Sunday, November 4, 2026
Nineteenth Sunday of Pentecost
Text: Matthew 21:33-46
There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard… – v. 33
Lead In – Images of vineyards dominate our Readings this morning. Have you visited a vineyard? We have several local ones. They are usually quite picturesque and idyllic. And we have probably all enjoyed the fruit of vineyards whether it was a vintage wine, grape juice, or grape jelly. Israel is renowned for award-winning vineyards, and her winemaking history dates back thousands of years. The Bible frequently makes use of vineyards for objects lessons. This morning’s Gospel Reading is a case in point, but the focus here is more on the role of the tenants who work in their master’s vineyard.
- Some of the Many Applications Made in Scripture
Before considering the use of the vineyard in our Gospel Reading it will be helpful to consider other applications of vineyards made in the Scriptures.
In the Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5 the Lord God is described as the owner of a vineyard who has spared no expense or effort to ensure that the choice vine he had planted would produce good grapes. In verse 4 the Lord says, “What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for grapes, why did it yield wild grapes.” We are told at the end of the song that God had looked for justice, but instead there has been nothing but bloodshed among the Congregation of Israel. And they are about to face a judgment that they have brought upon themselves.
In Psalm 80 Israel is described as a vine which the Lord dug up out of Egypt and then transplanted in a new land. When the nation falls into sin, God breaks down its protective wall so that all who pass along, like the Assyrians and the Babylonians, pluck its fruit. The vineyard gets trampled down. The bore ravages it. And fire reduces all that is left to ashes. Truly, God is a refuge and strength and present help in the day of trouble. When we reject this wall of protection, we abandon our protection from the devil and all that is evil.
Israel is typically pictured both as the vineyard and as the vine. And yet, interestingly, in John 15, Jesus identifies Himself as the Vine and believers grated into the Vine as the branches.
- Jesus’ Parable Takes Place During Holy Week
As mentioned, in the Parable that Jesus relates in our Gospel Reading, the focus is on tenants hired by an owner to manage the vineyard in his absence. The owner had done everything necessary for a productive and fruitful operation. He had planted it, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower so that his vineyard could be guarded. Then the story goes, he leased his vineyard to tenants and then went off to a distant country.
I hope you recognize the owner as God the Maker of heaven and earth. The immediate sense of the Lord’s vineyard is the nation of Israel, but we do well to remember Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” The tenants in this parable are especially the religious leaders of Israel, the Congregation of God’s people. As for the owner who went off to a distant country, we need to be careful here!
Any distance of God from us is not because he leaves us orphaned and left to our own devices. Instead, we can speak of our having caused a separation from Him by our sins, by our having turned our back on Him. We can also speak of His transcendence. In the words of Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
The nation of Israel’s unfaithfulness is pictured in Jesus’ parable as her failure to yield the fruit of the vineyard to the owner. They acted like the vineyard belonged to them, rather than their being stewards in it. The servants sent to receive what belonged to the owner represents Gods’ faithful prophets, the Isaiah(s), Jeremiah(s), and Ezekiel(s). These were often beaten, stoned, thrown into cisterns, and killed. They all heralded the coming of the owner’s son, the only perfect servant and prophet par excellence.
Jesus inserts Himself in the parable. He is the owner’s son whom the owner trusted the tenants would respect even if they had not respected the servants, or prophets sent before him. Now this is a parable. The point is not that God is as naïve as the owner of the vineyard. Our heavenly Father knew what lay in store for His Son sent into the world so all who believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life. What is interesting about this parable is that Jesus told it during Holy Week, and He knows full well what is going to happen to Him by week’s end.
The Cross lies before Jesus. This is the fate in Jerusalem that Jesus had set His face toward. This is the death by means of a crucifixion meted out by the Roman authorities. This is the death whereby the Son of God bore the sin of the world. The death that would atone for our sins. The death by which He would conquer death. The death that resulted in a resurrection on third day in which the gates of heaven are opened to all believers.
Jesus closes His parable with a question to His hearers. In the parable the tenants killed the owner’s son reasoning that this would result in their wresting his inheritance for themselves. The question Jesus asked is, “When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” Jesus allows his clueless hearers to answer the question. Not recognizing that the parable was directed to them, they answer, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let the vineyard out to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus thereby allows his hearers to render the rightful judgment on themselves.
Do you realize that we all deserve death for being unfaithful, self-centered, disobedient stewards of God’s gifts? That we fail to render to God what is God’s? That we act as owners of the earth? That, even in regard to our own lives we think we own them and we can do whatever we want and desire with them? The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 14:8 “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” Little wonder that we confessed earlier in the service, “We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment.” Do you believe this? The chief priests and Pharisees in Israel that heard this parable are not the only unfaithful tenants in God’s vineyard. We all have been! The question now is how we respond to God’s Son crucified and risen for us.
- The Application Beyond Holy Week
Friends, I believe this parable has application beyond Holy Week, and after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Whereas the nation of Israel was typically identified as the vineyard of the Lord, we are reminded that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. And as Adam and Eve were entrusted with the stewardship of the world, so are we. And as they utterly failed in their stewardship, redeemed and by God’s grace we retain the role as stewards, or tenants. The Creator continues to desire fruit to accrue from His vineyard.
With the advent of Christ there is an expansion of what is meant by the Congregation of God’s people. The Nation of Israel, the Hebrew people, were chosen to be a light to the nations, and as the instrument through whom the Incarnate Son of God would come and be born. Now the true children of Abraham are those who exercise the faith of Abraham whether physically descended from him, or who are Gentiles by birth. We read in Galatians 3:7 “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.”
As God’s people and renewed tenants or stewards, God still intends fruit bearing. Jesus says in John 15:1, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” And in verse 8 He says, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” Such fruit certainly includes the Christlike character listed as fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 where we read, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” It also includes our love for one another. It includes the good works for which we were created and commanded by God’s Word. And it includes leading others to faith.
As baptized believers the key to our being faithful tenants and bearing good fruit is abiding in the Christ the Vine. Again, from John 15:5 Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Jesus then goes on to name ways to remain connected to the vine we were grafted into by baptismal faith. It is to allow His Word to abide in us. It is to bring our requests for help to our heavenly Father in prayer. And it is to keep God’s commandments and to love as Christ loves us.
And Now for a Final Word – Jesus is the stone rejected by the tenants. He was crucified. Those responsible for His death are more than Israel’s religious leaders. It included leaders of the Roman Empire, the Gentiles. And it includes all of us. Our sins helped to nail Jesus to the Cross. And yet, this rejection has redounded to our salvation. The rejected stone has become the cornerstone of the Temple of God. When we fall on this stone in humility we become a member of His Congregation. But if the stone falls on us in judgment, we will be crushed. Beloved, we are tenants in the Lord’s Vineyard. We are also branches of Christ the Vine. Stay connected and bear fruit for His glory. Amen
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard and keep you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.