Love Song of the Vineyard (Reprise)
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| "The Wicked Vinedresser" by Eugene Burnand |
“Hear another parable. There was a master of
a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in
it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country.
When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get
his fruit” (Matthew 21:33-34).
Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Are you familiar with
the term “reprise” when it is applied to a song? A song reprise is usually a repeat by the same artist of the same song with
some improvements or change in style or music of that song—like “Let It Go” in
the soundtrack for the recent Disney film Frozen.
Or “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” on the Beatles album of the same
name.
You might
call our Gospel text a “reprise.” Jesus essentially draws His parable from the
song of the vineyard that God had sung through Isaiah seven centuries earlier. You
just heard it in our Old Testament reading.
The
vineyard Isaiah sang about was Israel and Judah, God’s chosen people. God had
loved them, giving them a rich, fertile land, protection from enemies, His
continuous presence in the temple, and best of all, the promise of the coming
Messiah. But this love song turned tragic. God’s vineyard brought forth wild
grapes—idolatry, injustice, bloodshed—anything but rightly bearing the torch of
a coming Savior to the world. They failed to bear good fruit.
At this
point in the original song, God asked two important questions: “What more could
I do…?” and “Why…?” But no one answered because they knew that God was accusing
them. They’d failed to produce good fruits. Despite all that God had done for
them, they had turned from Him and pursued pleasure and evil. God expected
fruits of faith like love, gentleness, humility, faith, and reverence; the
people had yielded a crop of perversion, gluttony, arrogance, greed, and
mockery.
So what
would the Lord do to His vineyard? He would lay it waste (Isaiah 2:5-6). This
vineyard could not be helped by pruning and hoeing and fertilizing. It was past
saving. The time for God’s judgment had arrived. The vineyard would become a dry,
barren wasteland where only thorns and briers would grow.
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| "The Wicked Vinedresser" by Eugene Burnand |
Fast
forward seven centuries. Jesus reprises the old love song of the vineyard. Using
Isaiah’s song as a point of departure, Jesus tells of a vineyard that does produce grapes, but the tenants
refuse to give the owner his share of the crop. Whereas Isaiah aimed his
preaching at the people of Judah and Jerusalem in general, Jesus speaks to the
leaders of the people.
The
landowner of Jesus’ parable is clearly God the Father, who planted His people,
Israel, in the fertile land of Canaan. When it says He “put a wall around” His
vineyard, we are reminded of how when He gave them the ceremonial law to keep them
separate from their idolatrous neighbors by restricting their diet and
regulating their worship. The watchtower reminds us of how God has sent His prophets
to watch over Israel and warn of the danger of enemies.
The
servants who were sent to collect the landowner’s share of the crop are the Old
Testament prophets. Jesus says, they “beat one, killed another, and stoned another.”
Similarly, Stephen later accused the leaders of the Jews, “You stiff-necked
people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who
announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now
betrayed and murdered” (Acts 7:51-53).
There is
something unreal about the story Jesus tells in this parable. How likely is it
that a man whose servants have been mistreated and killed by his tenants will
then send his beloved son? But this unreal story illustrates the incredible
patience and mercy of God. It is truly mind-boggling that God would send His
Son into the world after He had seen how His people treated the prophets.
To our
ears, it also sounds unreal that the tenants who murdered the son should expect
to take possession of his inheritance—especially while his father, the vineyard
owner, is still alive. But selfish ambition and greed and self-righteousness
all too often and too easily hinder rational thinking. The tenants forget that
they are the tenants, and begin to act as if they are the owners!
Unmistakably,
Jesus’ reprise of Isaiah’s tragic love song is directed to the Jewish leaders
of His day. They were heirs of the promise—still the nation through which the
Messiah would come, still blessed with God’s presence, still warned by God’s
prophets. And God expected them to bear fruit—to welcome the Messiah and show
Him to the nations. Would the Jewish leaders heed Jesus’ reprise of the old
love song, or would they repeat the tragic ending of Old Testament Israel?
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| "The Wicked Vinedresser" by Eugene Burnand |
No, the
last messenger of the master, the Son, was now among them, and they were
plotting to kill Him. No, they would not repent and the vineyard would be rented
out to other tenants. Within one generation, the Gentiles outnumbered the Jews
in the Christian Church.
This turn
of events had been prophesied already a thousand years earlier: “The stone that
the builder rejected has become the cornerstone, this was the Lord’s doing, and
it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:22-23). In the process of constructing
a building, the stone mason would select one stone and reject another. Not only
did the Lord determine to make use of the stone the builders had rejected, He
made Him the cornerstone, the most important stone in the whole building because
it is the one upon which all the rest of the building is aligned.
Jesus
warns the chief priests and the Pharisees, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom
of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls
on anyone, it will crush him” (Matthew 21:43-46). As they plot and scheme to put
Jesus to death, He warns them that they will destroy themselves.
Whether a
large stone falls on a man, or a man falls on a large stone, it is not going to
be the stone that ends up getting hurt. God’s judgment on them will be swift
and terrible and final and inescapable. Nevertheless, even though “they
perceived [Jesus] was speaking about them,” they sought to arrest Him and
plotted to have Him killed. Some people will never learn.
What
about you? Will the old love song—Jesus’—bring a new ending when retold today?
You see, two thousand years later, Jesus’ words are now the reprise of the old
love song of the vineyard for you.
Like
God’s people of old, you, too, have been placed in God’s vineyard by His grace.
In this vineyard, God lavishly supplies you with those things that nurture the fruit
of faith—His means of grace. In Holy Baptism, God makes you His dear child, gives you His Holy Spirit, faith, salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life (just as He
did for Bo and Natasha, today). As He once sent His prophets, the Lord sends you
His servants—pastors—who call you to repentance and faith through His Word of
Law and Gospel.
Above
all, God sent you His Son, Jesus Christ. He came to fulfill the Law in your
place with His perfect obedience. He came to give Himself into death on the
cross and rose again on the third day to redeem you from your sins and set you
free from your greatest enemies—the devil and death. The fruit of His cross is
salvation and eternal life. And Jesus still comes to you in His Supper, feeding
you His very body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins and the strengthening
of your faith.
We sing this
old love song among us today to move us to render the fruit of the vineyard and
receive those whom He sends to us, especially His Son. Rather than repeat their
mistake, we should be warned by their error so that the kingdom is not taken
from us also. The fruit of the vineyard is repentance, faith, and the love
toward God and neighbor that flows from faith. All of this is what Christ,
God’s Son, came to nurture in us. So, how are you doing?
Too
often, we also fall into the same tragic ending of the old love song. We show
ourselves to be unfaithful tenants of God’s kingdom whenever we do not
demonstrate love toward God and neighbor as the fruit of faith, and whenever we
do not receive God’s Son, who comes to us through Word and Sacrament.
Too often
we fail to bear this fruit of love for God and neighbor in the vocations in
which He has placed us. We do not fear, love, and trust in God about all
things. We despise preaching and God’s Word, rather than holding it sacred and
gladly hearing and learning it. We do not speak up for the voiceless and
defenseless, the unborn babies, whom society has deemed inconvenient, too
costly, less important than our “reproductive rights,” even “inhuman” or “non-persons.
We do not look for ways that we can personally help and support our neighbor in
every physical need, but trust that government programs will take care of the
problem without our direct involvement. We do not protect our neighbor’s
reputation, speak well of him, or explain everything in the kindest way, but
gossip and believe the worst. We do not trust God and thank Him for the things
He has given us, but look with envy on the material blessings others have
received. Such sin
renders us deserving of losing our place in the kingdom and being put to
eternal death.
But God sent His Son, Jesus, to save the vineyard and its
tenants. Jesus was perfectly faithful in His mission to seek and save the lost.
Though He was rejected and killed, God raised Him from the dead and placed Him
as the cornerstone of His Church. All who believe in Him have eternal life.
So
repent. Repent and believe! Today, you are blessed, once again, that God’s Son comes to you. He comes not for judgment, but to sing the song of your salvation, the
eternal reprise of the love song of the vineyard, to bring His message of grace
and mercy, forgiveness and peace, salvation and eternal life. Go forth and
serve the Lord with gladness! You are forgiven for all of your sins.
In the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture
quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001
by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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