See I am doing a new thing.

In the Old Testament this morning we heard the Lord say through Isaiah Behold, I am doing a new thing: now it springs forth do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people, the people I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.  There is our hope: the Lord is doing a new thing.

That new thing is the new covenant that He makes with us by His Son.  Under the old covenant, under the law we stood condemned, guilty. Under the old covenant of trying to keep the law perfectly there was no hope for us.  Under the old covenant all we could do is be condemned for all our wicked and evil ways. 

Even though the Son has come to save us, people still try to seek and save themselves. They think that by the way they live they deserve good things and by the way they think or act that somehow they earn or merit forgiveness and eternal life from God.

St Paul knew the law very well indeed: He was a Pharisee among Pharisees, circumcised on the eighth day as for legalistic righteousness-faultless. He even did a much better job of living according to the law than we ever could do.  But if we think by our own righteous efforts we merit salvation, we must speak with Paul. All that we count as good fruits are nothing more than rubbish . Why?  Because aside from Christ, our works, the fruits of our labors are nothing, but in Christ we have a righteousness that is not our own. 

In Christ we have the righteousness that comes by faith in what He has done apart from our halting and faltering efforts to keep the law.  This is what the chief priest in the Gospel lesson did not want to hear.  Their faith was in themselves, in their efforts to keep the law but not in Christ.

In the Gospel lesson we heard Jesus telling the parable of the vineyard owner and the tenants.  Whenever people hear this parable I think it is natural to wonder whom Jesus is speaking about?  Who are the tenants? Who are the ones who beat up the servants sent by the owner, and killed the Son?  We wouldn't want the Lord to be speaking about us. 

We know that owner is the Father; we know the Son who is killed is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  He is the one who is cast out of the vineyard, just as certainly as He was cast out of the city, nailed to the cross and died.  But who killed him?  We want it to be said that Jesus is speaking only to these Jews, to the ones who sought to lay their hands on him that day.  Look they perceive that Jesus was talking about them and so they were offended, angered, and they sought to kill him.  But dear children don't fall into the trap of thinking that their mindset, their evil ways, and their dark deeds are not the same as ours.  In the words of a great swamp philosopher, Pogo, “We have met the enemy and they are us.”

So whenever we hear this parable we are not to ask who is guilty of despising the owner or who is guilty of killing his servants and His Son.  There should be no finger pointing because the finger points directly at us and all who are born under the law, and that is us. 

With this parable Jesus speaks of all the owner has given to us: we have house, home, family, food, drink, clothing, and shelter.  We have been given our members, our reason, and all our senses. We have been given talents and abilities.  We have been given life, friends, children and all that we have.  We have been given all things to support this body and life.  Now what do we do with them?  Are we constantly seeking to be faithful in all He has given us and use all things for His glory? The answer is we have not. The truth is we despise the owner and want to take his place or at the very least think He has cared for us well enough. Does this truth hurt or make us angry? This truth is spoken to us to break up our hard hearts, to get us to turn back from our evil and selfish ways.

If the owner, our LORD come back tomorrow what fruits will we have to show him? You see, just like the owner in the parable planted the vineyard and gave it all that it needed, so too have we been planted and given all that we need.  What have we done with it, what do we have to show for it?  If He sent someone to gather the fruit of our lives what would we have to give him?

We have all been bad tenants, evil tenants.  We show this by all the sour grapes that we so willingly produce in our lives.  We mistreat and abuse all that the Lord has given us by acting as if we are the lords and masters over it all.  We run our lives as if we only live them for ourselves, as if we were the owners. 

The Lord is your rightful owner and He comes looking for the fruits of what is rightfully His.  This means that we should daily be attending to the needs of the vineyard.  This means that by no means should we mistreat, abuse, or take advantage of anyone one or anything in this life.  We should daily be helping our neighbor, supporting him, and defending him in every need. Doing all of this to the glory of our God.  This means that we are not to go running through this life taking what we want and doing what we want.  This means that we should not set up all things to serve ourselves and act as if we are the masters.  But, according to our sinful nature that is exactly what we do. Truly by our actions we seek to rob God, to oppress others, and to take over the vineyard. So what do we have to give the real owner of the vineyard? The truthful answer is we have nothing good for Him.

What do you think the owner will do?  Under the Old Covenant there is no hope for us.  The owner should destroy us and give the vineyard to others.  But this is where we hear of the miracle of all miracles, the wonder of all wonders, God knowing full well our sin, still sends His Son.  And by the death of His beloved Son the inheritance is ours.  This is the new thing that the Lord has done.  Though we have despised and rejected Him he has made a way for us.  He has done a new thing. 

That new thing is our righteousness, our right and restored standing before God achieved, purchased and won by and through the suffering and death of Christ.  The new thing is that we do not get what we deserve.  Instead of being crushed and destroyed and swept away, our hard hearts are broken.

In Christ our ways of despising God, our ways of rejecting him, the evil intent of our hearts have been exposed by the law, crucified and die with Christ.  This is what it means when Christ says that everyone who falls on Him will be broken to pieces- they will have their hard hearts broken.  There from the cross we see the true nature of our sin, there we see what our sin has caused- we have killed the Son. 

Yet, we do not despair for there is good news and great comfort for us.  Because it is by His death, by His being killed that we now have what we could not attain.  Though we have produced nothing worthwhile on our own, we have been given Christ, in Whom are all things. Our Baptism puts us in Christ and in Him we have all things, in Him we are now the rightful heirs.  Even by killing Him, no one could take His inheritance from Him. Having risen from the dead, He has chosen to give it freely to us through baptism and the hearing of His Word. 

There is still the manner of what we have to give when the servants come to collect that which we have produced. Truly all we have to put in the basket is the sourness of our sins, the rottenness of our attitude towards the Son and His teachings… two other things: our heartfelt confession regarding those sins and our pleas for mercy and forgiveness because of what the Son has done on our behalf.

In this way we hold out before Him the only thing we can, not our works but the death of His Son whom He sent so that we may be forgiven.  Each week you hear the good news that because of Christ, you have not been held accountable, because of Christ you are forgiven.  The Lord has certainly done a new thing. He has turned what should have killed us into the very thing that gives us life.  The death of the Son should have crushed us all but thanks be to God because He has made it our salvation. 

Christ’s death to save sinners is the new thing that the Lord has done. By His death you now have a righteousness that you could have never earned under the Law, the righteousness that is given by faith in Christ.  So count for nothing all that you have done for the sake of Christ because He is your hope, your righteousness, and your life.  In Him we are forgiven.