Vineyards are for Wine
Matthew 21:33-44
October 22, 2023 anno Domini
Vineyards aren’t for Welch’s Grape Juice, unless you’re a Baptist. Vineyards are for wine and according to King David “wine gladdens the heart.”
God’s goal is to gladden your heart with His gifts, chief among them life, full life, all you need to live here on earth and all you need to live eternally. To quote Isaiah the Lord would have you “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” That’s better than the Wine Dot sale at Westside. This is the heart of the Scriptures – what God gives you to gladden your heart is free. The Father does all the work through His Son. The cost comes out of His own pocket. It’s all from Him and it’s free to you.
These free gifts should gladden your heart. The poorest among you is rich because of what God has given you. But here’s the problem and it’s the problem in the parable that Jesus tells. You don’t believe it. You don’t believe it’s free. You don’t believe it’s enough. You don’t believe in the goodness and abundance of the Lord’s gifts, so what do you do? You grab hold of it with all your might and beat off anyone who would take it from you, including God.
Let’s start with the first riddle of the parable. The Master of the House doesn’t need the vineyard. God did not need to create the world or you for that matter. He wanted to. He desires to give life and create life. He wanted the world to be a place where He could be Who He is – the God of life, the Gift-Giver, the God who loves. That leads to the second riddle of the Parable. He plants the vineyard and puts a fence around it to protect it from those pesky neighborhood kids stealing the fruit for themselves. He digs a winepress because grapes go bad and wine lasts a long time. Then sets up a watchtower to guard against enemies. All is fine and good, but then “he leased it to tenants.”
Landlords never want to be too distant from their renters or their property. Talk to a landlord sometime and you’ll be amazed what renters can do to an apartment or a home in just a short while. Why is that? The short answer is sin. The longer answer is what sin does to us. The renter loves himself and has no love for the landlord. The landlord is rich. He owns the house, and the renter is poor. Therefore, why not take advantage of the rich man and get what you can get while you can get it.
Lest you think I’m picking on renters I’m not – I’m picking on you because there is nothing you have that God did not give you. And do you know what He wants in return? He wants you to believe that, to enjoy it, and to trust that His gifts will be enough. That’s why He goes away. He isn’t going to watch you like a hawk. He isn’t going to yell at you every time you waste a grape or sleep in and skip your chores. He goes away to see if you believe when He isn’t standing right there. If you love Him when you can’t see Him and trust Him even when there’s a drought or the harvest looks slim.
This is what the Lord gives you and what He wants from you. That’s why eventually He sent His servants to get His fruit. I don’t know how farmland is rented, but I’m assuming the landlord gets a portion. In the Old Testament the Lord asks for a tithe. That means if you’re living on $200 bucks a week, you’d put $20 in the collection plate and you’d have $180 of the Lord’s money for yourself. That seems pretty generous of the Lord.
But what did the tenants do? What do you do? They were afraid they didn’t have enough. So, they took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. At that point the Sheriff should be called, the SWAT team assembled, and those tenants should face judgment. But the Lord’s ways are not your ways. Riddle number three. He sends more servants. Why? Because He wants you to receive His gifts, to trust His bounty, to freely give as you have been given to, to share the wine of forgiveness with others.
Then the Master does the unbelievable. It makes you scratch your head. After his servants are beaten, stoned, and killed, He decides the best course of action is to send His Son – “They will respect My Son.” You think so?
Now the parable switches back to the tenants. And their rage against the Master is as unbelievable as the Master’s love toward them. They get the strange notion that since the Master is far away, they can kill the Son, and the Master will leave them alone because there is no one to inherit the vineyard. Perfect logic if you’re not thinking at all.
Jesus spoke in parables to reveal the secrets of His Kingdom to those who believe, and to hide the reality from those who don’t. That is why they are filled with riddles. It is only through faith that a person believes God has given us the vineyard. It is only by believing God’s Word that we can confess our tight-fisted coveting and selfishness when it comes to God’s gifts. How many of you think 10% of your income is too much to return to the Lord? And it is only faith in God’s Word that reveals the unspoken strange end of the parable.
The tenants killed the Son, and do you know what His death resulted in? A bigger vineyard, more fruit, more life, more gladness than you could ever imagine. Yes, those who killed the Son and don’t repent – well, those wretches will have a wretched end. But Nicodemus repented and we’ll see him in the resurrection. Saul repented and he’s enjoying the presence of Jesus right now. The death of the Son forgives the tenants, forgives your selfishness, your gift-grabbing, grape-hoarding, fake claims of ownership sins.
So how are you living in this the Lord’s vineyard? Do you believe His forgiveness? That you have life eternal? That He has given you so much you can actually let it go – back to Him, out to your neighbor. Are you willing to share this gladdening wine of Jesus and enjoy it with others? Or are you going to drink by yourself, in the darkness of fear, trying to escape your troubles in coveting, possessions, holding on to all you can because you only believe in you?
Jesus’ ministry begins and ends with wine. At the wedding of Cana, He created 180 gallons of wine out of water. On the night He was betrayed He took wine and said, “Take, drink, this is my blood of the New Testament, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” That same night He told His men, “I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.” Do you think anyone got drunk at Cana? Probably, just as there are alcoholics who ruin their bodies and their families. Is it the gift’s fault? No. It is your fault and mine. It’s the fault of your sin and unbelief. Forgiveness can also be abused as can your daily bread. You can take it, abuse it, and not trust the Lord has given you enough. This parable warns you against that. Keep that up and you’ll be crushed and broken to pieces in the judgment. The death of the Son tells you to enjoy God’s grace, celebrate His gifts, give Him His portion. There’s not just enough for you, there’s enough blood flowing from Jesus’ side and His cup to forgive not only your sins, but the world’s sins, to give you and your enemy life, to raise up your body and your son and daughter’s body.
The Kingdom of God is like the master of a house who built a vineyard so you could have the glad wine of forgiveness and life. In the name of Jesus. Amen.