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DEFINITION OF PARABLE: PARABLE, A STORY USED BY ANCIENT TEACHERS, PROPHETS, AND FREQUENTLY BY JESUS TO CONVEY A PROFOUND SPIRITUAL TRUTH. IT USUALLY HAD POINTS OF CONTACT WITH EVERYDAY LIFE AND SOMETIMES CONTAINED ELEMENTS OF HYPERBOLE OR SURPRISE TO ARREST ONES ATTENTION. PARABLES FREQUENTLY REQUIRED SOME SIGNIFICANT DECISION ON THE HEARER’S PART. THEIR FUNDAMENTAL POINT IN JESUS’ MINISTRY WAS TO CHANGE LIVES, NOT JUST TO ENTERTAIN OR PROVIDE INFORMATION.(-ENCOUNTERING THE NEW TESTAMENT; WRITTEN BY WALTER A. ELWELL & ROBERT W. YARBROUGH)

THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER,the four soils

THE PARABLE OF THE SOILS can be found in…,THE Gospel OF: MARK 4:2-9,13-20; MATTHEW 13:3-9,18-23; LUKE 8:4-8, 11-14 (GT/GOSPEL OF THOMAS 9) The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is an extra-canonical[1] sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate that the works were buried in response to a letter from Bishop Athanasius declaring a strict canon of Christian scripture. Scholars have proposed dates of composition as early as 60 AD and as late as 250 AD.[2][3] Since its discovery, many scholars have seen it as evidence in support of the existence of a "Q source" which might have been very similar in its form as a collection of sayings of Jesus without any accounts of his deeds or his life and death, referred to as a sayings gospel.-WIKIPEDIA

3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

MATTHEW 13

THE PARABLE OF THE WHEAT AND THE TARES (WEEDS)

MATTHEW 13: 36-43

36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.

37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;

38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;

42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.


PARABLES: A PARABLE IS A PICTURESQUE FIGURE OF LANGUAGE IN WHICH AN ANALOGY REFERS TO A SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT REALITY. IN THE HEBREW BIBLE, THE WORD “PARABLE” CAN REFER TO A PROVERB (EZEKIEL 18: 2-3), TAUNT (ISAIAH 14:3-4), RIDDLE (EZEKIEL 17: 2-10), OR, ALLEGORY (EZEKIEL 24: 2-5). ALTHOUGH STORY PARABLES (2 SAMUEL 12:1-4; ISAIAH 5:1-7) ARE NOT SPECIFICALLY CALLED PARABLES, WE SHOULD INCLUDE THEM IN ANY DEFINITION. ALTHOUGH PARAKBOLE IS USED EXPLICITLY TO DESIGNATE THIRTY DIFFERENT SAYINGS OF JESUS, WHEN ONE ADDS OTHER CLEAR EXAMPLES IN WHICH THE TERM IS NOT USED (E.G.,LUKE 10:29-35) AND OTHER POSSIBILITIES, THE TOTAL NUMBER IS ABOUT EIGHTY. IF THE INSTANCES OF THE PAROMIA OR “FIGURE” OF JOHN ARE ADDED, THE NUMBER BECOMES STILL GREATER. MOREOVER, IF ONE INCLUDES EVERY SIMILE, PROVERB, AND APHORISM THAT JESUS TAUGHT, THEN ALMOST EVERYTHING JESUS SAID FALLS INTO THE CATEGORY OF PARABLE (SEE MARK 4:34).

NUMEROUS ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO CLASSIFY THE PARABLES.THESE INVOLVE THE USE OF SPECIFIC CHRONOLOGICAL PERIODS IN JESUS’ MINISTRY, DISTINCTIVE SUBECT MATTER, AS WELL AS LITERARY, THEOLOGICAL AND EXISTENTIAL CATEGORIES. NONE OF THESE ATTEMPTS HOWEVER HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL.

IN HIS PARABLES JESUS REPEATEDLY USED ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DAILY LIFE. THESE OFTEN CONTAIN A DISTINCTLY PALESTINIAN AND EVEN GALILEAN FLAVOR. THIS WAS ORIGINALLY INTENDED TO MAKE THE PARABLES MORE UNDERSTANDABLE FOR JESUS’ AUDIENCE, BUT TODAY IT SERVES ALSO TO AUTHENTICATE THEM…., MOST SCHOLARS AGREE THAT IN THE PARABLES ONE STANDS ON THE BEDROCK OF AUTHENTIC JESUS TRADITION…, ALTHOUGH THE PARABLES ARE DRAWN FROM DAILY LIFE, THEY DO NOT NECESSARILY PORTRAY NORMAL, EVERYDAY ACTIONS. ON THE CONTRARY, AT TIMES ONE ENCOUNTERS BOTH EXAGGERATION AND UNEXPECTED BEHAVIOR….,THE PRIMARY REASON THAT JESUS TAUGHT IN PARABLES APPEARS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT: HE USED THEM TO ILLUSTRATE…., SOME OF JESUS’ PARABLES ARE CLEARLY “EXAMPLE” PARABLES AND REQUIRE NO EXPLANATION. YET MARK 4:10-12 GIVES A DIFFERENT REASON WHY JESUS TAUGHT IN PARABLES-IN ORDER TO CONCEAL HIS MESSAGE. THE REASON FOR CONCEALING HIS MESSAGE IS MORE DIFFICULT STILL: JESUS DID SO IN ORDER THAT HIS HEARERS WOULD NOT BELIEVE LEST THEY REPENT AND BE FORGIVEN…., PARABLES SERVED A USEFUL PURPOSE ON CONCEALING JESUS’ MESSAGE FROM THOSE HOSTILE TO HIM: BY HIS PARABLES HE COULD PUBLICLY TEACH ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD, BUT THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE *ROMAN EMPIRE COULD FIND NOTHING IN THEM THAT WAS SEDITIOUS. A THIRD REASON JESUS TAUGHT IN PARABLES WAS TO DISARM HIS LISTENERS AND ALLOW THE TRUTH IF THE DIVINE MESSAGE TO PENETRATE THEIR RESISTANCE. OFTEN HEARERS COULD BE CHALLENGED TO PASS JUDGMENT ON A STORY BEFORE DISCOVERING THAT IN SO DOING THEY HAD IN FACT CONDEMNED THEMSELVES (CF. 2 SAM. 12:1-4; MATT. 21:28-31; LUKE 7:36-50). A FOURTH REASON FOR THE USE OF PARABLES WAS TO AID MEMORY: SINCE JESUS’ LISTENERS PRESERVED HIS TEACHINGS BY MEMORIZING THEM, THE MEMORABLE QUALITY OF THE PARABLES PROVED USEFUL.

THE EARLY CHURCH SAW IN THE PARABLES (AND IN ALL SCRIPTURE) THREE DISTINCT LEVELS OF MEANING: THE LITERAL, THE MORAL, AND THE SPIRITUAL. IN THE MIDDLE AGES AN ADDITIONAL LEVEL WAS ADDED, THE HEAVENLY.

IN IDENTIFYING THE MAIN POINT OF A PARABLE, SEVERAL QUESTIONS PROVE HELPFUL: (1) WHAT COMES AT THE END? THIS RULE OF END STRESS RECOGNIZES THAT THE MAIN EMPHASIS OF A PARABLE, AS IN MOST STORIES, COMES AT THE END. (2) WHAT IS SPOKEN IN DIRECT DISCOURSE? IN A PARABLE WHAT IS FOUND WITHIN QUOTATION MARKS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT. (3) TO WHAT OR WHOM IS THE MOST SPACE DEVOTED? USUALLY THE MOST SPACE IS GIVEN TO THE MAIN POINT OF THE PARABLE. A SECOND RULE FOR INTERPRETING THE PARABLES IS TO TRY TO UNDERSTAND ITS MEANING IN ITS ORIGINAL SETTING. JESUS DID NOT ADDRESS HIS PARABLES TO MODERN READERS BUT TO A FIRST-CENTURY JEWISH AUDIENCE. THE PARABLES TAKE ON A NEW LIFE AND VITALITY WHEN ONE TRIES TO UNDERSTAND THEM AS JESUS’ ORIGINAL AUDIENCE WOULD HAVE. IN THIS REGARD, THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS PROVE HELPFUL: (1) WHAT IS THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK OF JESUS’ TEACHINGS? EACH PARABLE OF JESUS SHOULD BE INTERPRETED IN LIGHT OF THE TOTALITY OF HIS TEACHINGS. (2) TO WHAT POSSIBLE AUDIENCE DID JESUS ADDRESS HIS PARABLE? IF ADDRESSED TO PHARISEES AND *SCRIBES, ITS EMPHASIS MIGHT BE QUITE DIFFERENT THAN IF ADDRESSED TO PUBLICANS AND SINNERS.

(“PARABLE” DEFINITION AND EXPLANATION FROM, “THE OXFORD COMPANION TO THE BIBLE” WRITTEN BY: BRUCE M. METZGER AND MICHAEL D. COOGAN

THE PARABLE OF THE EVIL TENANTS

THE PARABLE OF THE EVIL TENANTS THE PARABLE OF THE EVIL TENANTS

MATTHEW 21:33-46

33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to tenant farmers and went on a journey [to another country]. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his [share of the] fruit. 35 But the tenants took his servants and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first time; and they treated them the same way.37 Finally he sent his own son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son andhave regard for him.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This [man] is the heir; come on, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took the son and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes back, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to Him, “He will put those despicable men to a miserable end, and rent out the vineyard to other tenants [of good character] who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”

42 Jesus asked them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

‘The [very] [a]Stone which the builders rejected and threw away,
Has become the chief Cornerstone;
This is the Lord’s doing,
And it is marvelous and wonderful in our eyes’?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to [another] people who will produce the fruit of it. 44 And he who falls on this Stone will be broken to pieces; but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was talking about them. 46 And although they were trying to arrest Him, they feared the people, because they regarded Jesus as a prophet.


Background: There are 6 main characters in this parable: 1) the landowner—God, 2) the vineyard—Israel, 3) the tenants/farmers—the Jewish religious leadership, 4) the landowner’s servants—the prophets who remained obedient and preached God’s word to the people of Israel, 5) the son—Jesus, and 6) the other tenants—the Gentiles.


ISAIAH 5

ISAIAH 5 ISAIAH 5

Parable of the Vineyard

1Now let me sing for my greatly Beloved [Lord]
A song of my Beloved about His vineyard (His chosen people).
My greatly Beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile slope (the promised land, Canaan).
2 He dug it all around and cleared away its stones,
And planted it with [a]the choicest vine (the people of Judah).
And He built a tower in the center of it;
And also hewed out a [b]wine vat in it.
Then He expected it to produce [the choicest] grapes,
But it produced only worthless ones.

3 “And now, says the Lord, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge between Me and My vineyard (My people).
4 “What more could have been done for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to produce good grapes, why did it yield worthless ones?
5 “So now let me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will take away its thorn-hedge, and it will be burned up;
I will break down its [c]stone wall and it will be trampled down [by enemies].
6 
“I will turn it into a wasteland;
It will not be pruned or cultivated,
But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also command the clouds not to rain on it.”

7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house (nation) of Israel
And the men of Judah are His delightful planting [which He loves].
So He looked for justice, but in fact, [He saw] bloodshed andlawlessness;
[He looked] for righteousness, but in fact, [He heard] a cry of distress and oppression.

Woes for the Wicked

8 Woe (judgment is coming) to those who join house to house and join field to field [to increase their holdings by depriving others],
Until there is no more room [for others],
So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!
9 In my ears the Lord of hosts said, “Be assured that many houses will become desolate,
Even great and beautiful ones will be unoccupied.
10 “For ten [d]acres of vineyard will yield [only] [e]one bath of wine,
And a homer ([f]six bushels) of seed will produce [only] one ephah of grain.”
11 Woe (judgment is coming) to those who rise early in the morning to pursue intoxicating drink,
Who stay up late in the night till wine inflames them!
12 They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, and wine at their feasts;
But they do not regard nor even pay attention to the deeds of the Lord,
Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

13 Therefore My people go into exile because they lack knowledge [of God];
And their honorable men are famished,
And their common people are parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol (the realm of the dead) has increased its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure;
And [g]Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her [boisterous] uproar and her [drunken] revelers descend into it.
15 So the common man will be bowed down and the man of importancedegraded,
And the eyes of the proud (arrogant) will be degraded.
16 But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in justice,
And God, the Holy One, will show Himself holy in righteousness [through His righteous judgments].
17 Then the lambs will graze [among the ruins] as in their own pasture,
And strangers will eat in the desolate places of the [exiled] wealthy.

18 Woe (judgment is coming) to those who drag along wickedness with cords of falsehood,
And sin as if with cart ropes [towing their own punishment];
19 Who say, “Let Him move speedily, let Him expedite His work [His promised vengeance], so that we may see it;
And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel approach
And come to pass, so that we may know it!”
20 Woe (judgment is coming) to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe (judgment is coming) to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever and shrewd in their own sight!
22 Woe (judgment is coming) to those who are heroes at drinking wine
And men of strength in mixing intoxicating drinks,
23 Who justify the wicked and acquit the guilty for a bribe,
And take away the rights of those who are in the right!

24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire consumes the stubble [from straw]
And the dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away like fine dust;
Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts
And despised and discarded the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and has struck them down.
And the mountains trembled, and their dead bodies lay like rubbish in the middle of the streets.
In spite of all this God’s anger is not turned away,
But His hand is still stretched out [in judgment].

26 He will lift up a flag to [call] the distant nations [to bring His judgment on Judah],
And will whistle for them from the ends of the earth;
And indeed, they will come with great speed swiftly.
27 No one among them is weary or stumbles,
No one slumbers or sleeps;
Nor is the belt at their waist undone [as if unprepared for action],
Nor is the strap of their sandal broken.
28 Their arrows are sharp and all their bows are strung and bent;
Their horses’ hoofs seem like flint and their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roaring is like a lioness, they roar like young lions;
They growl and seize their prey
And carry it off and there is no one to save it.
30 And in that day they will roar against them (Judah) like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks to the land, in fact, there is darkness and distress;
Even the light will be darkened by its clouds.

This will be a hard text to preach in many settings. I’ve tried to imagine preaching it in my last congregation, a congregation of privilege located in a neighborhood of disadvantaged people.  My church had a number of ministries in that neighborhood, because we understood our responsibility for the poor.  A significant number of our members were social justice advocates.  But Isaiah’s powerful words about social justice would be hard for some of our privileged people to hear and his equally powerful words about God’s judgment upon sin would be hard for some our social justice folks to hear.  How can we preach this hard text so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be heard?

We certainly ought to try, because it is such an important summary of God’s dealings with his privileged Old Testament people, and it anticipates the Gospel message of Jesus’ dealings with his New Testament people in John 15 (vine and vineyard).  Plus, its rich imagery and striking form make it a literary delight that should stimulate our creative homiletical instincts.

It begins with a love song—not about Isaiah’s love for God, but about God’s love for his as-yet-unidentified “vineyard.”  The word translated “the one I love” is perhaps better translated “my friend.”  God is Isaiah’s friend, so it might be more accurate to call this a friendship song.

In verse 1 Isaiah announces his intention to sing about a friend’s love for his vineyard, which is a little strange until we realize that vineyard is a symbol for bride.  God is the bridegroom and the vineyard is God’s bride.  He uses that imagery because it gives him a powerful way to talk about everything God has done for his bride.

God has showered his love upon his vineyard: selecting a fertile hillside where God’s vineyard was sure to produce bumper crops of delicious grapes that would ferment into the finest wine; cultivating the soil and clearing it of stones so there would be no impediments to growth; planting the very best vines guaranteed to yield the most healthy and tasty grapes; building a watchtower to guard the vineyard against human and animal invaders who would strip the vines of their precious fruit; erecting a hedge and/or a wall to keep those invaders out; digging a winepress or vat where the grapes could be processed into wine on the spot and stored for future consumption.  God spared no effort or expense on this vineyard, so that it would be a complete success.

But this love song has a very unhappy last stanza.  After all that loving attention and backbreaking work, God “looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.”  God’s expectations for his vineyard were shattered.  His highest hopes were disappointed.  Instead of sweet smelling wine, the vineyard produced only stinking (the literal meaning of the Hebrew here) grapes, rancid, rotten grapes.  All of God’s loving attention and intentions came to nothing; the vineyard stunk to high heaven.

Now the love song turns into a legal indictment, as God calls the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the rest of Judah to judge between God and his as-yet-unidentified vineyard.  Was the failure of the vineyard God’s fault?  “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?”  Anyone with any common sense would answer that God had done everything necessary and possible to guarantee the success of this vineyard.

Assuming that the jury would agree with that conclusion, God asks the unanswerable question.  Why?  Why did it fail?  “When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?”  There is no good answer to that question, no good reason the object of God’s love would produce such stinking results.  There is no good reason for rotten lives when God has done everything he could to produce rich wine.

When we think of it that way, God’s judgment on his vineyard is completely reasonable.  The right thing to do was to completely demolish it.  What more could he have done?  Nothing. So, get rid of it.  “Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard.  I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.  I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briars and thistles will grow there.”  And if that isn’t enough, “I will command the clouds not rain on it.”   God’s love for his vineyard will be replaced by anger and judgment.  And the vineyard will be no more.  Or so it would seem.

But God isn’t done yet, because this vineyard is nothing but a figure of speech, a rich image in a powerful song.  Like David listening to Nathan’s story about a rich man who robbed a poor man of his most precious possession, Israel has no clue that God is talking about them.  But then God ends this love song/judicial proceeding with a blunt punch line.  “The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight.”  “You are the man!”

Before Israel can stutter their objections and excuses, God identifies their bad grapes, their stinking, rancid, rotten lives.  I “looked for justice, but saw bloodshed, for righteousness, but heard cried of distress.”  God’s identification of Israel’s sin is made more powerful by the word play in the Hebrew: “justice” is the word mishpat and “bloodshed” is the word mispah, while “righteousness” is tsedeqah and “cries of distress” is tseaqah.  What I looked for and what I found may sound alike, but they are the exact opposite.

You have taken my love and totally distorted it in your lives.  I wanted you to bear the fruit of justice and righteousness on earth, to exhibit and enact my justice and righteousness.  That’s why I did all that for you.  You have completely distorted my intentions, choosing to simply enjoy the privileges I gave you, rather than doing justice and living righteousness.  And that stinks.

There are two great problems with preaching on this text.  What, exactly, does God mean by justice and righteousness?  And what does this ancient indictment of Israel have to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ today?

One scholar points out that justice is an abstract word and thus hard to define.  Consequently, everyone knows what it means, and yet no one does.  It is as difficult to define as “right and wrong.”  Righteousness is, likewise, a word with a wide variety of meaning.

But the Bible, particularly, the Old Testament does give some specific content to these abstract words.   Righteousness is more than right living; it has to do with having a right relationship with God.  The New Testament, particularly Paul, teaches that we can have a right relationship with God only by God’s grace through faith in Christ.  That right relationship with God should produce right relationships in society, relationships characterized by the kind of love God has shown us.  That means that justice should flow out of that right relationship with God, because love wants the best for others.  Justice has to do with fair and equitable relationships within a society grounded in the just will of the Lord.

That is why God contrasts justice with bloodshed and righteousness with cries of distress.  And lest we miss the exact meaning of “bloodshed and cries of distress” we need only keep reading in Isaiah 5.  The very next verses talk about greedy accumulation of property that leaves the poor even poorer, about wildly excessive living that wastes resources on the few, and generally godless living that ignores the work of God in the world.  The God of justice and righteousness planted a vineyard in the world precisely so that his beloved people could exhibit and enact his justice and righteousness and make the world a better, more heavenly place.  And it stinks when we don’t do that.

James Limburg minces no words.  “To do justice according to the prophets is to take up the cause of the widow and orphan and poor and act as their advocate.  The failure of leadership to act as advocates for the powerless caused once-faithful Jerusalem to become a faithless whore of a city.”  And David Garber makes me squirm when he writes: “In congregations of privilege, this passage becomes a challenge. Are we using our privilege to produce the sweet wine of justice in our society?  Or does our propensity to cower behind our privilege result in the stench of injustice that will ultimately repulse the God whom we claim to worship?”

That brings us to the second problem with this text.  How do we preach this hard old text as Christian pastors?  It seems so Jewish, so judgmental, so negative, so final.  Well, we can begin by pointing out that God’s judgment is a last resort, not what God wants to do in his heart of hearts.  God’s intention was to bless his people and through them to bless the world.  It was only when they took his sweet love and turned his blessings into stinking lives that he finally “destroyed” them.  God did not abandon his people; they abandoned him.  Therefore, writes David McKenna, “God was justified in his decision to leave them to their own devices and let them suffer the consequences of their sin as the only way to redeem them.”

Those last words remind us of the Gospel.  God’s punishment of Israel was not the end of them, even it sounds that way to us and seemed that way to them.  Rather, God’s punishment of Israel was a hard step in their redemption and in the redemption of the world through them and through the Seed of Abraham.  While sin always yields death of one sort or another, death does not get the last word in human life or in human history.  God’s loving intentions will not be ultimately frustrated, even if it kills God.  Which it did.

Yes, God will still deal harshly with his vineyard.  Those branches that bear no fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire. And even those who do bear fruit will be pruned so they can bear more.  But God is harsh only because of his love for his vineyard and for the world in which he has planted it.  Indeed, God is so loving that he not only plants and cultivates and protects his vineyard; he even became the vine (John 15).

And by staying connected to the Vine, we can do the impossible—bear much fruit, even the fruit of justice and righteousness in a world dying for both.  “I am the Vine and you are the branches.  If a person remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (verse 5).”   In verse 16 of John 15, Jesus summarizes Isaiah 5 for us. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”  We are loved and chosen not merely unto privilege (though the benefits are vast), but unto abiding fruit (both the pursuit of justice and righteousness and the grafting of changed lives into the Vine).

Illustration Idea

One way to help contemporary folks sympathize with God’s disgust over “stinking grapes” is to talk about how disgusted many social justice advocates are with the problem of the stinking piles of refuse, garbage, waste that accumulate in our landfills and, alarmingly, in the center of the Pacific Ocean.  We are appalled and frightened at the prospect of a world choking on its own waste.  Natural and manufactured things intended to help and nourish humanity have become a threat to society.  So it was with Israel and so it is with the church today.  God intended to bless the world through his people. Who can blame God for being upset when his blessing turns into a stinking mess?  And who can’t help but praise God for his gracious response to the mess, namely, sending his own Son the stinking pile of death called “the Place of the Skull?”

iSAIAH 5: 1-7

COMMENTARY

WRITTEN BY: STAN MAST

CEPREACHING.ORG (CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN PREACHING)

NEW TESTAMENT Parables

The two debtors [Capernaum]Lu 7:40-43.The strong man armed Galilee Mt 12:29; Mr 3:27; Lu 11:21, 22.The unclean spirit Galilee Mt 12:43-45; Lu 11:24-26.The sower Seashore of Galilee Mt 13:3-9, 18-23; Mr 4:3-9, 14-20; Lu 8:5-8, 11-15.The tares and wheat Seashore of Galilee Mt 13:24-30, 36-43.The mustard seedSeashore of GalileeMt 13:31, 32; Mr 4:30-32; Lu 13:18, 19.The seed growing secretly Seashore of Galilee Mr 4:26-29.The leaven Seashore of GalileeMt 13:33; Lu 13:20, 21.The hid treasureSeashore of GalileeMt 13:44.The pearl of great price Seashore of GalileeMt 13:45, 46.The draw net Seashore of GalileeMt 13:47-50.The unmerciful servant Capernaum Mt 18:21-35.The good Samaritan Near Jerusalem Lu 10:29-37.The friend at midnight Near JerusalemLu 11:5-8.The rich fool Galilee Lu 12:16-21.The barren fig tree Galilee Lu 13:6-9.The great supper Perea Lu 14:15-24.The lost sheep Perea Mt 18:12-14; Lu 15:3-7.The lost piece of money PereaLu 15:8-10.The prodigal son PereaLu 15:11-32.The good shepherd JerusalemJoh 10:1-18.The unjust steward PereaLu 16:1-8.The rich man and Lazarus PereaLu 16:19-31.The profitable servantsPereaLu 17:7-10.The importunate widow Perea Lu 18:1-8.The Pharisees and publicans PereaLu 18:9-14.The laborers in the vineyard Perea Mt 20:1-16.The pounds JerichoLu 19:11-27.The two sons Jerusalem Mt 21:28-32.The wicked husbandmen Jerusalem Mt 21:33-44; Mr 12:1-12; Lu 20:9-18.The marriage of the king's son Jerusalem Mt 22:1-14.The ten virgins Mount of Olives Mt 25:1-13. The talents Mount of Olives Mt 25:14-30.

OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES

Of Balaam - Concerning the Moabites and Israelites. Mount Pisgab Num 23:24 Jotham - Trees making a king. Mount GerizimJdg 9:7-15. Samson - Strong bringing forth sweetness.TimnathJdg 14:14Nathan - Poor man's ewe lamb. Jerusalem 2Sa 12:1-4 Woman of Tekoah - Two brothers striving.Jerusalem 2Sa 14:1The Smitten Prophet - The escaped prisoner. Near Samaria 1Ki 20:35-40 Jehoash, King of Israel - The thistle and cedar.Jerusalem 2Ki 14:9Isaiah - Vineyard yielding wild grapes.JerusalemIsa 5:1-6Ezekiel - Lion's whelps. BabylonEze 19:2-9    The boiling pot. Babylon Eze 24:3-5    The great eagles and the wine. BabylonEze 17:3-10

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