Essentials: Vineyard

Everything we have—our time, relationships, gifts, even our very lives—is on loan from God. Jesus’ parable of the vineyard asks a searching question: What are we doing with what the Owner has entrusted to us?

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Turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21. The gospel of Matthew, chapter 21. And you, if you were here last week, you'll be able to tell that we're actually just going simply straight from where we were last week right into the next verses. So when you found Matthew 21 and verse 33, go ahead and stand for the Gospel reading here this morning.

Notice these words.

Jesus said, listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.

Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, saying, they will respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and get his inheritance. So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Now, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will they do to those tenants? They said to him, he will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time. Jesus said to them, have you never read in the Scriptures, Corporations? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes.

Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds because they regarded him as a prophet.

Lord Jesus, may it be today that we too realize this word is speaking about us. And may we, unlike these here, respond by repenting and believing. We pray in your name. Amen.

Well, we're in a series and have been all of September. We'll be in all of October, and all the way to Christ the King Sunday, which is the end of our liturgical year. And the one word that Pastor Emily and I came up with for all three of those months and kind of the readings that go through those months and the lessons, there is this one term, essentials. Okay, so the whole idea is like, these are essential teachings of Jesus, as he's moving to the cross here, you remember, he's now in Matthew 21, he's now triumphantly entered in on a donkey into Jerusalem, he's cleaned the temple and now he's stirring up trouble. I mean, that's one way to put it.

At least they were already looking for trouble, okay? And you know, I don't know if you've ever seen like two experts go at something, but that's kind of like what this is, okay? So if you ever watch like a debate or something, you know, they've got all the Jerusalem pedigreed, you know, professors and scholars in Jerusalem, because this is Passover, it's the whole thing. And they know this other guy, this new kid on the block is coming and that's Jesus, of course, here. And they're like, well, who is this guy?

We're going to show him a little something something. And of course, you know, all the good things that come from that. This is one of those stories and he's giving them a parable that's obviously about them. But what I would like for us to understand is that this parable, this image, because remember, parables deal in images and symbolism, typologies, all that kind of stuff in the sense of an analogy, right? It's found in the Old Testament, okay.

And it permeates the whole Bible really, this idea of the vineyard, okay? So if we had, you know, essentials, right? Then this vineyard imagery is replete throughout the Scriptures, alright? And so what I would like to propose to you up front, okay, in this sermon before we go to the table is that in fact the vineyard leads us right to this table.

And this idea of the vineyard is like a superstructure that we live under and in and through in our lives. And at the end, just like them, we'll be judged based on what we do in our vineyard. Alright? So it's a grand vision, if you will. And this is why Isaiah, and we just read it a moment ago, Isaiah begins his song, really.

And by the way, just a little Bible note, anytime you've got the indentations, you know, in the text, right? Rather than just like straight prose with paragraphs, you've got it indented all over the place, then that's poetic. I mean, most of us just kind of pick that up. The translators of your Bible are trying to show that when they do something like that, okay? And Isaiah's filled with that, right?

Prophecy's filled with that because it's poetic, perhaps even a song like form of it. Same with The Psalms, right? And so he begins his song. He says, let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his vineyard. So two things are critical here in Isaiah's prophecy slash song is this friendship and singing.

And here's the point. They go together, right? I mean, like, even in the old kind of Irish, you know, bar tradition, if we could bring in that kind of thing, right? Is like, you see these people and you kind of pick this up in Lord of the Rings and even, like some of Lewis's work is like this. Hey, we're having friends over and we're going to sing Drink together.

And this is a thing of where it shows merriment and friendship go together. Singing accompanies happiness. Does that make sense? In other words, you've never been mad and wanted to really sing.

You know, it's like somebody pulls out in front of you and you're just like, I love. No, you don't do that. You get mad. You know, this person's making me mad. Nobody does that, right?

You start screaming, you get bent out of. We even talk about it. Bent out of shape, right? Singing forms us. Singing brings us together.

And it's meant for merriment, right? Like happiness, merry making, you know, and so is wine.

So. So is wine. Okay, now, this is not a lesson on alcohol and all this, but it sort of is because quite frankly, the reason they would have planted a vineyard were for grapes. And the reason for grapes was not just for fruit, but the real money was in wine making. And this is why it was such a crime in the ancient world, not just in Israel, but certainly in Israel, but a crime in the general world, in the ancient world, to actually destroy a vineyard.

Because it took a long time to get good grapes. And once you had them, it was an easy thing to lose. One season of no pruning, one season of no hoeing up the weeds, just one season of an enemy coming in and sowing the weed. Bad seeds could destroy an entire generation full of good grapes that led to good wine. Now, perhaps we could, in our, you know, Protestant concern for, you know, getting drunk and this sort of thing, let's just be clear.

The Bible warns against drunkenness. It has lots of warning against drunkenness, okay? Just as, I mean, I've never done a study exactly to tell, but just like it has a lot of warnings against sexual immorality, but kind of the point is, just because there's warnings, there is no prohibition across the board on either sex or wine, let's say, okay? And so in the same way we want to abide by that sort of moderation or all things ordered correctly. And this is sort of the point here and that, you know, remember, of course, Jesus takes water and turns it into wine and wine celebration.

Again, wine is for. Now, just think about our basic elements. Let's put it this way, think about our basic sacramental elements. Water for baptism. Water's extremely basic.

In fact, you can't live without water. That's just the point blank of it. Bread, same thing. Very basic necessity. Bread represents just food in general, even.

But let's just say bread's pretty plain, isn't it? And yet you could survive if you had bread and water. Okay? But all of a sudden, the third sacramental element that we are given is wine, or what we call the fruit of the vine, right? Whether or not it's fermented or not.

Could be another discussion. But juice, like what we have here, or wine is for celebration, like our kids love at what's it called, New Year's. You know, we get the sparkling grape juice, right? And they. And everybody toasts, right?

And it's all fun. Celebration. Now, here's the problem, brothers and sisters. I want everybody to hear me on this and whoever this finds on the Internet too. Lots of dangers around drinking alcohol.

Lots of dangers. And we all have our own stories, probably, and family members whose lives have been uprooted and destroyed. So let's be clear about that. But I think there could be a place and is a place that wine, drink is for celebration. But as soon as you make it a necessity, sin, no matter if you're not getting drunk or not, if you're drinking every day just to drink and it's becoming like water to you, like bread to you, I would strongly suggest you really ask the Lord about that, because wine is for celebration.

If you're not celebrating, the worst thing you could do in a depression is start drinking. I didn't mean to make this even a tirade. None of this is in my notes. So this is all just popping off the head, okay? So if I'm.

If I'm overextending something, forgive me, but I think there needs to be a proper place of warning for this, but also for us to understand that wine in the ancient world, as much as today is meant for celebration, but taken out of that context and put into every meal or every day, that's a problem, brothers and sisters. Now, I didn't expect to get many amens on that because nobody wants to give up their position. I get it, okay? I'm totally fine with that, with being alone in what I say and then just letting that stand. Okay.

But just. I think that's a good warning. Now here's the larger thing. There is the. And this is really cool to me if wine is for celebration and for sort of.

If we want to put it this way, simply put, like fun and merry making. Okay. And there's Bible verses that also support this. Right. I've got them somewhere in my notes here, but I'm lost at this point.

So the point is, it's in the psalms where, you know, it gladdens the heart, for instance. Right. It's like a good medicine, you know, Paul telling, telling Timothy and so on and so forth. Okay. The larger issue here that I think is really cool is this.

Water, bread, survival. But we as humans don't just live for survival. Isn't it interesting that you could have put on anything to show up here? I mean, basic clothes, whatever, but some of you dressed up. Why?

Why do we. Why when we build a building, do we put, you know, crown molding and frames around the doors? You don't have to do that. Actually, you realize that like crown molding is not necessary for your house. Now the hinges, all this, like those things are what's behind the crown that's put there for beauty.

It actually is like all that stuff is put in this room. There's all kinds of borders and all this. It like this right here, this border that doesn't have to be there, but it is there because it covers up something where two things come together and it makes it a little nicer transition. Right? Same thing in our life.

We're not just. And I want you to hear this anthropologically, right? It's is. We're not just made for survival.

That's the baseline. But God has given us. Hear me again. The vineyard, the grapes, the wine for celebration, for something more. And that's why there's times in life where we dress up.

Weddings, even funerals. One just did that this week. You know, you dread why some people. That's just vain. What's vain?

Only hear me only if you think life is just about surviving. But there is so much more to life. Aren't you glad of that? That means we get to spend money on a big meal to celebrate together. Like that's a good thing.

Now if it becomes every day. And of course, all things in moderation. There's a place and a season for everything. You understand how this works. But I think it's a beautiful thing that God has given Us, water, bread and the cup.

To share and to lift up together, as we'll be doing just in a moment. He's given us reason to celebrate, literally, to give thanks. Good. Well, I'm jumping ahead a little bit here, according to my notes, at least, but sometimes I don't always follow my notes, I guess, but also this friendship. Think about friendship.

You know, it was Aristotle who said something like this. I've got the direct quote here, but I'll just tell you. He says, look, what is life? No one would actually choose to have all things and no friends if you had everything and the world materially. You know, all the money in the world, all the houses, but you had no friends.

Who's to share it with? What a lonely, awful life. No, no, again, not just survival. Friends. And friends are expensive, aren't they?

Because sometimes you got to forgive them. Sometimes you got to go to coffee with them and you're buying, you know? But friendship, sometimes it lulls. Sometimes it's intense. Sometimes you need them more than they need you, and vice versa.

That's life. That's where the good life lies, isn't it? That's what life is made of. We don't look back and just say, oh, I'm so glad that I was able to buy that stupid little gift at the Grand Canyon. I don't even know where that thing is anymore.

No, I enjoyed it with my friend.

That's what lasts. Things, they'll pass away. People never pass away. Which is why we really ought to be careful how we treat each other and people we don't even know, because every single person you've ever met will never stop existing. Like, ever.

It's a big deal, but it's a big opportunity. It's kind of neat. Isaiah has this image of, like, that, the. That the owner here who's planting the vineyard, he plants on a hill, and he's planting there because of the possibility of this vineyard. And then, of course, he plants.

And you just think through the whole thing, and it's quite obvious here what all is really going on. You've got him digging in the soil, which is preparation, right? Break up your fallow ground. All of us need to have our fallow ground broken up for him to plant his vineyard in us. And then he clears the stones, you know.

You know, at our house, I'm still working on our yard. And it's interesting how everything gets planted and the sod and all this, and then all of a sudden, rocks come up. You ever notice that? Like, and you're like digging, you're throwing them off in the woods. And that's hard work to get all the rocks up.

It actually is. That's his point. He labored to plant us, or to plant his vineyard, let's say. All right, then he put a hedge around it, which sort of represents the law, because the law is always seen in the Bible as a wall or a hedge of protection to keep things here and not there. This is the wild.

This is not. It's ordering the vineyard. And then, of course, he builds this tower. And in Isaiah, he builds this vat of a rock. So he.

So. So the owner here of the vineyard already has in mind. I'm going to have a place for us to celebrate. Like, he started it. Knowing the end, which is always the way you really want to start something, isn't it?

You don't want to start building a house and like. Yeah, I don't know. We'll just try to, like, put some things together here. No, you know, the end and then you start. Some of us, it's interesting, some of us sort of live through life just wandering around.

That's called lost. That's called being lost. No, no, we need to get the end in mind. And what I'm saying this morning, what I think our text is saying, what Jesus is saying in this parable is this idea of the vineyard and how we fit into that is the superstructure that leads us to the end. And the end, get this is friendship with God, not just friendship with people.

That's a microcosm of what we're supposed to have with God. I know. It's kind of a sobering thing to think like. Or even to claim like, I am a friend of God. That's a big deal to claim.

I mean, just next time you're trying to witness to somebody about Jesus, be like, yeah, yeah, by the way, I want you to. I'm Marshall, and I'm a friend of God. Oh, okay. But isn't that the truth? If we know him, if he saved us, if we're in him and he in us, then here's what he says.

You are no longer my servants, but what my friends.

It first takes us bending the knee as a servant, and then he says, all right, up you go. Let's start walking together. And that's what friendship with God is. St. Thomas Aquinas says it this way. He says, charity, and I like to use that term sometimes rather than love, because love has been so pulled out and sort of made common in our society that charity sort of Rocks you a little bit, you know, Gets you off.

Like charity, he says, charity with God. Or, sorry, charity is friendship with God.

So when we say love, and we're created for love, what we're saying is, we're created for friendship with God. Here's the point. It's the reason he planted the vineyard in the first place. Are you beginning to see that the vineyard is a type of the garden? When he plants his garden in the beginning, that's his vineyard.

And he puts us in the garden. Why, just to wander around? No, of course not. To cultivate it. Remember, we're supposed to be reigning with him.

Co regents, male and female in his image, tending the garden. And of course that goes wrong, doesn't it?

But he doesn't leave us there now, notice, he kicks us out, puts a wall up, puts two cherubim there. Remember, to guard. But then later on, you know what he does? He says, hey, I've got a way. Tells Moses, I've got a way for us to be together.

My rescue plan started with Abraham, officially, but now we're to Moses. And I'm going to give you a way to be with me and walk with me and you remember. Long story short, because there's a lot of a lot there in the law, I won't summarize it all, but I'll say this. The table, the altar, as we call it. You know, in the table and the altar, synonyms here for us, when we call it altar, we're not talking about, like, what's over here, but here, technically, where the sacrifice occurs.

Table, altar, same things. The altar of the Lord. Remember the Ark of the Covenant? What was on top of the Ark of the Covenant?

Two cherubim with their wings almost touching.

That's Eden. That's the doorway to Eden. That's the doorway to the garden. That's the doorway to his vineyard. And every single time, once a year, and only once a year, only the high priest would come and offer sacrifice so we could be reconciled to God to come to his vineyard once again.

Until Jesus, when the veil is torn, open Ark is lost at that point, and rightfully so. No need for it anymore, because Eden can come to us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Then we come all the way to the end of the Bible and we see it bookended. Garden, Vineyard, Garden City, Vineyard. Remember the Garden City. That basically what's happening in Revelation. In short, heaven and earth are coming together.

What's heavenly and what's earthly come together in unity. Right now in our broken world, it's fragmented. We can't quite. We're, like, upside down, trying to look at things. But there, the city or the kingdom and nature come together as one, and we get the river and the tree of life and all of that.

Again, the big point here, the vineyard, ought to be this super image that then trickles and permeates every layer of our life. Like, literally, it tells us why we're here, friendship with God, what he's doing. When we go through sanctifying events, he's pruning, he's tending. Right, so that we can produce fruit. Why?

For ourselves? No. To share and bring people in and celebrate.

That's literally why. That's why we keep. You know, I say this is a working table because it's the truth. There's grape, there's. I mean, they're fake grapes, but they're grapes.

Why do we have the image of grapes on the table? Because it's that. That vineyard image. You understand what I'm saying? It permeates the whole thing.

And then when Jesus tells us this parable, where the Son himself comes, he is sent, right? The prophets are sent, killed, ignored, et cetera. Then he said, I'm going to send my son, and they'll respect that. And they try to kill. Well, they do kill the Son.

They're ultimately trying to do away with the owner.

And many of us said, yeah, you know, if I'd have been around back then, I would have never done that. And yet, when we go against the law of God. Hear me out. When we go against the created order, whether it be sexual immorality or whatever it is, and it's primarily sexual immorality of all kinds, by the way. When we do that, we're wishing his creation was a different way, which is a slap in his face because he created it a certain way.

And listen, we've all done that. We've all gone against the grain of both nature and nature's God. And when we do that, and when it becomes an obsession and an addiction, some of us in our darkest moments, wish lust or greed or bitterness was the way of God. And if we would have had our way at some points, we would have gotten rid of God so that it could be that way. And you see, I think, I hope, how quickly we too, can descend to saying, crucify him.

I want my way. This is mine.

No. What the vineyard teaches us is none of it is ours.

I mean, like, none of it.

Not your existence. You didn't decide to be. You just showed up, just like all of us. No one asked you. It was planned.

And I don't mean by your parents, because planned or unplanned, here you are. And there was a plan because it was the super plan by the creator and Maker himself, like every single body listening to this proclamation this morning. You're not an accident. You are not an accident.

No. He saw you and he was active in your creation. Sometimes we think God just created in the beginning and now everything runs as some form of deistic whatever. That's garbage. When two people come together in sexual union, no matter how that happens, there's a natural part and there must be a supernatural part where God himself gives us soul life.

That's Him. So there's a human part in the creation of human beings and there's a God part.

So he's not some dialed back creator that used to be involved. He's involved today in your life and he wants to be if you'll let him. And even when we don't let him, isn't it interesting that he annoys us by still getting involved like an annoying parent? You know what's interesting about being a kid at one point and now a parent, is that I used to get annoyed with my dad about things. And now that I'm a parent and annoy my kids, I actually know that I'm being annoying and still do it.

But does anybody understand what I'm saying? Like I even know it's annoying for me to bring that up one more time, but you bet your bottom dollar I'm bringing it up one more time because I'm going to be that annoying guy. And you know what? Thanks be to God for good parents that keep saying things even when they don't make sense to little kids. That's why Paul says you need to grow up and stop drinking milk and, and being a baby and get on the meat of the word and start desiring that meat, loving his word over the things of this world.

No, the big point here in this imagery of the vineyard that ought to dominate our life, it really should, is that we're creatures and he the Creator. Simple lesson, hard to live by because we just sort of think and kind of, you know, laissez faire, go through life saying like, oh yeah, I can do this or do that. I must be in charge. But let me tell you, there's coming a reckoning day when the owner of your life, of my life, of all the resources and talents that he has given to us, will require of us an account. And that should scare us that Actually should give us a little pause.

Like, what did I do last week with what he gave me? We all have the same amount of time. We all have varying levels of money and resources and giftedness and all this. And he takes all that into account, I assume. Okay, but what did you do?

Don't look over at your neighbor. But what is in your vineyard?

We receive and we give, and that's the motion of life. I think God has built it into our biology for us to remember. You stop doing either one of those things, breathing in or breathing out, and you're toast. Right. Like, you know what?

I'm just tired of exhaling. I'm just going to only inhale. Well, good luck with that. You won't be with us long. And you'll be doing automatically because you'll be passed out on the floor, right?

Your body will just go into. Well, I assume there's some doctors in here. I might be wrong about that. But if you hold your breath that long, maybe you'll pass out and start doing it naturally. I don't know.

But the natural way to do it, in, out, that's what makes up life. It makes up our spiritual life too, doesn't it? If we're always just coming to church once a week to get our fix, breathing in his grace, and then we just never hold, never give it out to the world, breathe it out to others, we will become a cesspool of poison. And that's what happened to the Pharisees. I mean, just point blank, they received all these good gifts and did not give it out to the world.

I mean, that's a simplistic way to put it, but I think that's about right. And we have. We can fall into the same danger, can't we? Receiving from God all these good things. Thank you, thank you, Lord.

I must be on your good side. But those people who. No, we receive and we give and we give and we receive. That's what makes up the Christian life. Everything is on loan from God.

Even your spouse, even your children, they're not yours. Even your body, not completely yours. And then if you're married, it's not only not yours, but also God's. But then it's God's and your spouses is what Paul says, which is revolutionary, by the way. Like, nobody had ever espoused something like that, given that much power to women.

To say your wife has power over the husband's body. That was unheard of in the ancient world. Let me just tell you, like, absolute revolution.

No, it's his to give and to take away, as Job said, right? And we give thanks no matter what. Because Paul says in all things what? Give thanks. And this is the primary way.

This. I'm pointing to the table here, to the Eucharist. That's what we call Holy Communion. Eucharist, that's a Greek word, Eucharisto, to give thanks. All things.

Give thanks. If you're up this week, great. Give thanks if you're down this week, give thanks if you're somewhere in the middle. Because all of us are one of those. Give thanks whether you're on your way up or on your way down.

Give thanks because he is good. Not your situation. Your situation is not good. And I'll agree with that. It's not good.

And we don't have to say it's good when you give thanks. Because we're not giving thanks for the circumstances, but for God himself. And we trust Him. And we trust that all the pruning, all the digging, all the fertilizer and you know what fertilizer is?

Refuse. All of that is for our sanctification to become like him. Which means our marriage, our job, all of our relationships, all the things that we have are little vineyards that we're supposed to be tending to. And when we're busy over here in somebody else's vineyard, that's wrong. When we're longing for a different vineyard, that's wrong.

He gave you that thing. He gave you those people and he wants you to tend that garden.

So simply put, this morning as we close, how's your vineyard? Are you walking with the Lord in that vineyard in the cool of the day? Because he owns it all.

Is there fruit coming from that vineyard? Because one day he's going to call, account for everything that we've done, everything that we've done today.

God doesn't only want to give you gifts, he wants to make you a gift just like His Son. Because God is the only pure gift. He never receives from anything. He can't. He's God.

That's kind of what it means to be God. He only gives. And that's where we get this self giving love. We have to receive and then give. That's our MO.

We just said that. But not God. He doesn't receive from anyone. He is pure gift. But his gift is good.

And his greatest gift is both His Son and His Holy Spirit who is sent to us.

He wants us to be shaped just like His Son. And we. Our posture today is open hands as we come to his table as little beggars begging to receive more from God so we can give it out to the world for the sake of the world. Receive and then go and be poured out because I am no longer my own, but thine. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, may it be so.

Amen.