The Lord be with you
Once again, my batteries died in my recorder. I’ve decided I need to replace my rechargeable batteries as they seem to no longer hold a charge. Therefore, I’m only posting the written text for today’s message. Included are also the scripture lessons and other “propers.”
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor
Pentecost 18
Proper 22
October 8, 2017
Sermon: “The Vineyard of the Lord”
Text: Matthew 21:33
Lections: Psalm 80:7–19; Isaiah 5:1–7; Philippians 3:4b–14; Matthew 21:33–46
Opening Hymn: LSB 544 “O Love, How Deep”
Sermon Hymn: LSB 540 “Christ, the Word of God Incarnate”
Closing Hymn: LSB 827 “Hark, the Voice of Jesus Calling”
Collect
Gracious God, You gave Your Son into the hands of sinful men who killed Him. Forgive us when we reject Your unfailing love, and grant us the fullness of Your salvation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Gradual (Ps. 91:11; 103:1)
He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Introit Psalm (80:7–19 (antiphon: v. 7))
7 Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 It sent out its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13 The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, O God of hosts!
Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
15 the stock that your right hand planted,
and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
16 They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;
may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
17 But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
18 Then we shall not turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call upon your name!
19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts!
let your face shine, that we may be saved!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen.
7 Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!
Old Testament Isaiah 5:1–7
1 Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 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.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 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?
5 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.
6 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.
7 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!
Epistle Philippians 3:4b–14
4… 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: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless. 7But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Holy Gospel Matthew 21:33–46
33 [Jesus said:] “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.
34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
Synopsis from Synod
The True Vine Redeems the Vineyard of the LORD of Hosts
“The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel” (Is. 5:7), which He planted “on a very fertile hill” (Is. 5:1). He did everything for His vineyard, not only clearing it of stones and planting it with “choice vines,” but also building the “watchtower” of His prophets and hewing out the “wine vat” of His priesthood in its midst (Is. 5:2). But when “he looked for it to yield grapes,” there were only “wild grapes” of bloodshed and unrighteousness (Is. 5:2, 7). The Lord Jesus likewise described the unfaithfulness of those who were called to care for His vineyard (Matt. 21:33–35). But in this He also describes His cross and Passion (Matt. 21:38–39), by which He has redeemed the vineyard for Himself. He is the true Vine, planted by death into the ground, and in His resurrection He brings forth “the fruits in their seasons” (Matt. 21:41). Among those good grapes of the true Vine is the apostle Paul. Once a zealous persecutor of the Church, he “suffered the loss of all things” in order to “gain Christ and be found in him,” to “know him and the power of his resurrection” (Phil. 3:8–10).
Sermon
Text: [Jesus said:] “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. Matthew 21:33
Using a vineyard as a metaphor is one of God’s favorite images in the Bible. Not only did we have one in our Gospel lesson two weeks ago, but we have it used in today’s Psalm, our Old Testament lesson, and Jesus uses it again in today’s Gospel lesson. When dealing with such images, it is always important to consider the context. In doing so, in the vineyard image from two weeks ago, we understood the vineyard as all humanity. However, the more typical use of the image is to have the vineyard represent the people of God. That is how it is used in each of today’s readings. In our readings, though, it is clear that it refers to the visible people of God. That is to say, the visible Old Testament nation of Israel or, in post-Jesus times, the visible Church.
That is clear because the Hidden Church is composed of only true believers in Christ. Such faith does not reject Christ or his servants. The lessons also have clear messages about the suffering and death of our Lord, and his exoneration by the Father on the third day after his death, through the resurrection of Jesus, and even lessons about the Last Day. This is most obvious in the parable Jesus told, but comes across in our Psalm with phrases like “the son whom you made strong for yourself” (Psalm 80:15) and the “beloved,” in our lesson from Isaiah, is Jesus (Isaiah 5:1). The vineyard of the Lord always belongs to the beloved Son of the Father (Matthew 3:17).
We can ask at least three levels of questions concerning these “vineyard” texts. The first, and most obvious, is about their application in their historical context. In such an approach, the texts apply to the Jewish people of the Old Testament and of Jesus’ generation. The second level is to ask how they apply to the people of God in general, which would include the Church to this very day and therefore to you and me. The third level is to ask what these texts reveal to us about our Lord Jesus. Today we do not have time to delve deeply into each level but, as it is good for us to be aware of all of them, we will touch on each.
Level one is the historical context. The vine that was taken out of Egypt was Old Testament Israel and it is specifically a poetic reference to the Exodus. Jesus refers to the Lord putting a fence around the vineyard, digging a winepress in it, and building a tower in it. Isaiah gives us the same images. The Psalmist speaks of the Lord clearing the ground for the vineyard, as does Isaiah. The land is fertile and everything begins for the nation under the most favorable conditions. The Psalmist adds, “It sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River” (Psalm 80:11). This is a description of the furthest extension of Old Testament Israel’s geopolitical boarders, achieved under King Solomon. It also represents the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel in reference to land. In other words, that promise was fulfilled in the days of Solomon.
Of course the chief blessing that God gave Old Testament Israel was not a bunch of dirt to live on but his precious word, delivered by the Patriarchs, Moses, and all the prophets that followed. Here was the real treasure given the people of God. Through that word they received a worship life designed by God himself and a real, miraculous, connection to the forgiveness Jesus would merit for all humanity centuries later. The prophets, priests, scribes, and the leaders who faithfully adhered to the word of God, are described in the Old Testament vineyard metaphors with the ideas of walls, fences, watchtowers, wine-press, being pruned or hoed, and so on. In fact, such names are directly applied to some of the prophets such as Habakkuk (2:1) and Isaiah (21:8). Both prophets are symbolically pictured as standing in a watchtower. We also find Jeremiah being made “bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land” (Jeremiah 1:18). So we see the grace of God at work. He has done everything possible for his people. He brought them out of Egypt, he cleared the vineyard making it fertile, he provided the wall, the wine press, and so on.
But things went off track for this visible manifestation of God’s people. Many rejected the word of God, substituting false words and ideas, just like Adam and Eve did when they rejected God’s word for the deceptive words of Satan (Genesis 3). Always the first move of the Devil is to drive a wedge between us and God’s Word.
The ultimate culmination of this abandoning the true meaning of God’s word was abandoning the Word made flesh, our Lord Jesus (John 1:1, 14). This is witnessed by the Jewish leaders putting Jesus to death.
I do not think more detail needs be furnished concerning this most obvious level of understanding. There is a danger to this level, and that is that it can leave us smug. “Oh those foolish Jews! I certainly would not trade places with them for the world. How could they abandon God and his word?” When the sermon is done, we walk out as self-satisfied sinners. How easily we can forget the warning Saint Paul gave in 1 Corinthians:
6Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:6-12)
With Paul’s words in our ears, we come to the second level of understanding these lessons, as speaking of the Church. We are the vineyard of the Lord. We have been redeemed out of Egypt, that is, the world. The Lord has cleared the land, making if fertile, and planted us in it. He has set up the wall, dug the wine press, and so on. Here we see the Church, where the word of God is proclaimed and the Sacraments are administered. Here he has sent his servants to hoe and prune, which would be the faithful ministers of the Church. Jesus goes to such extremes to create this New Testament expression of his people that he even shed his precious blood to accomplish it.
Yet, just like Old Testament Israel, things go wrong. Some of the greatest Christians of the past, men like Athanasius or Martin Luther, were persecuted from within the visible Church. Some, like John Chrysostom, ended their lives exile by the visible Church. Others, like Robert Barns and Jan Huss, were martyred by the visible Church. All this came about because people bearing the name “Christian” had abandoned the clear meaning of God’s word and substituted it for their own “evil desires.”
Again we must be careful that we do not relegate such dangers to the past, as if the temptation to abandon God’s Word, and through that abandon Christ and his grace, is a danger we have passed. Like those of earlier ages, our eyes can be blind to the dangers of our age. So we often hear things today like, “It doesn’t matter what church you attend,” or “all churches teach the same basic things.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The only people who truly believe such things either do not know the Bible, or do not know what various churches teach. Many say such things in ignorance, quoting their false shepherds, but many are being deliberately deceptive. But I tell you the truth. God does not want us to live in ignorance of his word. We are called “to hear the Holy Scriptures, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which the Father has given us in our Savior Jesus Christ,” as the old collect puts it. Through the Word and Sacraments, we receive God’s grace, his forgiveness. Thus fortified, we stand up for Jesus.
I need to quickly move on to how these lessons refer to Jesus. Of course the easiest one to do this with is the parable Jesus tells. Our Lord quotes Psalm 118(:22) and tells us it is referring to himself and the Jewish leaders who reject him. These leaders are the “builders” and Jesus is the “cornerstone.” Jesus’ rejection culminates in his atoning death. We might want to note that Jesus makes the Jewish leaders the “builders,” not all Jews. Like many Christians today, who suffer under the teaching of false preachers, the everyday Jew also were victims of these “builders” that reject grace, substituting good works of one sort or another. They seek to make the Church of Christ about something other than Christ. Today that “something else” is often the Christian. In other words, the sermon is about the Christian, not the Christ.
Of course the “son” that is sent to the vineyard is Jesus and the servants are the faithful prophets that went before. The various elements in the vineyard, like the winepress, and fence, can be understood as referring to Word and worship life, in Old Testament terms, and Word and Sacrament in New Testament terms. This whole parable points to Jesus as the only true Savior, the only true Lord of the Church, who gave himself for her and how Jesus delivers his gifts to his people through the Means of Grace.
In our Psalm (91) we read about the “son whom you made strong for yourself.” The Psalm also says, “let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!” If we stop at the historical level, this would simply be Old Testament Israel. However, by using passages like Hosea 11:1 and Matthew 2:15, we easily see that such references ultimately point to the Father’s Son, Jesus. The vineyard, then, belongs to Jesus. After he suffers and dies, he is raised up, exalted to the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead. Jesus restores us, his Body (Romans 12:5), at that time.
We also know that God’s face shown on Jesus throughout his earthly ministry. He was, and is, God’s beloved Son (Matthew 3:17; 17:5).
In our lesson from Isaiah, Jesus is the “beloved.” To him the vineyard belongs. We see in Isaiah’s words that Jesus has done all for his people. Again we think of his incarnation, but also how he delivers to us the benefits of his incarnation through his Word and Sacraments.
Each one of these levels of questions could be used to create a sermon. However the chief level is how these lessons point to Jesus. We learn, of first importance, that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and that he delivers his precious gifts through the Word and Sacraments that he has bequeathed to his Church. As we cling to Jesus, by clinging to his Word and his sacraments, we remain grafted into the True Vine (John 15:1) and will be raised in Glory on the Last Day. Amen.