Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Sermon Text

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost 

Isaiah 5:1-7
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46


O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen. 

God, through His prophets, His Son Jesus, and His Apostles, uses a wide variety of images and metaphors to communicate His message of Law and Gospel to us. In the prophet Isaiah and Jesus, we encounter the image of the Vineyard. The image of the Vineyard can be found elsewhere in the Bible. 

The Vineyard is like a well-planned garden. It is organized. It is planted with intention for beauty and for ease of movement of visitors, workers, and harvesters. The branches are pruned so that the Vineyard produces abundantly. The vineyard provides grapes which may be enjoyed for their own sake or they can be made into wine. Wine promotes a community coming together, celebration and dance, conversation, deepening of friendships. All of which lead to joy. 

The Vineyard that Isaiah describes begins as a love song that is no casual investment. It is built with protections put in place to prevent harm by unwanted animals or people. The land is cleared and a wine vat is installed. The Vineyard is a gift of the Lord to promote the best life possible for those that will enjoy the fruit of His labors. Israel is God’s creation. Israel is the Vineyard. And Jerusalem Temple is its center.

Isaiah most likely tells this parable during the harvest festival known as the Festival of Booths when Israel celebrated God’s blessings of the harvest. The parable begins as a joyful love song. But instead of good grapes that encourage health and communal joy, only wild, sour tasting grapes come forth. In a garden built with hope for love’s sake so that God’s own people will flourish, the Lord’s love is rejected.  The Lord’s gift is a love song, given for His very own creation, for its joy and well-being. Instead, within protected and fertile ground, rebellion grows. Shortsighted and selfish choices become the norm. The Lord’s love is spurned. Out of love, the Lord enacts discipline. The sanctity and sanctuary of the Vineyard are removed so that repentance may follow. The love of the Lord our God is such that He takes the risk of accusing His people of their sins. He accuses, He punishes, He sends his prophets, with perpetual hope that there are eyes to see and ears to hear God’s truth.  

Jesus retells the Parable of the Vineyard in order to update it. The Vineyard, Judah and Jerusalem, has lived without God’s protection for a long time. Consequently, they were conquered and exiled by the Babylonians. Some of their people were returned to the homeland by the Perians. But not long afterward, they were conquered by the Greeks;  then, the Romans. Despite the hardness of heart that continues to assert itself. God keeps sending His messengers, the faithful priests and prophets. Yet, despite the presence of God’s Word, despite the efforts of God’s faithful, the rebellion and hardness of heart of Adam and Cain continue to reassert itself. The faithful messengers of God are ignored or even killed by those who know better than the Giver of Life. Grace is rejected in favor of controlling their own destiny. As Jesus explains, our heavenly Father now sends the Son into the Vineyard of his own creating. The Son comes in the power of the Holy Spirit at the insistence of the Father. The Father sends the Son with all hope that the wild grapes will finally, finally, listen to His Son. Once again God’s Word is rejected.

The irony of this moment is that Jesus is standing within the Temple. He speaks the Parable of the Vineyard to those who want to kill him. They hear what he is saying. They sense that Jesus speaks of them. Instead, of pausing for a moment of reflection because this is, after all, the Rabbi who teaches with authority and who performs miracle after miracle at will. Instead of examining their own hearts and minds and repenting of their sins of self-idolatry, murderous thoughts, and other sins; they barrel forward, playing their part in the parable. The want the Christ killed but the time is not right. They want the Christ killed because he does not speak of God, God’s expectation of His vineyard, in the way that they want to hear. They reject the Son. They reject His justice. They want the inheritance of the Vineyard to themselves. 

As the Son Jesus makes plain by His cross. The inheritance of God’s kingdom is not for anyone to take. No one gets it by right or by might. The true inheritance of God’s kingdom is his grace of forgiveness. Forgiveness is received only by faith. Forgiveness is granted to those who receive the Son with faith that Christ dies on the cross for them. The Son comes because He is sent with love. The Father hopes for reconciliation. The Son brings reconciliation through the cross of calvary. We receive Christ in faith knowing that his gifts of love and peace work within us. The kingdom of God is yours because of the Son. 

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 

 


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