The Sadducees were fundamentalists.

They only believed what their Bible told them.

Since that Bible did not mention resurrection, the Sadducees denied it.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, were open to the development of hitherto unthought of implications of their faith.

So they believed in resurrection.

When Jesus showed that he opposed the Sadducee position regarding resurrection, the Pharisees may have thought that they had an ally.

The Pharisees and Herodians put a touchy political question to Jesus.

The Pharisees desired an end to Roman rule in their homeland.

The Herodians, on the other hand, were wholehearted supporters of cooperation with Rome.

Cooperation brought benefits.

Opposition would bring destruction.

By going to Jesus together, they're trying to catch him in a political web.

[outro music] Ask someone who's not a Christian to describe the church and its members.

What words will you hear? Dedicated? Misled? Helpful? Fanatic? Generous? Strict? Honest? Rule-bound? Dependable? Superstitious? Mysterious? Judgmental? Hypocritical? Many words, some more accurate than others.

Will you hear joyful, good-humored, fun to be with, singing, dancing, and playing? Most Christians are probably marked by those things, but they're not what come to the lips of outsiders when asked to describe us.

In fact, would they come to the lips of most Christians? If Jesus had not described the Kingdom of God as a wedding reception, then joy, good humor, and fun need not be marks of the Christian.

But Jesus did describe the kingdom that way.

If we are signs of the kingdom, then perhaps we should look more like revelers than anything else.

[classical music] Today's gospel parable is clearly about Jesus, the Son who followed the prophets to the master's vineyard Israel and was killed.

It's unusual in that it talks about Jesus himself rather than focusing on the kingdom of God.

The parable is obviously a critique of those to whom the Lord's vineyard, the people of God, has been entrusted, the religious leaders of Israel.

They use and abuse the vineyard for their own purposes and not for those of God.

No matter how often God's prophets call them to repentance, they fail to respond.

Even God sending the Son does not move them.