Bear the Sweet Fruit of Repentance

October 10, 1999

The prophet Isaiah and Jesus use the figure of the vine and vineyard to describe Israel’s relationship to God. Unfortunately, The picture is not a good one. Instead of the expected “good grapes, . . . it yielded only bad fruit.” Instead of the good grapes of repentant reproduction, it only brings forth the bad fruit of wretched and reprobate hucksters. And that to the point of even wanting to kill the owner’s own Son, Jesus Christ. And all this in spite of God’s great and gracious love in planting his people in a lush and well-equipped vineyard.

You might say that Israel had become much like the Agnes of our drama. Even while recognizing the good things God does, she felt compelled to dictate her own demands for the “good life” on Him. She doesn’t realize her demands tells God that the life He gives is no good. The point is this, in many ways we are just like the tenants Jesus speaks of in the parable and the Agnes portrayed in the drama. Just like they, we too, need help to see ourselves as we really are. But more than that, we need divine help to overcome what we are by nature. Thank God we receive just that kind of help through His Word and Sacraments; Through His promise and faith. So let’s first look at …

1. God’s well-equipped vineyard. God provided his people with all they needed to be productive in doing His will. Buying land, preparing and outfitting a vineyard required a great deal of money. Consider the cost of outfitting even a modest cash-crop farm today. The tenants didn’t lay down their money for it all, the owner did. They simply got to use it, like rented property. In a small, but very similar way, we might consider a church and its congregation in a like manner. God provides all that it needs and the tenants, the members, get to use it.

It’s not as though God simply provided and they did as they wanted in the vineyard. No, God had some expectations, certainly no different than any owner. So when the people veer off in dangerous directions, God, in grace sends prophets to call them back. He gave them His message not once, but again, and again, he showed them great patience. (2 Chronicles 36:15) says, “The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on His people and on His dwelling place.” But His words fell on ears that would not, then could not, hear.

In divine mercy and love He finally sends His Son to those tenants (John 1:11). “They will respect my Son.” But no, they did not. There still were no good grapes from the vineyard. There was only the stench of death. Would no one acknowledge the owner’s Son? Would no one turn from their evil and unite with him? Listen to the messenger John say, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to His own, but his own did not receive him.”

Just like the people to whom Jesus tells this parable, we too, might be incensed and angered by the behavior of those tenants. We, too, might expect the owner to turn his wrath on those tenants to destroy them and rent the vineyard to other tenants. Friends, we need to apply this judgment to ourselves. We must see the wickedness we bring. We must turn from our evil and face the Son lest the owner take the vineyard from us. We must see what we have done with his property by not listening to the message, by not studying the message, by not sharing the message, or by sharing a false message. Jesus tells us who the new tenants will be. Listen to the Son as He says, “… I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” How is it that people like homosexuals and prostitutes will enter the kingdom? Is it not because they hear the message and turn from their evil? Indeed it is.

2. The door of God’s well-endowed kingdom is open now. Continued complacency toward sin is the same as throwing the Son out of the vineyard and killing him. There is work to do. The owner is looking for good grapes from us. But it’s not as though He will not help us. The very presence of the Son is all the help we need.

He is the means whereby we produce good grapes. He is the one who turns us in the right direction. He is the one who prays to the owner of all things, “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” He, Jesus, is the one who says to us, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. … I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.” He is the one who comes to us in Word and Sacrament to keep us in mind of what God, the owner of all things, has done and is still doing for us through the sacrifice of His own Son. Through His body and His shed blood He now blesses us in our hearing.

The response of faith and fruitful repentance is an attitude of intense inward longing for God’s forgiveness and righteousness. Apart from that there is no hope. It seems quite intriguing that in parts of Palestine counterfeit olive trees grow. They are called oleander. They are like genuine olive trees in every respect but one—they yield no fruit. They cannot, they are not true olive trees. Likewise, only those who are in Christ Jesus are true branches of the vine. They can do nothing other than bear the good fruit of righteousness and faith.

God has given each of us different gifts and in different measures. Some bear the fruit of repentance in more obvious, dramatic ways, like Zacheus who answered Jesus’ call to “come” with heartfelt joy that the Son of God, the Savior wanted to stay with him. Others are quieter in their repentance, like Peter, who turns His face and cries in repentant faith and sorrow over his denial of Jesus. Either way, God knows those who are His. He knows you and me. That’s why we have come today to hear His Word, to confess our sins and receive His benediction of grace and love.

At great cost to himself Jesus opened the door of the Kingdom to you and me, and to all people. He gave His very life and then rose triumphantly to conquer death and open the way to eternal life. If you have not heard Him in the past, this may be the opportunity God has planned for you to hear and respond in faith. May it be that our faith and love for the Savior will never turn bad, but continue to grow purely and intensely. May we all keep on bearing the fresh, sweet fruit of a repentant heart. Amen.