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Pastor Tom Steers on April 6, 2025

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THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT

April 6, 2025

Pastor Tom Steers

Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto

OPENING HYMN: 790 “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3DS3nHICjw

Confession and Absolution Page 203

(Divine Setting Service Four, Lutheran Service Book)

Introit

Psalm 3, verses 3-6, 8

But you, O LORD, are a shield about me,

my glory, and the lifter of my head.

4 I cried aloud to the LORD,

and he answered me from his holy hill. 5 I lay down and slept;

I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.

6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people

who have set themselves against me all around. 8 Salvation belongs to the LORD;

your blessing be on your people!

Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy) Page 204

Salutation Page 205

Collect Prayer: Almighty God, by Your great goodness mercifully look upon Your people that we may be governed and preserved evermore in body and soul; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Our Bible Readings:

Old Testament -- Isaiah 43: 16-21 Psalm 126 Our Epistle Reading -- Philippians 3: 4b-14 Our Gospel Reading -- Luke 20: 9-20

THE APOSTLES’ CREED Page 207

HYMN OF THE DAY: 644 “The Church’s One Foundation”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd1Ml1lJEns

THE SERMON –

Brothers and sisters, peace, grace, and mercy be to you through God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

We’re faced with two questions this day: how patient is God with us, and what does He want?

We’ve been journeying through Lent, reminded, by God’s Law, of our sins

and through the Gospel, of the Good News of our Saviour.

We’ve also been reading about the journey Christ is taking towards Good Friday, and the Cross.

That theme, and the things that led the corrupt religious ‘authorities’ to arrange the execution of Christ, are what Luke is describing in today’s Gospel verses.

In Luke we’ve seen Jesus heal the sick, the crippled and blind.

And He does this even on the Sabbath.

The day of rest He created for mankind.

Rather than see God’s miracles and mercy at work,

the hateful scribes and Pharisees see an opportunity to entrap and kill Christ, who they consider to be a rival.

And not just a rival – but someone who preaches a Gospel of love and forgiveness for repentant sinners.

Someone with a message that the Kingdom of Go is both with us now, and for believers, there for eternity.

The temple authorities hold to the Law and self-righteousness as a means of salvation.

They will murder to maintain that world view.

As Jesus taught in the Temple, “the people were hanging on His words.”

The Pharisees and scribes were as well.

So, Jesus tells the Parable of the Wicked Tenants.

It’s about humans rejecting God’s Kingdom, and those God the Father sends to warn and correct them.

We know what happens if tenants refuse to pay their rent.

But can you imagine a landlord who not only allows evil tenants to refuse to pay a fair rent, but even has patience with people who beat the ones He sends to ask for it?

Here on earth, behaviour like that would land people in jail.

But the true landlord of the earth, God the Father, is more patient.

Patient even with the wicked.

But while his ability to forgive is not limited, His patience with those who refuse to accept His Son, has its bounds.

Today’s parable illustrates a horrible tragedy in Israel, and around the world today some 20 centuries later.

Ironically, many people who actually heard the allegory firsthand, and could have benefitted from it, rejected it.

They were doomed to commit the very crime Jesus illustrates.

Christ gave this parable during Holy Week.

He’s no longer preaching and healing in the Galilean countryside.

Now He’s teaching in the temple.

This should have been a sacred place, but sadly it was ground zero for the religious and spiritual corruption that plagued Israel.

So, Jesus cleanses the temple not only with His whip of cords, but with His teaching to bring people back to God.

At the same time the ‘holier than thou’ temple authorities try every trick they know to entrap Christ.

But Jesus always has an answer solidly based on God’s Word.

Two thousand years ago, or today, it’s not uncommon for a farmer to rent land from a landowner in exchange for a share of the harvest.

It’s also not unusual for the landlord to send an agent to collect his share at harvest time.

As I've said, renters in the real world know swift punishment will come to those who withhold a fair share and beat up the owner's agents.

And there’s certainly no way renters, now or then, would consider themselves heirs if they killed the son of the owner.

The thinking of the renters represents not only foolishness – but complete evil.

The landowner sends numerous servants into a dangerous situation.

Then, when the tenants have thoroughly proven their cruelty, and total ingratitude, the landlord sends His Son.

Jesus based this parable on the writings of the prophet Isaiah.

And people in the temple would have known these words, especially the Pharisees and scribes.

In Isaiah Chapter 5, verse 7, the prophet wrote:

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts

is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah

are his pleasant planting;

and he looked for justice,

but behold, bloodshed;

for righteousness,

but behold, an outcry!”

The people listening to Christ immediately knew the LORD of hosts, God the Father, was the landowner.

They were aware the tenants represented the people of Israel, and especially the temple authorities.

The servants who came to collect the landlord’s due were the prophets looking for faith in God, and the fruit of repentance.

The son would therefore be the only Son of God Himself – Jesus who stood before them.

The hearers were aware of the history of God’s prophets.

Instead of listening to them, they were imprisoned, tortured, and killed.

Only a handful of these messengers died of natural causes.

The rest were murdered simply because they proclaimed the message God gave them to announce.

The parable, was foretelling, that the people, especially the scribes and Pharisees, would kill the Son of God, the promised Messiah.

The judgment these evil tenants earned from God with their treachery was just.

They would lose their land, heritage, and worst of all, their relationship with God.

The people respond in horror, "Surely not!"

The chief priests are especially offended.

They were petrified of losing their positions of authority as religious cops

in a strictly law-based religion.

The Gospel according to John makes this clear. [John 11: 47-48]:

“The chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this,

everyone will believe in him.”

In a few days the temple authorities will back Pontius Pilate into a corner, and coerce him into crucifying Christ.

In this way they hope to preserve their corrupt positions.

How foolish!

Things haven't changed much through the centuries.

Those who preach the Word of God in its truth as Law and Gospel are not always listened to.

Many times, proud sinful people prefer either the simplistic religion of Law, or a permissive Gospel without Law.

C.F.W. Walther, a North American Confessional Lutheran theologian once wrote:

“As soon as God’s Word is truly proclaimed, people will split into two camps.

Some will receive it with joy; others will be offended by it and will begin to hate and persecute those who announce it . . . the church is not a kingdom that can always be built up in peace. For it is located within the domain of the devil, the prince of this world.”

Jesus ended this story of the vineyard with the father returning in anger, destroying the tenants, and giving the vineyard to others.

There will come a day when those who refused to listen to and abused God's servants will face a final judge.

Fortunately, Jesus didn’t stop teaching with the Parable.

He continued with a quote from Psalm 118, verse 22: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

With these words, Christ taught us that He is the One upon whom the true Church stands.

He also taught that before He could become the cornerstone, the authorities had to reject Him.

Jesus will live out the meaning of these words a few days later, when He is falsely accused by the Sanhedrin and handed over to Pilate for execution.

But they didn’t succeed.

God raised Jesus from the dead, and Christ became that sole cornerstone of the Church – it’s ‘one foundation’ as we sang today.

Unlike the son in the parable who remained dead, Christ rose, after paying for the sins

of the world.

And because He was raised from the dead, one day, through faith in Him, you also will be raised.

There is no limit to God’s mercy.

But there is a limit to His patience.

It’s one human lifetime.

There are many in the world who will not listen to God’s Word, who refuse the gift of faith He offers.

Who will not repent of their sins.

They may refuse out of ignorance.

They may refuse out of pride or arrogance.

But the parable of the Wicked Tenants shows us a God who wants all to be saved.

We know from God’s Word that everyone is broken, or crushed, by the stumbling stone of the Law.

Those who believe in Jesus as Saviour must fall into the brokenness of repentance in order to be raised again by the Gospel as new beings, living stones in Christ, the temple of God.

Hold fast to Jesus, the cornerstone.

Hold fast to the truth that we are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH

SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 208 Preface Page 208 Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Page 208 Prayer of Thanksgiving Page 209 The Lord’s Prayer Page 209 The Words of Our Lord Page 209 Pax Domini (The Peace of the Lord) Page 209 Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) Page 210 (Our Communion Hymn is, “Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness”) Nunc Dimitis (Song of Simeon) Page 211 Post-Communion Collect (Left-hand column) Page 212 Benedicamus and Benediction Page 212

CLOSING HYMN: 544 “O Love, How Deep”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIuoQhIURpg

1 O love, how deep, how broad, how high,

Beyond all thought and fantasy,

That God, the Son of God, should take

Our mortal form for mortals' sake!

2 He sent no angel to our race,

Of higher or of lower place,

But wore the robe of human frame,

And to this world Himself He came.

3 For us baptized, for us He bore

His holy fast, and hungered sore;