Some of the words of Jesus were used to justify poor treatment, were used to exert power. Are the words true if they are used that way?
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
1 Then God spoke all these words:2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. 8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 13 You shall not murder.14 You shall not commit adultery. 15 You shall not steal. 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” 20Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.”
Matthew 21:33-46
33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
Spoken words for “Whose Words Are True” by Rev KellyAnn Donahue. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Jesus was teaching in the temple, when the chief priests and Pharisees showed up. They represented the leadership group. The chief priests collected and presented the offerings of the Jewish people. The Pharisees followed the written law of Torah, and added an Oral Torah, a series of interpretations and adaptations. Jesus knew that these two powerful groups were in his audience. Today’s parable was meant to wake them up, and even to insult them, I think.
A land owner plants a vineyard and allows tenant workers to grow the grapes. When the harvest is ready, the land owner sent his slaves to collect the harvested grapes. The tenant workers refuse to let the slaves in. There was violence. Some of the slaves were killed. The land owner, hearing of these events, decided to send his son to the vineyard. He said, “They will respect my son”. The tenants killed him, too.
Jesus then asked the leaders what the land owner would do now. The leaders replied, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” This was the answer Jesus expected. It would be reasonable for the land owner to hire different tenants to take care of his vineyard. Jesus then links the vineyard of this parable to the Kingdom of God, in verse 43. “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.” Jesus was telling the temple leaders that he rejected their leadership.
The fruits of the kingdom are the care of others and adherence to God’s laws. Those laws are the Ten Commandments, which we heard in our first reading. Yet these are Jewish laws, and Christians do not follow all the Torah laws. Gene M. Tucker helps us see the laws in light of God’s grace and forgiveness, helps us see them using the Christian tradition. He said, “Because God saves by grace, what is the place of works of the law? Obedience is not what moves God to save, but it is the grateful response to God’s saving actions. God’s gracious deeds evoke a response of obedience.”
In this reading of the Ten Commandments, God was speaking directly to the people Moses has led from Egypt. Moses was standing nearby. The people hear God speaking directly to them. They hear a voice that sounds like thunder or a trumpet, with lightening and smoke coming from the top of the mountain. How frightened they were. The text says, “They trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.’ The people did not want God speaking directly to them. Jeffrey H. Tigay said they feared the physical effects of the lightening and the smoke that came with God’s voice. They felt safer with Moses speaking to them. The people gave Moses the authority to speak to God and to relay God’s words to them. This begins the tradition of the prophets; the establishment of someone less scary to say the words from God. The words of the prophets were considered true words from God.
Jesus used the words of the prophet Isaiah 28:16 and of Psalm 118:22-23 after his parable. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes” By quoting a prophet and the Psalmist here, I think Jesus is linking prophets to his parable. The slaves of the land owner bring his words to the tenants, who do not listen to them. The slaves were mistreated, as were many of the prophets, especially John the Baptist. Jesus, using this parable, told the chief priests and Pharisees that their treatment of John the Baptist is like the treatment of the slaves. And I think Jesus was saying that he is the son in the parable. He was speaking of his coming death. Or Matthew added this to be sure we got the point that Jesus was not listened to. His words and the words of the prophets were not taken to be the truth. This passage and parable tell us that God sent prophets, and Jesus, to speak to us, to teach us how to be a community. I do think that some of those words which came down to us do help us live caring lives, and help us to live in peace. Yet the words did come through people. And people bring their experiences and views into what they write. Some of the words from the prophets don’t always sound caring, loving and forgiving. Some of the words of Jesus were used to justify poor treatment, were used to exert power. Are the words true if they are used that way?
Whose words are true today? Technology is used to make communication faster and available all over the world, seemingly all at the same time. We can get words and information from so many sources. I find that my traditional sources for news: radio, TV broadcast news and newspapers are not the most easily accessible sources any more. My cell phone and laptop give me news based on what other news items I have looked at in the last few days. I worry that with the rush to get a story out there, some of the words may not be true. So I go after more sources, some with differing viewpoints, to try to get the complete story. It takes so much time to be as informed as I want to be.
There are so many voices speaking; some are calm, some are angry. Technology allows our words to be heard by more people than ever. We can spread love and hate. Are there any prophet voices out there? If God is sending us prophets now, do we recognize them? The United Church of Christ says that “God is Still Speaking”. That phrase is trademarked and is part of our church denomination brand marketing. It means that God has more to tell us than the words in the Old and New Testaments. Some of those words were used to hurt, exclude and enslave people. From our national web site, “We invite you to join us as we strive to help the Still Speaking God establish a world where love is the rule, everyone has a voice and where everyone matters. In short, we invite you to help us build “A Just World For All”.
That phrase is our new brand marketing and a kind of mission statement, like ones used in the business world. The work that is done by our national church will reflect that goal. These words are a voice of hope, reflecting the hope we can bring to others when they know that we care about them, and that they are not alone. And maybe if people feel cared for they will treat others the way they want to be treated. That will build the just world. Words that inspire that desire to build the just world are found in our Old and New Testaments. They are from those whom Matthew and Jesus called prophets; people who brought the words of God to the people. May we listen for the true words from God, for the ones that build us up, for the ones that praise God and for the words we need to build a just world for all.
© Rev KellyAnn Donahue