Pastor Slaughter
October 8, 2023
Pentecost 19
God’s Extraordinary Patience
Text: Matthew 21:33-44
Patience. Patience is a virtue. We hear that expression often. We want patience and want it now. And when we face those situations where God is teaching us to practice, we just want it to be over. God give me patience without having to experience that situation. The world recognizes this is a good thing as well. Good things come to those who wait. However can you be too patient? Can being patient with someone be a bad thing?
When we look at God and see the patience he illustrates in our parable for today, we could wonder the same thing, “Is God too patient?” But when I look at God’s patience and compare his patience with mine, I am thankful. I am thankful he is not like me. Because I loose my patience at times probably too quickly. When I am tired from work and lack of sleep and come home and kids seem like they drank a 5 hr energy drink, and its time to settle down for supper. Yeah… admittedly I have lost my patience a time or two.
When we look at God’s extraordinary patience, we really see the heart of God. It astounds me that when I examine my life in light of God’s law, the extraordinary patience of our God and the forgiveness he has given time and time again. The heart of faith holds on to that truth. But God’s patience can be taken another way, as permissiveness to sin. Because God hasn’t done anything when I sinned, I guess it is ok too keep on sinning. That stems from a heart of the unbelieving Pharisee. There is a strong warning in our parable of God’s judgment when his patience does come to end. Today we are going to look at God’s extraordinary patience.
Jesus was addressing the chief priests and the Pharisees in our parable for today. They were jealous of all the attention Jesus was getting. Earlier, Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. His popularity and fame grew. They couldn’t deny his miracles. And yet their hearts were so blinded they were looking for a way to arrest him.
And so Jesus uses a parable to demonstrate God’s patience and to give a stern warning to their unrepentant hearts. In the parable you have a landowner who did all the work. He planted a vineyard and put a fence around it to protect it. He dug a winepress in it, and he even built a watchtower. He did all the work necessary to have a successful business and then he gives that blessing to some tenant farmers. He took care of the upfront cost, all of the work that went in it, what a blessing to be able to rent that vineyard.
Then the landowner went away on a journey. The time came to harvest the fruit. He sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fair share of the fruit. The tenants thought it would be a good idea too beat one servant, kill another, and stoned the third. I wonder what they were thinking. It’s like “Hey, this is a nice piece of land. We want to keep it so lets kill this guys servants. He will get the picture.”
What would you do at this point if you were the landowner? The landowner demonstrates patience and the Bible says, “Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way.”A refusal to listen to the servants is really a refusal to listen to the landowner.
The Pharisees and the chief priest wanted to act on their own terms. Jesus is calling them out on their refusal to listen to God’s messengers and therefore a refusal to listen to God. It’s like they wanted to be the bosses of their lives and ignore everything God said to them. Acting on their own terms. Refusing to listen to God’s Word.
It’s almost like you see them spiral down in our lesson. You have the tenant farmers not only beat, killed and stoned the first group but they did it again with the second group of servants. What would you think if you were the tenant? He hasn’t done anything to us yet, so we must be in the right. It’s like they are taking the land owners patience and using it as permission to sin. If he hasn’t done anything to us, we must be getting what we want.
This attitude is scary not only there is a refusal to listen to God’s Word but then using his patience as permission to sin. This happens when Satan wants to blind us to sin in our lives. Where we think the sin we go back to again again isn’t a big deal. Satan whispers, its ok for me to sin today because I will stop tomorrow. Satan blinds us to sin, by making it seem like it is a good idea at the time. He appeals to our sinful nature tempting us with its desires. This vineyard is yours just take it. And when we give into sin and don’t see the consequences for our actions do we turn God’s patience and use it as permission to sin? This makes me feel good and I don’t see any consequence, therefore I will continue in it.
What is too sad about this is that we forget all of the blessings that God has given to us. In the parable you have all the upfront cost of the owner. All the work that goes in it. You see how the tenants are walking into a great blessings. And that is the blessing God gives us upfront but when we use God’s patience as permissiveness to sin we are ignoring this blessing and it’s tragic.
Back to the parable. Often times the most farfetched thing in the parable is the most important part. At this point in the parable I would have sent the swat or something. But the landowner shows patience, sends his says thinking, “They will respect my son.” This is the kind of respect that you have for someone like how you might respect your grandfather and you would be devastated if he found you did something wrong. But what happened? The tenants killed the son and said, “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!” The tenants had no respect for the son. Why? Because they were taking Good’s patience as permissiveness, because they rejected the words spoken by his servants.
The Pharisees were doing that. They rejected the prophets that came before that pointed to Jesus. They were taking God’s patience as permissiveness to sin and that led them to disrespecting the Son of God and looking for a way to kill him. Jesus warns them of a time when God’s patience will run out. “This is why I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruit. Whoever falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
What makes us different then the Pharisees? A heart of faith and how that heart of faith responds to the Son and his messengers. I listened to a podcast on this lesson. And he made the point that Jesus breaks away from the image of the parable. You see God not so much as investor who is after his profit but more of a Father who is after his children. He wants the tenants. He wants to have a relationship with him. This patience goes beyond to the point of recklessness. Willing to risk and give up everything for them.
That is what we see God do. We have a God who was willing to give up everything for us. I will empty my heart to give my very Son so that I may have a relationship with you. And God blesses us with ambassadors, people who share God’s Word with us. Pastors, people in our lives, friends’ family, children to share with us God’s precious truth.
When we hear God’s precious truth, when we see God’s heart, when we realize how much God has blessed us, with forgiveness for those times where we acted like the tenants, forgiveness for when we found ourselves giving into sin, forgiveness for treating God’s patience as permission to sin. Thanks be to God for the extraordinary patience he has shown to us. But what makes us different then the Pharisees in our lesson? Faith the believes in Jesus, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and its his marvelous in our eyes.”
My Family in Christ, I pray that you leave here today marveling at God’s extraordinary patience he has shown to us. I pray that you leave here today looking at the capstone chosen by God. I pray that you leave here seeing the heart he has for you. Amen.