"CHRIST CHALLENGES GOD’S COVENANT PEOPLE TO ACCEPT HIM AS THE GOD-GIVEN CORNERSTONE."

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 36:3
Psalm 7:4
Psalm 118:6
Psalm 2:3,4
Psalm 118:3,4,5

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Later this week is Good Friday. That brings our thoughts today to the things Jesus did in the days before His arrest and crucifixion.

The passage we read from Luke 19 & 20 gives us an indication of the atmosphere around Jesus in the days before His sufferings. It’s a passage that speaks of confrontation, of Israel’s religious leaders becoming increasingly hostile to Jesus of Nazareth. I read in 19:47 that "the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him," and in 20:19 that "the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him." We realize: here is hostility, the hatred of the unregenerate human heart against God His Maker. But what makes this hostility the more painful –both for Jesus Christ and for us who read this passage today- is that this hostility comes from covenant people, more, comes from the leaders of God’s covenant people. But see, in the face of this hostility Jesus Christ did not shy away from proclaiming the gospel, and from announcing –to hell’s profound irritation- the certainty of His victory. This proclamation-in-the-face-of-hostility produced in turn a challenge to the people-of-the-pew: how would they respond to the work of God in Jesus Christ?

Later this week is Good Friday, and we’ll remember specifically the sacrifice and death of our Lord. But His sacrifice, congregation, will help us nothing unless our attitude to the Lord is one not of hostility but of love. So we need –again- to hear the Lord’s Word, examine ourselves in light of it, and give our response.

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

1. Israel’s leaders reject the cornerstone. So:
2. Christ challenges the people to accept the cornerstone.

In the verse I have chosen as text for this morning, brothers and sisters, our Chief Prophet and Teacher quotes a passage from Ps 118. That psalm, probably written by David, puts to paper the confidence David had in his God and His promises. That psalm relates how David was surrounded by enemies (vs 10ff), relates David’s admission that his future looked bleak (vs 13), records how God’s promises about David becoming king seemed so unreal. Yet in the midst of all the negatives, David remained certain that the Lord would fulfill His Word for him; David was sure he’d become king despite the obstacles he saw around him.

In expressing that conviction David made reference to a real-life situation. On a new house-building site somebody suggests that yonder boulder would serve as the ideal cornerstone for the new building. But the building contractor has a different thought, and chooses another stone as "the pivotal stone for the foundation" – only to have to change his mind part way through the building project, toss out his preferred stone, and take the one initially indicated. In the context of David’s situation, the point of comparison is that David was rejected as a fitting cornerstone. Though the Lord had anointed him king and so indicated that David should be the pivotal stone for the foundation of the kingdom of Israel, King Saul rejected him. But the Lord God led history in such a way that "the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone"; at God’s time David was crowned king in Israel. That’s Ps 118.

This, now, is the text that our Chief Prophet and Teacher quotes. Why this text, with this message? And why now? What’s His point? In answer to that question, brothers and sisters, we need to appreciate that with this quote Jesus is reacting to the words of the people in vs 16. For they cry out, "Certainly not!" and that’s when Jesus quotes Ps 118 to them. Why, then, that response of the people? To draw it out I need to take you back to the hostility of the leaders described in 19:47 and 20:19 – those verses which tell us that Israel’s religious leaders were seeking to destroy Jesus of Nazareth.

Hostility. It had been building up for some time already. But Jesus’ recent action in the temple had really made this hostility boil over. Luke records in 19:45 that Jesus had come into the temple on a given day, "and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it." The point was, of course, that the religious leaders had allowed room for a market place in the temple of God, with as result that the atmosphere of the temple was characterized not by a sense of awe because one was in the presence of God, but was characterized instead by the dollar; always there was the noise of hawkers clamoring to pawn their wares. So there wasn’t opportunity in the temple to reflect quietly on one’s unworthiness in the presence of a holy God and on God’s grace in forgiving sins; the temple had become as worldly a place as anywhere else.

In defense, now, of His Father’s house as a "house of prayer," Jesus drove out the merchants…, and then set out to teach the people and to preach the gospel of God’s redeeming grace to undeserving sinners (19:47; 20:1). Though the "chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders" sought to destroy Him, their efforts came to nothing - for now….

But on a given day while Jesus was preaching the gospel in the temple, these same chief priests and scribes, together with some elders, butted into Jesus’ teaching with a cheeky question. "Tell us," they insisted in the hearing of the crowds, "tell us, by what authority are You doing these things? Or who is he who gave You this authority?" We need to bear in mind that Israel’s religious leaders had developed a system whereby those who would teach the people needed some sort of permission from the establishment. We have the same; we’ll allow no one onto the pulpit unless that person has undergone an examination at classis to show that he is fully Scriptural in his convictions. The purpose of this examination is to protect the people from falsehood. Hence the chief priests’ and scribes’ question to Jesus: who gave you authority to teach? Who gave you authority to drive the merchants out of the temple? In other words: where is your permission from the Sanhedrin, from the recognized leadership?

The question shows their hostility. To utter a public challenge to someone’s authority to speak is to sow seeds of doubt in people’s minds as to whether he’s allowed to speak. The chief priests’ question contains the implicit message that Jesus has not passed his examination at classis (if I may borrow a phrase from our Church Order) and so has no right to preach – and definitely not in the temple. Hostility.

Jesus chooses to reply by means of a counter-question. "The baptism of John – was it from heaven or from men?" The point, of course, was that John also did not have approval from the religious leaders to baptize at the Jordan. Yet all recognized that John had an authority from God; after all, he spoke so clearly in the line of the Old Testament prophets that he certainly did not need permission from the leaders at Jerusalem to say his piece. But was it any different for Jesus? That "the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Luke 7:22) all spells out that Jesus is not working on the basis of self-given authority; here is the hand of God and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The only thing is: the chief priests and scribes and elders refuse to see the obvious. And because they refuse to see it, they will not believe that Jesus’ authority to preach comes from God – even if a voice from heaven would declare it to them. That’s why Jesus won’t even answer their question.

They’re hostile to Jesus, they refuse to see Jesus for who He is. But pity, then, the people who are led by such leaders! So Jesus turns His attention back to the people He’d been teaching and tells the parable of the wicked vinedressers. We need to have it clear in our minds, congregation, that with this parable Jesus is instructing the people about the mindset of their leaders. Jesus would open the people’s eyes to what their leaders are really all about.

The parable is well known. A man planted a vineyard, handed it over to tenants, and went to a distant country himself. In due time he sent a servant to his vineyard to collect some fruit from the vinedressers. The tenants, though, thrashed this servant and sent him away empty-handed. When the owner sent a second servant, the tenants threshed him too as well as dishonored him, and sent him away empty-handed. A third servant also was mistreated; Jesus says the tenants traumatized him, wounded him, and kicked him out. As a last resort the owner sent his "beloved son", in the hope that the tenants would respect him. But not so; when they saw the son they concluded that a murder would leave the vineyard without an heir, and they could claim it for themselves. So they threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now comes the punch line: how would the vineyard owner respond? Jesus answers the question, "He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others."

Now notice it, congregation: it is this sentence upon the wicked vinedressers that draws the people’s emphatic reply in vs 16: "Certainly not!" That is: the people are offended by the climax of the parable. They understand what Jesus is speaking about, and react with horror to what their ears are hearing.

Why? What do they understand Jesus to be saying, that they should respond as they do? Jesus, congregation, uses material from the Old Testament to construct His parable; quite on purpose does He speak in this parable of a vineyard (after all, nothing Jesus does or says is ‘by accident’ or ‘at random’). The Old Testament uses the image of a vineyard expressly to describe the "house of Israel" (cf Is 5:7). When Jesus, then, speaks about a vineyard the association with the people of Israel is automatic in the minds of His hearers.

That servants are sent to the vineyard, to Israel, is also a common Old Testament theme. Specifically, the prophets God sent to Israel are called servants. I read in Jer 7 these words:

"Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them" (Jer 7:25).

But how did Israel respond to God sending His servants? The book of Chronicles closes like this:

"And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy" (II Chron 36:15f).

The vineyard of Jesus’ parable is Israel, and the vineyard Owner is God. The Old Testament is clear that the Lord God had sent His prophets to His vineyard repeatedly – and those servants were beaten, abused, despised, and so Israel ended up in exile to the Babylonians. Make no mistake, congregation: from their knowledge of the Old Testament the people gathered around Jesus in Luke 20 understood well enough what Jesus was getting at with His parable.

Yet there are two differences from the Old Testament that need our attention. The first is Jesus’ addition about the "beloved son". The Old Testament doesn’t record that the vineyard owner –God- had sent His "beloved Son", because it had not yet happened. But in the parable Jesus mentions it because time has moved on, and in Jesus’ day the Lord God had sent His beloved son. In fact, at Jesus’ baptism a voice had sounded from heaven that the man Jesus was Himself God’s "beloved Son" (Luke 3:22). And that baptism had not happened in a corner; this heavenly assessment of Jesus was no secret!

The second difference with Old Testament material is that the Owner’s wrath in His parable is not directed against the vineyard but against the vinedressers, against those who tend the vineyard. That’s the leadership, the chief priests and the scribes. Jesus’ hearers understood that Jesus was condemning these leaders for their refusal to recognize that Jesus was sent from heaven – as the fathers of old had done with the prophets God sent over the years. Vs 19 says it in so many words:

"And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him… - for they knew He had spoken this parable against them."

The people were surely as astute as the leaders; they understood the point of the parable too. And that’s why they react as they do. They’re horrified at the thought that their vinedressers, their leaders, would reject a messenger God sent. "Certainly not," they say. Reject a messenger God sent, like their fathers of old? "Certainly not!" Our leaders wouldn’t do that, definitely wouldn’t reject God’s beloved Son! And they wouldn’t lead us astray that way!! "Certainly not!"

That, brothers and sisters, brings about Jesus’ reaction in vs 17. The people’s conviction that their leaders would certainly never reject God’s messengers, let alone God’s own Son, prompts Jesus to look the people directly in the eye (as the first part of vs 17 says), and then ask the people to reflect on David’s words in Ps 118. "What then is this that is written," says Jesus to the people, "‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone’?"

With those words, congregation, Jesus put Himself alongside David, tells the people that He was rejected as David was. Though God had designated Jesus Christ to be the chief cornerstone, the pivotal building block for the foundations of God’s kingdom, the builders had rejected Jesus. The builders of Israel, the vinedressers of God’s vineyard, the chief priests and scribes were patently hostile to Jesus, were scheming to destroy Him. The people need but look around them; the hostility of the chief priests and scribes against Jesus was written on their faces, their hatred plain from their actions. The people could see for themselves that "the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him" (vs 19). Their leaders, their own esteemed leaders, were leading them away from the Owner of the vineyard! And this, Jesus says, is fulfillment of the prophecy of David: the builders have rejected the stone.

Now what? Why does Jesus tell the people this? Why expose so graphically to the people the mindset of the leaders? That brings us to our second point:

For that, brothers and sisters, is the reason why Jesus exposes the hostility of the chief priests and scribes. The people around them –covenant people all!- have their own responsibility before God, and can never let their thoughts about Jesus Christ be determined strictly by their leaders. They have to think for themselves, have to evaluate Israel’s history for themselves, have to analyze the directions they receive from their leaders too. That’s why Jesus quotes Ps 118 for them, and in so doing challenges the people to recognize that history is repeating itself, that the chief priests and scribes are in fact doing the same as Saul did years and years ago. As Saul rejected the stone of God’s choosing, so –says Jesus- your leaders are doing too.

At the same time, congregation, Jesus’ quote to the people from Ps 118 is a proclamation of the gospel. Through the quote Jesus tells the people that by God’s decree "the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone." In other words: that the leaders reject the stone will make no difference to the eventual outcome; in the kingdom of God Christ would become the pivotal foundation stone. It would happen to Jesus Christ as it happened to David; though David was first rejected by Saul and the people, even hounded across the countryside, God’s plan for David came to pass so that he was eventually crowned to be the king of Israel. So it would be with the "beloved Son" God sent to His vineyard; though rejected and despised He would nevertheless be ultimately recognized as the keystone of God’s kingdom.

Yes, congregation, here is the gospel. The air around Jesus was electric with hostility, and the forces of hell were out to destroy the beloved Son God sent to His vineyard. In fact, in a few days’ time the vinedressers would literally cast Jesus out of God’s vineyard, would excommunicate Jesus from the assembly of God’s people and hang Him on the cross of Calvary, kill Him. But the vineyard would not become theirs, for the ordinance of God shall come to pass; the beloved Son, though cast out and killed, would still become the cornerstone of God’s kingdom. For the efforts of the chief priests and scribes and elders to be rid of the pestilent man from Nazareth shall result in this Man from Nazareth paying for the sins of God’s own on the cross of Calvary and so defeating the forces of hell. So it shall be too that on the third day He shall arise from the dead as Victor over sin and death, and God Himself shall receive Him to glory. Then it shall happen that God will crown His beloved Son with honor, and give Him a seat at His right hand as Lord of lords and King of kings. And that’s to say that this "beloved Son" –though rejected by the vinedressers- shall become the chief cornerstone – according to God’s decree. Yes, here is the gospel of Good Friday, the gospel of Easter, already ringing through the words of Jesus Christ to the people.

And that makes the challenge of Jesus’ words so urgent! Since that victory of Christ is so certain, since He most definitely will become the "chief cornerstone" of God’s building –never mind the hostility of Israel’s leaders- how imperative it is that Jesus’ hearers in Luke 20 today make up their minds to embrace this "beloved Son" immediately – despite the tone set by the leaders! To His quote from Ps 118 Jesus adds a sharp application: "whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder." Point is: it doesn’t matter whether you hit the stone or the stone hits you, it’s always you who’ll be bruised, crushed. King Saul tried so hard to destroy God’s designated king, David of Bethlehem, the stone of God’s choosing. But in the process Saul ended up in the grip of Satan, yes, ended up dead, even –as far as we can tell- dying in unbelief. So it shall be with all who collide with God’s chosen cornerstone; that person shall perish, die, eternally – whether he be a vinedresser in the person of one the chief priests or scribes now stalking Jesus to destroy Him, or whether he be one of the common people who had always quietly accepted the leadership of those chief priests and scribes, or whether he be one of us here present today, office-bearer or congregation member!

So there is a challenge here for each of us today. Leaders can be wrong, and so all called upon to dress vines in God’s vineyard need to be diligent in self-examination: are we giving leadership pleasing to the Owner of the vineyard? Equally, leaders can be wrong, and so all who are called to follow the leaders need to recognize that they have their own responsibility to think for themselves about the will of God. That each be busy with self-examination is so critically important because God’s decree comes to pass; no protest by men, no rejection of God’s message or messenger will frustrate God’s plan. Always the stone of God’s choosing becomes the chief cornerstone – no matter how obstinately people reject that stone. That gives much comfort in the face of opposition; it equally gives much responsibility. And it’s the responsibility that gets the emphasis in Luke 20: "whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder."

Good Friday is around the corner, and with Good Friday we’re confronted –again- with the fact of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. So, beloved of the Lord, what are your own thoughts about that sacrifice? You are responsible for your own reaction to God sending His beloved Son. God has made Him the cornerstone. Will you, by the obedience of faith in Him, be part of His building – or will you by unbelief place yourself in a position to be crushed by Him? Amen.