The Life of the Vineyard in Christ Jesus

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.  In love He has planted a Vineyard, and in love He does everything for it.  He has planted and nourished His Church on earth, providing all that is needed and tending her with loving care.  He has established the strong tower of His Word in her midst; He waters her from His Font; and He sustains her in the true Vine, Jesus Christ.

What is more, in Holy Baptism the Lord has also planted you within His Vineyard; He has grafted you as a branch into that living and Life-giving true Vine.  He has made you a member of His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  And in the beloved Son He freely gives you all good things.

You are part of His Vineyard.  That is what it means for you to be a Christian, to be a disciple of Christ Jesus.  And as we have been hearing from Him in recent weeks, you also have been given responsibility for some portion of the Vineyard, to care for it and keep it by and with His Word.

Within your own place in life, according to your God-given calling and station, wherever the Lord your God has planted you, there you are to bring forth good grapes to the glory of His Holy Name.

The chief priests and the pharisees understood that Jesus was telling this Parable concerning them.  Understand that He has spoken this Parable and caused it to be written by His holy Apostle and Evangelist, in order to admonish and catechize you, also, and call you to repentance, faith, and life.

The Vinegrowers are the farmers to whom He has entrusted the stewardship of His Vineyard.  They are especially those who are to serve as the pastors and teachers of His Church, who are called and ordained to tend and keep it by the preaching and teaching of His Holy Word and the faithful administration of His Holy Sacraments.  So, there are such offices and stations in the Church.

But you also have your own analogous responsibilities in your own place.  Parents, for example, you are responsible for tending and keeping your children with the Word of God, both by bringing them to church (for Baptism and catechesis, for preaching and the Sacrament) and by praying and confessing the Word with them at home.  If you are a father or mother, caring for your children in this way is fundamental to your stewardship of the Lord’s Vineyard.

Similarly, wherever God has put you, whether you are married or not, whether you have children or not, whether you are working or retired, a student or a child at home, you have a responsibility to care for whatever portion of His Vineyard the Lord has entrusted to your stewardship.

Bear in mind at all times and in all places that it is ever and always His Vineyard.  Even your own body and life are not your own.  You are God’s creature.  You are His disciple.  You are His child.  So, then, listen to what He says to you.  That is always the first and foremost thing.  Listen to what He says to you.  Hear and heed His Word.  Believe what He promises and do what He commands.

He has not left you clueless as to what you should be doing.  Nor has He left you to determine for yourself what the good grapes of His Vineyard shall be.  He is the One who gives the growth, and He does so by His Word.  So does He guide and direct you by His holy and righteous Law, and by His Ten Commandments, in particular, as the Catechism has taught you to consider carefully.

The Lord has told you, first of all, to hold Him in your heart above all other gods, to fear, love, and trust in Him alone, no matter what comes your way.  To pray, praise, and give thanks to Him at all times and in all places, and to call upon His Name in every circumstance.  To rely on Him, look to Him, and expect good things from Him.  But how shall you ever do any of this, except by the preaching of His Word?  You are to hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.  And all of this the Lord commands, not for His benefit, but for yours, that you should have life in and with Him.

He does also command you concerning your neighbors in the world, that you should bear good fruits to the glory of His Holy Name by loving and serving and caring for those people whom the Lord your God has set alongside of you and all around you in this body and life.  You need not save the world, nor could you, but the Lord Himself does that.  Rather, love and serve those right next to you and under your care, by the ways and means the Lord has provided for this purpose.

Love your neighbor.  The whole Law is summed up in that one word.  For love does no harm to the neighbor, but helps and supports, protects, and provides for the neighbor where and when and as it is able.  So, do that.  Do what is good and right.  Live as the Lord Jesus Christ has lived and still lives for you.  Love your neighbor, look to his well-being, and forgive his sins against you.  Use your words, your resources, and your abilities to care for your neighbor and defend him.

It is through His Law that God directs you to bear good fruits within His Vineyard.  Do not do violence to His Law by disobeying it, or by refusing to listen to it.  Do not do violence to His Law by keeping it outwardly, with a grudging heart, only to avoid punishment or to earn some reward.  It is not for such a purpose that God has spoken His Law.  He would have your heart, your body and soul, and your love.  And He would have you love and serve your neighbor gladly.

Incredibly, marvelously, the Lord has done more than speak His Law to you.  He does more than guide and direct you in the way that you should go with His commands and prohibitions.  And not only is He patient and persistent with you, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love for you.  He also speaks to you by His own dear Son in the Flesh, not to condemn you, but to save you.

The Lord Jesus comes, the incarnate Son of God, not only to affirm but to fulfill the Law of God and all His promises.  He comes to accomplish and establish — once-and-for-all, in His own Body of Flesh and Blood, in holy faith and perfect love — all that His God and Father has commanded.

Christ Jesus comes to manifest the Kingdom of His God and Father on earth as it is in heaven, to enliven the Vineyard in Himself.  And all that He has done and accomplished by His own Life and Ministry, by His own Cross and Resurrection, He now obtains and accomplishes in you by His preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins — unto righteousness and life in His Name.

It is by and with His forgiveness of your sins that He obtains the fruits of righteousness in your body and life.  He does not come to lay a whip across your back.  He does not come to throw you out of His Vineyard and destroy you.  He comes in love, that He might bring forth fruits in you by His work, by His Word.  And, behold, He makes all things new.  In Him everything is possible.

Honor Him, serve and obey Him, love and cherish Him.  Respect Christ Jesus with the reverence that is due the very Son of God, the Lord of the Vineyard.  Do not do violence to Him by refusing to hear and heed His Word.  Do not harden your heart to His preaching and teaching, but open your ears to listen, and take to heart what He says and does and gives.  Do not do violence to the Son of God by taking His gifts of the Gospel for granted and all the while continuing in your sins.

Do not take His gifts for granted, but, rejoicing in those gifts, live as Christ Jesus lives in faith and love.  Do not do violence to Him by presuming upon Him, as though He were yours to seize and take for yourself — as though He were your servant and your slave to command and order about.

What madness it is to suppose that by seizing the Son of God and bending Him to your will you would somehow inherit the Kingdom of God.  What madness it is to covet what God has not given, as though He were holding out on you.  What madness to lay hands upon the Son of God, not in faith, but in greedy selfishness, in hostility and violence, in order to hurt and to kill Him — to throw Him out of His own Vineyard, even though it depends on Him for everything.

When the Lord God Almighty comes to His Vineyard, what do you suppose He should do to such spiteful and wretched creatures?  For do not imagine that He is powerless to intervene and to act.

It is utter madness.  Your sin is madness.  What you think is true is false.  What you think is wise is foolish.  What you call good is bad.  And yet, for all that, there is a greater “madness” at work: That God the Father should send His Son and hand Him over to the violence of sinful man, and that God the Son should take it on Himself, that He should voluntarily lay down His life in death on the Cross — that is the holy “madness” of God, the divine foolishness that is wiser than man.

It appears as though everything were lost, as though everything were coming to a tragic end.  As though the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts were a disaster.  As though the Owner of the Vineyard has lost, not only His mind, but His honor and His reputation, His Vineyard, and His only Son.

But nothing is as it appears.  The very Stone rejected has become the Head of the corner.  The One who is slain, He is the One who is worthy to fulfill the Scriptures and to achieve the purposes of God.  He is not defeated by His death.  By it He has accomplished the very thing He came to do.

It is by His Cross that His Church is established and upheld.  He is the choice and fruitful Vine whom the Lord has planted — the “Bright Red Grape,” as the Prophet Isaiah puts it in the Hebrew.  He’s planted in the ground by His death, so that in His Resurrection the Vineyard should live and bear abundant fruit.  He has not come simply to instruct or admonish.  He has not come to punish, but to suffer punishment in your stead.  And in allowing Himself to be killed, He has done it all.

So it is that, in His Resurrection from the dead, the Vineyard is enlivened and abundantly fruitful.  And it shall certainly not be taken from Him.  But He gives it freely to disciples of all nations, to as many as He calls to Himself, who bear the good fruits of His Cross in their own lives by faith.

Christ the Crucified is the Cornerstone of His Church.  And His Cross is the life of the Vineyard.  So, if you would live, it is only by the Cross.  And you will not escape the Cross in any case.  By it you will be broken, says the Lord.  Indeed, you must be broken.  Your will, your pride, the lust in your heart, your sinful intentions, all of it must be broken.  You must be broken.  But what then?

Shall you be scattered like the dust — or gathered unto God in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus?

Take heart, dear child of God, disciple of Christ Jesus.  It is not you but the devil who is crushed beneath the heal of the Crucified One.  He has not come to get vengeance against you.  Remember that He has come in love to take you as His very own.  He has broken you in order to bind you up and to heal you within His own wounds, to give you His own Life in both your body and your soul.  You are united with Him in His Cross and suffering, that you should also share in the power of His Resurrection — that you should live in Him.  The Cross is not your defeat any more than it was His.  The Cross is your Life and your Salvation in His crucified and risen Body of flesh and blood.

By your Baptism into His Cross and Resurrection you have been grafted into this one true Vine.  Live and abide in Him by continuing to hear and receive His good gifts in the Divine Liturgy of His Gospel, in the Ministry of His Word and Sacraments.  Thus does He live and abide in you.

And it is by His Fruits that He bears good fruits in you after His own kind.  Fruits of repentance in the shape of His Cross and Resurrection.  Fruits of repentance in the shape of Holy Baptism, the dying and rising of the Font.  Fruits of faith and love — faith toward God and fervent love toward one another.  Fruits of righteousness and justice.  Fruits of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.

Only hear and heed His Word to you.  Instead of striving to seize what has not been given to you, open your hands and receive the abundant good gifts of His grace.  He’s not holding out on you.  Indeed, He has a cornucopia of gifts, which He lavishly pours out into your ears, your hands, and your mouth.  He has more to give than you can receive — but even in the receiving He helps you.

There is nothing lacking in Christ Jesus.  Everything else is rubbish, and all of it comes to an end.  But there is nothing lacking in Him.  And you lack nothing if you are His, as He is yours forever.

Eat the good Fruits of this true and holy Vine.  The Vineyard Owner gives it to you freely.  Drink the Blood of this Bright Red Grape.  As He pours Himself out for you — as He pours Himself out into you — so does He also bear and bring forth good fruits in you at the proper times and seasons.

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.