Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes. I am not sure how many of us here have ever grown a grapevine. I had a good friend who did exactly that. He and his wife had a pretty garden in their backyard. Now, he was a person of many interests, and one of those interests was wine. He figured he would purchase a grapevine and attempt to grow it. He purchased a Concord grapevine. They tend to be rather hardy. Welch's grape juice, for example, is typically made from Concord grapes. Many of those grapes are grown along the shores of Lake Erie. In fact, there are some 304 grower-owners in the Lake Erie and Niagara regions, representing the largest concentration of Welch's growers anywhere. Pretty quickly, my friend figured out what hardy means - the vine took off! It produced a ton of grapes from which wine and other goodies were made.
Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.
I am not sure how many of us here have ever grown a grapevine. I had a good friend who did exactly that.
He and his wife had a pretty garden in their backyard. Now, he was a person of many interests, and one of those interests was wine. He figured he would purchase a grapevine and attempt to grow it.
He purchased a Concord grapevine. They tend to be rather hardy. Welch's grape juice, for example, is typically made from Concord grapes. Many of those grapes are grown along the shores of Lake Erie. In fact, there are some 304 grower-owners in the Lake Erie and Niagara regions, representing the largest concentration of Welch's growers anywhere.
Pretty quickly, my friend figured out what hardy means - the vine took off! It produced a ton of grapes from which wine and other goodies were made.
Several years later, my friend was sitting there talking about cutting the vine back. It had literally inundated his deck, the back of his house, and most of the garden space.
Echoing the words of Isaiah, which the Pharisees would have recognized, Jesus speaks of a vineyard and its vines.
Isaiah, conveying God's words to the people of Israel, uses the vineyard as a metaphor for a rebellious people, a vine that would not produce goodness or righteousness, no matter how much God cared for it.
Isaiah warns about the failure to produce the fruits of righteousness; Jesus now warns about the leaders’ refusal to acknowledge God's rightful authority over the vineyard and its harvest. Those refusing God had allowed their faith to die through their obstinacy and unbelief, assuming God's authority for themselves.
Traveling with Jesus as He taught in Jerusalem, just before His arrest and execution, we quickly recognize that those with closed ears and narrow vision would soon kill the Son Himself.
These words, delivered to us today, repeat the warning given to Israel all those centuries ago. They offer us a moment to examine ourselves.
What do we believe about Who Jesus is? How powerful is He? What is our faith in Him worth? Can I surrender control and place myself in His hands?
St. Paul asks us to set aside anxiety, to reflect on the better things and cultivate what is good.
As we sit in our inner garden of faith and tend to the vine that grows there, let us offer ourselves to Jesus—all that is good, along with our worries and anxieties. Let us place everything in His hands, trusting that He will take what we offer, nurture what is growing, prune what is unfruitful, and bring forth an abundance of good fruit.
