J. J.
May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable in Thy sight,
O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
“Grapes of Wrath, Grapes at Last”
Our Gospel reading today brings us to a third parable of Jesus about a vineyard. In the first one, the owner of the vineyard went out, hiring workers throughout the day, and yet paid each of them the same. Why? Because the reason they were even in the vineyard, and the reward they received, was not of their own doing, but out of the goodness and grace of the owner. We, too, are in God’s kingdom and receive His mercy, not out of our merit or worthiness, but out of His grace and goodness. In the second parable, the owner had two sons. One said he would not work, but did. The other said he would, but did not. Just as the son who went, responded to the word and authority of the Father, we respond to Christ’s words to us. He has all authority, over sin, over death, and over the devil, and so we live our lives in the kingdom for Him.
Now Jesus tells a parable where instead of hired hands working in the vineyard, instead of sons who tend the vineyard for their father, the owner has let out the vineyard to tenants, to sharecroppers. The time of harvest draws near, and he sends servants to collect his share of the crop, His portion of the grapes.
But instead of receiving grapes from the tenants, they receive wrath – beaten, whipped, and killed. Learning of this, the owner sends another delegation. “More than the first” does not necessarily mean a larger group, but of more authority. He sent the foreman, the straw boss. But again, no grapes, but wrath. So now the owner says to himself, “I will send my own son. There will be no doubt about who he is, his position, his authority, his right to demand and collect my share of the crop. They will listen to him.” The owner was right. This time the tenants know who it is. “This is the son” they say. But do they turn over the grapes? No. The son did not receive the grapes at last, but the grapes of their wrath, their self-centeredness, and their greed. They bizarrely reason: “He will inherit this vineyard. If we kill him, it will be ours.” How can that be? Sure, the son would be out of the way. He would not be there to inherit. But how would that put them – outsiders and strangers – in line to inherit?
“What will the Lord of the vineyard do,” Jesus asks. “He will kill those wicked tenants and turn the vineyard to others who will give him their fruit in due season.”
Jesus’s parable is highly similar to the tale of the vineyard told by the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah’s vineyard was planted by the owner. It had a watchtower and a wine vat. In Jesus’s parable the master planted the vineyard, fenced it, put in a winepress, and built a tower. When the master of vineyard in the parable sent servants to receive the grapes, they did not yield the grapes, but wrath. The beloved, the owner, Isaiah says, went to look for grapes. But the vineyard did not yield grapes. Isaiah’s vineyard produced only wild grapes, grapes not of justice or righteousness, but of outcry and bloodshed. And it was the tenants in the parable who cried out. And from their wrath, there was bloodshed.
Isaiah’s song of vineyard was about the people of Israel, and their disobedience and rejection of God, His rule and His way. Jesus’s parable, likewise, in the first instance, is specifically directed to the Pharisees and Sadducees, to the religious leaders of His day. They had been placed in charge of Israel. Yes, Caesar was there, with the Roman government, but these leaders were God’s representatives. They were to watch over Israel for God’s benefit. But they did not Jesus, the son of God, appears. But they reject him. And so Christ says, the kingdom will be taken from you and handed over to others. So, now, if Isaiah is about Old Testament Israel, and it is, and this parable is about the Pharisees and the Sadducees, what about us? Does this parable have any application, Church, to you and to me?
Like the tenants, mankind has been in rebellion against God. The vineyard did not belong to the tenants, but to the master. And yet, the tenants did as they pleased. They kept the grapes for themselves. The Garden of Eden did not belong to Adam and Eve. Yet they did as they pleased. They took the fruit, which was not theirs, for themselves. We do as we please. The earth is not ours. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” Psalm 24. We make our own rules. And find ourselves, from time to time, full of self-centeredness, “what I think, what I want, what I feel,” full of greed, we are always wanting more, more, more. And we eat the bitter grapes of wrath of disobedience. Adam and Eve who walked with God in the coolness of the garden by their own sin, their own choosing, were separated from Him. They hid themselves from Him, knowing of their own guilt and fearing His wrath.
The master of the vineyard had every right, when the wicked tenants beat and killed his servants, to be wrathful and destroy them, then and there. But he was patient. He sent his foreman. Although the foreman was killed, the master withheld his wrath, and sent his son. God has been and is patient and gracious to us. He sent His prophets, He sent His Apostles, and He sent His own Son, Christ Jesus. Like the wicked tenants who murdered the son of the master, we murdered the Son of God. My sin, my guilt, my shame. My wickedness, my rebellion, my hatred did nail Him to the tree. The grapes of our wrath, as those of Isaiah, were full of outcry, “Crucify Him,” and yielded not wine, but bloodshed.
The death of the master’s son did not save the wicked tenants, they did not inherit the vineyard as they had hoped. But we do. By the murderous death of Christ at our own hands, we who were outsiders and strangers have received not the grapes of wrath due us, but grapes at last. We have inherited the kingdom of God.
The people responded to Jesus parable, “he will give the vineyard to others who will give him the fruits in due season.” And it is God who gives us the fruits in due season, “The eyes of all wait upon Thee, O Lord, and you give them food in due season, You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of everything living thing.” Christ drank the cup of the grapes of wrath for us. He opened His hands, outstretched on the cross. He satisfies our deep desire, and He is the life of every living thing. The people’s answer was that God would give the vineyard to tenants who would turn over the grapes at last. Jesus however, in his words of judgment to the leaders, says that God will hand the vineyard, the kingdom, over to a people who will produce its fruit.” Did you hear the difference? Not to a people who hand over the fruit, but who produce the fruit! The people themselves are the vineyard, the kingdom of God! The handover is not conditioned on their turning over the fruit or producing them. Rather, because the vineyard has been given to them, they now produce fruit.
The kingdom of heaven has been given to us. you and me. As Christians, we bear fruits of righteousness in our lives because we live in Christ. We are grafted into Him, the true vine. He bore our grapes of wrath so that we may bear grapes at last. Grapes that will last. Now and into eternity.
Christ died that we may live on high, and lives that we might never die. As the branches of the vine, O Lord. Thou art ours and We are Thine.
For Christ has died. Christ is risen. And Christ shall come again. Amen.
S. D. G.
