Nineteenth
Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 22A)
October 4, 2026
Text: Is. 5:1-7; Matt. 21:33-46
“What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I
have not done for it?” (Is. 5:4;
ESV).
The Master of the
House is God. The Vineyard is Israel. And the tenants who lease the Vineyard are the leaders of the Jews: The scribes, the Pharisees, the priests… as well as the kings, in days of old… those from whom God should rightly expect fruit. Faith. Total dependence on Him. To the exclusion of all other gods. To the exclusion of self-reliance and self-justification. And love. Love for God. Love for the neighbor. Love that therefore lives, and orders the whole life, according to God’s will as revealed in His Commandments. Love that orders the whole life toward self-giving service to those around you. Do you see what the fruit, finally, is? The whole self, rendered to God, not as slave, but as son.
But the tenants rendered God no fruit. So, He sent His servants… the prophets. Prophet after prophet. To call the people back to Himself. Back to faith. Back to love. Some they beat. Some they killed. Some they stoned. They were rejecting… not just the men God sent… but God Himself. Rejecting His Word. Rejecting His right to the Vineyard and its fruit. And, it’s befuddling, isn’t it? What should God have done after even one servant was abused, never mind killed? Obliterate those wretches! Fire and brimstone. Righteous wrath. But He doesn’t. He just keeps sending. Prophet after prophet. Preacher after preacher. Calling to repentance. Calling to faith.
And, so longsuffering is our God, that finally, what does He do? He sends His Son. He says to Himself, “They will respect my son” (Matt. 21:37). Now, we know how this is going to end. But the
great mystery is, so does He! But He does it, anyway! Jesus comes. The Son of God. He comes to the tenants, pleading for fruit. How many interactions does Jesus have with the Pharisees and the
Sadducees? Why all the confrontations? Because He loves them! He is calling them back. He wants
them for His own.
But what do they do? They say, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance” (v. 38). “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation” (John 11:48). They’ll take away the inheritance. Ah, but if we kill Him, the place and nation will be ours. So… “Crucify, crucify him!” (Luke 23:21). And that’s what they do. They lead Him out of the city… they cast Him out of the Vineyard… and kill Him! Therefore, what will the Owner of the Vineyard… God… do to them? The Jews themselves testify: “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” (Matt. 21:41). And so it is. In AD
70, the Romans come and take away their place and their nation. Jerusalem is sacked. The Temple is once and for all destroyed.
Bad news for the Jews. But good news for us. Christ, who was crucified, is risen. And now the Gospel goes out to the whole world… to the nations. And all who believe in Him, Jew and Gentile…
those who will give Him the fruits in their season: Faith toward God, and fervent love toward one another, which is to say, Christians, who surrender their very selves to God… they get the inheritance! We get the inheritance. Because the Son was killed. Yet, behold, the Son lives. God will let out the Vineyard to others, the Jewish leaders prophesy. We are the others.
Now, a warning here: Don’t let this text (or any text in the Bible) become an occasion for arrogance over against the Jews. First of all, God loves the Jews. God chose them to be His holy people in the Old Testament. As Paul reminds us, what advantage has the Jew? Much in every way: To them belong the oracles of God (Rom. 3:1-2)... the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises (9:4)… “To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen” (v. 5). And “the
gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (11:29). Second, many Jews came to believe in Christ, including the Twelve and St. Paul and the whole Church immediately post-resurrection, while many Gentiles were included in the killing of the Son: Pontius Pilate, the Roman soldiers… us! (There is the excruciatingly beautiful scene in Mel Gibson’s, The Passion of the Christ, where the hand that drives in the nails is his own! That is profound. We crucified Him by our sins). Third, we Gentiles must always remember (as St. Paul says, using another illustration from husbandry) that, though some branches of
the olive tree of Israel were broken off, that we may be grafted in, nevertheless, the roots are the children of Israel. And we were grafted in by grace. By no merit or worthiness of our own. And if the natural branches were broken off for failing to bear fruit, the same will assuredly happen to the wild olive branches (us!) grafted in if we forsake our God-given faith. And we pray that those natural branches will be grafted back in. The Church used to regularly pray for the conversion of the Jews. Maybe we should start doing that again!
And the point is this: There is no room in the Christian Church for antisemitism. Take that deeply into your heart, because antisemitism is a trend these days among people both left and right, and we are so deceived by our political allegiances. We can argue about policy toward Israel versus the Palestinians, but you are not to hate the Jews, whom God loves. Jesus Christ is a Jew. Enough said.
When we hear this parable, we are to marvel at God’s great grace, not only toward the Jews, but toward us! The Vineyard has been given to us… all Christians, Jew and Gentile. And now, His longsuffering is directed toward us. He sends His servants: Preacher after preacher. The Gospel is proclaimed. Sinners’ sins are washed away as one-time rebels are baptized into Christ. The Absolution is declared. The body and blood of Christ… the fruit of the Vine… the cup of blessing, the wine of joy… these are distributed right here at this Table, and on Altars throughout all Christendom. We keep sinning, but our Lord Jesus Christ keeps calling us back, in repentance and faith, by His Word and
Spirit. He keeps forgiving. Keeps grafting us in. Keeps restoring us to the Father.
Those who receive His Word, receive Him. They fall upon the Stone the builders rejected. Yes, they are crushed to pieces. But that is to say, they die to themselves in repentance, to be raised up to new life in Christ. But woe to those who reject this Word. They join the builders in rejecting the Lord Jesus. And on them the Stone falls, and crushes them in eternal damnation.
Oh, beloved… let us sing for our Beloved our love song concerning His Vineyard (Is. 5:1). What more could He have done for her… for us? “For us… For us… For us…” “For us baptized, for us He bore His holy fast and hungered sore; For us temptation sharp He knew; For us the tempter overthrew. For us He prayed; for us He taught; For us His daily works He wrought, By words and signs and actions thus Still seeking not Himself but us. For us by wickedness betrayed, For us, in crown of thorns arrayed, He bore the shameful cross and death; For us He gave His dying breath. For
us He rose from death again; For us He went on high to reign; For us He sent His Spirit here To guide, to strengthen, and to cheer” (LSB 544:3-6). What more could He have done? He does it all.
And so, here you are in the Vineyard. How the Lord loves you! He brought you here. Never take that for granted. And, for God’s sake, don’t reject it. Here, God has planted you. Here, He tends and nourishes you. Roots grown deep. Branches of the Vine. Life-giving sap flowing to you, and through you, in the means of grace. And fruit. Faith. Fervent love. Your very self… a son in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. So it is in the Kingdom of God. This is the Lord’s doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
