Facing Suffering

Fifth Sunday in Lent
St. John's Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
Luke 20:9-20; Philippians 3:4b-14

“Facing the Cross: Facing Suffering”

See if you can picture it: you’re spending time at home, taking care of some chores out in your yard. It’s a beautiful day, with the sun shining down and a pleasant breeze blowing. But then you hear the screams. They’re coming from a ways down the road, over the gently sloping hillside where you used to play. When you turn towards the sound, you see the black smoke rising up, finally noticing the raiders coming over the hill – towards your home. Before long, you’ve been taken captive and dragged off to another country as a slave. Six years pass, during which you suffer under harsh master in that foreign land. One day, though, you escape and return home. Time goes by, and you return to the land where you’d been a slave, only now you’re there with a mission. How will you respond to the people there, people like those who raided your home, who took you captive and treated you badly? As unusual at that scenario might seem, it’s just what happened to St. Patrick. Dragged off from his home as a teenager, he was taken to Ireland, the nation with which he is now most closely associated. This weekend on March 17, people around the world will remember St. Patrick. For some people, St. Patrick’s Day is just a celebration of Ireland – or even all things green – but looking at his life can teach us something about facing suffering with the cross in view.

The parable that Jesus we hear Jesus tell to the crowds today contains a whole lot of suffering. The premise is simple: a man sets up a vineyard, rented it out to farmers, and went away to another country. Problem is, when the time came for him to return and for the framers to give this man the portion of the produce that belongs to him, they don’t want to. He sends a slave to the vineyard, but the farmers rough that guy up and send him back to the landowner. Apparently this vineyard owner is patient, though, since he sends another slave to give his tenants a second chance to do what they ought. Instead, they reject the second slave, too. Going above and beyond, the master gives them another chance and sends a third slave – and the farmers treat this one even worse than they did the first two! So the owner of the vineyard considers his options and decides to show them that he really means business, sending his dear son to be his representative and to settle accounts. Plotting, though, the tenants see an opportunity before them as the son comes to the vineyard. They deliberately throw him out and kill him, thinking that in doing so they could keep everything for themselves, cutting the owner out of the picture entirely. Lots of suffering: the slaves suffer, the son suffers, the father suffers – and the evil farmers will suffer, when they get the justice that’s coming their way.

A couple of other groups were there listening to Jesus along with the crowds. The scribes were those scholars who preserved and interpreted the Scriptures for the people. They’d come to be regarded as the authorities on what God’s Word taught. The chief priests, along with the Pharisees, followed those teachings and took charge over how the rest of the people lived according to religious law, both in Jerusalem and throughout Israel.
Hearing Jesus’ parable, they and the rest of the people cry out, “No! Let it not be so!” The people didn’t want that suffering to come upon the servants or the son. They didn’t want the farmers to cause or experience the suffering that Jesus described. But the religious authorities caught on to what Jesus was saying: they knew that he was implicating them as the wicked tenants who rejected all those servants that the owner of the vineyard had sent to them. The master’s slaves represented all the Old Testament prophets who came bearing God’s message to His people. They called their hearers to repent, to offer God the fruit of faithful living, but they people rejected them. But God in His patience kept calling the people back to him – even going to the extent of sending His own Son to them. And now, even hearing Jesus calling them out, the scribes and chief priests would still move forward with the very rejection of the Son that he’d warned them about.

Jesus knew what the religious leaders wanted to do. If they got rid of him, they figured, they could have the people all to themselves. Instead of following the instruction of God’s Word that had been entrusted to their care, they could continue to be the authorities who determined what was right and wrong. They wanted to get rid of this Jesus of Nazareth right then and there; however, they knew that any open action against him would hurt their standing with the people. You can imagine their outrage at this upstart teacher who had the nerve to warn them, saying that God would call them to account for the suffering that they’d caused. And so they begin to deliberate, planning to eliminate him, just like the tenants did with the landowner’s son. We’ll see how this Jesus suffers!

Facing the cross, Jesus knew that suffering was coming. He knew the cost of going into the world as his Father’s representative, calling the world to bear the fruit of repentance. And yet, he still reflected God’s patient love by facing the suffering that the religious leaders would bring upon him, even as they rejected the gift that offered. I guess it’s not surprising, though – we do the same thing.

There’s a lot of suffering contained in our readings today: suffering endured and suffering inflicted, and we share in both. Whenever you or I reject God’s instruction, we’re rejecting Jesus. How have you been like the farmers who rented that vineyard, conveniently ignoring your conscience and what you know to be right when you’ve got an option to avoid doing a hard thing? Why give God the fruit of obedience when it seems like He’s not around? You might feel like you’re fine on your own. You might even get angry at someone, even a friend, who comes to you to correct you when you’re in the wrong. It seems like it’s easier to reject the messenger than it is to hear the message. It’s not like other people are suffering if you just continue doing what you want to do, right? But the truth is that whenever you or I act selfishly, we’re failing to live as the faithful farmers God has called us to be. What’s it all for? Why continue working for selfish desires that reject Jesus’ call to follow God?

Reflecting on his life, St. Paul wrote that everything that he had inherited and everything that he had achieved in his life before Christ, impressive as it all was, was nothing but a pile of dung when compared to what he had through Jesus. Jesus faced the cross, faced suffering, to bring a great gift to every human being: fellowship with God. The son in the parable was coming to settle accounts with the tenants, but they rejected him and his father. When they killed the son, looking to take his inheritance for themselves, they lost everything, rejecting fellowship with the vineyard’s owner and bringing down doom on their own heads. As Paul put it, fellowship with God through His Son, Jesus, is the greatest prize that mankind could attain. Spiritually united to Jesus, his people share in his victory over sin and death and the suffering that they bring into the world.

Paul knew about the suffering that comes from facing the cross. As a disciple of Jesus, you will know that suffering, too. It’s becoming more and more difficult to live as a Christian in our society. In your words and in your actions, you’re increasingly pressured to give up following God’s instruction. If you don’t you’ll suffer. Some of that pain might come directly as people reject you as the farmers rejected the master’s slaves. Other discomfort and hardship might come as you find yourself confronted with hard choices that would have you deny yourself in order to live faithfully. What can you do?

Jesus’ parable of the wicked tenants speaks both to suffering endured and suffering inflicted. Looking at what happens as a result of the farmer’s evil and the suffering they caused, you’ll see that they get what’s coming to them. The landowner destroys them and lets the vineyard out to other tenants. God the Father is the ultimate victor, regardless of the unfaithful actions of all those people who reject him. Justice will be delivered against all those who inflict suffering – you and me, included. That’s why you can face the cross, listing to Jesus’ call to repent and turn from selfishness. Because God the Son faced suffering for you, you and all those who suffer can have the salvation He offers. He who was rejected has become the cornerstone and foundation of our faith and life.

Looking back at St. Patrick’s legacy, how did he respond as he came back to the land of the people who had made him and his family suffer? Rather than returning suffering for suffering, Patrick lived as an instrument of God’s patient grace. As a priest and missionary, Patrick spread the gospel of the Father who sent His Son to bring healing to a broken world. He baptized thousands, sharing the fellowship with God that comes through Jesus, delivering God’s victory over sin and death.

Facing the cross this weekend, remember and follow St. Patrick’s example – someone else who faced the cross and faced suffering – showing patience and forgiveness to all the people you encounter. Jesus, the Son of God, the cornerstone of faith, has come to reconnect us to his Father. And as St. Patrick’s life shows, the new life that you have through Jesus isn’t about luck – it’s about love.

Amen.