You Have a Place at Grace - 4/6/2025

“This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours” (Luke 20:14)

Words can’t fully express how idiotic was this idea from the wicked vinedressers. Was it really that simple, just kill the guy in line and then it’ll go to us? Did they really think there’d be no repercussions for killing the heir?

Clearly, they weren’t thinking with sound minds, but this is what sin does: it makes us stupid. It makes us think and do stupid things as if there're no consequences for murder and theft. It’s a godless mindset to think we can sin with impunity from punishment. And yet, that’s how the wicked vinedressers act, as if God doesn’t see, doesn’t care. Live for the moment, only for today without any perspective on sin and grace, life and judgment.

The chief priests and scribes play well the part of the vinedressers. Not only do they understand the parable, but their response is to “lay hands on Him.” By doing so they would be killing the heir thinking they’ll inherit the Kingdom of God with Jesus out of the way. But to reject the stone means it crushes. Whether you stumble over the stone, or it falls on you, the stone remains the everlasting corner stone for the builders of a house the devil can’t tear down. Reject Christ and the Judgment falls on the unbeliever. Christ is still the cornerstone of His Church built by His blood. Who the chief priests and scribes were getting out of the way is the Holy Son of God, the Heir to all things by divine decree sure to crush His enemies under His feet.

This parable warns us about sin clouding our minds and acting foolishly until it’s too late. There comes a point when the Owner of the vineyard “will come and destroy those vinedressers and give it to others.” Who are the “others”? Believers who receive the Stone for Who He is. The ones rejecting Christ like the chief priests and scribes are crushed in unbelief. The Day of Judgment will expose all things, but even now the wrath of God falls on the unbelievers (John 3:36).

Thankfully, our idiotic sins and foolish ways bringing us shame have been covered by blood obtaining a Church, a Body of believers still standing on the Cornerstone that will never give way however hard the wind and the waves beat against it.

-By Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz, “You Have a Place at Grace,” April 6th, 2025

Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz

Grace Lutheran Church - Brenham, Texas

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod