Seek Justice and Righteousness

Matthew 21: 33-46
Reading this week’s lectionary texts Isaiah 5:1-7 and Matthew 21:33-46, it is hard to miss the similarity between the two and the point that is being made. In the Isaiah text, God the vineyard owner asks the question: “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
In this question we hear a loving God’s anguishing over the unfaithfulness of God’s chosen people Israel. Two things that God has always asked of Israel, to seek justice, and righteousness. And yet, it is in these two things that Israel has demonstrated the opposite.
The accusations that God puts forward still apply today. Justice remains perverted, and those who are powerful exploit those who have little. Even though we, as God’s chosen in baptism like to think that we offer justice and righteousness, we fail to produce the justice and righteousness that God expects. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isaiah 64:6). Martin Luther said, “The most damnable and pernicious heresy that has ever plagued the mind of man is that somehow he can make himself good enough to deserve to live forever with an all-holy God.” I am glad that we have a faithful God.
Though God accuses and condemns us in our sin, God remains faithful to the promise of forgiveness given in our baptisms. We know that God’s final word to us is mercy.

Pastor Darryl

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash