455: What Shall I Do? I will Send My Son | Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

We are in Luke chapter 20 beginning at verse 9, Luke 20, verse 9, and it is on page 879. Before we dig into the text, let me ask you, have you ever heard of the Native American Code Talkers? I don’t get it exactly, but I know like middle school boys and junior high boys, they have codes and ways they talk to each other that their parents can’t understand. Maybe some older kids just go on TikTok because their parents never go there.

But in the war, the Great War, that’s kind of an oxymoron, Great War. In the Big War, World War, we needed to get very sensitive information out and back. Out and back. And the problem is, if you speak Russian, there’s somebody interpreting Russian. If you speak French, Italian, whatever, whatever, whatever. So we had to figure a way that if they got the hands on the message, they wouldn’t be able to understand it. And so what did they do? They found out that Native Americans, Indians, Native Americans, have their own dialect. I think it was mainly Navajo, but whatever the case, they spoke a language nobody knew. It’s not in Google Translate, okay? It’s not there. And so the Native Americans helped us. They really helped us win over our adversaries because they spoke in an unknown tongue and trust me, the Holy Spirit was giving no interpretation.

And so they spoke this way to help us keep things secret and to transfer information back and forth and back and forth. In a similar way, Jesus teaches in parables. He teaches in parables. It’s funny. I put it into those reliable sources, Jim and I, and ChatGPT, and I said, “How many parables did Jesus teach?” You would think it would be a set number, wouldn’t you? They said 30 to 50. So that shows you how poor ChatGPT and Jim and I are for being accurate. But whatever number it is, it’s a lot. Jesus taught in parables a lot.

And the question is why? Why does he use parables when he could just say it? Why would you use parables when you could just say it? Well, his followers, his disciples, wondered the same thing. And so they said, “Hey Jesus, why are you always talking in parables? Couldn’t you just tell us plainly like why the parables?” And Jesus says, “Well Matthew 13,” he says this,

To you, to my followers, to you who love me, you who trust me, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. But to them, to those who reject me and reject my gospel and my kingdom, they’ll be forever seeing but not seeing. They’ll be forever hearing but not hearing.

Kind of like when the people would hear the Native American code talkers. Jesus says, “I want my people to hear the secrets of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. But for those outside, for those who are mockers and blasphemers, who have no interest and will never have an interest, I speak in code if you will. I speak in parables so my kids can hear it.”

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

Now, we turn now to the parable of the wicked tenants, okay? Kind of an important parable, kind of an important parable. It’s found in three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke. That’s kind of important, that it’s in all three. I think there are only three other parables that are found in all three Gospels, the synoptics.

Okay, but before we dive in, it’s always a good idea to know what the heck is going on. If you had this experience, you’d go to a movie theater and you’re late, right? I’m usually the one running late, not missing that. We get there late and, mercifully, we’ve missed the opening 50 minutes of commercials, which it just, like, give me a screwdriver and put it in my eye, it’s really, they’re terrible. But if you come in the middle of a movie, you’re very likely to draw the wrong conclusion because you don’t have context, and as my buddy Charles at the Hill Church says, context is king.

So the basic question for you this morning is what’s going on here as we get to the parable of the wicked tenants? What’s just happened? I’ll give you a clue, look in Luke 21 through 5ish. What’s going on? If you don’t know, look at the headline over it. Kind of like the, what do you call it, the cliff notes version, just follow the headlines. What does it say? What does it say in your Pew Bible?

The authority of Jesus is being challenged, and guess who’s challenging it? The Pharisees, the religious leaders, the rulers, the scribes, the Pharisees. It says one day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priest and the scribes with the elders came up and they said to Jesus, by what authority do you do this? Okay, so you see, they’re already trying to lay a trap for him. They’d already come some distance, and this is right before Jesus is getting ready to go to his death at their hands.

But here we see, they don’t like Jesus, they don’t believe in him, they’re questioning his authority, and the other bookend, if you will, if you’ll drop down to verse, oh, where is it? Ah, here it is, verse nine, ready? This is the other bookend. It says,

The scribes and the chief priest ought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceive that Jesus told this parable against them. But they feared the people.

And so on the front end, the Pharisees and the scribes are questioning Jesus, they’re trying to lay a trap for him, but on the back end, what’s happening? They clearly know that this nice little parable, this cute little story is not simply for all the people, it’s for them. It is aimed, if you will, at them.

You know, the Lord really cares about how his shepherds take care of the sheep. Do you remember in Ezekiel 34? Ezekiel 34. He says this about the wicked shepherds of Israel, it’s sobering,

The word of the Lord came to me, son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds, thus says the Lord God, oh shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding, gorging yourselves, should not the shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat and you clothe yourselves with wool and you slaughter the fat ones, but you don’t feed the sheep. The weak, you have not strengthened, the sick, you have not healed, the injured, you have not bound up, the strayed, you have not brought back, the lost, you have not sought.

My sheep were scattered, he goes on and on, basically he’s taking them to the wood pile. Jesus cares how his shepherds treat the sheep. This whole new thing of like mega church pastors or any church pastors who get this arrogant thing going and think that they’re no longer servant, we don’t want to say if you’re not a servant, you’re not a pastor, if you’re not a servant, you’re not a pastor.

So back to Luke 20, Jesus, at a time where he’s being challenged and right before he’s getting ready to get to Jerusalem to his death, he knows what’s happening and it’s going to come from their hand. He tells this parable, which is pregnant with meaning. Let’s dive in.

The Parable of the Vineyard

It says, “And Jesus began to tell the people generally,” this is kind of what I do in sermons, right? I don’t know what’s going on with everybody, but I tell it to the people and I’ll let the Holy Spirit apply it to the individuals that need to hear that, okay? So he began to tell the people this parable and here’s the parable, so simple, “A man planted a vineyard and he let it out to tenants and he went to another country for a long while.”

Now that’s kind of a strange thing. You don’t see that happening in Cave Spring, do you? You don’t see anybody leasing out their vineyard to some workers, but I can tell you even in my lifetime, I’ve seen sharecroppers, do you guys remember that to me, old people? Old means my age and older, okay? Do you remember? I remember going to a farm in Essex County, Virginia. My friend’s family had owned the farm for generations upon generations. A U.S. senator lived there, also he had been, for good or bad, really, probably bad. He had been a Confederate Secretary of War, I think.

Anyway, it was a very famous farm in Essex County, about 10,000 acres originally. And it had shrunk because the family lost their money, you know, they sold off, sold off, sold off, but I remember walking across this huge farm and I see some kind of rundown houses and I see some people I don’t know and I’m like, “What are they doing here?” And the older man that owned the farm, he says, “Well, they’re our sharecroppers.” And I said, “Well, what’s a sharecropper?” He said, “Well, we give them free housing and they get to stay on our land and work our land, and then when the harvest comes up, whatever it may be, whether it’s wheat or corn or potatoes or whatever, they give us 50% of it.”

And I didn’t know about credit cards and payday loans, but I thought, “Man, that’s a ripoff.” But actually, in a way, it’s actually not a ripoff because they had nothing, they had no ability to make a living and this land on around the kindness and mercy of his heart says, “Look, I’m going to give you a place to live. I’m going to give you the ability for your family to eat and I’ll ask you as you return a portion back to me.” And that was the agreement.

And so we pick up in this parable, this man planted a vineyard, he let it out to tenants and he went to another country for a long while. Okay, verse 10, it says, “When the time came.” This is something people, when they’re younger, they don’t understand, there will be a day of accountability. See, for my whole life, I lived like a 15-year-old and I just think, “Have fun because tomorrow we may die, there are not any consequences, live large.” Maybe some of you can relate to that.

But the Bible says there will be a time, there is a day appointed for judgment. There’s a day where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, everyone. Now, not all those people are going to heaven, but they will all bow their knee. The Lord who loves us, who is not only loving, but he’s just and he’s holy. If he wasn’t just and holy, who would want to have anything to do with him? The very fact that he’s just and holy and holds people accountable, including the shepherds of Israel, shows us that he really does love us.

It says, “When the time came,” the owner of the vineyard, or vineyard, as my buddy Felix on Dwell says, vineyard, “when the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.” Isn’t that fair? It’s kind of like in our house when my kids used to make cookies or cakes for some poor soul who was sick or getting out of the hospital or whatever, and I would like, “Hey, give me a slice of that pie or of that cake,” and they’re like, “No, no, no, no, no. This is for something else,” and I’m like, “Well, hold on, I bought it. Just give daddy a slice. They won’t mind, right?”

So it says, “He sends a servant to the tenants. He’s just trying to get what was already agreed upon. Here’s fair, we had a deal, everybody knows the deal, and now that the fruit of the vine is here, I just need you to give me my master’s portion.” And so it just does what he’s supposed to do, but what happens to the servant who comes to the tenants? Look at verse 10b, it says, “But, but the tenants beat him, and they send him away empty handed.”

They beat him. Now, I don’t know about you guys, but just don’t raise your hand, but anybody here been in a fistfight? I was in one, and that was the pointy. See, it always looks cool on TV when people are like, “Boom, boom, boom,” decking people. What you don’t realize when you see those movies and TV shows is, people hit back. And it hurts. Like, don’t ever be in a fight, man. It really does hurt. So, when this guy came to just get what was his master’s share, it says, “They beat him, and they send him away empty handed.” What wicked, wicked tenants.

I remember mama Gloria Quashi, seeing Nigeria, they don’t mind calling out somebody who’s wicked. Mama would say, “That person’s wicked, they’re wicked.” And they are wicked. They’re killing Christians over there, while we’re all having a nice time, they’re killing Christians every single day. Mama calls it out, calls it what it is.

So, okay, so the first servant is beaten, and they send him away empty handed. Verse 11, what happens? Yeah, you know the old song by Herman’s Hermits? We joked in the first service, “This is why I need a young man’s sloop to replace me,” and then eventually he’s going to need somebody younger than he is, because he ain’t going to bring chicken himself, okay? But what you realize is, you know how a grandfather used to tell the same old stories? All my stories are 60 years old, or 50 years old, and the new people are like, “What are you talking about?” So we need some younger guys.

But anyway, there was a song by Herman’s Hermits, it’s called, “Henry the Eighth.” I’m Henry the Eighth-dye-em, Henry the Eighth-dye-em-my-em, you know the rest of it, okay. Anyway, the point is, it says second verse, same as the first. Second verse, same as the first. Now today you’re going to have that in your memory, that song. “I’m Henry the Eighth-dye-em,” you’re going to have it in your head all day long, but the point I want to make is, second verse, same as the first.

The way they treated the first servant of the owner of the vineyard, they treat the second guy the same way except actually worse, let’s look. Okay, so verse 11, “He sent another servant, but they also beat and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed.” Now it’s subtle, you’ve got to be thinking, you’ve got to be looking, okay. But just as in Psalm 1 it says, don’t walk in the way of sinners, don’t sit in the seat, no, no, don’t walk, don’t stand, don’t sit, okay? Do you see the progression, walk, stand, sit. Here we’re having a progression of the wickedness of these evil wicked tenants and you see them stepping it up, stepping up.

First servant, they beat him, they sent him away. The second servant, they beat him also, but it says they treated him shamefully. And I don’t know what that means, but I know Jesus knows what it means. He was treated shamefully in two weeks after this. And so the second servant, again, beat it treated shamefully, they sent him away empty-handed.

Okay, by this point, if you’re the owner of the vineyard, I’m like, man, I love people. I don’t want to get in a fight, you know, I don’t want drama. But you owe me my money, okay? You owe me my crops. And my way of handling it would be called a good old boy from West Virginia. I got a friend, he’s 6’7”, about 275, and he grew up in the coal mines. And whenever I got a problem, he’s my Guido. See, I would have sent him to settle the matter. But here, they don’t do that. He sends yet a third servant. You see, really friends, as you get it, the vineyard is Israel. The vineyard is Israel. We know that from the Old Testament Scriptures. He says, “I took a vine out of Egypt and I planted it. Israel is his vineyard. They’re his prized position. And so who is the owner in the parable? Who’s the owner? Yeah, God, God’s the owner. Who are the servants that come on behalf of the master and say, “Hey, it’s time to pay up”? We’re the prophets and how do we treat the prophets? Well, Isaiah was cut in two. Some were thrown down a sister and many, like they were murdered. And so we see the love of the father, Father God, even though they don’t deserve it. They deserve wrath. They deserve Guido from West Virginia. But what he does is he continues to persevere. The Lord is long suffering. Long suffering. And aren’t you glad that he is? He’s long suffering.

So what do they do with the third servant? Look at verse 12. Notice the change in language, it says, “This one also they wounded and cast out.” Now I don’t know what the Greek word is here anyway, but I can tell from the English word. It’s more than what happened before. Before they beat him, now they’re wounding him. It’s kind of like surgical procedure, surgery, okay? So they’re stepping up, they’re hate, they’re animosity, they’re trying to just say, “Hey, this is ours. Go away. We’re not paying anything.” And so they’re letting their rage out on this third servant.

So they wounded him, they cast him out. Now in verse 13, there’s a question to be answered. So if you and I were the owner, we probably would have taken matters into our own hands or we would call the police. We would take him to court, plenty of lawyers who would love to have that case. But what does the father do? Where’s the owner of the vineyard do? Yes, but before he does that, he asks a question. What does he ask? What shall I do?

What shall I do? See, while this is directed at the wicked rulers and leaders of Israel who are mistreating the sheep, it’s also something we can learn from him. And he says, “So the owner of the vineyard says, ‘What shall I do?’” In other words, it’s showing us the father’s heart that he has not given up. You know, second verse, same as the first, third verse, same as the first. He’s pursuing them and pursuing them and pursuing them, pursuing, just like he pursues you. And he doesn’t give up.

But in our prayers of the people, we hear, “Thank you, Lord, for second chances.” And I believe that, except for that’s not enough. If it was second chances, I wouldn’t have made it out of diapers. That’s all we get is a second chance. How about a thousand chances? How about ten thousand chances? How about fifty thousand chances? The Lord, His mercies are new every morning. We’re seeing the love of God and His mercy and His kindness.

Okay, so what happens? He says, “What shall I do? I’ll send my beloved son,” foreshadowing, ladies and gentlemen, foreshadowing. We’re talking about a guy who ends a vineyard and he’s sending his servants and his son, but we know it’s really God the Father. His vineyard is Israel. The servants that are sent are the prophets of God. And ultimately, just as Israel refused to listen to the prophets of God and they killed him. And then the fullness of time, God didn’t go to Plan B because it was always Plan A to send his son as Messiah, the Savior of the world.

He says, “I’m going to send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.” Okay, did they respect him? No, because the thing is, once you have that ugliness in your heart, once greed is your God, and arrogance is also the way that you think, right? Something has to be broken.

Now, in the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 5, there’s a parable, not a parable, but there’s a story of the vineyard. It’s called the vineyard song. And God gives his vineyard expecting good fruit to be returned to him, but he only got sour grapes or bitter grapes. And so you know what the Lord did in the Old Testament? He annihilated the vineyard. He just annihilated it. He said, “The walls, I’m going to burn them down, the hedgerows, I’m going to take those down.” And the vineyard, I’m going to, basically, no rain, no care, we’re just going to let it go. It’s destroyed.

But in this story, what happens? He doesn’t destroy the vineyard, his people Israel. He calls out the wicked shepherds, but he sends his son to redeem all of Israel, all those who would call upon his name and be saved. Instead of crushing the vineyard, he crushes his son. And he says this, verse 16, we’ve got to end,

He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

Friends, there’s a day of accountability. Nobody likes that. Everybody says, “Oh God, you’re my friend. You’re my buddy. You’re my pal.” I’ll just say this. If God is not just, he is not loving. If you’ve ever suffered from injustice, and many of you have suffered tremendously from injustice, you would know that it may not be taken care of in your lifetime, but the Lord will take care of it. Every mountain, he will bring low. Every valley, he will fill in. The crooked ways will be made straight. And so we worship a God that is long, suffering, and kind, but he’s also a God who will not be mocked, and especially to the religious leaders.

He says, “That is wicked. You are wicked tenants.”

The Rejection of Christ

Last, let’s land the plane. And he says this. He says, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” You see, all this parable is about the religious leaders rejecting Messiah, the religious leaders rejecting Jesus. He didn’t meet what they were expecting, and so they threw him out on the pile, and the father goes, “No, no, no, no, no, that rock you threw in the pile? That is my beloved. That’s my son.” He is, in fact, the cornerstone.

Anybody that falls on the stone is going to be crushed into pieces. Anybody that the stone falls on will be crushed, and so what he’s saying, “It’s Christ. You may reject him. I have not.” And so I’m going to deal with you wicked servants. You wicked tenants. I will deal with you.

I want you to know as God is loving, He’s faithful, and He’s good, but He’s also just, and He will make crooked things straight. The name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.