Christ.”

 
Hopefully we're all agreed on that. But let me ask another:

“Following the obvious one, Jesus and His gift of everlasting life, what would you say is the next best gift God has given you?”

I'm guessing many of you, probably most of you, are thinking about your family.

Unless some terrible and painful thing has happened to ruin relationships in your family, or some other extraordinary circumstances have disrupted things, you likely love your family members more than anyone else besides the Lord Himself.

And that's not a bad thing.

The Lord teaches us to love Him most of all, and then to love our neighbor as ourselves. And our family members are, after all, our closest neighbors. So, it is good and right and natural for us to love our family

This, of course, is exactly what our Lord Jesus was doing as He spoke to His mother and the beloved disciple from the cross.

Our Lord was showing loving care for His family – most directly for His mother, yet also for His entire extended family, as well.

Even in the midst of the anguish of His crucifixion, Jesus was concerned about the wellbeing of others, including His mother.

“Woman, behold, your son!” Mary was to regard this disciple, whom we understand to be John Zebedee, as her own son. Then He says to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” So, John was to regard Mary as his own mother.

Jesus said these things because He was concerned for the proper care of His mother after His death, resurrection, and ascension.

You see, as the oldest son of the family, it was His responsibility to care for her.

So, Jesus designated John to take His place in this, so as to assure she would have someone reliable to protect her and provide for her bodily and spiritual needs in the years to come.

Of course, He could have made provision for one of His half brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, or Judah, to care for Mary. But at that point they did not believe in Him. (Jn. 7:5)

Now, thankfully, Jesus' death and resurrection made the difference, and at some point, before Pentecost His brothers became part of the company of believers (Acts 1:14).

Yet Jesus knew the beloved disciple was the best choice to take care of her in body and soul.

So that's what John did.

“From that hour the disciple took her into his own home.”

John undoubtedly took good care of Mary, and she surely treated him with kind and grateful devotion as a loving adopted mother. Jesus made sure all would turn out for the blessing of both Mary and John

He also made sure all would turn out for our blessing, as well.

For our Lord's loving care for His mother was part of what we call His active obedience for us.

In other words, as Jesus kept the Fourth Commandment perfectly, honoring His mother as all of us should honor our parents, He did so as our Substitute, on our behalf. And His obedience counts for us. God gives us credit for what His Son did in loving care for Mary.

Yet in addition to that, as Jesus hung on the cross and lovingly cared for His family even in the midst of great suffering, He extended His supreme love to all of us. For Jesus chose to remain on that cross and bear the punishment for all our sin.

Jesus took the full penalty of sin in our place so that we do not have to endure it.
Because He hung on the cross and died for us, we are fully forgiven.
The guilt of our sin is entirely removed, so that God regards us as pure and clean and holy in His sight.
For the sake of Jesus' atoning passion, God now accepts all of us who trust in Him as His own dear children. We “are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Gal. 3:26

And if God has forgiven us and accepted us as His children, that gives us the status of brothers and sisters of Christ.

Jesus Himself said as much:

“Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matt. 12:50)

And we know our Father's will is that we believe in His Son and receive His gift of everlasting life! (Jn. 6:40)


And Jesus continues His loving care for us and all His family to this day.
He is constantly by our side.
He provides for all our needs of body and soul.
He protects us. He forgives us.
He guides us in His ways by His word. Jesus calms our fears and dries our tears. He comforts and cheers us and fills us with hope.
He hears our prayers and answers them for our good.
Every moment of every day Jesus loves us unconditionally as His own dear family
And we all know our Lord Jesus wants us to follow His example in loving care for our families.

When I asked you before about God's best gifts, I mentioned that, after Jesus and His gift of everlasting life, many of us would name our family as the next best gift.

And our family really is a gift from God, isn't it?
You didn't choose your parents or siblings. God gave them to you, and you to them.

And even though God may have used you as instruments in the creation of your children, you didn't make them. God made them, and He entrusted them to you to take care of them for a little while.

This is especially obvious in the case of adopted children.

In the same way, your spouse is a gift from God.

Of course, we give our willing consent when God joins us together as husband and wife, but He is the One who provided that husband or wife for us, and united us as one.

Because God has given us our family, He expects us to take good care of them.

That's why He gave the Fourth Commandment:

“Honor your father and your mother,”

which not only includes obedience, service, and respect while children are young and living at home, but also loving respect and service to parents when they are older and in need of help, just as our Lord did for His mother.

We heard that in our reading from 1 Timothy 5, that we are to repay our parents and grandparents for what they did for us, by caring for them in their senior years, and that we are to provide for those in our own household.

All this is practicing good stewardship of the families God has entrusted to us.
The Ruth narrative gives us some good examples.
Ruth cared for Naomi, her widowed mother-in-law, and was loving and loyal to her by remaining with her when she returned to her home.
Naomi for her part cared for Ruth, who was also a widow, and helped her get a good husband.
Boaz married Ruth and took good care of her.

They all showed what it looks like to provide loving care to family.

So, when we provide for the bodily needs of our family members; when we are loyal to them and protect them; when we give them proper honor and respect, actually listen to them, and speak to them kindly;

when we are concerned for their emotional wellbeing;
when we teach and lovingly discipline children;
when we guide and encourage them in the Lord, pray with them and for them, and attend the services of the Lord's house together;
when we work and play with them, and spend time together –
when we care for our families like this, we are following our Lord Jesus.

Now, if we love our families the way we think we do, it shouldn't be that hard to care for them the way our Lord wants us to.

Yet we often have trouble with this, don't we?

Sometimes we're rude or short-tempered or even negligent. And we know the reason why – because of our inborn sinfulness, which is always selfish.

Yet in the Lord Jesus, we can do what He calls us to do.

So, friends let no selfishness or personal ambition keep you from this.

Let no grudge from past hurts or offenses, no laziness, no misplaced priorities of worldliness or materialism prevent you from serving your family in keeping with God's word.

Rather, learn from Jesus, and, by the power of His forgiving grace, follow His example of loving care for your family

In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen