Why is it so important to us to have the last word? It’s true isn’t it? We want the last word in any conversation. You see it on TV shows where rivals compete who can say the last thing to go out sounding on top. Certainly the last word is highly sought after in political debates. I’m sure whether it is the vice president debate coming later this week or later presidential debates, that you will see plenty of attempts of each party’s candidate to have the last word.
But we know it is also true within ourselves. When we have the last word our opinions and self worth are validated- even if it is at the expense of others. Even if it is in our speaking to ourselves, when we have the last word in our minds, it helps us feel better about ourselves or maybe helps us to convince ourselves that we are not that far off the mark, we’re right and don’t need to change.
Of course, there can be times when we regret insisting on the last word. Maybe a time where we see how much it has hurt someone else. I have noticed with couples counseling that sometimes the cycle of blame can seemingly go on all session. “You think that is bad, but did he tell you about who he talked to on his facebook page last summer?
Perhaps it’s a lack of forgiveness through bringing up the past: ‘what about the time when you didn’t ask for directions and we drove the wrong direction for hours.” ‘But what about the time you took your parents side and made me the bad person?’ However eventually a couple realizes that blame and the last word only causes more problems. We realize it does not get us much if we win through making someone else the loser.
Most important of all we regret times when we insist on the last word in our relationship with God. For to have the last word with God, is to want to have God in our lives on our own terms. We may fool ourselves into thinking that we can have the last word with God, but the truth is that Jesus is the last Word.
We see in our gospel reading today, the parable of the tenants about how God has given his word for our benefit, for us to prosper and be grateful for the last word we ever need in life.
God spoke to Israel, calling them his special people, giving them His unlimited goodness.
Psalm 80 describes this creation that God spoke into being:
“You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 It sent out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the River”
This imagery of Israel as a majestic vine helps us to see the care in which Israel was established. This care in establishing Israel in which no expense is spared is the meaning of the master of the house who leaves his precious vineyard to tenants.
He plants it, fences it in, digs a winepress, and builds a tower. This was no small effort. Everything that can be done for a successful vineyard was secured.
Then he leaves the whole operation to his tenants, giving them the benefits of his labors, trusting them to give a portion of the fruit in due season.
This is a vivid picture of what God has done for Israel. This was God’s Word, God’s promise that He would shower blessings on them for all eternity.
God is the giver and creator of every good thing. He has given to us the same blessing that he has given Israel. He has raised us in the faith where we have come to know our heritage as God’s people and we have come to learn from Jesus the way of righteousness in Him.
God has made the same promise to us, he will be our loving giving God, and we will be his beloved people to all eternity. We are like the vine whose branches cover the mountain and whose roots reach into the sea.
Even when God’s people rebelled, refused to bear fruit, he sent His word again through the prophets. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them.
The master sent one servant after another to receive fruit. If only any of these could be the last word, all would be forgiven, the fruits of the vineyard would be collected, the vineyard would be a model of perfection. Israel could be celebrated as it once was, the treasured possession of God: you are still mine!
None of the servants who were sent made the difference. One after another was treated worse. Finally, God sent his Son. Surely this could be the last word and all will be well.
But we are all too determined to have the last word. The significance of God sending his only Son to us was lost on us.
Israel was determined to have the last word. When the master sent his servants to collect his share, they are beaten, stoned, and killed. Time and time again Israel, the tenants, insisted on having the last word.
In Acts chapter 7 Stephen asks: “Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, whom you have now betrayed and murdered.” In the sermon on the mount Jesus said: “Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
You can see it coming a mile away, nothing good is going to come by the vineyard owner sending his son. Look how they treated the other representatives.
I remember listening to this parable in a different light after becoming a father. How completely not worth it, I thought, to send your son to those wicked tenants, to see if after so many bad results that maybe they would treat the son differently. What a tragedy to lose your son over such ungrateful workers! Why not just give up on the tenants and drive them away and find new tenants to work the vineyard, but by all means don’t send your son! What justification could there possibly be to put your son at risk after all that they have done?
Yet that is just what the Father did in sending us Jesus. He loved us against all reason or justification. This is the love our hymn of the day celebrated: “O Love How Deep, How broad How High, Beyond all thought and fantasy!”
It’s beyond our imagination how God could love us so much even after all of our rebellion. It’s beyond our understanding how Jesus respond to unrequited love from us.
As we heard in the Introit, God’s steadfast love endures forever. “Give thanks to the LORD for his steadfast love endures forever.”
In the parable the master’s last gracious invitation is rejected. His act of supreme love is scorned. They believe they have the last word by killing the son, they think this will allow them to claim the vineyard as their own.
Obviously, this is not how property rights work. You can’t just have what you want because you have torn down and destroyed the local structure of government, there is always a higher authority of law which determines possession of property. In the case of Israel killing the Lord’s prophets and then killing Jesus- it did not get them anywhere other than the false belief that they are in charge and have gained the last word.
Today many generations later, even we in the church want to have the last word in our conversations with God. Yes Lord, I know your word says in the Seventh Commandment, but I really need this extra amount of money that otherwise would go to taxes if I reported this income.
‘Yes Lord I know I should love everyone, but how can I forgive those people who hurt me?’ The young couple says I know we should not live together before marriage, but we are really in love.
Yet although we want to have the last word Jesus always does have the last word: 40 When therefore 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 let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
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 marvelous in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
They spoke the word of judgement against themselves in condemning the tenants. Jesus quotes to them a Psalm about His enduring steadfast love beyond our rejection, Psalm 118:22 “The Stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”
Jesus the stone was rejected and killed. But in that moment he spoke the last word: “It is finished” His resurrection proved that death cannot be the last word. By his death and resurrection He offers the kingdom to all who believe in Him.
As Christ as the cornerstone of the church we have been called by Holy Baptism to be the faithful tenants who do produce good fruit. We do not need to have the last word because Jesus has finished it all on the cross. How refreshing to not need the last word. How wonderful and marvelous that we are built on His amazing love.