Stories of a Vineyard

Introduction

Last week we were reminded that simply coming to church and saying our yes to God and his call for us to work for his kingdom is not enough. The son who does the will of his father is not the brother who says yes and then refuses to work in the vineyard, but rather the brother who originally said no, but then went to do the work.

Today’s Gospel reading, which follows immediately after that parable of the two brothers in Matthew’s Gospel, strikes a similar theme but asks the next logical question.

What happens when we do not do the work that God has called us to do?

Now, in Mathew’s Gospel, Jesus admittedly takes things a bit further. He draws on the Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5 not only to say that those responsible for the vineyard have failed in their vocation but also to say that, even worse, they have actively conspired against the vineyard owner. The vineyard owner has been sending them servants to collect the fruit he is owed from the vineyard, but those responsible for the vineyard have beaten and killed those messengers, and now, at last, he is sending them his son, whom they throw out of the vineyard and kill in order to gain his inheritance, i.e. the vineyard.

I don’t want to dwell here this morning, but I do want to remind you that this parable is further proof that Jesus understood Israel’s long story to be climaxing in himself. Throughout Israel’s history, God had sent them prophets, but now, at long last, he was sending them his son, and everything would depend on how they treated his son. Israel’s story comes to an end, quite dramatically, with their rejection of the Son, whom they will take outside the city and kill.

Bur rather than focusing on Jesus’s parable of the vineyard, I want to take a step back and look at Isaiah’s version. I won’t read Isaiah’s version again since you have it printed in your insert, but suffice it to say that the parable compares Israel and Judah to a vineyard. The opening verses of the song retell all that God had done for Israel, and in fact, later versions of Isaiah 5, like the Targums, expanded the description here to get even more specific about what God had done for them. In short, the vineyard owner had done everything he could for his vineyard, and yet:

Isaiah 5:2 (ESV)

… he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

For context, wild grapes were sour, inedible, and useless for making wine.

The Lord then asks:

Isaiah 5:4 ESV

What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

And then comes the judgment:

Isaiah 5:5–6 ESV

And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

And in case it wasn’t clear what this was all about, Isaiah tells us:

Isaiah 5:7 ESV

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!

Israel had been called for a specific vocation. Not only were they to be the means by which God would set the world to rights, as we have been discussing in our Romans course in Adult Catechesis, but they were to be the means of bringing God’s justice and righteousness to fruition in the world. But when the vineyard owner came looking for that fruit, what he found instead of sour grapes, he found bloodshed and an outcry from those who were being wronged.

In Isaiah, because of this, because of Israel’s failure in it’s vocation, the vineyard is to be destroyed. On the lips of Jesus, because vineyard tenants had been unfaithful in their vocation and even adversarial to the vineyard owner, the vineyard is given to other tenants. Nonetheless, the point is the same: failure in our vocation may result in judgment.

Now let’s push this a step back to the two brothers. One says, “Yes,” I’ll do the work, but then doesn’t go. The other says “No,” and then goes to do the work anyways. The one who does the will of his father is not the one who says yes to his vocation but then refuses to do the work but rather the one who actually does the work of the kingdom.

By being here today, I assume you’ve all said yes to the vocation of being God’s kingdom people and bringing God’s justice and righteousness to fruition in this world. So, what I want you to do it to is take a few moments as I’m speaking, and I want you to imagine your perfect life in Christ. What I’m asking is for you to picture what it would like if your walk with Christ, if your work in the vineyard, was firing on all cylinders. Imagine your prayer life. Imagine your Bible study time. Imagine the poor and needy that you would help. Imagine your involvement at church. Imagine the people that you would witness to and show Christ’s love to. Imagine all of it. Imagine whatever your perfect life in Christ looks like, and while you hold that thought in your mind, I want to read one verse again.

Isaiah 5:4 (ESV)

What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it?

What God is asking Israel is what more he could have done for them to enable them to be the people he intended them to be, and the answer, of course, is nothing. God had already given Israel everything that it needed to fulfill it’s vocation, and that’s true even more true for us who have the gift of the Holy Spirit. So ask yourself, given that God has already done for you and given to you everything that you need to experience your perfect life in Christ, “What is it that keeps me from being the type of Christian I want to be?”

If God’s already given us everything that we need, then I suspect the answer is “us.” We’re the problem. We’re the one keeping ourselves from experiencing that full life in Christ. He’s already given you everything that you need. He’s given you hours in the day. He’s given you his Holy Word in your own language. He’s given you a this church as a wonderful community of committed disciples. He’s given you access to Bible studies and study Bibles and prayer groups and more opportunities to serve the needy and the lost than you could ever possibly imagine both inside and outside the church, so what is it that keeps you from being the person you imagined moments ago? What is it that keeps you firing on all cylinders in your walk with Christ?

Is there some sin that’s weighing you down? If so, be done with it. Is there some hobby that consumes the hours in the day you should spend working for Christ and his Kingdom? If so, move on from it. Are you older, maybe feeling weaker and less able than you were before? Then fall to your knees (or sit comfortable on your couch) and pray. Pray for others by name. Pray for me. Pray for this church. Pray for our youth. Pray for God’s righteousness and justice to come to fruition in this world. If you’re young, use the time and energy that God has given you to work the vineyard and to bring God’s kingdom to this earth.

No matter what stage of life you are in, please understand this simple truth: it likely that the only thing keeping you from that life in Christ that you imagined is you. You make the decision each day about how you will spend your time, how you will spend your treasure, and how you will spend your talents. The problem is us. The problem is our selfishness and our infatuation with the world and its temptations. The problem is the mundanity of life that lulls us to sleep and keeps us from working in the vineyard despite how enthusiastically we might say yes on Sunday mornings.

You are what keeps you from that full life in Christ that you imagined. For his part, God has already given you everything that you need to care for the vineyard of your own life. The owner of the vineyard has given you all that you need, and he expects your life to bear good fruit.

Amen.