The Vineyard of the LORD of Hosts

Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church, Pinetop, Arizona

Rev. Michael “Mick” Mathews

The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost – October 4, 2026

Sermon: “The Vineyard of the LORD of Hosts”  Isaiah 5:1–7; Matthew 21:33–46

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Let me tell you about two vineyards that I have in my memory.

The first is from where I grew up in southern California. Our family’s house was near the very edge of town in the 1970s. The surrounding area has now been built up greatly over the last 50 years, but back then, if you went about a block from our house, there nothing but abandoned fields. They were rocky and dry and filled with a lot of weeds. But if you looked carefully, you could see that among the weeds, there were rows and rows of the twisted stumps of dried out grape vines. That area of southern California had been one of the largest areas for growing grapes, from the mid-1800s into the 1940s, with more than 45,000 acres of vineyards and over 60 wineries. But in the building boom after World War II, the agricultural land became more valuable for development. By the time I was a kid, only the stumps of the old grape vines were barely visible in the abandoned fields that hadn’t yet been developed.

I contrast that with another vineyard in my memory – this one I saw in Germany while on a cruise on the Rhine River. We were about an hour west of Frankfurt. The grape vines were lush and well cared for as they stretched up the gently sloping hills that rose up from the river valley. As the river cruise stopped in town, we were able to ride a chair lift – like the kind you might find at a ski resort. The chair lift went up to the top of the hill to get a panoramic view of the river valley, and the chair lift carried us right over the vineyard below. We could see row upon row of productive grape vines, and we could see the workers busily gathering the last of that year’s harvest.

Two different vineyards – one well-cared for and productive; the other dead and abandoned. That’s much like the contrast that God Himself used as an illustration, speaking through the prophet Isaiah. That chapter of Isaiah’s book, chapter 5, has come to be known as The Song of the Vineyard:

Isaiah 5:1        Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard:

      My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

The song goes on to describe the great care that was given to the vineyard by the one Beloved by the Lord:

2   He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;

      he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;

But then we come to the problem:

      and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

Actually, the word translated as “wild grapes” means “a foul smell” – something rotten and stinky. What a disappointment! To put in all that work expecting something wonderful and ending up with a disgusting mess.

Toward the end of the song, we find out that God is not really talking about agriculture. He’s talking about His relationship with His people, the people of Israel:

Isaiah 5:7        For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,

      and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting;

      and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;

      for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!

God had cared for the children of Israel as a vineyard owner might care for his vineyard. God had rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. He had taught them His ways through Moses. He had led them to the promised land and had driven out their enemies so that they could be established there in peace and safety. Then God looked for the people to live in gratitude for what He had done for them. He looked for them to follow His ways, in justice and righteousness. But instead, He found the strong taking advantage of the weak, the rich taking advantage of the poor, and many people turning to the worship of other gods or just going through the motions of their religious rituals without really trusting in God. It was all a stinking mess.

So God warned them through Isaiah what He would do to them, again using the imagery of the vineyard.:

Isaiah 5:5        And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.

      I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured;

      I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

6   I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up;

      I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

He would take His people Israel from being a well-cared for vineyard to being a broken down and abandoned vineyard.

Isaiah lived about 700 years before Jesus came, and despite the warning, Israel kept on going in its sinful ways. So a little over 100 years later, God allowed the Babylonians to defeat Israel. Their armies trampled through Jerusalem and destroyed everything, including the temple. And the people were carried away into exile in Babylon, leaving Jerusalem as a broken and abandoned mess. This history serves as a warning to us, not to take God’s goodness for granted. He is patient with us, but He will not put up with sinful rebellion forever. And when He begins to act in anger and judgment, there is no escape.

But even in the midst of judgment, there is hope for mercy. There is hope for renewed life. A few of the grape vines in the dead vineyard near by childhood home still showed signs of life. After the rains came, a few green leaves could be seen sprouting from a few of the twisted stumps. And God also showed mercy to His people Israel. After 70 years in exile, He allowed them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple.

Then about 500 years after that, God sent His Son Jesus into the world as the promised Messiah for Israel and as the Savior of the whole world. Jesus also used the imagery of a vineyard in a confrontation with the religious leaders of His day. He spoke of a vineyard owner who put the vineyard in the hands of some tenant farmers. They were to care for the vineyard and make it fruitful, and then share some of the fruit to the vineyard owner in payment. But the tenants were wicked. They refused to pay. They mistreated the owner’s servants when he sent them to collect what was owed. The tenants beat some of the servants, killed some, even stoned some of them to death. Then when the owner sent his own son, the tenants killed him too. So there would be nothing left for the owner to do but to destroy those wicked tenants and give the vineyard to others who would make it truly fruitful for the vineyard owner.

As with Isaiah’s Song of the Vineyard, Jesus was giving an overview of God’s relationship with His people. God had put the care of His people Israel in the hands of their leaders, but the leaders were like the wicked tenants. Ther would not produce the fruit of faith and good works that God was looking for. God repeatedly sent the prophets to them as His servants. But rather than taking the prophets’ message to heart, they treated the prophets shamefully – beating some, killing others. Now at last, God had sent His own Son to the people – and the leaders were getting ready to kill Him just a few days later.

The Jewish leaders ended up losing everything when God poured out His judgment on them about 40 years later. God once again allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed, by the Romans this time. Once again, the temple was torn down, and it has never been rebuilt.

But the truth is that the Jerusalem temple is no longer needed. God has handed His vineyard off to new tenants – to the Christian church – to all those who see that God’s mercy and His gift of restoration is found in Jesus – in His death and in His resurrection. Jesus is able to remove our sins from us and to transform us from rebellious sinners into His faithful and fruitful followers. Just consider the example of St. Paul – who at one time was proud to be a persecutor of the church, but by God’s grace was transformed into a bold witness for Christ Jesus. Paul kept striving to live in the righteousness that God gave Him through faith in Christ. Paul considered his own works to be a pile of trash, but he kept pressing on to live in the new life that Jesus had given him – and Paul encourages us to live that same way.

And how wonderful that Jesus uses the fruit of our modern-day vineyards to strengthen us so that we bear the fruit of faith and good works now in our lives. Jesus takes ordinary wine and uses it in Holy Communion to give us His own blood that was shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith, even as He uses ordinary bread to give us His own body as well. With His continued care, we can be the fruitful vineyard that He is looking for.

And the peace of God which passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Isaiah 5:1        Let me sing for my beloved

              my love song concerning his vineyard:

      My beloved had a vineyard

              on a very fertile hill.

2   He dug it and cleared it of stones,

              and planted it with choice vines;

      he built a watchtower in the midst of it,

              and hewed out a wine vat in it;

      and he looked for it to yield grapes,

              but it yielded wild grapes.

Isaiah 5:3        And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem

              and men of Judah,

      judge between me and my vineyard.

4   What more was there to do for my vineyard,

              that I have not done in it?

      When I looked for it to yield grapes,

              why did it yield wild grapes?

Isaiah 5:5        And now I will tell you

              what I will do to my vineyard.

      I will remove its hedge,

              and it shall be devoured;

      I will break down its wall,

              and it shall be trampled down.

6   I will make it a waste;

              it shall not be pruned or hoed,

              and briers and thorns shall grow up;

      I will also command the clouds

              that they rain no rain upon it.

Isaiah 5:7        For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts

              is the house of Israel,

      and the men of Judah

              are his pleasant planting;

      and he looked for justice,

              but behold, bloodshed;

      for righteousness,

              but behold, an outcry!

Philippians 3:4 … If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 21:33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Matthew 21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

      “‘The stone that the builders rejected

              has become the cornerstone;

      this was the Lord’s doing,

              and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Matthew 21:43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

Matthew 21:45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.