Forgetting Which Past?

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants in Matthew 21

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 21st chapter. Jesus said, Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country.

When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did the same to them.

Finally, 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 have his inheritance. And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

When, therefore, the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? They said to him, They will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.

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 marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard this parable, they perceived that he was speaking about them.

And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, so here are the words again of our epistle text.

Forgetting What Lies Behind: Paul’s Warning Against Self-Righteousness

The Apostle Paul saying, Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. A forward focus, if you would, and a forgetfulness of things in the past. Now, it's really tempting as you're reading this passage to think that what Paul is talking about forgetting is forgetting his sin.

But that's not what he's talking about. Think of it this way. What he's really talking about, and we'll see this as we work back through the text, he's talking about forgetting what he would consider in the past his meritorious works, the stuff that he was doing in order to save himself, his own self-righteousness.

And Paul had a great pedigree. And so the idea here as Christians, we do not live in the glory of our past achievements as if our past achievements somehow can merit something with God in relation to our salvation.

Think of it this way. The ultimate example of a person who is living in the past and cannot forget the past or forget what is behind is that character from Napoleon Dynamite, Uncle Rico. Okay, kind of shows, I love Napoleon Dynamite.

It tells you how bad my taste in comedy is. You guys look like you're in pain. This is horrifying. There'll be a stoning after church. But Uncle Rico, if you remember Uncle Rico, this is a guy who in the present is living the glory of his high school past.

There he is with a VHS video recorder in his van because he's living in a van because he's living in the past, working on his football moves and saying that he can throw this pigskin over that mountain over there.

This is a guy who's a washout. Why? Because he can't forget what lies behind. But see, the thing is, we're a lot like Uncle Rico when we somehow think that our past achievements, the stuff that we put on our resume, somehow is going to resonate with God.

I mean, could you imagine on the day of judgment, standing before Christ and Christ kind of looking at you and he's stroking his beard going, and again, could you remind me why I should let you into heaven?

Well, you see, there was that year, back in 1994, I joined a gym. I joined LA Fitness, and I was faithful to go to the gym four days a week for at least a good six weeks. Really, that's quite impressive.

What else have you got? Well, I got a bachelor's degree in Religious Studies and Biblical Languages. Uh-huh, okay. And a master's degree, yeah. And this is the reason why you should be coming to heaven.

Well, remember that time when I did that thing to help my wife without her even asking me? Yeah, that was quite monumental. What about all the other times where she had to ask for your help? Oh, boy. You see, all the things that we would think are like bonuses, stuff that goes good on a resume, if you think that somehow that's going to be meritorious when you stand before Christ, well, that's what we call self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness. And to kind of put it bluntly, self-righteousness isn't going to cut the mustard. So that being the case, let's work our way back through our text, our epistle text, and we'll see quite clearly that the Apostle Paul is talking about forgetting what lies behind, as far as his resume building self-righteousness.

Philippians 2. We'll back up just a little bit into the context. Philippians 3, verse 2. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. I always like pointing this out.

You'll note that the Apostle Paul, he had some pretty strong rhetoric for the Judaizers. These were fellows who argued with Paul and the apostles, and in fact, they were so argumentative on their point and their theology that a church council had to be called to deal with the issues that they were raising up.

And the Judaizers were the ones who were saying, unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic covenant and the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Paul says of them, they're dogs and they're evildoers, and their circumcision is nothing.

In fact, it's so nothing that it's just a mutilation of the flesh. And in Galatians, the Apostle Paul says, would they chop the whole thing off? If they think that holiness is based on that, then go all the way.

Why be half-hearted about it? So Paul then says this. We, we Christians who believe that we are saved by grace through faith, we are the circumcision. We are those who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and, listen to the phrase, put no confidence in the flesh.

And here confidence in the flesh is an idiom. It's a way of saying I put no confidence in my abilities, the things that I can do in carrying out and doing good works. And then the Apostle Paul gives us his pedigree, and it's quite the resume.

Though I myself, he says, have reason for confidence in the flesh, also if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, listen, I have more. And then listen to this list. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the Torah, blameless.

Now that's a good list. You'll note that the list that Christians try to put together today, if they're under the influence of what we call pietism, those lists don't quite sound as impressive. For instance, let me give you an example, kind of a pietistic approach.

So, well, I can't say that I'm a member of the tribe of Benjamin, but I can say that I don't dance, drink, smoke, or chew. My dog Luther doesn't do any of those things either. Just saying. Okay, so it's not as impressive.

It's not as impressive as, well, circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church.

Yeah, it doesn't have quite the same ring. In fact, that's the thing, is that you'll note that Paul's list actually includes requirements of the law, of the Bible, whereas the lists that are put together by the self-righteous, by pietists, oftentimes is a list that includes good works that they've made up, that they've invented, that are not ever listed in Scripture as good works.

So you'll keep that in mind. So Paul has a better credential in this area, and he says, but then whatever gain I had, gain I had in being self-righteous, I now count as a loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. It's like having the perfect resume, the one that you know is supposed to get all the accolades, and then taking it, crumpling it up, throwing it in the trash, and saying, Forget it.

It's worthless. It's utterly worthless. And that's what Paul is saying. So indeed, I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. And then listen to these words.

For Christ's sake, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things. And there's the word that shows up for the first time in this text, and the word is suffered. And you'll note that the Apostle Paul, in considering his righteousness under the Torah as worthless, in fact, he goes on in just the next part of the sentence and says he counts it as rubbish.

Why? So that he can gain Christ. In his confession of Christ and denial of his own righteousness and belief that his righteousness is given as a gift from God, Paul was made to suffer and suffer greatly.

In fact, he considered this life, in this life that we're presently living, nothing here to be worth grasping for or to be looking out in order to achieve and build. So he said, and I want to be found in Christ not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law.

Not having a righteousness of my own. And when you understand God's law correctly, you recognize that even your best good works are tainted with sin. And so the idea of having a righteousness of my own, that's, again, self-righteousness, and Paul is having none of it.

But he says, instead, I want to have the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. This is the righteousness that is from God, and it depends on faith. Over and again, we emphasize the fact that Christ bled and died for our sins.

God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that we can become the righteousness of God, so that we will be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And that comes and is given by grace, God's grace and his mercy through faith.

And so you'll understand then that for Paul, everything is about the cross. Everything is about Christ. In fact, he says, I chose to know nothing among you except for Christ and him crucified. And that's the point.

If our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, has bled and died for all of our sins, and our unrighteousness has been imputed to him, and it has, and by faith his righteousness is imputed to us, can you improve upon that?

I can't. So I would consider any attempt to save myself, to resume build, to live in the glory of my past, as if it's that glorious anyway, and somehow think that that's going to get me in with God, that's just being Uncle Rico.

It's just silly and stupid. And then he goes on, so that I might know Christ, so that I might know the power of his resurrection, so that I might share his sufferings. And again, here he's talking about suffering, and Paul was one of these fellows who was made to suffer greatly.

Paul’s Boast in Weakness and Suffering for Christ

In the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, Paul gives us a different list than the list that we heard at the beginning of Philippians 3. And this one is quite fascinating, and this is an account of all the sufferings that Paul went through because he denied his own righteousness and wanted to know Christ, and to share in the sufferings of Christ.

Paul, writing to the Corinthian church, who did something really bizarre, there was a group of people in the ancient world who called themselves not apostles, but they were super apostles. Super apostles.

See, I'm not just a pastor. I'm a super pastor. You guys aren't buying it. Okay. But for real, there was a group of people who called themselves super apostles. See, the apostle Paul, they denied. They thought, you know, maybe Paul isn't really an apostle.

Peter, they said, yes, for sure, he's an apostle. But we, we, we're the super apostles. And they would charge a lot of money for their pulpit time. They were itinerant preachers, and they would come in, and they would actually mistreat people and treat them poorly and, of course, put on airs as super apostles.

And here's the thing. The church in Corinth went for it. You're a super apostle? Wow, can I have your autograph? Okay, that's kind of what happened. So the apostle Paul is doing his best to wake them up.

It's like, come on, guys. Super apostles, really? And so Paul comes up with this great strategy in 2 Corinthians 11, and he's going to engage in boasting, the way the super apostles boast. But the things he's going to boast about are nothing like what the super apostles boast about.

Super apostles would boast about how much money they could charge a church when they would come and preach. Super apostles would talk about how good their accommodations were, how much money they hauled in last week, how many people cried and wept and all that kind of stuff when they would preach.

They were super apostles. So Paul here, listen to his list. This is from 2 Corinthians 11, and I'll start halfway through verse 21. So he says this,. And then he makes a little bit of a commentary note here.

Listen, I want to remind you, right now I'm speaking as a fool. So he says, Paul says, Now notice he doesn't affirm that they are servants of Christ. But here's what he says,. Now he reminds us again, I'm talking like a madman.

Now here's his pedigree here. On frequent journeys in danger from rivers, in danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.

In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, and often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

Who is weak? And I am not weak. Who was made to fall? And I am not indignant. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. Who does that? Could you imagine putting a resume together and expecting to get a job with it, where everything on the list was all the things that you had done that show your weakness?

No one would take it seriously. But there is what Paul has done. He's taken his list when he was a self-righteous Jew and Pharisee. It's in the trash can. And now out comes the other list. And he boasts of all the things that show his weakness.

And he boasts of the fact that he has shared in the sufferings of Christ. And the reason he does this is because where is his focus? On the resurrection. Now some of you look healthier than others. Some of you are young.

I'm old. It's getting worse by the day. I just can't believe you guys are not telling me how bad it is. I know that you're doing that out of kindness to me. But the reality is this, is whether you're young or old, whether you're healthy or unhealthy, whether you have a gym membership and actually go to the gym or not, we are all dying.

And our hope is not in this life. Our hope is in the resurrection. As Christ has said, that anyone who would want to follow him must deny himself. That's deny your self-righteousness. Deny your ambitions.

Deny anything to do with setting up an empire to yourself or establishing yourself in this world. Take up your cross, consider yourself a dead man walking, and follow Jesus. Participate in his sufferings.

Embrace the fact that we are to be servants of each other. Count others as more important than ourselves. Share in the sufferings of Christ for confessing his name. And all of this we can do because Christ himself, though he was God by nature, humbled himself and became obedient, even to the point of death, even death on the cross.

And so we too, now following Christ, have that same mindset that we are armed with. It won't get us very far in this world. It won't establish us as powerful leaders or as great business people or as people that people will end up writing stories about later on.

But instead, we know that what we have awaiting us is the resurrection of the dead, a new life with Christ in a world without sin. So that I might share in his sufferings, become like him in his death, so that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead, Paul says.

And not that I have already obtained it, or am already perfect. You know, the Apostle Paul, as he's getting close to the end of his life, Philippians is not early in his ministry. Philippians is written close to the end of Paul's life.

And Paul has clearly stated he's not already perfect, not even close. And that's kind of the thing. The thing we're looking for is the perfection of the resurrection. But can you imagine a world without sin?

I'm having a hard time picturing it. I have no idea what that would be like. In fact, think of it this way. We're suspicious. We're suspicious of the concept of a perfect world, of perfect society, a world without sin.

Always and again, when a movie starts where everybody's lawns are manicured, all the white picket fences are up and perfect, and people dress impeccably, and all the kids say, yes, sir, and no, sir, and yes, ma 'am, and no, ma 'am, and people say, hey, neighbor, how's it going?

It's a great day. We know what kind of movie we're watching. It's a horror movie, okay? That's the setup, okay? Because it's not perfect, okay? But the thing is is that as sinners, we can't imagine a perfect world, so much so that if any hint of that shows up, we know that something is terribly wrong.

As the old robot would say, danger, Will Robinson, danger, right? That's the idea. But Paul is talking that there is a world coming where we will be made perfect in Christ as a gift by grace through faith.

And so he says then, I press forward then to make this my own, and here's the reason why, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. And this is wonderful for us. This is an actual great hook into the good news of the gospel of Christ, because we know that it is not by our own reasoning, by our own decisions, by our own merits, that we are Christ's own.

It's because Christ himself, he is the one who has made us his own. He has done this. Through the preaching of the gospel or in the waters of baptism, Christ has made us his own. So he says this then, brothers, I don't consider that I've made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.

Forgetting all the self-righteousness, the resume building, and keeping your eyes on the forward prize, the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, of the resurrection of the dead, a perfect life to come, and a world without sin.

And Paul then kind of finishes his thought when he says this, let those of you who are mature think this way. And if any of you think otherwise, God will reveal also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

So brothers and sisters, on the occasion of this text again showing up in our lectionary, let us again repent of our self-righteousness. Let us again repent of our resume building regarding the day of judgment, thinking that somehow we can have confidence in the things that we have achieved in our flesh and hold them up to Christ as the currency by which we can purchase salvation from him, because we can't.

Let us, as Paul has said, forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead, a new world, a world without sin, face-to-face meeting with Christ. In fact, next Sunday, with a little bit of a note here, next Sunday in our Old Testament text, there's going to be a little bit of a preview of the menu of the wedding feast of the Lamb.

And I've got to tell you, the things that are on the menu are not going to make PETA happy, it's not vegan, and it's not keto. And there's wine, I'm just saying. So, all of that given as a gift. So again, let us repent of our self-righteousness and embrace what Christ has done for us and count all of that other stuff as rubbish so that we might have the true thing, the meritorious one, the one who's done all the work for us, Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the name of Jesus, amen.

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