10-04-2026

“STRANGE LOVE”

Text: Matthew 21:33-46 – Pentecost 19

Sunday October 4th, 2026

Trinity –  Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this 19th Sunday after Pentecost is the Gospel lesson from Matthew 21 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray:  Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that it is your desire and pleasure that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth sending others and sometimes us even to the unrepentant that they may repent and confess you as Lord and Savior.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

When reading a parable—like the one we have today—it’s helpful to look for the person who shows unusual behavior. You see, there is typically one character who is acting strangely and not like us.

The reason for that is because God is not like us. So when you discover the unusual character, you are actually discovering God.

3.

In this parable, the unusual behavior is found in the master. At first, everything seems normal. He has a vineyard that he loves. He takes good care of it. He hopes it will produce fruit, so he lets it out to tenants who will farm it, enjoy probably the bulk of the produce, and then give him his owner’s share. Sure enough, a crop grows. All is as expected.

But then the tenants don’t abide by the ordinary expectations. Somehow they get it in their heads that they don’t have to give the owner any of the fruit. In fact, when the owner sends his servants to collect the fruit, they mistreat them—not just one servant, but another and another and another.

What’s really strange, though, is that the master doesn’t retaliate against the tenants. That’s remarkable! He sends these servants as his representatives to collect for him the fruit of his vineyard, but even after the first servant is beaten senseless, there’s no vengeance.

Consider this: If you ran a company and some of your employees beat up one of their fellow workers—who was only doing his job, representing you—wouldn’t you respond to that situation?

This would go way beyond notifying HR of workplace harassment, of creating a toxic work environment. I’d call the cops. I’d get the authorities involved. There must be justice! But here, we find the most unusual behavior because the master simply sends another servant.

The second servant? The tenants murder. Now, you must get the authorities involved! Those wretched workers must be put to a miserable death! But again, strangely, the master responds simply by sending another servant.

The third servant? They stone him to death. This is for sure no accident. Stoning involves dragging someone outside, getting a group of men to stand around him with jagged rocks, and killing him in cold blood. This is first-degree murder.

Now, finally, the master will retaliate. But what does this master do?! He simply sends more servants, looking for his fruit. Yes, that’s actually what the parable says. He then sent other servants—servants, plural! Servants!

And it says he sent more than he did in the first group. So now, we’re up to at least seven servants, and they all die too. (These servants represent the prophets of old, including John the Baptist, who were all killed, often in Jerusalem.)

How many more people must die before this master will take action? I mean, hurt the first servant? Perhaps it was a misunderstanding. Kill the second guy? Perhaps a tragic accident. But when you’ve killed the last seven or more messengers, folks, that’s a pattern.

It’s now clear what’s going on here: The tenants have rejected the master. I mean, fool the master once? Shame on those tenants! But fool the master this many times? Shame on the master! This master must be out of his mind.

And just when we think it can’t get any worse—can’t get any worse—our text says, “Finally he sent his son” (v 37).

This is beyond foolish. This is reckless. Doesn’t the master know what’ll happen? Can’t he see the pattern of the tenants’ sinful behavior? Doesn’t he realize that they’re going to kill his only son?!

The answer is yes. He knew exactly what would happen, and in this unusual—even strange!—behavior, we see the character of God.

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.” That’s Exodus 34, verses 6–7.

The Lord is a God who loves his enemies and desires to forgive them, a God who is unbelievably patient—even though, eventually, his patience does run out—and a God who forgives the iniquity of all who believe. But sadly—and rightly—for the impenitent, he will by no means clear them, overlook their sins.

Today is the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The theme for this Sunday is that the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever. The Introit, the Collect, all the hymns for today—they all mention the love of God.

But I must say, I laughed when I looked at the lectionary, because if I were picking a Gospel reading to show the love of God, I don’t think I’d choose one that says, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death” (v 41).

The theme is that God’s love endures forever; the text shows that his patience runs out. Yes, he’s slow to anger, but his anger eventually arrives. So why display his wrath if we want to convey his love?

First, because it reminds us that God’s love does not negate his justice. He is both—loving and just, continually and always. And it’s helpful for us that there is some judgment in this text, lest we think we can reject the Son and still stay inside the Father’s vineyard.

This is the mistake we humans most often make. We think that because God abounds with love and mercy, “He won’t judge me, even if I continue to live in my sin.” But that’s not true. Rather, I tell you the truth: “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Lk 13:3)—as the tenants discovered at the end of the parable.

Our God is indeed slow to anger, shockingly slow, and very reluctant to punish. But for those who persist in rejection of him, he will by no means clear the guilty.

Second, this is an appropriate text because God’s love is best revealed in comparison to our hatred and sin. If those tenants had behaved well, you wouldn’t have even noticed the amazing grace of the master, but it was precisely in the face of their sheer evil that his unfathomable mercy was revealed. “For God so loved the world that he gave to them his only Son.”

And finally, this parable is most appropriate to teach us the love of God because Jesus told it during Holy Week. Jesus told this parable just days before he laid down his life for you. The parable is a prediction of his impending suffering and death, all for you. For “at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6).

The tenants of Jerusalem acted most wickedly during Holy Week. And what they did to Jesus they meant for evil. “God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Gen 50:20). “The stone [those] builders rejected has become [our] cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (v 42; cf Ps 118:22–23).

Although the Master appeared foolish at first, everything that happened was according to plan. In his love and his wisdom, he knew that the Son had to die to bring life to the vineyard, so that the vineyard might finally bear for him the fruit that he desires, the fruit of repentance.

Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). You see, Christ had to die. Christ, the true Vine, had to be planted in God’s vineyard at Golgotha.

And like a grapevine that is wrapped around a wooden lattice, Jesus’ body had to be draped against the wood of that cross. There, he was “crushed for our iniquities” (Is 53:5). Like grapes giving their juice when squeezed, his love and his blood were poured out for you. Jesus’ blood poured from his side and all his wounds into the chalice, which we drink today, for the forgiveness of all your sins.

What a strange and wonderful God! This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes! Apart from him doing this, you would have remained fruitless and dead.

Ah, but today, as you receive the fruit of Jesus’ cross, your sins are forgiven, your faith is strengthened, and—grafted into Christ who is the Vine—you will now also bear fruit to the delight of the Master. For

By the Very Strange Love of the Master Sending His Son to His Enemies, You Have New Life in His Vineyard.

May God grant you repentance and faith in his Son, that you dwell in his vineyard forever and bear much fruit. Amen.

       Now may the peace of God in Christ Jesus keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.