Palm Sunday 5th April 2009 - Choral Evensong

Isaiah 5:1-7 & Mark 12:1-12

Vineyard and Fruit

It is a few days before Jesus is arrested, put on trial, and then executed. The storm clouds are gathering and the sky is darkening. Jesus has entered Jerusalem with much excitement from the crowds; as they lay palm branches before him they shouted words from Psalm 118: “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.” They seem to recognise in Jesus, the hand of God and the coming of a new kingdom. Yet Jesus knows what is ahead, he knows how fickle people are and how easily swayed. So he tells them the parable of the vineyard and he too quotes Psalm 118, but a different section: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes”. He is the stone that is about to be rejected but will become the cornerstone, (or the capstone) in building the new kingdom. And the parable he tells them needs little explanation. It is plain enough to the Jewish authorities who were listening; they knew the message was directed at them and they were furious. The Vineyard was a well-known metaphor for Israel. Those who heard Jesus’ parable would know he was referring to the poem in Isaiah ch.5 that we heard as our first lesson. Written as a love poem, God plants Israel like a vineyard, lovingly tending it and hoping for good grapes. But despite His care, it goes bad and yields wild grapes, leaving God no option but to break it down and let the wild animals take over. It’s a picture of judgement, a sobering message of what happens if the people God calls to be fruitful constantly reject His purposes. Jesus re-shapes the story. The owner waits at a distance for the vineyard to produce fruit and at key moments sends his messengers to remind the tenants of their duty. One by one these prophets are rejected and the wishes of the owner ignored. Then, finally, the owner sends his own son, who He says, will be respected. But instead, the son is seen as the heir so is murdered. And the chief priests understand what this means – they are the ones who reject Jesus as God’s Son – and they are under judgement. Yet still they don’t listen. And the warning Jesus gives is clear: “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture:

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes”?

If those who were chosen to be instruments of God’s purposes get in the way of fulfilling His purposes, they will be swept aside and replaced. Tragically, the determination to hang on to power and prestige, to be the ones who were seen to know what God wanted, prevented the chief priests and other leaders from seeing what God was now doing. They were now bad fruit not good. And bad fruit spreads. Within a few days many of the ordinary pilgrims in Jerusalem were persuaded to call for the death of this man. As we enter Holy Week, this story is a reminder to check that we are listening to what God is saying to us in our day. If there are ways in which our desire for recognition, status, power or simply comfort, blocks us from God and prevents Him fulfilling His purposes in us and through us, this is the week to find that out.

Let us pray…