The Battle for the Vineyard
- The church of God is the vineyard
- In love for His church God sent His Son to die at the hands of evil men
- Those who reject the Son lose their place in the church
- Those who fall on Christ are welcomed into the church
The Lord sings over His vineyard the church through the prophet Isaiah: “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. … 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!”
What love and affection the Lord showed the Israelites, preserving them even though they were smaller and less impressive than the nations around them. Nevertheless, the Israelites throughout the Old Testament rejected the Lord time and again, worshiping false gods, and disobeying the Lord’s commandments. So the Lord lamented that it had yielded only wild grapes.
Again and again the Lord sought to restore His vineyard and make it fruitful again. As Jesus explained in today’s parable the master of the vineyard sent his servants into the vineyard to collect the fruit, but the servants were summarily beaten and sent away. These are the prophets whom the Lord sent, men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, others, and finally John the Baptist. These prophets were rejected by the religious establishment of Israel, and thus the people failed to heed the word of the Lord.
So in time God the Father sent the Son: “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’” Jesus came to Israel, the vineyard, and He restored it in the only way a vineyard can be restored, through pruning and grafting. As Jesus says in the Gospel of John: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit…If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
Those Israelites who rejected Jesus, the Son of God and the true vine, were cut off, thrown out of the vineyard, and burned. To put it bluntly, those Israelites, who were by blood descendents of Abraham, but who also rejected Jesus as the Son of God, were rejected by God. God’s vineyard is thus not the modern day nation state of Israel, but God’s vineyard is made up of those who have been grafted into Christ Jesus and have faith in Him.
In Jesus’ earthly ministry He preached primarily to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He preached to Israelites. But we see also the beginning of His in-grafting of the Gentiles, and restoring the vineyard, the church, as those who have faith in the Triune God. Those who belong in the vineyard are there by the grace of God, and not by virtue of their bloodright.
The response of those wicked Israelites to the Son of God coming to restore the vineyard to its proper glory was to kill the Son. “But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” Of course the Lord knew that this would be the response of the wicked tenants, and yet the Son went anyway, fully knowing His role of dying in order to redeem the vineyard.
The Lord Jesus Christ knew full well the hearts and minds of the Israelites. He knew that He would be rejected. He knew that He would be beaten and killed. For it is the Lord’s wisdom and mercy that He shed His blood on behalf of His people, in order that by His blood He may redeem His people from their sins, and restore His vineyard to its proper glory on earth, and so preserve a faithful remnant which may be harvested unto paradise.
Dearly beloved by God! You are those who have been grafted into Christ, not be merit of your blood and ancestry, but through your faith in the grace of God in Christ Jesus. By the blood of Jesus shed for the forgiveness of your sins, by the waters of holy baptism marking you with God’s name, you have been brought into the vineyard of God’s holy church.
Take note of this fact that you are not part of the vineyard because of your ancestry or the length of time you’ve been here. It’s very tempting to become like the Israelites and believe that on account of our ancestry we have an inherent place in the church. Just because your parents or grandparents founded a congregation, that doesn’t make it yours. Like St. Paul says: “Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”
St. Paul had every outward reason to consider himself a part of God’s chosen people. He had the right ancestry, he was a system guy to the core, he did everything “correctly.” Nevertheless, none of those things counted for anything, for the only thing that matters is “Righteousness which comes through faith in Christ.” I say this as a system guy! My ancestors have been Lutherans for centuries. My ancestors who came to the midwest helped found Lutheran congregations. I was baptized and confirmed in a Lutheran church. I attended one of the Concordia Universities. I went to seminary directly afterwards. None of that counts for anything! I have no inherent right to be in the vineyard, and I’m only it by the grace of God which I receive through faith in Him.
The same thing is true for every one of us, thank God! Whether you’re an infant baptized a few months ago, or a new convert to Lutheranism or Christianity, or you’ve only just moved here, you belong in God’s vineyard and all of the privileges of God’s kingdom are yours in Christ Jesus! “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces.” You who fall upon Jesus, whose sins are confronted by Christ, who are broken to pieces in repentance, are grafted into God’s vineyard. The blood of Jesus, His crucifixion, His suffering and death, is for you and covers all of your sins. By the blood of the Son of God, you are made an heir of the kingdom of God and shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
As comforting as today’s text may be, it does leave us with a warning which we must ponder and consider in our hearts. Jesus is the cornerstone, He is the stone of stumbling, and He does crush those whom He falls upon. He doesn’t tolerate the wicked tenants in His vineyard, and those who claim His vineyard but reject Him will themselves be cast out of the vineyard. Even we who have been grafted into the vineyard, if we are arrogant, and we think that we deserve to be here by our own right, then we will certainly be cut off as well.
St. Paul admonishes us in Romans: “They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.”
The severity of God is quite serious, and He has every right to cut us off if we fall away from the faith. But the kindness of God is even greater. He relents of disaster. He may cut us off when we fall from faith, but when we return in faith He is quick to graft us in again. Consider your own hearts, my friends, and reflect on why you are here. I bid you to humble yourselves, and receive your place in the vineyard by grace. See Jesus, the Son of God, hanging dead on the cross, and remember that it is only through His blood that you dwell in the vineyard of the Lord.