Sermon Tone Analysis

Israel thought of itself as the vineyard of God, and a number of Scriptures make that allusion, including Psalm 80:8–16, Isaiah 27:2–5, Jeremiah 2:21, Ezekiel 19:10–14, and Hosea 10:1.

But the most famous is the Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5:1–7.

There Isaiah describes God’s loving care for his vineyard (“The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight,” v. 7a), his disappointment with the vineyard because it yielded only bad fruit, and finally his judgment of it—and his mourning over it.

The vineyard/Israel connection was so much a part of their national consciousness that the very temple in which Jesus was standing sported a richly carved grapevine, seventy cubits high, scultpted around the door that led from the porch to the Holy Place.

The branches, tendrils, and leaves were of finest gold.

The bunches of grapes hanging upon the golden limbs were costly jewels.

Herod first placed the golden vine there, and rich and patriotic Jews would from time to time add to its embellishment.

One contributed a new jeweled grape, another a leaf, and still another a cluster of the same precious materials.

This vine had immense sacred meaning in the eyes of the Jews.