Matthew 21:33-44
Don’t Shoot the Messenger
1) As he tells us not to reject the stone
2) As he tells us of the landowner’s love
3) As he calls on us to produce fruit
Don’t shoot the messenger... it’s an old adage meaning, don’t be upset with someone just
because they share some information with you that you don’t like. They’re just the messenger...
someone else made the decision... they’re just the bearers of news... they didn’t write the news. The
expression was probably first used by Sophocles, an ancient Greek playwright, who penned the words,
“No one loves the messenger who bears bad news.” Shakespeare repeated variations of it, but the idea is
simple... it doesn’t do any good, it doesn’t change anything, to harm someone who simply brings you
news or information you don’t like.
Someone should have told that to the tenants in the text for today. They beat and killed several
messengers of the landowner, and even killed his son. “How terrible,” we say. “We would never do
that.” Hopefully not. But we do need to heed the messenger’s words, as the message still applies to us
today. The message to1) not reject the stone which would become the capstone... the message that 2)
tells us of the landowner’s love for us... and finally, we need to hear the message that 3) calls on us to
produce fruit.
Jesus was telling these parables... these earthly stories meant to instruct about the kingdom of
God... the last week of his life. This was after Palm Sunday, and the triumphal entry. This was the first
Holy Week, I guess you could say. And Jesus tells a story about a landowner who simply wants to
collect from the renters of his vineyard. They owed him part of the harvest. Now, Jesus wasn’t really
telling stories about a vineyard and its tenants, was he? He was teaching about himself and the Jewish
nation. They were God’s chosen people, they themselves were the vineyard with a wall built around it.
They had been given prophets to teach and instruct them, the watchtower to which we hear reference.
But what had the Jews done with all too many of those prophets who came to them to share God’s Word
with them? They shot the messenger. They refused to listen, and indeed did harm to many of them.
Then, just like in the parable, the landowner sends his Son. Jesus came now, hoping for a harvest...
hoping to bring into his heavenly kingdom the souls of many of those chosen people, the vineyard of the
Lord. But what was their response? As a whole they rejected him. They took God’s Son and killed him.
So God did deal with that stubborn people... they would never gain power and prominence. And that all
important Messiah they had waited for, he would become the salvation of the Gentiles. Other tenants
would be granted the vineyard.
Well, that’s a nice story... we’re the Gentiles... we’re the ones who wind up with the vineyard.
It’s a happy ending, right? But there’s plenty more to learn from this parable, starting with what
happened to Jesus. He came to be their king. He was for a day on Palm Sunday. But then Jesus’ own
people turned on him, and had him put to death. Their foolish decision was only God getting his plan
done, as Jesus’ death then served as payment for the sin of the world. But Jesus still wants to be king,
wants to rule in the hearts of his creation, in our hearts. And so we need to see to it, that we’re not like
the Jews all over again... and miss out on Jesus. They did miss out... they rejected Jesus. They were the
builders who looked past him... thought they wanted a different stone. But he was the one who was the
stone that then would be built upon, the cornerstone of a sure foundation, the capstone holding up the
structure, the basis of a rock solid faith that can save us eternally.
And my friends, let’s not miss out on him either. He is right there before us as well. He is ready
to be revealed every time we open the pages of Scripture. But we’re too busy, too often. We’re too
worried about this or that. Don’t be. We can’t be. Or else we will trip right over him, and he will become
to us a stumbling block, not our cornerstone. You see, we too go through life, looking for answers,
thinking we’ll find them in friends or things or whatever, but the stone we need is right there before us.
We need to learn to see him as the only answer we need. He is the stone to build upon, because nothing
else can do what he can do. He has taken away the sins of the world... nothing else can make us right
with God like that. He has defeated sin death and the devil... conquering even the grave on our behalf.
Nothing else can do that... and all those other things, well, we truly can’t take them with us. Yes, this
parable was about the Jews... but we too can learn not to reject the Stone of Jesus Christ.
Or else we risk what Jesus says in verse 44... He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces,
but he on whom it falls will be crushed. It’s the difference between being tripped up in our faith, and
rejecting Jesus. A couple weeks ago our family went to Devil’s Lake outside Baraboo to hike. I was
reminded what big rocks are like, as they have these impressive boulder fields you can scramble around
on. I fell on a couple of them too, coming home with bruised shins and scrapes and what not. When we
choose those other things over Christ, it generally isn’t for our blessing. We get distracted from our
faith, and maybe led into sin. We get bruised and beaten up spiritually. We have fallen on the rock. But
praise God we have faith, and so let us nourish that faith. Because to have one of those huge boulders we
climbed on fall on you, well that would have been the end of you. And to lose sight of Christ
completely... to fall away in our faith... would crush us as well. It would be the end of us spiritually.
And if you need some encouragement in keeping Christ first, hear how the messengers were
really, signs of landowner’s love. We hear how the landowner sent his messengers, and he sent them
again. And finally he sent his son, saying “They will respect my son.” But the tenants took him and
killed him. Something doesn’t quite add up, in the story, does it? Why would the landowner send more
messengers, only to be treated badly again? And then, why would he think they would honor his Son?
Because the landowner doesn’t think like we do. The landowner is of course God the Father. And he
sends his messengers not because he deserves payment, but because he wants a harvest. And here’s
where we need to remember the harvest isn’t really about fruit or grain, is it? It’s souls for the kingdom.
And God wants souls saved so badly, he’ll go to any length to make it happen... even send his Son to
those who would kill him.
God did just that. He sent his Son into this world to save it from its slavery to sin death and the
devil. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. Any parent has to marvel at how much
he must love us... enough to give up his child for us. That’s the kind of love that is behind the message
of the Bible. Let’s never miss out on that message, simply because the Bible might also call something
in our lives sin. God still sends out his messengers today, every time someone shares the truth of God’s
word with us. Sometimes they may be calling us to repentance. Don’t shoot the messenger... especially
when we see they just want us to also hear how God has loved us. Instead, let’s be moved by God’s
great love to correct what needs fixing in our lives.
That’s also part of the fruits, the harvest God wants from us. We were told he planted a vineyard,
built a wall around it, and dug a winepress. He expected to get some grapes, didn’t he? He expected a
harvest. And he expects fruit from us as well, the new tenants of the vineyard. That is still a harvest of
souls... and so we bring our children to him in the waters of baptism. We bring ourselves here to be fed.
But God is pouring out his love upon us in other ways, in hopes of seeing some return. He gives us all
those blessings that so easily distract, in hopes that we will give back to him. So think about that the next
time you put something in the offering envelope. Have you just done the same thing for the last 20, 30
years? Same amount, without really thinking about it? Maybe it’s time to think about then. Maybe it’s
time to think about how richly God has blessed us, and give some fruit back to him. And not just in our
finances, but in our time... give to him of your time by being in worship and Bible Study and by being of
service to others.
God has given us the vineyard... he has called us into his kingdom. Let’s eagerly hear the
messengers who would tell us of his love, and be moved not to miss out on the stone of Jesus Christ, but
instead let us produce much fruit for him.
AMEN