Are We Growing In The Lord?
13th Sunday after Pentecost
I Corinthians 16:13-24; Matthew 21:32-42
(The parable of the criminal vinedressers)
The Lord Jesus Christ illustrated the relationship between God and people on material and economic relations that are understandable to people.
God gave people the possession of the world He created. The Jewish people, their forefather Abraham, was designated land in Palestine, which actually borders two continents - Africa and Asia. At the same time, that region is not far from Europe. On one side was the Mediterranean Sea, which opened sea communication with many countries, in a moderately warm climate.
We do not say that that land is the best, but God has given each nation a share of the globe according to its capabilities. However, the Jewish (or Israeli) people were given more than just land to live on - God, for the sake of the righteousness of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, spiritually fenced that nation with the Law of Commandments, gave it the Law of God to educate its people to accept salvation.
But God the Creator, having given God's Law to the people of Israel through Moses, expected that people brought up in the knowledge of God's will, God's Law, would show the fruits of their faith.
The Master, God the Creator, selected servants from the people, prophets, so that they would remind people, especially its rulers, of the need to bring the fruits of faith to God. Through the prophets, God required that people not just perform rituals, but that they show faith in Him with their lives. Confession of faith in life, discovering the virtues of good deeds in life is the first thing - and these are the fruits of faith.
Unfortunately, in Israel prophets were not loved during their lifetime; they were persecuted, persecuted, and killed. Christ openly accused the scribes and Pharisees:
"Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them."
(Luke 11:47)
And indeed it was so: when the prophets pointed out to the Israeli rulers and leaders that they were not living according to the truth, that they were departing from the commandments and instructions of God that bound them, then those rulers did not like to listen to the truth, for the truth stung them greatly...
And it is no coincidence that when God sent his greatest prophet John the Baptist, King Herod ordered him to be beheaded. God took the great prophet Elijah alive to heaven, that he might avoid the fate of the prophets in Israel.
But Christ not only rebuked, or spoke about past events, about the cruel treatment of prophets; He also delivered a prophecy concerning His fate:
"Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.
' But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves,
'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.'
So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him."
(Matthew 21:37-39).
In a similar fashion, the high priests, scribes and Pharisees managed to have Jesus taken outside the city of Jerusalem and crucified on the hill of Golgotha - to the horror of everyone, so that people would be afraid and would not dare to speak out against the leaders of the Jewish people. Rebuking the murders of the prophets and generally ungodly actions of the aforementioned Jewish leaders, Christ tragically exclaimed:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!
How often I wanted to gather your children together,
as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
See! Your house is left to you desolate!”
(Matthew 23:37-38).
Indeed, the house of the Jews remained spiritually empty after the killing of the Son of God. There could no longer be salvation in that house, in the Old Testament temple.
It is no coincidence that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, "Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom " (Matthew 27,51); then God broke the old agreement with the Jewish people - the Old Testament – and that nation ceased to be God's chosen one. God's protection was removed from it. The crucifixion of the Son of God ended the chain of transgressions that were committed in that nation; although outwardly, formally, the performance of rites in their Old Testament temple continued.
And the performance of the rites was stopped once and for all, when in the year 70 after the birth of Christ, the Romans subdued the Israelites anew (after riots, uprisings), severely punished them and destroyed their Jerusalem temple. (Currently, only one wall remains of that temple, which the Jews call the Wailing Wall.)
The Romans in that time were pagans, but, obviously, it was God's assent that they might destroy the centre of hypocrisy and betrayal. The Old Testament sacrifices, after the crucifixion of the Son of God on the cross, became meaningless. Jesus Christ took the sins of mankind and gave Himself as a sacrifice on the cross, so that whoever believes in Him can be saved. (Mark 16,16)
Jesus Christ, having told a parable about criminal vinedressers, asked his listeners - what will the master of the vineyard do to those who killed his servants and killed his son? And the listeners gave a logical answer:
"They said to Him, ‘He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.’"
(Matthew 21:41)
And, as mentioned previously, this is how it came about. The destruction of the Old Testament temple was the last sign, God's permission to show that God has withdrawn his protection over the people who do not bear the fruits of faith. The "vineyard" - the fulfillment and execution of God's will - was transferred to other peoples who until then had not been enlightened by the light of God's salvation.
For those other nations, the way to union and salvation with God the Creator was opened through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord drew the attention of His listeners to the fact that the future fate of those unenlightened nations in the past is determined in the Old Testament prophecy:
"The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."
(Matthew 21:42).
It is quite marvelous in our human eyes, but those peoples who stood as if far away from the road of salvation were called in the New Testament to active and fruitful participation in the creation and development of the Church of Christ. Our God-loving nation is among those peoples who are called to create their salvation in Christ.
That understanding should not instill in us a sense of pride, but a sense of dignity and, at the same time, a sense of our great responsibility to fulfill the will of God worthily so that we can bear the fruits of faith.
We must never forget that the Israelites were rejected because they, as a nation, obviously, in their majority, did not fulfill God's calling, did not bear the fruits of faith - did not fulfill God's will.
Before his suffering, speaking to his disciples, Christ instructed them:
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit,
and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
(John 15,16)
Apostle Paul gave us an instruction from God about the fruits we should bear:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness".
(Galatians 5:22)
Let us also be fulfilled in those fruits of the spirit, the fruits of our God-given faith in Christ – Let us act consciously and out of good will, but let us also remember the fate of the Israelites, and the reason for their tragic experiences. As well, let us not forget the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ:
"…every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
(Matthew 3,10)
Therefore, our fate, our salvation is largely in our hands. Let us not deceive ourselves with empty hopes, because our God is not only Merciful, but our God is also a just Judge. By our life in Christ, by bringing the fruits of faith as a gift to our God, we create our salvation.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
