Whose Vineyard Is It?

November 17, 2019

St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Luke 20: 9-19

When the season comes, it is time to harvest the produce. Celebrating the harvest is the time when we give thanks to God for all that we have, pray that we will make it through the winter, and ask for blessings for the year to come. But for more and more of us, the harvest season has become a sentimental memory rather than a lived experience.

The image of the family farm holds a special place in our hearts. Fifty years ago, a small family farm would probably have been passed down from one generation to the next, or sold to another small family farmer. These days it’s much more likely that the land will pass into the hands of a large-scale farm.

Family farmers have a vested interest in the community and the environmental health of their family and neighbors, not to mention the fact that they put their income back into the local economy. But big farm or small farm, the more we can buy from the farmer next door rather than the farmer across the country, the less shipping is done in the process. The more we reduce shipping, the less fuel we use, and the less we depend on limited oil resources. In a world of rising fuel and food costs, not to mention food waste, it makes sense to focus our attention and buying power on the farmers in or near our own communities.

As Christians, it is helpful to remember that we are stewards of God’s creation. In the beginning “The Lord God took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it” (Genesis 2:15, CEB). We are the tenants who farm the land, but all of it ultimately belongs to God. The wealth or scarcity of the harvest is not the only thing that matters. What is also important is the quality of our stewardship. And in this parable, Jesus warns the stewards to be true to the owner of the vineyard, and not be like these wicked tenants.

What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

Jesus answers this question, “He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

Who is Jesus talking to? There is the crowd, of course, and the disciples, but they seem to be mostly spectators. It is the scribes and chief priests who realized that he had told this parable against them.

Jesus looked at them and said, “What then does this text mean:
            ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

Luke ends this passage by telling us that “When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people.”

The parable is a test of stewardship. Whose vineyard is it? God planted the vineyard. God is the owner. As the people most responsible for leading the Jewish people at that time, the scribes and chief priests are the tenants. And we should expect good tenants to pay the rent, to do the work that is expected, and to turn over the harvest to the owner. But these are wicked tenants. As one commentary tells us, the wicked tenants are those who (1) do not want to give fruit to the owner (or perhaps are unwilling to produce the proper fruit); (2) reject the owner’s authority; and (3) work for themselves.[1]

The fruit of the vineyard are grapes which are to be made into wine for sale. What do you think are the fruits of the kingdom? (Peace, justice, joy, love, etc.) The Apostle Paul, in Galatians, wrote this list: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). If this is not the fruit that you are producing, then you’re not taking very good care of God’s vineyard.

By rejecting the authority of the messengers, the tenants reject the authority of the owner as well. The tenants see these messengers as a threat to their own prosperity. They have it pretty good in the vineyard, and they’ve worked hard. They expect to keep the profit for themselves. I mean, who needs the owner, right? We’ll just kill his son, the heir, and then the vineyard will be ours! The owner, he’s never around. Who needs him?

One suggestion for understanding this parable is that sin, the behavior of the tenants, is an attitude of selfishness that has no need for God. God is a nuisance who gets in the way of our selfish desires, demanding that we give up some of what we have worked so hard for.[2] But whose vineyard is it? Do we owe something to God? If we want to live in the kingdom, we are expected to live under the authority of the Owner; to produce and give back the proper fruit.

The warning that Jesus gives to the scribes and chief priests is that the vineyard, the kingdom of God, will be taken away from you and given to others who will produce the fruits of the kingdom. At the time the Gospels were written, war had swept through Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed. Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally organized around the Temple, prayer took the place of sacrifice, and worship was rebuilt around rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities. The priests of the Temple, with all their power and authority, essentially disappeared from history. Those who tended the vines, who had the responsibility of leading the people, were gone.

The early Christians saw themselves as the new tenants in the vineyard; however, the responsibility for producing fruit didn’t change. God has the same expectations of the new tenants. Even if we have inherited the kingdom of heaven, we could suffer the same fate as the tenants in the parable if we reject the Owner’s authority over us—if we fail to produce the fruits of the kingdom and return them to God.

So, the question I ask is: You’ve been saved; so what? What are you going to do? What fruit will you produce? There is a cure for sin, God’s grace. There is a cure for selfishness, serving others. Why does a vine produce fruit? It may help to spread its seeds, but the vine doesn’t benefit from the nourishment in the fruit. It is the animals who eat the fruit that benefit. The fruit that we as Christians produce are those acts done for the benefit of others. As Christians, we are responsible for the well-being of others. When we say “Love your neighbor,” the word “love” is a verb. I have a bumper sticker somewhere that reads, “For God’s sake, do something!”

I have good news for you. We have produced the fruit of the kingdom. When we sent money to support One Great Hour of Sharing, we produce fruit. When we donate and volunteer with the Marengo area OutReach Enterprises, we produce fruit. When we welcome people to share food and fellowship after worship, we produce fruit.

So, let’s continue to be good stewards of God’s kingdom. Let’s produce the proper fruit, and remember it doesn’t belong to us. Let’s live under God’s authority rather than our own. Let’s work for the benefit of others rather than for ourselves. Let us follow the way of that stone that the builders rejected, for it is the cornerstone of a whole new world.  Amen.

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[1] Daniel Patte, The Gospel According to Matthew: A Structural Commentary on Matthew's Faith, pp. 298-299. This analysis applies equally well to the parable as it appears in Luke.

[2] Brian P. Stoffregen, Pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, Yuma, Arizona. From: http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt21x33.htm.