Pastor Tom Johnson, October 4, 2020
This morning we have three Scriptures that use the image of a vineyard. In Isaiah, God’s people sing to their Beloved, their husband, the Lord. He chooses a fertile hill, tills, removes stones, and plants it with the best vines to produce the best grapes. He builds a watchtower to protect it. He does this to produce the best wine. But instead of the fruit of justice, there is bloodshed; instead of righteousness, there is an outcry for it. God’s purpose of planting and nurturing this vineyard was to produce a bounty of goodness and true justice. Instead, God’s people produce the bitter fruit of the wild—violence, injustice, and abuse of power.
In Psalm 80, the Bride sings again to her husband, the Lord. She sings of her salvation from slavery in Egypt. Her husband, the Lord, brought her out of the house of bondage as a vine and planted her in the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. It is a prayer that God would tend and preserve his vine.
In our reading from Matthew, Jesus tells a parable of a vineyard. The language echos the words from Isaiah. And just like the both of the other Scriptures, God is the Landowner who has the idea in the first place to plant a vineyard. He does all the prep work to grow and press grapes, refine, and age wine. He just needs workers to protect and nurture the vineyard. He even pays them to be stewards of his property. He only expects the fruit at harvest time. That is a reasonable expectation. It is not for himself alone to enjoy. It is to bring the world the fruit of righteousness, justice, and reconciliation.
But the tenants are overcome with violence, greed, and power. They only care about their own prosperity, comfort, and pleasure. And they are willing for others to pay the ultimate price to preserve what they see as their privilege. They have forgotten that they are merely stewards of the vineyard—not lords of it. The Landowner sends a group to collect what is his to begin with—what he paid others to care for and nurture. The tenants kill those who come to collect the fine wine for the master. They kill a larger group than the first. Finally, the Landowner sends his son. He presumes that they will receive him with respect. But they throw the son out of the vineyard and kill him. God the Father is the Landowner. Jesus is the Son who is sent by the Father who is ultimately killed.
The chief priests and Pharisees realize that they are the wicked tenants in this story. Their desire to arrest Jesus betrays the fact that they are more concerned about preserving their own power than producing true justice and righteousness. The religious leaders are the bad guys in this story. Jesus’ parable even draws out their greed, lust for power, and violence that is in their hearts. It foreshadows the day when they will cry out, “Crucify, crucify him.” It takes great courage to see ourselves as the bad guys in this parable and humbly recognize that, confess it, and change our ways. We remember that we are all stewards of God’s gifts. We have also failed. We are prone to forget all the work God did to prepare what we enjoy and are blessed with. We have received so many gifts and are so very privileged because of those who have come before us.
We, too, can be deceived by the lie that we are entitled or that we deserve the good things God has placed in our lives. We, too, can be consumed by the rat race to accumulate wealth and by greed. We, too, can disregard the lives and livelihoods of those around us especially if it secures our comfort and possessions. When let others pay the price for our gain, we break God’s command not to steal. When we let others suffer for it, we break God’s command not to murder.
What the Landowner—what our Creator—what our Heavenly Father wants is for us to participate in blessing the world through the fruit of his vineyard. He planted it. He put a hedge of protection around it. He dug a wine press. He built a watchtower. He sent the prophets to ask for his fruit time and time again. It brings him great joy to bless his creation with good fruit. It should be our joy to be able to participate in bringing his fine, well-aged wine to the world. He has even paid us—gifted us—to be his stewards of the Kingdom of God (1 Cor 4:1) and his grace in the Gospel (Eph 3:2). We get to participate in God’s miracle of growing his Kingdom.
It is not too much for God to ask for the fruit of justice and righteousness. God has done all this work so that both our character and our actions would be a blessing to him and those around us. We are the Church, the Body of Christ. We are his Vineyard. Where else in this world of wild, greedy, prideful, and violent grapes will good fruit come from? We as church leaders and we as the whole people of God are to be that fruit. We are to be humble, grateful, content, responsible, selfless, generous, empathetic, respectful, life-preserving, and to love the world as do the Father and the Son. The Scripture says what God expects from us: to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).
Don’t miss the final twist of Jesus’ parable of the vineyard. The Landowner sends his Son. Together, in our fallen humanity, we did not receive him. We threw him out to be crucified. And yet, he still blesses us and gifts us. With his life, the Son purchases our forgiveness and eternal life. He makes it possible for us to bear fruit—not because we have earned or deserve his generous love but because we already have it. We do it for the Creator, Landowner, our heavenly Father—to bless this world and, in the end, give him the glory.
5 For us by wickedness betrayed,
For us, in crown of thorns arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death;
For us He gave His dying breath.
6 For us He rose from death again;
For us He went on high to reign;
For us He sent His Spirit here
To guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.
7 All glory to our Lord and God
For love so deep, so high, so broad;
The Trinity whom we adore
Forever and forevermore.
(“Oh Love, How Deep,” LBW 544, vv. 5-7)
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