Other Peoples’ Vineyards
Luke 7:36-50
1 Kings 21:1-21a
Let us hear what the
Spirit is saying to the church in these ancient words:
Later
the following events took place: Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in
Jezreel, beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. 2And Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me
your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near
my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to
you, I will give you its value in money.” 3But
Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral
inheritance.” 4Ahab went home resentful and sullen
because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him; for he had said, “I will
not give you my ancestral inheritance.” He lay down on his bed, turned away his
face, and would not eat.
5His wife Jezebel came to him and
said, “Why are you so depressed that you will not eat?” 6He said to her, “Because I spoke to
Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or
else, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it’; but he answered,
‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” 7His
wife Jezebel said to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Get up, eat some food, and
be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.” 8So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name
and sealed them with his seal; she sent the letters to the elders and the
nobles who lived with Naboth in his city. 9She
wrote in the letters, “Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth at the head of the
assembly; 10seat two scoundrels opposite him,
and have them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the
king.’ Then take him out, and stone him to death.” 11The men of his city, the elders and
the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them. Just as
it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, 12they proclaimed a fast and seated
Naboth at the head of the assembly. 13The
two scoundrels came in and sat opposite him; and the scoundrels brought a
charge against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed
God and the king.” So they took him outside the city, and stoned him to death. 14Then they sent to Jezebel, saying,
“Naboth has been stoned; he is dead.” 15As
soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to
Ahab, “Go, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he
refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” 16As soon as Ahab heard that Naboth
was dead, Ahab set out to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to
take possession of it.
17Then the word of the Lord came to
Elijah the Tishbite, saying: 18Go down to meet King Ahab of
Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has
gone to take possession. 19You shall say to him, “Thus says
the Lord: Have you killed, and also taken possession?” You shall say to him,
“Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth,
dogs will also lick up your blood.” 20Ahab
said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found
you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the
Lord, 21I will bring disaster on you; I
will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in
Israel;
Like last year, the lectionary this summer offers up a
treasure trove of texts from the Old Testament which gives us an opportunity to
really dive into the richness of these stories, many of which are not given a
lot of attention in the Christian church.
The season begins with stories about the prophet Elijah from 1st
and 2nd Kings. Last
week we heard about Elijah and the widow and how the prophet healed her son. Elijah plays a smaller role in today’s
text, but he’s still there, always a thorn in the royal side of King Ahab and
Queen Jezebel.
The story today about Naboth’s vineyard is sort of an odd
little tale tucked into the pages of 1st Kings, wedged between some
pretty dramatic stories about life and death showdowns between Ba’al and YHWH
complete with lightening bolts. This strange tale about an ordinary
Israelite turning down the request of mighty King Ahab almost seems
deliberately veiled. A lot of
commentators doubt the historical veracity of the story, but nobody questions
that this text helps us in understanding the more epic saga of Israel’s rise
and collapse. This little story
about Naboth and Ahab and Jezebel tells us a lot. About power.
About the misuse of power.
This story prompts us to remember yet again what God said
about Israel having a human king.
As you may recall, God said it was a really bad idea. In fact, Samuel tried to talk the
people of Israel out of it. But
no, they really wanted a king. In
1st Samuel we read, “But the
people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, ‘No! but we are
determined to have a king over us, 20so that we also may be like
other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight
our battles.’ 21When Samuel had heard all the words of the people,
he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22The Lord said to Samuel,
‘Listen to their voice and set a king over them.’ (1 Samuel 8:19-22). You can almost hear the resignation in
YHWH’s voice. “So the people want
a king? Ok. They can have a king. But don’t blame me when it all falls
apart.”
So Israel got what it wanted despite Samuel and God’s
objections. Israel wanted to be one
of the cool kids, like the other nations, and it didn’t take very long for it
to become obvious to everyone who was paying attention that Israel relying on a
human king for their governance instead of YHWH was a terrible plan.
And today we meet one of the worst. The notorious King Ahab married to the
equally notorious Queen Jezebel. Ahab
was quite the character. Despite
having the kind of power and comfort that your average Israelite could only
dream about, King Ahab decided that his next door neighbor in Jezreel, Naboth,
was sitting upon a particularly lovely vineyard. It was exactly the kind of backyard accessory that King Ahab
wanted for his new vacation home, so one day he takes a stroll over to Naboth’s
house to make a deal with him. And
Ahab makes what seems like a completely reasonable offer to Naboth. Ahab offers Naboth a comparable vineyard
across town or the cash value of the property.
But the offer does not seem reasonable to Naboth. The hapless neighbor refuses to cut a
deal with the king because Naboth is
a faithful Israelite. He knows
that the vineyard cannot be sold, traded or monetized; it is Naboth’s ancestral
inheritance entrusted by YHWH to Naboth’s care until Naboth passes it down to
his sons. No matter how much money
the king offers, or how much the better the new vineyard he might receive in
trade, Naboth won’t sell. Naboth
really CAN’T sell the vineyard. The
deed to Naboth’s vineyard belongs to YHWH.
Even though the Law is on his side in this matter, Naboth
must be feeling incredibly vulnerable in front of the king. Ahab was a tough and ruthless leader,
as well as an incredibly effective one.
In our time especially, those qualities – toughness, ruthlessness and
effectiveness -- seem to go together for most leaders.
Even Ahab’s marriage to Jezebel was a carefully crafted, political
alliance. This was no sizzling
love match between a dashing king and a bewitching foreigner. Jezebel was from Tyre and the oldest daughter
of the Phoenician king. The union
between Ahab and Jezebel provided both Israel and Phoenicia with something both
countries needed -- military protection from common enemies like Syria and
Assyria, as well access to very valuable trade routes.
From a purely political, results-oriented perspective, Ahab
is powerful. And Naboth is a nobody.
But Naboth stands firm. The vineyard the king wants so badly is
not for sale. So what does the
king do in the face of Naboth’s “no?”
He goes home and sulks. Ahab pouts. He
gets into bed and refuses to eat. It
would all be sort of comical if what happens next wasn’t so tragic. Jezebel -- the idol-worshipping
foreigner who is certainly no angel, but probably not as evil as her reputation
has made her out to be – Jezebel takes one look at the sniveling lump in the
bed where a king used to be and says, “Ok. I’ll go and get you your vineyard, goofball. Go eat
something and cheer up.”
And with that, Jezebel sets into motion a devious plan in
which Naboth is unjustly accused and ends up being stoned to death by a
kangaroo court rigged up by Jezebel, two “scoundrels” and a bunch of
cooperative “men.” When Naboth is dead,
Jezebel tells Ahab that he can go take possession of the vineyard he wanted so
badly.
But before the king can take possession of the land, the
prophet Elijah appears and proclaims: “Thus says the Lord: You have killed, and
also taken possession!” Elijah doesn't say any more about the details of Ahab’s
crime and he quotes God's impending punishment. But what is important to Elijah is
that “you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the
Lord.”
For Jezebel, coming from the traditions of Tyre and Sidon,
taking the land wasn’t even a question in her mind. Phoenicians believed that land was just a commodity and
could be bought, sold and stolen by anybody, particularly people with power.
Archeological findings in the region have found that wealthy merchant families
in Tyre and Sidon (and their Israelite wealthy wannabes) had been dispossessing
north Israel peasants from their land for at least a generation leading up to
the time of the marriage of Princess Jezebel to King Ahab.[1]
For Jezebel, getting what you want when you want it, even using violent means
to get it, is nothing new.
But, Ahab is confronted by Elijah because Ahab actually
knows what is going on with Naboth’s rejection of this real estate deal. Ahab is no dummy. He understands Yahwistic faith that
says one cannot conceive of stealing land from someone else because everyone is
part of the same family and created by the same God. On the other hand, his
wife Jezebel cannot conceive of not taking it, because in her tradition,
we are not the same.
It is easy, isn’t it, to vilify Ahab and Jezebel. But it seems that every single time we
are tempted to draw very distinct lines of who’s good and who’s bad, and imagine
we stand with the victim instead of the villains -- we may want to think
again.
And perhaps we ought to listen a little more closely to
Elijah and wonder – how have we sold ourselves to do what is evil in the sight
of the Lord? In a capitalistic society where we believe we are entitled to all
that we can purchase, is there a limit to the reach of our money? In
other words, just because we can afford it, is it ours to rightfully acquire? And what are the limits to our use of
what we think we own?
Think about the clothing we buy. We’ve heard numerous reports over the
past several months about factory fires in Bangladesh which killed hundreds of
people, mostly women, who worked in dangerous, deplorable conditions at poverty
wages to produce clothing sold by retailers like Walmart and Sears and even Disney. You and I have a perfect right to
buy inexpensive clothing, but in doing so are we making someone’s vineyard into
our vegetable garden?
A lot of people have chosen to boycott clothing from a
specific region because the clothing was being made by young girls in slave
like conditions. Reports say that
some of these sweat shops have been closed because of the boycott. The girls
making clothes lost their job at the factory and turned to prostitution, their
only other option. So is not buying clothes from certain regions
evil in the sight of the Lord?
A couple of months ago, a group of ministers and elders
from Pittsburgh Presbytery completed a study about gas fracking and whether it
was a faithful thing for churches to lease their land to the gas companies. At the last presbytery meeting, the
study group recommended that more time be given to study the issue and that the
presbytery should wait for more information about the long-term health risks that
fracking might pose to community water supplies and the health of people who
live near these sites. The data isn’t absolutely clear yet, so the study group
said, let’s wait and see how the science plays out.
The churches sitting on natural gas reserves known as
Marcellus Shale stand to make significant money if they allow drilling on their
property. And that’s not a bad
thing, right? That money can be
used by the churches for mission and other good works. Church leaders and pastors stood up at
the presbytery meeting arguing that churches should be allowed to make these
deals with the gas companies because, after all, “…the fracking is going to
happen no matter what we do. We
can’t stop it. Why shouldn’t
churches – especially small churches -- reap the benefits? Why not make these
deals with the gas companies if it will help struggling churches?”
None of these issues are simple and none of the answers
are clear cut.
I love this story from 1 Kings because it is the perfect
story to remember when we wonder why things fall apart. When things go wrong, we can almost
always trace it back to a decision we made in the heat of wanting more than we
have for no good reason beyond the fact that we want it. Our downfall usually has less to do with an enemy that has wronged us and more to do with forgetting who we are and whose we
are. How often do we sell
ourselves, our very souls to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord? How
often do we judge others for the very thing we are guilty of ourselves? I can tell you the answer – a lot.
Jezebel, of course, has lived on in the cultural
imagination as a symbol of a brazen, shameless hussy, although the text never
actually testifies to her being unfaithful to her husband. She was who she was, as flawed as the
kings of Israel. Elijah’s prophecy
about Jezebel coming to a bad end eventually comes true. When Ahab dies in battle and Jezebel’s
son assumes the throne, there is a revolt. Her son’s general kills the Jezebel’s son and soon he is on
his way to kill Jezebel. Which he
does by having her thrown out a window.
Jezebel’s body is left to be trampled by the horses and eaten by
dogs.
And we may say good riddance. That’s certainly how church interpreters throughout the
millennia have considered Jezebel’s death. Good riddance to a very bad, bad woman. Nobody, least of all the church, seems
to have a good word for Jezebel.
But let us consider her in the light of our gospel story
for today. Jesus is invited to
have dinner at the home of a Pharisee.
If you asked the Pharisee about Jezebel, he would have most likely given
you the party line. Jezebel was
trash, a harlot, an outsider, a no-account, no-good hussy. In other words – a terrible sinner –
not unlike the woman who barges into the middle of dinner at the Pharisee’s
home.
I wonder if the compilers of the lectionary have the
same sort of imagination I have when reading these two stories side by
side. In my imagining of this
story, I imagine this woman as perhaps the great, great, great – add a lot of
greats there – granddaughter of Jezebel.
The sins of the notorious queen have endured and been passed down for
generations -- as significant sins of guilt, shame and blame often do in
families. Vineyards come and go, family homes are sold off and forgotten. But the sins of the
father? The sins of the
mother? Those are legacies that stick. Every family has them and
they can do real damage.
But this woman comes to Jesus filled with gratitude and
joy because, maybe for the first time in her life, she has been accepted,
understood and most of all, forgiven.
And when she feels that release of guilt and shame, she weeps, her tears
running down her cheeks and onto Jesus’ feet. She dries the tears with her long, dark hair and kisses his
feet again and again. She anoints
Jesus’ feet with ointment from a beautiful, alabaster jar that was given to her
long ago by her grandmother or great- grandmother. Perhaps this woman at Jesus’ feet is the first woman in her
family who have ever experienced the lightness that comes in seeing yourself as
beloved.
Jesus sees her, who she is, what she has endured, her
shame, her guilt, her anguish and her humiliation. But none of that matters now. This woman has experienced the radical forgiveness of Jesus. And she cannot stop worshipping the one
who has made her whole. Her
exuberance is almost embarrassing.
The only person in the room not freaking out about the
woman is Jesus. He says,
“Do you see this woman...her sins, which were many, have been forgiven. And hence, she has shown great love.”
The forgiveness we receive from Jesus calls us to become
our better selves, marked with crazy grateful tears instead of guilt and shame
for what we have done and left undone.
We do not always have the right answer and we will often trespass
against the people who deserve our greatest love. But even Ahabs and Jezebels like us can be redeemed if we
trust the One who forgives even what seems to us unforgivable.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
