Pentecost 16

Pentecost 16 Matthew 21:33-46 “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

Human religion would never have invented Jesus Christ.

Jesus is unique in many ways. None the least of these ways is the manner in which he identified the problem confronting the human race and the solution he came to offer.
Jesus was born into an intensely religious society. It was a religion drawn from the teachings of Moses and the prophets but formed by the very human and terribly broken categories of fear, self will and pride. It was a religion bitterly divided against itself. And it was a religion that had no room for the person it claimed to worship.
The parable of the landowner and the tenants is the story of God, God’s prophets, God’s son and the human race.

Moses reveals what most people once considered self-evident. God created the Earth. God created humanity. God appointed humanity to be the stewards of the creation. As stewards we have three responsibilities: care for the Earth, care for other people, and care for ourselves.

Humans chose to reject this stewardship and claim ownership. The modern tendency to assert that God did not create the universe is the end point of a long journey of self will and the claim to ownership. Simple observation tells us that in the world of matter, energy, time and space everything has a cause. Simple observation of how the world works tells us that ownership is an illusion grounded in the will to power. Humans confuse the ability to dominate with the right to possess.

The problem with the human assertion of ownership, of the world, other people, even ourselves is that it contradicts the very pattern, plan and purpose of the universe.
Over the millennia God sent prophets, priests and preachers to remind us who we are and why we exist. The parable Jesus tells in the passage today reminds his listeners that people not only rejected those prophets, priests and preachers- they cast them out of society and at times tormented them and killed them.

The son in the parable represents Jesus himself. Jesus comes not just to preach but to teach and to heal. Jesus comes to model the original pattern of humanity. Jesus is the rightful owner of this planet and our species yet he comes as a servant to help, to heal, to restore the lost to wholeness and to holiness.

The people who listened to Jesus understood this. If they chose to receive Jesus they would need to give up their claim to ownership. They would need to give the claim to use the planet, other people and themselves according to their own will, the will to power.

It was a unique choice. No religion demands this choice. No secular world view demands this choice.

It was a clear choice. Jesus never asked people to believe in a book, a set of laws, a ritual or a so called spiritual practice. He said: come to me.
Jesus is the fullness of God’s original plan and pattern and purpose for creation and for humanity. When we see Jesus we see the origin and the meaning of life in general and each of our lives in particular.

This is why the tenants in the parable kill the son. By killing the son they think they will finally and completely claim ownership by the assertion of self will. Even the religious leaders of Jesus’ time perceive the fallacy in that belief. And yet, when they understand the significance of the parable and its immediate application they rebel just as the tenants in the parable rebel.

The religious leaders reflect the human condition in their rejection of Jesus and in their demand for Jesus to be killed. Humanity has separated from God and now claims ownership of the planet, other people, ourselves and even the very concept of God.
Jesus is God up front and personal. No human being in Jesus’ time, or ours, really expects God to visit us in person. The religious prefer their deities safely remote in transcendence or even more safely locked away in temples, books, or spiritual practices.

From time to time people say they cannot believe in God and will not believe in God without more evidence. Jesus is that evidence. He is the evidence people reject and cast out of this world.

The very presence of Jesus elicits a violent reaction from humanity. Jesus is the perfect mirror that reflects the human condition. There can be no illusion of ownership in the divine presence of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was well aware of this. Jesus in fact counted on this. It was in the human reaction to Jesus that Jesus was able to draw out the poison of sin and transmute it into the sacramental wine of eternal life.

Humanity killed Jesus on the cross as the tenants killed the son. Humanity killed Jesus to drive out a challenge to human pride and human self-will. Our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation uses this murderous intent to transform sin and death on the cross back into the original blessing of love and life through the Original Pattern of Creation. That original pattern is Jesus Christ.

People around the world are still lost in separation. People around the world still assert the human will to power to dominate and control. Only now, there is an alternative way of living. It is the way of reunification and transformation. It is the way of Jesus Christ.

We enter this way through baptism. We make a choice to follow this way in Confirmation. We are nourished in this Way through Holy Communion. We form our minds in this way through Bible reading, Bible study, and Bible memorization. We live this Way through worship and through service to others.

Jesus is the foundation stone that humanity rejected. Jesus has become the cornerstone for the new way of living.

This Way is the cornerstone to the new life that is eternal. It is a new way of living that is marvelous to experience. It is the gift of God to all people on this planet. It is the gift of God to you. It is Jesus offering you a new choice and a real choice to be immersed in divine love and to be transformed daily in divine love.

The choice is real. The choice is ours. Choose wisely. Choose Jesus.