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THE LOSS OF HOLINESS
Isaiah 5:1-7
Matthew 21:33-46
October 5, 2008

     I want to start today by talking for a moment about holiness.  The Hebrew word for holy is qadash, and at straight face value it means ‘to be separate’.  Things which are distinctively separate from the world, and dedicated solely to God, are holy.  Therefore, God’s words and promises are holy (Psalms 105:42, Jeremiah 23:9).  Places where God’s presence dwells are holy (Deuteronomy 26:15, Exodus 3:5, Joshua 5:15).  Any item which is set apart specifically for sacred use is holy (Exodus 39:37, 30:10).  This one is very important; persons connected with holy places and holy services become holy (Leviticus 21:1-6, Jeremiah 2:3, Deuteronomy 33:3).  By definition then, during this hour when this place and we people separate ourselves from the world and focus exclusively on the Lord who is God, we are holy.  Now, what does that have to do with today’s parable?

     This pericope takes place during the last week of Jesus’ life.  He has arrived at the city of Jerusalem, knowing he will be crucified and die.  He is spending his time at the Holy Temple teaching the people about the Kingdom of God.  In the middle of a teaching session he is confronted by the Chief Priests and the Elders of the People who want to know, “By what authority do you dare to teach these people about God (Matthew 21:23)?”  Today’s parable is Jesus’ answer to that question.  There is a lot of symbolism in this parable.  It has been heavily debated over the years, but the consensus is that the Landowner is God, the vineyard is Israel, the Tenants (or renters) are the religious leaders, the servants are the prophets, and the son is Jesus himself. 

     The Landowner plants the vineyard himself, which is Jesus’ way of saying Israel is not its own creation.  Study politics all you want, there is no Israel without God.  He builds a wall around the vineyard to keep out wild animals, and he puts watchtowers on the corners to look for thieves and fires, anything that might hurt the vineyard.   Interestingly, he builds a winepress in the middle of the vineyard.  That’s because he expects such a bountiful harvest that it would be impractical to try and transport the grapes to a winery.   He has an expectation of wonderful results.  Jesus says that history bears out God’s unswerving protection and love for Israel, and that God expects Israel to be his witness to the world which will bring dramatic and exceptional results.  Israel is to be holy. 
The Landowner then rents the vineyard to Tenant farmers.  This was a very common practice in Jesus’ day, and it was a good deal for the Tenants.   We talked a couple of weeks ago about the difficult life of a day laborer, going to the marketplace every morning and praying that someone would hire you – just so you could make enough money for one days’ food and rent.   Tenant farmers didn’t make any more money than day laborers, one denarius a day.  But, they had a guaranteed job for an entire year.  This is Jesus’ way of saying, “You Pharisees and Sadducees aren’t any better than the people around you.  And yet, God has granted you a special relationship, a relationship that sets you apart from your fellows, a relationship that is holy.”  At this point the Chief Priests and the Elders of the People are pleased, this is a very comforting story.   God loves us very much.

     Eventually, harvest time arrives.  The Tenant farmers are supposed to take their meager profit from the crop and turn the rest over to the Landowner.  The Landowner sends his servants to collect this huge harvest.  Unfortunately, the Tenant farmers refuse to turn over the vineyard.  When the servants arrive they beat one, they kill one, and they stone one.  Remember, the servants represent the prophets of God.  They beat one, they kill one, and they stone one.  When the prophet Jeremiah stood up against the religious leaders they beat him and locked him in the stocks (Jeremiah 20:1-2).  When the prophet Uriah stood up against the religious leaders they hunted him down, cut off his head with a sword, and buried his headless body in a common grave (Jeremiah 26:20-23).  When the prophet Zechariah stood up against the religious leaders he was captured and stoned until he died (2 Chronicles 24:20-22). 

     These stories were well known to the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.  In each case a holy man of God is abused and mistreated by the unholy religious hierarchy.  And, the commonality is that in each case the establishment refused to give God what belonged to God – keeping it for themselves instead.  In the parable, the Landowner shows an amazing and unprecedented forgiveness and mercy.   Instead of sending soldiers to wipe out the Tenant farmers, he sends them a second round of servants.  Just in case there was a misunderstanding, a horrible mistake, just in case they repented, he gives them one more chance.  But, the farmer’s hearts are hard and they murder these servants as well.  Now it’s not such a happy story.  They’re not sure where this is going, but they’re pretty sure they don’t like it.    

     Finally, in a last ditch effort, the Landowner sends his own son.  There’s an interesting twist to the story here.  The Tenant farmers assume the Landowner is dead, and the son is his last remaining heir.   If they kill the Son they will legally assume possession of the vineyard.  The Sadducees were the majority and ruling party of the San Hedrin, the religious establishment.  You know that the Pharisees believed in resurrection and Sadducees didn’t, but the differences go deeper than that.  

     The Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, as Scripture.  They didn’t accept the books of the prophets, or any of the poetry.  As far as they were concerned the only Scripture was the part of the Bible that explained how Israel got here.  Nothing else mattered.  In the view of the Sadducees, God made the world and everything in it.  Then he called out Israel to be his holy people.  He gave them a place to live.  And then, God walked away.  He left the universe and he has no interaction with his creation.  In the view of the Sadducees, God might as well be dead.  And, as far as they were concerned, the vineyard belonged to them.  In the parable the Tenant farmers drag the son out of the vineyard and kill him.  This is Jesus very clearly prophesying his rejection by the religious establishment, and their eventual responsibility for his death. 

     At this point Jesus stops to ask the Chief Priests and the Elders of the People, “What do you think the Landowner will do to these Tenant farmers when he finds out?”  They reply that he will put these wretches to a miserable death and place the vineyard under someone else’s care.  That word wretch is interesting in the Greek (kakos).  It implies that the offender’s behavior is not an accident or a misunderstanding, it is intentional.  The behavior is deliberately evil, wicked, criminal, and harmful.  It is the product of a sick and diseased spirit.  It is behavior which is patently unholy.  This is the antithesis of qadash. 

     Jesus just shakes his head and quotes Psalm 118:22-23, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes.”  In some versions it’s called a cornerstone and in others it’s called a capstone.  Either one is appropriate.  If you are familiar with construction you know the weakest part of the foundation is the corner.  If a building is going to fail and fall down, it’s because the corner of the foundation gives way.  Therefore, the most important decision for the architect was to pick the perfect stone for the foundation corner – the cornerstone. 

     A capstone had similar significance.  When you built an arch you started with two vertical columns of square stones.  These columns were not cemented together, they were kept in place by their own weight, one on top of another.  At some point the stones were shaped into triangles so the two columns began to lean into each other.  A capstone was placed where the two columns met.  The capstone had to be perfect.  The capstone had to distribute force equally in both directions.  Otherwise, one column would push the other one over. 

     Whether you’re talking about a cornerstone, or a capstone, you are talking about the most important piece.  Jesus is saying that if God is the architect, if God is the builder (you Sadducees), then in rejecting his Son, the religious leadership has intentionally thrown away the most important piece of the creation.  Therefore, God is going to take away their position of responsibility and give it to a new ethnos, a new community of believers.  God is going to give leadership and authority to a new group.  This new group will have to separate themselves from the existing community, they will have to become distinctly separate and dedicated only to God – they will have to become holy.  At this point the Chief Priests and the Elders of the People realize that Jesus is definitely talking about them.  And, rather than repent, they reject him and begin plotting his demise.  Which is the fulfillment of the prophecy Jesus had just finished making.  

     The religious leaders of the Jewish people had lost their holiness.  It had become just a job.  They threw themselves headlong into the world, rather than staying separate.  They adopted the world’s values, rather than encouraging the world to adopt the values of the Lord God.  They went so far as to deny the presence of God.  Remember in our definitions holiness begins with the presence of God and moves out to touch those places, pieces, and people associated with his presence.  They did not place a high enough value on holiness, and they lost it. 

     We are the descendants of the new community, the new ethnos, that Jesus says will inherit the Kingdom of God.  And, from our very beginning we are to be separate – holy.  In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prays for us and our separateness, and he says, “I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me.  I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:9, 14, 18). 

     Like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, like the Chief Priests and the Elders of the People, we can take our holiness for granted.  That’s a mistake.  We need to appreciate and value separateness.  When we come into worship we need to leave the world outside and separate ourselves for an hour with God. 

     One of the first changes I made was to start worship with the choir, instead of with the announcements.  I wanted a distinct transition from visiting with each other, to coming into the presence of God.  The choir signals that transition.  One Sunday I was explaining to two of the acolytes when they should come forward with the flame (which represents Jesus taking us out of the world and into worship – becoming separate).  I was describing that the choir will sing a song about being in God’s presence.  One of the acolytes said, “You mean the sit down and shut up song?”  Yes I do!!  Worship should be holy. 

     But, more importantly, our lives should be holy.  Holy is not perfect.  We are not perfect.  We can be holy.  When we refuse to participate in the behavior of the world, and separate ourselves by embracing God’s obsolete and foolish standards, we are holy (1 Corinthians 1:21).  When we refuse to think like the world, and choose to think like Jesus instead (WWJD?), we are holy.  When we stop chasing the brass ring of the world (beauty, wealth, power, control), and we separate ourselves by loving God and being nice to people, we are holy.  We can’t afford to lose that.