The Beloved Son: The Cornerstone and the Vineyard

The other brother believes in God, not quite too sure about Jesus, not quite too sure about why he died or if he rose from the dead, And he preaches to his congregation a gospel that, you know, we should love one another. We should forgive one another. But there's really no Jesus in that gospel. We are called to embrace God's beloved son, Jesus Christ, as our lord, our savior, our rock, our foundation upon whom not only our faith is built, but our salvation is built. [01:01:06] (53 seconds)  #EmbraceJesus

Jesus has reminded the chief priest, everyone who's listening of his heavenly father's patience through all those generations of sending prophets, how many of them were mistreated, and yet God remained faithful to his people Israel. He remained faithful to the covenant that he had made with them. Jesus is also expressing that he is very aware that he is not going to get out of this alive. He's introduced this idea of a son and how the tenants say, let's kill him. Let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. Jesus is facing his death at the hands of sinners head on. [00:52:44] (57 seconds)  #JesusFacingDeath

if we stumble over him, the cornerstone, we will be broken. But to those of us who don't trip over him but rejoice in him, who receive him as God's beloved son, who re receive him as our lord and savior, there is much to celebrate. I know two brothers who were both called to be ministers in the United Church of Canada. One of the brothers loves the lord Jesus. He's committed his life to serving Jesus, to proclaiming the gospel of of god's salvation through Jesus' death for our sins, through Jesus' resurrection, through the gift of the holy spirit, and he wants to share this good news of god's love with everyone. [01:00:13] (53 seconds)  #CornerstoneOfFaith

But here Jesus is saying, now instead of sending another prophet, instead of sending another servant, the landowner is sending his beloved son. That wouldn't jive because God doesn't have a son. Obviously, any Jew would think. But here we see what Jesus is doing. We understand. When Jesus was transfigured on that mountaintop before Peter and James and John and that voice of his heavenly father said, this is my beloved son. [00:49:52] (39 seconds)  #ThisIsMyBelovedSon

He was threatened by death by queen Jezebel. He fled for his life into the wilderness and became so discouraged with his ministry that he prayed to God to die. Ezekiel, the prophet, people treated Ezekiel as entertainment. They thought that whatever Ezekiel was saying was surely not from God and they laughed at him and they mocked him. They enjoyed listening to him but not because he they felt he was speaking the word of God to them to repent and return to the Lord but simply for entertainment purposes. [00:47:21] (38 seconds)  #ProphetsMocked

their hearts were hardened, because they didn't like what the prophet was saying, because they didn't believe that God had raised up this prophet. And so the Jewish scriptures are filled with, the prophets of God that God was sending to the people to try to bring them back online. They mistreated a number of them. Let me read this for you. The prophet Jeremiah was put in stocks by pressure, the priest. He was imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary. He was thrown into a muddy cistern and left to die. Somebody else rescued him. He was beaten by officials. [00:46:35] (38 seconds)  #HardenedHearts

So last week, I mentioned that I didn't know if our beloved sermon series would continue today or not. It is. So just as a recap, we have been looking at how that word beloved has been used in scripture and in a thematic way that ties things together for us during this Lenten season. And so we began with Jesus going up the hill with James and John and Peter and Jesus being transfigured before them, dazzling white. And Moses and Elijah appearing with Jesus. [00:39:31] (35 seconds)  #BelovedSermonSeries

the chief priest would have understood this, it would have not made any sense at all because they understand Jesus is talking about how in the past, god sent prophets to bring the people back and eventually, you know, they've they've they feel they are back. They feel they're being faithful. Maybe not every Jew, but the the chief priests are being faithful. The the pharisees are being faithful. The sadducees are being faithful in their own way. [00:49:20] (31 seconds)  #AssumedFaithfulness