Denying the Truth
Matthew 21:33-43
“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
In our gospel for today, the tenants in the vineyard couldn’t take the chance that the landowner might come and reclaim the vineyard. It was a great place to live and work and they wanted to keep it for themselves. No matter how many emissaries the vineyard owner sent to the tenants imploring them to turn over a fair share of the harvest, the tenants always refused. Instead of listening to the truth of their situation – that they were only tenants and tenants have responsibilities to pay rent, they instead killed the messengers. Clearly, the tenants were in denial. They were in denial about who actually owned their vineyard, they fooled themselves into thinking that if they got rid of all those sent to collect for the owner then they could keep the vineyard for themselves. Even when the owner of the vineyard sent his son to shake them out of their illusions, they killed him too, deluding themselves into believing that with the son’s death the owner would now leave them alone.
Jesus told this parable as a scathing condemnation of the religious leaders of the time whose sole reason for being was to speak God’s truth. However, these leaders were less interested in truth and more interested in protecting their institutional bureaucracy. These leaders were supposed to serve God, instead they used their power to control the faith, often in service to themselves. “You are living in denial,” Jesus was telling them. “These are God’s people, not your people, give God his due or face the consequences.”
Jesus was very partial to the truth and truth telling. He was adamant that all those who commit themselves to God must face the facts about their lives. Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus called Peter Satan when Peter tried to deny the truth that the Messiah must suffer and die.
Are we living in denial too? Are we more like the tenants in the vineyard than we might like to admit? While some acts of denial, like the reality of our expanding waistlines, might seem harmless and other acts of denial, like our inability to come to terms with the death of a loved one, might act as a short-term coping mechanism, most denial makes a lie out of our lives and separates us from God. Anyone who has ever been or who has ever dealt with an active alcoholic knows that the almost endless power of the alcoholic to deny that they have a problem can destroy individuals and families.
The truth about ourselves is sometimes very painful and we would rather avoid pain than confront the truth. How many times have we gone to bed leaving a major fight with our spouse unresolved only to wake up in the morning believing that because it is a new day it is perfectly fine to forget about what happened the night before? How many times have we denied the truth of our own unhappiness because it is easier to fake the smile than it is to fix the problem? How many times have we (especially the men among us) hidden the symptoms of disease because we stupidly believe that if we don’t go to the doctor then we aren’t sick?
Our faith teaches us that God is love. We should also know that God is truth. God is present wherever there is love and God is present whenever we struggle with the truth – the truth about ourselves, the truth about our families, the truth about our world. We can live in denial if we want to, but we should know that it is very hard to live in faith at the same time. As Jesus said to his followers, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:31-32
Blessings,
Randy+
prayer
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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