Rearrange Your Life Around Jesus

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[0:00] of the vineyard and the tenants of the vineyard. And then this week is the parable of what we call the wedding feast. And all of these are parables about Israel. They're about the religious leaders. In fact, the very first one was very pointed because he says, you know, in essence, you're like the son who says, I will do a thing, but doesn't do it. Whereas the sinners, like the tax collectors and the prostitutes are like the ones who say, I won't go do that thing, but then later they do. And that makes them very angry. And so Jesus is, in a way, he's humiliating these religious leaders and saying the sinners and the sinners are going to get into the kingdom of heaven before you. And that's challenging. And then the parable of the vineyard, very challenging. The vineyard is taken away from those who really should be producing the fruit in the vineyard and is given to people who will produce the fruit of the vineyard. So these are parables about Israel and they're about the religious leaders of Israel.

[1:01] And parables are, some of them are more, I love, it's so fun to preach about parables, but some parables are a little more opaque. And what I mean by that is you read it and you're like, oh, what does that mean? And you kind of piece it together and you look for little clues and you kind of, you know, oh, this is fun. You can kind of work it through. Some parables are more transparent. And by that, I mean, you kind of see right away where it's going and that doesn't make it a worse parable. It's a better parable. It's a better parable. It's a better parable. It just makes it a more pointed parable in some ways. It makes it more easy to understand. This one I would put in the category of being a slightly more transparent parable. It's one where we can understand what's going on pretty much the whole time. There's not a lot of curve balls in there. So we're going to see how kind of transparent it is and how pointed it is as he speaks to these leaders. Now, I want to say one thing about a word that comes up and it comes up more often than the new revised standard version, which is the version where the Bible says, I'm going to preach about reading now, and that's the Greek word for servant or slave. It's the Greek word doulos.

[2:03] And more often than not, the NRSV translates that word as slave. And I think the challenge for us is not to get stuck on that word slave because it has really laden with a lot of pain and anger in our country, and it should be. But in the Greek world at that time, that word doulos, it had actually quite a range of meaning. It could actually mean somebody who was owned by somebody else and was thus a slave, and their whole life was spent in slavery. But on the other end, it could actually just mean servant, somebody who you pay to do work around your house. And it could have a meaning somewhere in between, like it could be like an indentured servant who owes you money, and so thus they serve you for a period of time until they've worked off what they owe you. And as you can see, there's a whole spectrum there.

[2:51] And so sometimes when the New Testament talks about slaves, they actually mean slaves, and sometimes they actually mean. Servants, and you'll see in other translations of the New Testament that they would have used the word servant in this parable, but here the NRSV uses the word slave. But that's okay. The thing to note, though, is that in our parable today, the slaves are the representatives of the king. They have a sort of ambassadorial role. So that's not something that you would give to somebody. There's some honor in that. There are some honorable positions that slaves actually had. And if you look at the history of the New Testament, there's a lot of honor in that. History of Rome, the history of the New Testament, you'll find that many people who were considered slaves, doulos, they sometimes managed the entire estate of the master because they were so proficient at things. So there's a range there, and I don't want us to get caught up on that, but I think instead of not using a word because we think it's kind of difficult or frightening, I think it's better to define these words so we know what we're talking about, and then we can put everything into proper context. So that's where you'll hear the word slave, but I want you

[3:54] to kind of remember all the context around it. So that's a lot of honor in that. So with that introduction, let's go to our reading. It's Matthew 22, 1 through 14. It goes like this. Chapter 22, verse 1. Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again, he sent other slaves, saying, Tell these who have been invited, Come to the wedding banquet.

[4:38] But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was outraged, enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned, their city. Then he said to his slaves, The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go, therefore, into the main streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet. Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. The wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man who was there, there who was not wearing a wedding robe. And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. Let's pray.

[5:51] Father, we take this moment now to reflect on your words. We ask your grace to keep us from being a burden to the poor. We ask your grace to keep us from being a burden to the poor. We ask your grace to keep us from being a burden to the poor. Amen.

[6:06] So this is a very, I would say a very confrontational parable. Like if you were to, some of them are, some parables are just more to instruct. Like the kingdom of heaven is like this and it's very instructive. But this one is really more of a sort of smash mouth in your face. Kind of, I'm going to really embarrass you or say something mean to you. Not mean, but just truthful. Painfully true type of thing. And so it gets Jesus in trouble. These are the kinds of things when Jesus says these things, it gets him into a lot of trouble. And in these three parables, he does a thorough job of offending the religious leaders so much that once we get to chapter 26, it says right at the beginning of chapter 26, it says, after all this, after hearing all this, all these things Jesus was saying, they conspire together to find a way to arrive at heaven.

[6:57] Right? Right? Right? Right? is he purposely, you may say purposely, upsetting these people who have the power and the ability to send him to the cross? And one possibility is that he wants to die, right? He has known all along that he was on this final trip to Jerusalem. And so he's this fatalistic figure who is always trying to get himself killed. He's not going to kill himself. He's just going to do enough things to everybody else to make them want to kill him. But I would actually look at it a different way. Um, he himself says that he always needs to be about his father's work or his father's business. This is something Jesus says that he's doing. And part of that work is just always telling the truth about the relationship between Israel then and the Israel as his father wanted it to be. So Jesus has to be a truth teller, right? So the religious leaders asked him a question, by what authority have you done this? You've come into the temple, you've rearranged, a bunch of tables. We don't really like it. Who do you think you are? These are all kind of the related question. By what authority do you do this? Who are you? Who do you, why are you doing this? Why do you think you can come into our place of worship and rearrange things? And they were,

[8:40] I mean, they were upset. And so Jesus actually, he has to answer and he asked to answer truthfully. He can't say something like, oh, I just thought it would be nice to rearrange the tables. It would look better, you know, a little more feng shui here, just the table. They were all out of alignment. No, he has to say, do you know what? This is the reason I'm doing this. And the reason I have the authority to do this is because God through me is rearranging all of Israel right now in front of you. And I have to tell you what that looks like. And so he, he's not trying to get himself killed. He's being faithful to the father by telling the truth about what's actually happening in that moment. And what's actually happening in that moment is that he's saying to the father, I'm going to do this. And he's saying, you have to understand that he's alive. Right? Right that you've been called and chosen by God as his special people, you think that's yours forever as a result of you being ethnically by blood related to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He also says, you think that you have, by keeping the law, the other identity marker he says that you may think you have is that you follow the law that was given, the covenant at Sinai, the Ten Commandments plus more, right?

[10:16] By keeping that, you are sort of in God's good graces, right? And that you all are, there's all these other practices that you think make you unique, like keeping the Sabbath, eating special foods, and so on. And you remember over and over Jesus is challenging the people, especially the religious leaders, about how they keep the Sabbath, right? He heals on the Sabbath. He gives life on the Sabbath. But they don't like it. Right? Because Sabbath keeping had gotten lost. It was about, Jesus says, the Sabbath wasn't made for, you know, man wasn't made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man. It was made for you to rest and have life. And if I'm going to give life on the Sabbath, I'm keeping the Sabbath. But you've lost it. You've lost sort of the lead. So if you were actually doing all these things as God intended, then nothing would need to change in here. I wouldn't be showing up here and rearranging the temple. And you wouldn't be asking me this question. If you were actually doing the covenant things that God had called you to, we wouldn't be having this conversation. But you are not doing the things that God has called you to. You're like the son who says, I will do it, but then doesn't go. Or you're like the tenant in the vineyards who will not give the landlord the produce of the vineyard.

[11:38] He's going to give it to somebody else who will do it. And he prefers the son who says, I will not go, but then later. And so he says, the sinners, the prostitutes, and the tax collectors are going to go into the kingdom of heaven before you. He's not trying to die. He has to tell the truth. He's bound to be in reality with that. And what is the new reality, right? Here's the point you want to make note of. Jesus says, being the chosen people of God means you organize your life now around me. I'm going to say that again. From now on, Jesus says. I'm taking all, I'm sort of setting all of that aside. It's not about your ethnic identity. It's not about the law. It's not about the customs. Not about the language or the culture or any of those things. It's now about me. You need to arrange your life around me to be the true Israel. That's what makes you chosen now. That's what makes you, if you want to use the word elect, and that word kind of shows up sometimes. Being the chosen people of God means you organize your life around me. And so it's not just ethnic descendants of Abraham and the other patriarchs. It's not keeping the law and festivals and food rules. It's about coming to me and coming to my feast.

[12:56] You see how this parable is starting to take shape, right? It's about coming to my feast and finding who you are in me. So I kind of already alluded to it, but let's begin to put that to the test with this parable. So we'll look at the parable again. You don't have to put it back up on the screen, but look at it in your bulletin if you like. We'll just go through it real quickly. So we see that the king is having a wedding feast for his son. I'm going to give away all the clues here, all the hints. You know, you probably figured it out. Who's the king? You know, it's the Sunday school answers. Either Jesus or God. 50-50. It's a toss-up ball. I got it. It's God. Okay. The king is God, the father. The son, it's got to be Jesus. I mean, that's the only choice left. Plus, it's kind of obvious. So the son is Jesus. This wedding feast is the kingdom. The kingdom. The kingdom. The wedding feast is the kingdom. It's the presence and the rule of God in the world. And you want to be invited into this kingdom. You want to be invited into this thing that God is doing. You want to be invited into the reality that God has created in the universe. So now we got the simple part of the way out of the way. Now, I want you to remember this parable is a little more transparent, but it doesn't make it less impactful, right?

[14:05] Just because it's kind of all obvious to us doesn't mean that it doesn't have some bite. It really does. So there are some chosen people who are on this special guest list. Right. And at this point, it's not everyone. There's a guest list, but it doesn't include everybody. Okay. Should we do like show of hands? Who thinks they know who this is? I mean, it's pretty obvious, but I shouldn't say it's obvious. Yes, Adele.

[14:30] Exactly. Adele says the guests are the people of Israel. God's chosen people all throughout the Old Testament. God says, you're my chosen people. You're my special flock, you know. And so they're invited. These are a smaller group. It's not a small group. It's not the whole world. God says, I have this very exclusive list for this wedding. I'm going to send out my slaves, my servants, my ambassadors to go and remind them to come to the feast or remind them that they're invited. Right.

[14:59] So they go out. And who are the slaves now? Who are the servants? Let's try it again. Somebody else besides Adele because she's already polished enough apples today. No, I'm kidding. Who else? Who are the servants? Yes. The prophets. Exactly. I mean, this is pretty easy, but it's fun, right? So these are the prophets of old. Just read the names of the books of the Old Testament, right? Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, all the rest. Like saying, come to the wedding banquet. And what happens to them? Right? They're ignored. Then they come again. And people say, I got other things to do. I have my business to attend to. I have a new farm. I've got to go check it all out. And then they take the servants, the prophets. And they mistreat them. And they kill them. And this is the story of the Old Testament, right?

[15:49] So, and what is it that is keeping the people from coming to the feast? Victoria gave it away. She gave away, you know, all the clues here. But really it was, these were things that were more important. Starbucks to me is better than coming to your massive birthday party, which doesn't make any sense. But it makes sense in a way because people want to do what they want to do. They're interested. They're interested in financial gain. They're interested in their own wealth and security. They're interested in their own projects. And they say, I, that's okay, God. You know, I know your feast sounds pretty good, but what I've got going on here sounds much better. And they don't, after a while, they tire of the invitation so much that they want to stop hearing it. And they stop hearing it by silencing the messengers. Right?

[16:33] So, the king then destroys the people who reject the invitation. And this is the scary part. I'm not going to lie. This is like, wow. You know, oh, really? Like, this was starting off as kind of a somewhat tame parable, but now it's getting, there's a bit of, there's a bit of violence. Right? The people, this is what I think. There's other interpretations of this. The people listening would likely have connected this with the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Maybe, possibly. And that may be where this is. So, the people ignored the prophets, abused the prophets, did their own thing. They never really entered into what God was calling them into. And so, God removed his hand of protection from Jerusalem. And Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian army in 586 B.C. Partly because it was so corrupt itself. It could barely defend itself. And the Babylonians were so much stronger. So, you know, that, the people listening could go, oh, I'm beginning to, even the religious leaders listening to this would go, oh, I'm beginning to see he's actually retelling some of our history here in a very pointed way. And he's making us look like the villains. And I'm not sure I like that. But this is not Jesus trying to offend people.

[17:45] It's Jesus trying to tell the truth about who he is and what's happening. So, in the parable, the king actively destroys the guests who refuse the invitation. And this is why we call them parables. Okay? Because parables don't have to have an exact one-to-one relationship. In the history, it wasn't God that destroyed Jerusalem. It was God that allowed the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem wouldn't take God's protection anymore anyway. You know, so this keeps things a little more, I'm trying to let God off the hook a little bit. But that doesn't mean that God won't judge the world someday. I'm not saying that. But in this case, I'm saying that the king who destroys those people, it's more parabolic in this particular case. So now, the part where Jesus is making the case that the new Israel is organized around himself. And so another round of prophets are sent out. And this may be the apostles. Isn't that interesting? Some other people could, well, actually, I'm kind of backwards here. But other people reading this parable, I should say, think that another round of prophets being sent out are the apostles.

[18:54] And then they are to go beyond. Oh, no, that's not right. I'm sorry. After the people are destroyed, another round of prophets do go out. I got lost there for a second. I apologize. And so the people, these could be. The apostles, the people that were sent by Jesus himself. And so now they're supposed to go beyond the original guest list and invite everybody they meet. So you get that part? So the guest list, I don't know what God did with it. Since I'm done with this piece of paper, I feel perfectly fine. Imagine this is the old guest list and none of them wanted to come. So God's like, all right, that's the old guest list. Put that over there. And now there's no guest list because the guest list is everybody you meet. So you guys go out there. Find everyone. Go to where the street meets the highway. Go out, not just in the city, but out in the countryside. Go out where people are. Go out where there's commerce. Go out where things are happening. And you go, I needed that paper. No, I'm kidding. I don't need that paper. Go out there. And what does it say?

[19:59] Who are you to bring in? Both the good and the bad. Is that everybody? I think so. I mean, I can't think of anyone else. There's nobody really in between. And actually, the bad is everybody. Everybody in the good is like nobody. But still, that's everybody. Go and get everybody. Bring everybody in. Compel them to come in. Encourage them to come in. Almost all of them do, right? It seems, at least in this parable. So they invite everybody they meet, the good and the bad. And this alone is what kind of lands Jesus in hot water. He's saying to the religious leaders that God has torn up the guest list.

[20:40] He's torn up this list that you were on and it's gone. And that special invitation that you think you've had all your life is going to go to the tax collectors and the sinners. And it's going to be theirs. The good and the bad are going to be invited in and they're going to take your place at the banquet because you didn't want to come. He's speaking to the religious leaders that are around him in that moment. You know that there was enough to get him into really hot water. So, and, you know, I can only imagine how mad they were. Like they were mad about all of it. And, but it's one parable after another. And then this third parable, I can just imagine them going, can you believe this guy? We've got to do something about it. We can't let him live. Right. And I want you to listen here and here's a promise. And I don't think we can spend more time on it than we can right now in this morning, but, but I want us to cling to it. Right. In this parable, the wedding hall, after the invitation goes out and people come in, it says the wedding hall is filled. It's filled. Think about that. The wedding hall is filled. The Greek word there implies something is completely filled up to the brim. Like if you were to fill up a giant jar, it would be right at the top.

[22:01] The wedding hall, that's not a wedding hall with a bunch of empty chairs in it. I watched a football game last night, of course, you know, of Arizona. It was a game of football versus Washington State. We finally won something, you know, it was awesome. But, you know, Washington State was losing pretty badly. And they never do this except maybe when there's a punt and they have to. But they try not to show empty stands at football games because it's sort of demoralizing or whatever. But they had to show the stands. And most of the faithful in Washington State had basically gone home by the third quarter. It was like, it was paltry, you know. But also, I maybe didn't think it was going to be. Well, actually, it was homecoming. So it really should have been full. But whatever. My point is, this would be a full stadium. This would be a sellout game. This is the kingdom is now, the wedding banquet after, in this parable, afterwards. This is good news. After the invitation goes out to the good and the bad, the place fills up completely. It's a full, it's a full hall. It's a full football stadium. Praise God. So that's a promise. Let's hold on to that one. I don't know what else we can think about it. But let's just kind of hold on to that one for a week and say, what does it look like?

[23:07] What does it look like for the wedding banquet to be completely full? Is that a promise in the parable? Or is it just parabolic language? I don't know. So, but it's not all good news, right? Someone comes in without proper preparation. He comes in without a wedding robe. He walks, he walks in, but he's not really there for the feast. That's what that means. If you come to a wedding feast, you're supposed to dress the right way. That's a cultural thing for them. And so he's thrown out. And so this one's a bit of a mix. Many are called. Everyone is on the list. But a better. Better translation is that not all are chosen. So I want I want to amend that. And if it's in your Bible, you can even make a note. I don't care if you're using the church Bible. You can make a note in the church Bible and future generations. I'm just going to go, what's that note for? It says many are called, but few are chosen. And that sounds dramatic and it sounds very exclusive. It a different and equally good translation is all are called.

[24:05] But not all are chosen. So the number of people called is a certain number. And the number of people who are chosen is a smaller number. But it doesn't say how much smaller. It doesn't say that this is this big and this is this big. So I think it's actually a better translation. Many are called or all are called, but not all are chosen. And that leaves open the word of hope. And I think it's actually a better translation from what I've been reading. OK, so many are called. All are called, but not all are chosen. That's how it's written. And I think that probably is the best way to end that parable, right?

[24:41] But this is also the reality of the world. Jesus can't lie about this either. He says discipleship isn't for everybody. Some people will follow me and then some people will turn away. Some people will be invited to the wedding feast and some of them won't come. Some people will show up at the wedding feast, but they'll come with the wrong preparation. They'll come with the wrong heart. They'll come with the wrong preparation. They're not really there for the wedding feast. They're there for something else. And they'll have to go. So there is judgment. There are boundaries. There are barriers to this, right?

[25:16] And so when Jesus says, when I reorganize Israel around myself, and that's what Jesus is doing here. He's saying you organized, you understood yourself as Israel organized around your ethnic identity and the keeping the law and the cultural habits that you have. But he says, I'm telling you that we're reorganizing Israel around the person of myself. OK. I'm telling you that we're going to be a disciple of myself, around the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And so then if I'm going to reorganize Israel around myself, there are some who will reject it and they will be lost. And there will be some who will seem to accept it, like the man without the robe, but really they're just going through the motions and they will be lost too. So not everyone who says they'll be a disciple remains a disciple and not everyone will become a disciple. And that's what Jesus says, you know, I have come to divide. I have come to divide. I have come to divide this world into those who believe in me and those who don't.

[26:13] Now, there's a lot. I mean, isn't there a lot here? There's a lot here. There's a lot to learn. I know this is, I find it very exciting. But I want us to say, well, great. You know, it's a parable that got Jesus killed. We understand the cultural background of it. We're not going to stop there, though. We're going to say, what is this parable for us? What can we get from it? What is this parable for us? Right. And I think this parable is for us. It wasn't written. It wasn't spoken to us directly by Jesus. It was really, it was designed for the religious leaders. It was designed to tell the truth about Jesus reorganizing all of Israel around himself. But I think it is about us, too, because we are the servants, right? We are the new prophets. We are the ones sent out. Paul says, and Paul doesn't mind saying this. Paul says, I'm a slave for Christ. He doesn't mind using language like that, doulos. I'm a slave for Christ. And that's who we are. The servant. The servant still need to be going out and gathering all whom they found, quote unquote, and inviting them to the feast. All right. And the feast will fill up. Praise God. So you have a job. I have a job. We invite people to the kingdom. The kingdom is this feast, the wedding feast of the sun.

[27:25] You go out, you invite people, and the feast will fill up if that's a promise. Praise God if it's a promise. Right. Now, also, we have to hear the prophetic word. As if it's directed to us. Because I think it is too. And so we've organized our lives and the life of the church around other things besides Jesus. This is a time for confession. We have not organized the church around Jesus exclusively. We have not organized our own lives around Jesus exclusively. And everything that's really not about Jesus at the center is going to burn away. It's going to fall away in time. It's not going to last. So we center other things in our lives. And I could give you, there's a usual list that pastors give. You know. And I could say I'm not going to give you that list. But I'm going to give you that list. I'm going to give you the list. Because it actually makes sense here. Right. So here it is.

[28:15] Wealth and our own security and our pride and our accomplishments and our sense of who we think we are. This is what we put at the center of our lives. This is what we organize our lives around. Right. And Jesus says, stop it. Put me at the center. Rearrange your life around me. So he says, I'll be your way. I'll be your wealth. I'll be your security. I'll give you humility instead of pride. Wow. I would love that. Actually, no, I wouldn't. But I need it. I have accomplished. Jesus says, your accomplishments aren't important because I've accomplished it all on the cross. You just come to the banquet. That's all you have to do. You don't have to do great things for me. You have to come to the banquet. You have to receive the blessings of the banquet. And then you'll know what to do. Right. And as for who you are, this is what he says to his disciples. I no longer call you slave. Or servants. I call you friends. You get new identity in Jesus. You don't give it to yourself. Jesus gives it to you. We organize our lives around Jesus. So that's the word. We're going to end there. Jesus wants to be at the center of our lives. When we go to the feast is to celebrate him. It's all about him. Let's pray. Father, oh, thank you that you've given us this good parable, this powerful parable.

[29:34] Father, teach us. Teach us this week to put Jesus at the center. That we organize our lives, ourselves, our identity, our wealth, our security, and every other thing that we care about. That we put Jesus at the center of it.